"O I have killed my hawk so good, Mother, Mother, O I have killed my hawk so good, And I had no more but he, O."
~ Anonymous, Edward
For my final poetry blog, I thought I would write something consisting of only questions.
Is the hawk a metaphor?
Does he get some kind of sick masochism out of killing his hawk "so good?"
If he "had no more" but his hawk, why would he kill it?
Wouldn't he have learned his lesson after he killed the hawk? Did he have to go kill the horse?
Why did he kill his father?
Did he really kill his father, or is that a metaphor?
Why does he kill so many things/people?
Is he really sailing away to do penance, or is he running from all the murder he should be charged with?
How would sailing away be penance?
Why would he just let his house fall apart? Does he think he won't ever come back?
What kind of person lets his wife/children starve and thinks "Hmmm, they can just beg on the streets until they rot away into a desperate, bitter nothing and I have the pleasure of knowing it was all my fault!" ?
Why does he hate his mom?
Hasn't his mom been helping him with his problems all this time?
Why would he suddenly turn on her?
But why did he turn on everyone else in his family?
Why didn't his mom slap him after he talked to her like that? (If I cursed my mom to hell, I might get one to the face)
Why does he think his mom had cursed him through her counsels?
Could she not just unintentionally give really bad advice?
WHY IS EDWARD SUCH A JERK??
"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language." ~ W.H. Auden
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
And So We Start Never Let Me Go/1st Person (Chapter 1/Pages 3-12)
"My name is Kathy H. I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for eleven years."
~ Never Let Me Go, page 3
I'll be honest - the first thing I thought of when I read the first page was that I was STOKED to read this book because it was in first person. This is my favorite type of perspective, perhaps because it seems so much more personal. In third person when the unknown narrator is describing what someone is feeling, I sometimes find myself wondering how they even know or thinking that they can't understand that character. The truth is pretty much completely subjective, right? The truth is different to every person, and until every involved person's idea of truth is known to all, we can't know the whole truth. I think that's why it is so difficult for me to read third person omniscient novels - they know the whole truth, which seems shady to me. I think it's so much easier to empathize with the character if she (or he, but in this case the narrator is a woman) is telling you her own truth; it's like I can read her mind and it gives me proper insight into her problems and interests and emotions and history. Enough of that rant! Here are several questions and premature opinions I had about the first chapter.
~ Never Let Me Go, page 3
I'll be honest - the first thing I thought of when I read the first page was that I was STOKED to read this book because it was in first person. This is my favorite type of perspective, perhaps because it seems so much more personal. In third person when the unknown narrator is describing what someone is feeling, I sometimes find myself wondering how they even know or thinking that they can't understand that character. The truth is pretty much completely subjective, right? The truth is different to every person, and until every involved person's idea of truth is known to all, we can't know the whole truth. I think that's why it is so difficult for me to read third person omniscient novels - they know the whole truth, which seems shady to me. I think it's so much easier to empathize with the character if she (or he, but in this case the narrator is a woman) is telling you her own truth; it's like I can read her mind and it gives me proper insight into her problems and interests and emotions and history. Enough of that rant! Here are several questions and premature opinions I had about the first chapter.
- What exactly does Kathy's career entail? I'm assuming that a "carer" is like a nurse simply from context, but I would really like a job description.
- Are these donations like organ donations? Apparently, they have multiple operations, so I'm a little confused about that.
- Are Ruth and Tommy Kathy's friends or just kids with which she attended school? There are so many aspects of this situation that I must take into consideration. First, Kathy says that their differences hadn't vanished, so obviously there is some hostility, or at least mild argument, between her and Ruth. Secondly, during the incident on the field with Tommy, Ruth and the other girls (and boys for that matter) were blatantly bullying Tommy, which makes me question their ability to have friends at all. Also, Kathy especially recognized their cruelty, which makes me wonder if she has much respect for her "friends," or if they are simply bodies to associate with to fulfill her social needs. (Does that make sense?) Next is Tommy. Kathy seems to know personal details about him, which leads me to believe that they are friends, but she is falling victim to peer pressure and doesn't defend him from their peers. However, she does approach him and calm him down, which convinces me of the former... I think?
I'm just thinking aloud, but I have a feeling that the answers to these questions will reveal themselves soon in the novel.
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