Bastard out of Carolina ch 6-10

This book continues to get more disturbing more and more as I read. It is very unsettling and I find myself often while reading it getting mad at the characters. It makes me mad that Bone’s mom will just stand around while Glen beats her, she gave in too easily and she should not have at all. It also makes me mad that everyone in the family knows that something is going on between them, something awful but no one has done anything, except ask a 10 yr old child who does not understand what is going on. I guess the fact that a book can instill so many feelings in the reader is just a sign of a good writer, whether they are bad or good feelings. In addition, because I see no end in sight to this, and because I know all the sides of the story, well at least what Dorothy Allison has published, it makes me want to go in and fight for her. It frustrates me the way these characters are so careless about themselves, others and the world, and so by this point I need to put down the book.

In chapter six, I do not understand what the mother goes out to do when she comes to the point of feeding her children crackers and ketchup. This may be due to a naïve misunderstanding, but somehow she puts on all these clothes and goes out, and then magically comes home with all sorts of food. So are we supposed to just understand that she did something wrong to get this food, or is it just an unnecessary fact and isn’t worth wondering about?

I think that Glen’s appearance is the most important thing to him. The main reason he wants Anney is because it makes him look good, like a family man, but also like someone that people will automatically be good, because how else would he be able to get a wife and children if he wasn’t at least half decent? You can also see this when they talk about houses that are acceptable. Glen moves them around house-to-house, ones that aren’t nice, and they probably could get nicer ones, except he only wants the ones that if you squint hard enough you could possibly see a resemblance to his brothers houses. Those houses, the ones like his brother would make him look good, and possibly if he owned one would help him gain some respect from his family. When he realizes his houses aren’t nice he blames it on everyone else, saying that no one wants him to have anything nice, everything is always everyone else’s fault. Then with this, he would “get in one of his dangerously quiet moods and refuse to talk to anybody.” I do not think it is fair that because of Glen’s personality, Bone and Reese are forced to walk on eggshells and try and make uncontrollable things perfect for him, just so that he won’t get mad and go crazy.

Another thing I find interesting in this book, are the fantasies that Bone has. They are often either morbid, or messed up and she usually ends up being critical of herself and thinking she is an awful person. One in particular stands out, this is when Glen beat her to the point where she needed to go to the doctors because her tailbone was broken and her arm was injured. She imagined that her mom would leave him and they would not talk to him until he came crawling back begging their forgiveness, and everyone refused to forgive him except for her, and then she said she would die after that. Why would she forgive him? I just cannot understand. I think this is just a result of being so traumatized after all the things that have happened to her, maybe she has these fantasies because it is the only thing in her life that she has control over.

Dorothy Allison

In reading this book, I feel like the beginning is setting up the main character, Bone for something pretty awful to happen. In the beginning when she is born she is certified by the state as a bastard, and everyday her mother tries to get them to take this stamp off of her certificate. Only each time she goes they look at her in particular ways and make comments that imply that she is white trash and you can’t expect anything else from them except for them to have fatherless children. When she finally gets a clerk that understands why she wants this stamp off, he tells her anyways that he isn’t going to do it and he can’t. He says that the state doesn’t even enforce this rule anymore but the reason that they keep enforcing it upon her is because she’s of lower class and status. “You don’t need me to tell you the answer to that. You’ve lived in this county all your life, and you know how things are” He is almost saying that she needs to accept the status that was given to her by society because she can’t change things.

Bone reminds me of Miranda from the porter stories. This is manly because of the gender roles that are constantly being challenged in this book by her. She tries to dress like her older male cousins, and carry a knife like they do. She looks up to these men that have a reputation for being aggressive and dangerous. Gender roles are definitely a popular topic in southern literature that seems to be explored in any way possible.

