Anika's Coming-of-Age

            Jason’s parents are so unaware of what is happening in his life. Throughout the book, they are constantly fighting with each other and their fighting eventually ends in a divorce. But they are so wrapped up in their problems that they have no idea what is going on in Jason’s life and they never seem to make an effort to find out. For example, they have no idea that Jason likes to write poetry and that he sends it to the parish magazine every week to be published. When Dean Moran falls through the window during their spooks adventure, his parents just assume that Jason and Dean were goofing off. They also know nothing about what is going on with Jason at school. Jason endures some extremely severe bullying that makes his life a living hell. He is tormented everyday by his classmates led by Ross Wilcox. They make fun of his stutter, put mice in his pencil case, stick notes to his back, physically abuse him, and pretty...

Throughout Housekeeping , Sylvie seems pretty nonchalant about everything. She spends her days wandering through Fingerbone doing whatever she wants. Ruth and Lucille are horrified when they see her walking out along the rain tracks over the water but Sylvie does not even seem to understand why they are so upset. When she catches Ruth and Lucille skipping school, she could not care less. She even offers to write them a note to get them out of school. There is one day where Ruth and Lucille are exploring in the forest and they decide to spend the night because it is getting too dark to walk all the way back to their house. They haven’t told Sylvie they are staying overnight because it wasn’t planned and as they walk back to their house the next morning, Lucille remarks that Sylvie is going to be so mad. Yet, when they get back to the house, it’s as though Sylvie barely noticed that they were gone. Even when Lucille moves out of the house to live with her home economics teacher, Sylvie...

            While Esther is visiting Buddy in medical school, he takes her on a tour of the hospital he is working at. Buddy takes Esther to see a woman giving birth and Esther is pretty disturbed by the way the woman is on drugs so she is unaware of what’s going on but still in pain. She mentions that it seems like the sort of drugs a man would create. While reading this scene, I was also really bothered by the way Will, a resident at the hospital” acted during the birth scene.             As Esther and Buddy enter the room, they stop to talk to Will before going in. Buddy asks Will who’s on the job and will says “‘I am,’ Will said gloomily, and I noticed little drops of sweat beading on his high pale forehead. ‘I am, and it’s my first.’” Will acts as if helping Mrs. Tomolillo give birth is some huge chore for him and something he really does not want to do. His gloomy vo...

           While I was reading Catcher in the Rye, I was struck by the way Holden talked about Allie and Allie’s death. He often makes comments about Allie but he never really takes time to stop and process his feelings or talk to someone about it. Holden is usually pretty open with the reader about his feelings and what he is thinking. He gives us very honest opinions of anyone he is interacting with or even just sees walking on the street. He is always talking about how phony some people are and comments how much that depresses him. But Holden never seems to share his feelings when he’s talking about Allie. For example, after Holden’s whole catastrophe with Sunny the prostitute he starts thinking about Allie. He says, “What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed.” Holden explains that he and his friend Bobby were going to Lake Sedebego on their bikes and Allie overheard them and asked to c...

During class the last few weeks, we have talked a lot about Stephen’s epiphanies at the end of each chapter. It seems that as each chapter ends, Stephen has some sort of breakthrough in his life. At the end of the first chapter, Stephen is finally celebrated by the fellows. All throughout the chapter he was on the outside and bullied by his peers but at the end he is finally one of them for a few seconds. In the second chapter, Stephen sleeps with a prostitute, a huge step in his personal life and probably a coming-of-age moment for him. At the end of the third chapter, Stephen finally goes to confession. Ever since he slept with the prostitute, he can think of nothing else and he feels guilty all the time. He is consumed by his sins. Stephen finally confesses at the end of Chapter 3 and he returns to a rigid religious life.  I thought most of these end of chapter climaxes were pretty life changing for Stephen. Therefore, I was surprised when I found out that the end of Chapter 4...

I miss Stephen from the first chapter. He was quirky and shy. I loved how curious he was and how his train of thought skipped from topic to topic. I sympathized with him when the other fellows at school bullied him. Throughout the first chapter, Stephen appears as somewhat of an innocent and obedient child. He cannot wait to go home to see his parents and he seems to listen to whatever his father tells him. When he gets sick and Wells come into his room to make sure Stephen is not going to tell on him, Stephen thinks to himself, “ His father had told him, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow.” Even though Wells pushed him into some sort of sewage pool, Stephen takes his father’s advice and doesn’t “peach” on Wells. It appears that his father is an important and respected important in his life.   As I started reading chapter two, I was surprised by the shift in tone of the book. Stephen’s stream of consciousness was completely different. His thoughts were angry and sull...