"The World's Greatest Fisherman" is a short story about the death of a young woman who had two sons. One son was illegitimate and was raised by his grandmother Lipshaw Morrissey. Lipshaw did not know who his mother and father was through most of his young life. While his brother "King" knew both his mother and father. The two stories "The World's Greatest Fisherman" and "Crossing the Water" come full circle as they complete Lipshaw's curiosity about who he is. Lipshaw's grandmother knew that he was an incomplete person.
June was raised by her Uncle Eli as no one would take her in. June did not have any living parents and eventually married her cousin Gordie was the only home that she had known even though she divorced him. "After she had grown up and looked around for a while, June decided on my uncle, Gordie Kashpaw, and married him even though they had to run away to do it." (8)
In "The World's Greatest Fisherman" Albertine, Lipshaw's cousin, wanted to tell Lipshaw that she knew who his mother was, but couldn't tell him. "I was going to tell him that his mother was June. Since so many others knew, it was the only right that he should, too." (39) Albertine could not tell him because of his unforgiving remarks about his mother "I can never forgive what she done to a little child," he said." (39)
In "Crossing the Waters" Lipshaw's grandmother tells him where her money is kept and Lipshaw sneaks into her apartment and steals her money one night, just as his grandmother would have wanted him to. "I stole into Grandma Kashpaw's apartment and sneaked the hankie full of money from her drawer." (304) Lipshaw knew that his grandmother wanted him to take the money. "Maybe I was misconstructing, but the more I thought about the way she looked at me when she said that, the more I felt like Grandma was offering me something. Bus fare, maybe, the chance to get away from here in my confusion. (304) So, Lipshaw stole the money and ran away.
A woman by the name of Lulu Lamartine told Lipshaw who he was and that his mother was June and his father was still alive in a penitentiary by the name of Gerry Nanapush.
The first story told the story of June and the last story was about her one of her sons Lipshaw. These two stories are interconnected and tell the story of a confused young man without any known parents and by the end he is complete and knows both of his parents. "I tell you, there was good to what she did for me, I know now. The son that she she acknowledged suffered more than Lipsha Morrissey did. The thought of June grabbed my hear so, but I was lucky she turned me over to Grandma Kashpaw." (333)
Erdrich, Louis. "Love Medicine"
Harper Collins Publishers, New York, New York, 2005
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Sophie in “Breath, Eyes, Memory” was born into a matriarch family in Haiti. Sophie became a strong woman who was raised without a father. In Haiti a family was suppose to be ruled by the Patriarch. Sophie only knew the women in her life, her grandmother and aunt who were strong women. Sophie’s mother was portrayed as being haunted by a shadow of her rapist and was suggested as weakened by her dreams, but her mother was actually strong due to her struggle “to stay ahead of the mental hospital.”
Sophie grew stronger when she moved to the United States when she was twelve years old. Her mother worked two jobs and left Sophie to care for herself. “I wish that I could help you do one of your jobs.” (58) Sophie attended school and saw herself through each day mostly alone. Sophie’s strength also helped her mother during her mother’s nightmares and towards the end of the book her mother became more dependent on Sophie as the dreams became more intense due to her mother’s pregnancy.
Sophie’s desire to separate herself from her mother and the ritual “test” gave her more independence from her mother’s control over her. “I waited until I heard her moaning in her sleep. I gathered my things and stuffed them into a suitcase. I had to dress quickly. I tiptoed downstairs and opened the front door. I knocked on Joseph’s door and waited for him to answer.” Sophie married an older man, Joseph, and had a child, but suffered with her mother’s mental illness. Sophie, unlike her family sought medical attention to deal with her mother and herself being traumatized from the “test” that her mother performed on her regularly.
After the birth of Sophie’s child Josephine, named after her husband Joe, Sophie returned to Haiti to her grandmother and her aunt. Sophie I believe felt alone and isolated in America as he was basically the caretaker of her mother upon arrival. She grew immediately from a child of twelve years of age to a young woman taking care of herself and her mother.
In the end of the book Sophie returns to Haiti to bury her mother who committed suicide by stabbing herself 17 times in the stomach to abort the child that spoke to her in anguish. In a critical essay by Patrick S.J. Samway in The Mississippi Quarterly “Martine commits suicide by stabbing her stomach seventeen times with an old rusty knife and killing her unwanted fetus, reminiscent of the time she tried to abort the developing Sophie in her womb.”
