Read p. 1-29, then, in a 1/2-1 page typed, double spaced response:
What are your first impressions of this novel? Of the community Morrison describes? What sticks out to you? (1-2 passages) What questions do you have about the novel so far? Why do you think Morrison might begin the novel the way she does?
happy reading. :-)
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2 comments:
I think you said we could reply here...
This book seems both novel and old. It seems like it's leading to things I've read a million times, but at the same time I've never read anything like it. I really love the part with Shadrack, just in general, but I don't see how it connects with the story of Helene, Nel, and Sula. That kind of thing really bothers me, even though it was interesting and I enjoyed reading it. Overall it seems like a good thing to read from reading to reading, but I can't stand noncohesiveness...
The community Morrison describes seems much like any community, just doing the best it can with what it has. It doesn't sound like a great place to live, but it doesn't sound especially terrible either.
I think Morrison begins (I'm assuming that means the pages before 1919 starts) the way she does because it's a view into a society which none of Morrison's readers have taken part in. Setting and atmosphere is important, and if I didn't know about the community they all live in the book wouldn't make as much sense.
The quotation which really stays in my mind is "Just as he was about to spread his fingers, they began to grow in higgledy piggledy fashion like Jack's beanstalk all of the the tray and the bed. With a shried he closed his eyes and thrust his huge growing hands under the covers" (9). It's just such an intense image... and I wonder why he thinks his hands are growing. It actually made me stop and think.
aaaaaand that's all I have to say.
I like what you say about it being both 'novel and old', but what, specifically, feels novel? And is it the narrative structure (talk about the place, then the people in it) that's old, or something else?
I know what you mean about cohesiveness. It gets more cohesive, though.
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