Lili's Blog :)

This one is going to be a bit of a rant, and while I may be a little harsh on Jason it is something in the book that is starting to annoy me a bit. We've all been his age at some point, and had the time in our lives where we felt the need to fit in or impress everyone. But man has he let this vision in his head absolutely consume him. I genuinely feel like he's not even living his life, he's surviving, going through the motions. And it made me equally frustrated and sad when he was about to tell his mom what was going on but then didn't. Despite my annoyance with the idea of fitting in consuming his brain, I do still feel bad for the kid. Throughout multiple scenes we see that he doesn't even really feel at home in his own house. He still has to preform for his dad when it comes to his stutter. And in the more recent chapters, seeing how brutally he got bullied definitely infuriated me. I think I'm just gonna go ahead and say I really don't like this book. I

Allison Bechdel's Fun Home , published in 2006, tells the story of Allison's own life. The term "fun home" comes from the funeral home that her family runs. The novel takes us through her complex family dynamics through both the written word, and illustrations. I think this is what makes this book so interesting because not only are we able to analyze the words on the page, but how she portrays through imagery as well. In the beginning of the book, we see Allison as a young girl while her father tries tell her how to dress and how to act to be a lady. However, after seeing a woman dressed like a man while out with her father, Allison's whole worldview changes. She first later comes out to her parents as lesbian, and the story picks up from there with the death of her father. It is also discovered by Allison that her dad engaged in homosexual affairs with underage boys during his lifetime. Between her father's death and her new knowledge, Allison makes it her m

  The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath published in 1963 follows the story of Esther Greenwood and her journey through dealing with mental health at a time where it wasn't widely accepted. I think the most notable relationship she describes in the book is with Dr Nolan. Right away we can tell that Esther trusts and opens up to her. She is different than Dr Gordan because not only is she more open and understanding, but she is someone Esther can connect with as a woman at the time. As we continue to read, it seems as though Dr Nolan truly wants Esther to get better and actually cares about her. At one point Esther even compares her to her mother.  One of the most notable things about Dr Nolan is her approach to electric shock therapy. She tells Esther that they didn't do it right and that if she had to do it, it would be done correctly. This immediately puts her at ease. Along with the idea that she would get a warning about it beforehand. However as we see later on, the warning comes a

The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger published in 1951, follows the story of 16-year old Holden Caulfield. He has a nonchalant personality and is constantly failing out of school. I think, as much as he says the world is "phony" and adults are fake, some part of him does care because he's hurting. During his conversation with his little sister Pheobe when he comes home early, we see part of where his mind is at. Specifically when he mentions how his favorite thing is Allie, to which Pheobe retaliates. It's clear that Holden is still holding onto emotional trauma from the death of his brother. This could very well be the reason why the idea of adults/growing up is so off-putting to him because he lost his brother when he was young. And the older he get's the more time goes past without Allie. Other than Pheobe, he seems to be the person that Holden has connected the most with.  His relationship with Pheobe is interesting in the sense that although she i

 All posts from this point on are for The Coming of Age Novel. 

The Song of Solomon definitely caught us off guard at first; there was so much going on to say the least. I think the most perplexing character is Milkman, because up until the more recent chapters he was the only character that didn't really have much of anything going on. He was in the same limbo state that we saw with Clarissa Dalloway, he is middle aged and is kind of settling for life. It's too late for him to really choose a career path, yet he's not necessarily happy with the way things are going for him now. Most of the time his identity is attached to that of his father or from the unfortunate nickname of Milkman. However, we see some sort of shift in him when he begins to travel and learn about his family. Milkman begins to discover his identity when he leaves to travel alone. Towards the start of his journey he still has an identity that is tied to his father, but his outlook on the gold changes. However, it's still significant to note that while he is travel