I don’t trust Glen. I think this is due to the point that the book keeps describing him as the “quiet sort who never fought in friendly style. He either gave you that slow grin or went all out and tried to kill you. The latter earned him a little respect.” He never spoke his mind until he later blew up in anger and for this, was once arrested. This doesn’t seem like the kind of personality that I would want around my children and this why I get the feeling that something bad is going to happen to Bone, also manly because of this line in the book: “That boy’s got something wrong with him. He’s always looking at me out of the sides of his eyes like some old junkyard dog waiting to steal a bone.” Even though the reference was to a dog bone, I still feel in some way that this is supposed to be foreshadowing, or referencing some future event in which he will go after Bone.

James Dickey

In Reading the poems by James Dickey I found them to be some what depressing and morbid, but also confusing. Most of the lines in the poems had different meanings, or meanings that I think are supposed to be applied to the happenings of that time period of which I am unaware off, and do not understand. In each of the poems so far, they have been a dwelling into the inner workings of someone’s death, detail after detail, and a thorough look inward at what this situation was like.

In, The Underground Stream, he is laying next to this well imagining what it would be like to fall into this well, this underground stream. Then with this his spirit would be free, and calm, with him being able to fall to silence. It seems like he wants to switch his fate with the fate of someone whom he loved that has died. If he were able to do this, and make it possible he would be happy and the world would be at peace. I thought this was an interesting poem about a man trying to come to terms with the death of someone close to him, and offering his life in return of the other.

This Poem reminded me of a thanotology psychology class that I took. Because it deals with mourning and bereavement, and the steps that people take during the path to coping with a death. Denial and anger, I think this is where he is now, mad and sad about the loss, willing to do what ever it takes to make things right again for him.

It also seemed as though he felt guilty for this death or just guilty for the fact that he’s alive and happy; he says “and thought how to bury my smile.” He is struggling with life, god, and his internal sense of being.

Revelation

I liked Revelation by Flannery O’Conner much more than The displaced Person. I thought that this reading had much more religion to it and it was easier to understand the messages also. Rather than a mysterious Peacock, it was laid out a lot more, not completely but enough to understand easier. I also liked it because it was less violent and the characters did not act nearly as repulsive as the ones in the displaced person.

I think that it is interesting that O’Conner chooses to open each story with a strong impression of the main character. In Displaced Person, she was compared to a mountain, and in Revelation Mrs. Turpin was portrayed as “very large” and “looming.” I think opening up with such a strong character gives the story a presence. It makes it more influential and defends the characters strong opinions.

The issue of race and class is once again an issue. In this story it is a focus, Mrs. Turpin spends a lot of her time rummaging through her opinions and the levels of class in the world. I thought it was interesting that she placed African Americans above a white class. She said that if she were given a choice by god where she had to be anyone but her self, either a black person, or white trash, she would choose to be a black woman. I thought it was nice to see the opinions of southern literature moving forward. I think that is one of the things I find to be most compelling, is that you can actually see the progress and growing moral standpoints of the south as you read.

It was interesting to read a story that was so ingrained with religion. It was a less subtle and I think better this way than in Displaced person. It seems that O’Conner is trying to get society to realize the same point in each of her stories. If the reader takes anything out of her stories, it must be that we are all equal. She points out how there are those who get too caught up in societal issues, such as class levels and fail to see these messages. Then there are those who just do not appreciate God’s creations, and those who will never come to realize any message. However, the epiphany that Mrs. Turpin comes too is that no matter the color or the race, in the end, we are all equal and we go to the same place and receive the same “saving”. So what is the point for time spent for classifying and categorizing? Mrs. Turpin is no better than anyone else whom she compares herself too, and it takes a girl hurling a book to her eye, and strangling her to awaken her from this slump. She ends up asking the girl for a revelation, what is she trying to tell her, and it is that she is no better than the hogs she takes care of. When she fully takes this message in, she realizes the reality of this statement and because she asks for gods help, he helps her. This comes back to what we said in class on how O’Conner writes about how we cannot save our selves; we need God’s grace to save us. Thus, since she chose to head this message she was saved.

I also thought that the girls name was interesting. She was the one who delivered the message, and accordingly so her name was, Mary Grace.