Smithy Thus Far

The Memory of Running is my favorite of the books we've read for Hero's Journey class by far. In fact, it's probably one of the best books I've read in a while.

But I have no idea why this is.

We're only about halfway though the book, but I'm already completely drawn in. Ron McLarty did an amazing job developing his characters and their story lines.

Smithy Ide, the main character, is 43. He is a lazy, overweight chain-smoker who spends his evening drinking and eating hard pretzels and other junk. None of those things are good indicators about his personality, and yet McLarty narratives from Smithy's view in such a way that draws the reader in and makes them sympathize with him. I don't see it as Smithy throwing his life away, I see it as him trying to cope with the past and his family and what he's been through.

Within the first few chapters of the book, I read about how Smithy's parents got in a car crash and both ended up dying on the same day. A few days later, Smithy reads a letter for his late father that said that Bethany, his sister with Schizophrenia, has passed away as well. It's hard not to feel for Smithy.

At this point I greatly pitied Smithy and so, while I didn't (and still don't) understand how he came to always going though a cycle of eating and smoking and drinking, I didn't put that against him. When Smithy had the biggest reason for letting his life go, he instead managed to get on his bike and begin an epic journey. This is potentially the reason I like Smithy's character so much. He got off his ass and started biking and wow... The amount a determination a person must have to decide to bike from Rhode Island to Los Angeles. Or, I guess, Denver. I know that Smithy didn't initially plan to take the trip and that the trip "happened to him" but, when he realized he wasn't satisfied in his life, he decided to continue on. It's unbelievable.

We also see more of Smithy's character when he gets hit by a truck and yet takes care of the man who hit him instead of complaining or getting help for himself. We have the flashback chapter to how horribly he'd acted in the army hospital, so I definitely got a feel for how Smithy had been developing as a person.

There's also Smithy's dorky awkwardness. He doesn't really have friends. It makes the reader able to sympathize more because, lets face it, we all have our strange moments. We as readers also get to see his crush on Norma developing. While some of the things he does. like the love dream" and buying a romance novel because the girl on the cover that looked like her, can be seen as semi-disturbing, I think the main reason we might see it as such is because we're reading about it for our English class. It's actually not that weird. I also love how, when Smithy buys the book about the Norma look-alike, it's the determined look on her face that he sees the connection in and focuses on rather than some random perverse thought. That's so sweet.

That's basically all I have to say right now, but expect more on this book soon(ish).

Nothing's Swell for Dewey Dell

I guess I just want to put this blog post together for Dewey Dell. She has been through so much, and I honestly feel so sorry for her at this moment. I know she's not dead, but I think she deserves a moment of silence now...

Now that that's done with, I think we should reflect on all that she's been through. The first time she's mentioned is through Cora's point of view, and Dewey Dell is depicted as this rude, moody teen who won't really let her family see or talk to their mother. Throughout the novel, however, we as readers get insight from her point of view. It'd been deduced that she hadn't really been taught much sex ed, so of course she was a typical hormonal teenager and didn't really know what to do about that. When she reflects on the scene between her and Lafe we see how she make up a little game; if her sack was full (of cotton) when she got to the woods she would (sleep with Lafe) and if it wasn't she wouldn't. Lafe then went on to help fill her sack and thus she "could not help it." This is the first time in the novel we see Dewey Dell being taken advantage of.

Dewey Dell became pregnant as a result of sleeping with Lafe, and she struggled throughout the novel debating what she would do about it. Abortion was illegal, but she wanted to go that route anyways. Dewey was too scared to ask Peabody's help, and so she was going to use the $10 Lafe gave her and 'take care of it' on the trip to Jefferson. Darl was not very helpful with his taunts about how Dewey Dell really wanted their mother to die so that the family would go to Jefferson; I can only imagine how distraught Dewey Dell was at this point.

