"Sometimes, when my parents were raging at each other in the kitchen, Lecia and I would talk about finding a shack on the beach to live in. We'd sit cross-legged under the blue cotton quilt with a flashlight, doing parodies of their fights." (38)
As I read the chapters that were assigned, this quote seemed to stand out to me. When parents are going through rough times, it seems to also take affect on children. Lecia and Mary wanted to run away from their parents because they wanted to get away from the fighting. When the kids start to act like the parents is when you know the marriage is in real trouble. But since Pete is really against marriage, they never end the marriage. Personally I feel that its time to end the marriage when you start to hurt the people around you. Before my parents were divorced they fought all the time. One time when I was we were all eating dinner at the dinner table, my mom and dad started arguing about "something," my sister then asked them, "should we leave the table now, or when you two start yelling?" I think that they realized at that point that when they fought they were also affecting us.
One family image that I thought about all throughout this passage was the last family outing I had when my parents weren't divorced. We use to own a beach house at Irish Beach by Santa Barbara. We were all on the beach having a good time. This was before I knew about my parents having marriage problems so I never really took in the moment as much as I wish I did. It seemed like the perfect day, the air was warm, the water was cold, my dog was running around joyfully. But at one point my dog started to chase a bird down the beach. We all started running after him hopping he wouldn't run into the ocean. When we finally caught him he was knee deep in the ocean. As I looked up a giant wave came and knocked everyone over. We all laughed as we stood back up. As guess I thought of this memory because it was my last really good memory of my family. And it's unfortunate for Mary because she doesn't really seem to have a good memory which includes both her parents.
- Ben Meurell
Ben,
ReplyDeleteGood passage to pick. In your next posts, see if you can stay more rooted in the text as you analyze. That said, your ability to relate the text to your own life is admirable and impressive. I think that will work even better if you're able to give your readers a better sense of the book and how it made you think that way. Summary is our enemy when we're trying to make hard sense of a text.
I like the portrait of the day here, of the dog with the bird. It occurs to me that that's the kind of image you might focus on. In fact, it seems really appropriate. There's chasing after something and not getting it, there's fear that something will go wrong: all of this in the context of marriage struggle.
Good work.
See you in class.
I do agree with what you said about people hurting those around you. I too remember a moment from my childhood where my parents were fighting. I distinctly remember screaming at them to stop.
ReplyDeleteI really like your childhood image. You described it well enough for me to get a really good picture in mind.
I think the main focus is the dog chasing a bird into the ocean. I agree with what Dave had to say with the slight concern of chasing something that is unattainable.
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