After the funeral, and at the end of the book, Sophie runs through the cane field to resolve her mother’s lifelong suffering which Sophie suffered herself. Her mother’s rapist became Sophie’s shadow too. Sophie strives to make a better life for her daughter and wants her daughter to sleep peacefully, unlike Sophie and her mother.
Works Cited
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory
Random House Books, Inc., New York 1994
Samway, Patrick S.J. A homeward journey: Edwidge Danticat's fictional landscapes,
mindscapes, genescapes, and signscapes in Breath, Eyes, Memory.(Critical Essay).
The Mississippi Quarterly 57.1 (Winter 2003): p75(10). (3568 words)
Sophie in “Breath, Eyes, Memory” was born into a matriarch family in Haiti. Sophie became a strong woman who was raised without a father. In Haiti a family was suppose to be ruled by the Patriarch. Sophie only knew the women in her life, her grandmother and aunt who were strong women. Sophie’s mother was portrayed as being haunted by a shadow of her rapist and was suggested as weakened by her dreams, but her mother was actually strong due to her struggle “to stay ahead of the mental hospital.”
Sophie grew stronger when she moved to the United States when she was twelve years old. Her mother worked two jobs and left Sophie to care for herself. “I wish that I could help you do one of your jobs.” (58) Sophie attended school and saw herself through each day mostly alone. Sophie’s strength also helped her mother during her mother’s nightmares and towards the end of the book her mother became more dependent on Sophie as the dreams became more intense due to her mother’s pregnancy.
Sophie’s desire to separate herself from her mother and the ritual “test” gave her more independence from her mother’s control over her. “I waited until I heard her moaning in her sleep. I gathered my things and stuffed them into a suitcase. I had to dress quickly. I tiptoed downstairs and opened the front door. I knocked on Joseph’s door and waited for him to answer.” Sophie married an older man, Joseph, and had a child, but suffered with her mother’s mental illness. Sophie, unlike her family sought medical attention to deal with her mother and herself being traumatized from the “test” that her mother performed on her regularly.
After the birth of Sophie’s child Josephine, named after her husband Joe, Sophie returned to Haiti to her grandmother and her aunt. Sophie I believe felt alone and isolated in America as he was basically the caretaker of her mother upon arrival. She grew immediately from a child of twelve years of age to a young woman taking care of herself and her mother.
In the end of the book Sophie returns to Haiti to bury her mother who committed suicide by stabbing herself 17 times in the stomach to abort the child that spoke to her in anguish. In a critical essay by Patrick S.J. Samway in The Mississippi Quarterly “Martine commits suicide by stabbing her stomach seventeen times with an old rusty knife and killing her unwanted fetus, reminiscent of the time she tried to abort the developing Sophie in her womb.”
After the funeral, and at the end of the book, Sophie runs through the cane field to resolve her mother’s lifelong suffering which Sophie suffered herself. Her mother’s rapist became Sophie’s shadow too. Sophie strives to make a better life for her daughter and wants her daughter to sleep peacefully, unlike Sophie and her mother.
Works Cited
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory
Random House Books, Inc., New York 1994
Samway, Patrick S.J. A homeward journey: Edwidge Danticat's fictional landscapes,
mindscapes, genescapes, and signscapes in Breath, Eyes, Memory.(Critical Essay).
The Mississippi Quarterly 57.1 (Winter 2003): p75(10). (3568 words)
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Poisonwood Bible
The Poisonwood Bible has different viewpoints from four daughters and their mother of their lives in Africa. The father’s, who was a minister, viewpoint in the book was never offered. The detailed lives of each daughter and their mother gave a more complete understanding of the Congo and the harsh living conditions. The different viewpoints gave reason and better understanding of the traditions and lifestyle of being raised in Africa. The different viewpoints gave the reader a more thorough understanding of the book and the fascinating story that it told.
Throughout the book the father is viewed and commented on, but his own viewpoints were not discussed. It might have been helpful to hear the father’s viewpoint to understand why he was insistent against all odds to bring his wife and four daughters to Africa on a missionary trip. The father’s viewpoint also might have been helpful to understand why he refused to leave Africa when he should have.