On the trip to Jefferson, at one point the family stopped in Mottson, but Moseley wouldn't give her anything to abort her child. When the family got to Jefferson, Dewey Dell went to a drugstore hoping to be helped there. Instead of help, McGowan (a store clerk) said he would give her 'treatment'. Part one of the so-called treatment was drinking a cup of turpentine, and part two was being raped by McGowan.

I'm so repulsed by this part of the novel it's ridiculous. McGowan nothing more than a lowlife and Dewey Dell seems to have the worst luck in the world. As I Lay Dying actually ends with Dewey Dell still being pregnant and oh-so-hopeless, and without the majority of the family knowing of her predicament. Plus, Anse took her $10 so it's not as if she can go to another pharmacy and try again. She doesn't know what to do, and the reader is left unaware of the final outcome.

Dewey Dell did not deserve any of what happened to her, and I can only hope she ended up with an okay life.

I Cant Even

I've been having a hard time writing blog posts for this section. I really have. I think the reason is because I really don't feel like I can connect to any of the characters in As I Lay Dying, and being able to relate to a character is one of the biggest things I look forward to in a novel.

I feel like I don't even have to explain why I don't like Addie, as my last post was entirely about that. Anse, however, is so dweeby. And lame. And ugh. I really don't like him. I began the book thinking awfully of him -- he is not a good father whatsoever. I was starting to feel for him because of the way Addie treated him. However, what he did to Jewel took my sympathy right away: Jewel worked so hard for his horse and Anse just gave it away without consulting him ! I don't understand how someone can do that! The horse meant so much to Jewel!

Speaking of Jewel, if I was going to like anyone in the novel it would be him right now. The fact that Jewel went off by himself and took his horse to Snopes for the sake of getting his mom's body to Jefferson to be buried. I can't seem to forget about how Jewel seems spoiled, though. Plus, his seeming lack of caring when his mother died, while it might have something to do with his way of dealing with the trauma, is off-putting.

There's nothing bad, per say, about Cash, but there are some areas of his personality that are worrying. I feel like Cash has tried to replace his unfortunate family life with work. He works even when he's injured, and that kind of causes me to worry about both his physical and emotional health. I guess it's good that he's so incredibly hardworking but the fact that he puts himself at risk is an unfortunate result.

Dewey Dell worries me as well. It's not really her fault, and we talked a little in class about her lack of general sex ed and role models, but I have no idea what how she's going to end up what with her being pregnant and all. I guess I need to hear more from her point of view to get a better read on her, but so far, even though I don't dislike her, she is not one that I can relate to.

Now we get to Darl, who on one hand is kind of my favorite and on the other is a douchebag. Darl is mentioned to be queer and strange and kinda freaky, which I find almost endearing. We also see from Cora that he is a 'sweetheart' and cares about his mother. However, we only see that from Cora's point of view and, as such, don't know whether that is an accurate depiction of him. Additionally, him being seemingly omnipotent is pretty cool but also extremely creepy. Why does Darl get to know everything that's going on? Also, why is he so rude about it? He is very unsympathetic towards both Dewey Dell and Jewel, and I feel like he should be able to handle himself better.

I left Vardaman for last because he's the youngest and I honestly have no idea what's up with him. Honestly, I said early that I like Jewel the most in this novel, but Vardaman is the one I sympathize with (for?) the most. He's just a young child with a family practically set on self-destruction. His life had been in shambles from the start and now it seems to be falling down and he has no idea what to make of it. Vardaman needs the most support right now, and absolutely no one is giving it to him. Honestly, we see more interaction between the him and the Tulls than we do with his own family. Vardaman always runs off and is without supervision; I'm pretty sure there were multiple occasions in the novel where he could have gotten lost or killed and no one would've really even noticed. He's also dead set that his mother is a fish, which is really weird.

Basically, this family needs help and I'd be extremely worried about what a a psych evaluation of this family would result in.

