My Faves

Okay, I just commented on Julia's post about Leo how Leo is my favorite character in Room. For my last Hero's Journey post, I want to combine that and Claire's post (reflecting on the heroic traits of various hero's we've discussed) and make my own little list of my favorite characters in each of the novels we read and why. Here goes:

1. Wool: My favorite character from Wool has to be Holston. I know he ends up dying before the book is half over, but his love for Alyson (his wife, if you don't remember) is so meaningful. Plus, without Holston's efforts in finding the truth, the truth never would have been found.
2. The Odyssey: Will people be mad if I say my favorite character from The Odyssey is Polythemus? Honestly, I hated everyone in this epic. I do not approve of many of the actions taken by Odysseus, Penelope was ugh, Telemachus was basically a sheep, and Athena was an obnoxious master manipulator. Then there's Polythemus, a cyclops who has his wine and cheese stolen and, rightfully, gets angry. Then he gets blinded. Poor guy.
3. O' Brother Where Art Thou: Okay, so O' Brother isn't a novel (neither is The Odyssey. Oops) but we did spend some significant time watching / talking about it. My favorite character has to be Everett. I mean come on, he is super funny and witty and smart on his feet. Delmar is a close second.
4. As I Lay Dying: Darl is my fave. I don't care if he's seen as crazy or anything like that, and I don't think he's a fool like his father. I think he's insightful. Maybe it's because the book started out from his point of view; maybe it's the quirky way he describes things. I don't know. I'm just drawn to Darl. 
5. The Memory of Running: I'm going to have to say that my favorite character from TMOR is Smithy. I kinda want to say my favorite is the dude who got killed in Vietnam when Smithy peed into the swap, but I felt like that wasn't sufficient. I really like the way Smithy perseveres on his bike ride across the US. I would have biked from Rhode Island and maybe made it to the place where Smithy fished when he was younger. There's no way I could go from Rhode Island to LA. No chance in hell. Mad props to Smithy.
6. Room: Omg Leo. Leo! AKA Steppa. I love Steppa so much; I don't care that he potentially smells like weed or whatever, what matters to me is that Steppa is really, really good with Jack. He teaches Jack not to play with fire, and explains the water purifying process, and that it's okay to mess things up (as seen when they are playing with LEGOs). I know that Ma doesn't seem to like Steppa, but he is a great person.

Okay everyone, that was it :)

I Can't Even (Again)

I've been majorly procrastinating on doing a blog post about Room. I actually considered not writing a post about the novel anyways, but I would have felt malicious if I excluded the novel on this post. I don't know. My head doesn't make sense. However, I will try to explain why writing a post on this novel is so difficult for me.

Room is a sad story.

Yes, I know that Ma and Jack managed to escape and were in Outside for the last half of the novel, but it's still such a despairing read. For me, at least. I think the novel being written in Jack's point of view makes it even more sad. On one had, Jack (naturally) has an unknowing, childlike narrative, so reading his thoughts isn't anywhere near as depressing as it would be reading from Ma's point of view. On the other hand, the reader knows what Jack doesn't, and watching him struggle to understand Outside vs Room, and that his life isn't really real, and that people don't typically hug random strangers, and that it really is him and Ma on the TV, and that there are multiple copies of Dylan the Digger, is heartbreaking.

Also, it is entirely possible for this to happen. Like... I can go off to college and everything that happens to Ma could happen to me. Heck, it could happen now. And, quite obviously, I don't want to be kidnapped and raped and be trapped in an 11 by 11 room for seven years. I'm actually shaking right now thinking about being in that situation.

And yet... There are people who actually have been in similar situations. I've read a few blog posts that have mentioned the Fritzl case and the Castro case. I think that's another major reason I'm uncertain about writing this post on Room; I don't want to seem insensitive, and I just don't know what it was like for the victims. I mean... I'm even feeling bad about calling them victims, because if it were me I wouldn't want to labelled as a victim my whole life. I feel like it would be a weight dragging me down and making it hard to move forward. But it's not me, and so I have no way of knowing. It's just such a sensitive subject area that I'm not comfortable in. Does that make sense?

I don't know if that clarified anything, but those are my thoughts.