One could only speculate that he was seeking a kind of redemption from what he had experienced in the war of losing the soldiers that he had served with. “Nathan’s company died, to the man, on the Death March from Bataan.” “He came home with a crescent-shaped scar on his temple, seriously weakened vision in his left eye, and a suspicion of his own cowardice from which he could never recover.” (197)
The father was described as angry and hostile, whose own religion was his only love. He risked everything including his family in his wasted efforts to cleanse and save all sinners in the name of Christianity. In an article by Elaine R. Ognibene, published in College Literature, “One man who does not change is Nathan Price. In The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan’s evangelical, self-righteous, judgmental attitudes threaten the lives of his family, as well as the people in the remote Congolese village of Kilanga.” (21)
The mother’s narratives explain her dedication to her husband first and then to her daughters. “And you wonder why I didn’t rise up and revolt against Nathan? I felt lucky to get my shoes on the right fee, that why. I moved forward only, thinking each morning anew that we were leaving the worst behind.” (200)
The mother near the end of the book leaves her husband after the death of her youngest daughter, Ruth May. The mother returns to Georgia with one of her daughters, Adah, and leaves her other two daughters who are too ill to travel.
The four daughters give their narratives in turn while they are growing up in Africa. After the death of the youngest daughter, Ruth May, two of the daughters remain in Africa, Rahel and Leah. As Rachel, the oldest daughter stated why she didn’t return to the United States, “My long tramp through the mud left me tuckered out and just too worldly-wise to go along with the teen scene.” (513) Leah married a man, Anatole, and raised a family with him. The third daughter, Adah, attends medical school at Emory University.
Even though each daughter and their mother give their own viewpoint of their lives in Africa, all their viewpoints about Africa remain the same. They all are affected by Africa and the daughters cannot live in the United States after becoming aware of their world and the effects of capitalism and socialism. These different viewpoints gave me a clearer understanding of what it have must have been like to live in Africa as a missionary.
Works Cited
Kingsolver, Barbara. “The Poisonwood Bible”
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
New York, New York, 2002
The Missionary Position: Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" Elaine R. Ognibene
College Literature, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Summer, 2003), pp. 19-36
Published by: College Literature
Throughout the book the father is viewed and commented on, but his own viewpoints were not discussed. It might have been helpful to hear the father’s viewpoint to understand why he was insistent against all odds to bring his wife and four daughters to Africa on a missionary trip. The father’s viewpoint also might have been helpful to understand why he refused to leave Africa when he should have.
One could only speculate that he was seeking a kind of redemption from what he had experienced in the war of losing the soldiers that he had served with. “Nathan’s company died, to the man, on the Death March from Bataan.” “He came home with a crescent-shaped scar on his temple, seriously weakened vision in his left eye, and a suspicion of his own cowardice from which he could never recover.” (197)
The father was described as angry and hostile, whose own religion was his only love. He risked everything including his family in his wasted efforts to cleanse and save all sinners in the name of Christianity. In an article by Elaine R. Ognibene, published in College Literature, “One man who does not change is Nathan Price. In The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan’s evangelical, self-righteous, judgmental attitudes threaten the lives of his family, as well as the people in the remote Congolese village of Kilanga.” (21)
The mother’s narratives explain her dedication to her husband first and then to her daughters. “And you wonder why I didn’t rise up and revolt against Nathan? I felt lucky to get my shoes on the right fee, that why. I moved forward only, thinking each morning anew that we were leaving the worst behind.” (200)
The mother near the end of the book leaves her husband after the death of her youngest daughter, Ruth May. The mother returns to Georgia with one of her daughters, Adah, and leaves her other two daughters who are too ill to travel.
The four daughters give their narratives in turn while they are growing up in Africa. After the death of the youngest daughter, Ruth May, two of the daughters remain in Africa, Rahel and Leah. As Rachel, the oldest daughter stated why she didn’t return to the United States, “My long tramp through the mud left me tuckered out and just too worldly-wise to go along with the teen scene.” (513) Leah married a man, Anatole, and raised a family with him. The third daughter, Adah, attends medical school at Emory University.
Even though each daughter and their mother give their own viewpoint of their lives in Africa, all their viewpoints about Africa remain the same. They all are affected by Africa and the daughters cannot live in the United States after becoming aware of their world and the effects of capitalism and socialism. These different viewpoints gave me a clearer understanding of what it have must have been like to live in Africa as a missionary.
Works Cited
Kingsolver, Barbara. “The Poisonwood Bible”
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
New York, New York, 2002
The Missionary Position: Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" Elaine R. Ognibene
College Literature, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Summer, 2003), pp. 19-36
Published by: College Literature
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