The Addie Conundrum

We are pretty well into the book As I lay Dying, and we have had a good bit of insight into the lives of the Bundren family. Halfway into the book I thought that I was beginning to understand the family dynamics there, but then Addie's chapter was introduced (even though she's dead...) and I am so confused.

At the beginning of the novel, Addie was not dead yet but she did talk and was too weak to get out of bed. We saw that Cora and others were not very fond of Anse Bundren, Addie's husband, but Cora was Addie's friend so I had no reason to think much of Addie. Instead, my focus was on how Anse couldn't seem to do much of anything right. I also focused on how the children were all kind of weird in their own ways, but I chalked that up to the time period and dealing with their mother being on her deathbed. I figured that, since Anse seemed to be an incapable person in general, let alone as a father, that Addie must have been a great mother and the person to balance out Anse's incapabilities. 

But Addie's chapter (starting on p. 169 in my edition) wiped that theory out of the water.

Addie only married Anse because in that time period the socially acceptable thing was to do was get married and Anse was there. She never loved him, either. She said that Anse could use the word love, but she never would because words obscure reality. Addie had then had an affair with Whitfield, resulting in the birth of Jewel. She then had Dewey Dell with Anse to 'negate' Jewel. She had her last few children for Anse to make it up to him, even though he was never told about the affair or that Jewel wasn't his son. Then at the end of the chapter she said something about how, after she had Vardaman, she could die because she had done her duty. I don't know... it is all so confusing. Basically, Addie doesn't seem to be a good mother, she only has kid's because she's supposed to. I'm now going to have to reevaluate my understanding of the Bundren family.

Odysseus, Y U So Foolish?

[Title inspiration goes to Madeleine Nelson, with her Homer, y u so sad? Madeleine, at this moment I have no idea what your post is actually about because I saw your post title and I got this idea, but I'll read your post as soon as I finish this one.]

Odysseus is clearly supposed the hero of this story, but he does SO MANY STUPID THINGS. Like seriously, his life could be so much easier, and he could actually get home to his family like he claims to want.

But if he wants to get home to his family, why does he sleep with Calypso when she is finally letting him leave?
And why, when he is on King Alcinous' island, does he ask the bard to sing of the Trojan horse if he clearly can't control his emotions?

At this point of the epic, King Alcinous is finally like, "Dude, who the heck are you?" to Odysseus, and Odysseus tells his story, which brings up a lot more questions:

Why does Odysseus stay in the cyclops' cave for longer than necessary to grab some food? What did he think was going to happen, the huge cyclops would come back and invite the strangers who stole his food to a tea party? I don't think so. Well actually, I guess maybe he did expect a tea party since that's how the other kings had treated him, but in this situation Odysseus took advantage of the cyclops in a similar way to how the suitors were taking advantage of his family. Seriously, what was going through Odysseus' head?
AND THEN ODYSSEUS GETS ON THE BOAT AND TAUNTS THE CYCLOPS?! Are you kidding me Odysseus? Your 20 year journey is completely your fault. Seriously the whole thing could have been avoided.

And what was the deal with Odysseus and Circe? He legitimately just was like, "Nope, I'm not going home yet, even though I can, instead I'll just stay here for a year and live in luxury and bed this super hot wicca babe, no matter that I have a wife and child at home waiting for me." He's a king, so I guess his subjects were waiting for him too. I really do not understand Odysseus at this point.

In book 12, Odysseus continued with the trend of foolishness; he wanted to listen to the sirens song just so that he could be the only one to have heard it and survive, and then he went and tried to fight Scylla even though he was told not to?

I really have no idea what to think of Odysseus at this point -- actually, I do, but it's definitely not that he's a hero. I don't see him as a hero at all so far, and I can only hope that he will be a dynamic character and have some legitimate hero moments later on because so far I am not impressed by him.

My Mommy Taught Me Stranger Danger

In class right now we are reading The Odyssey, and a common theme that keeps popping up is hospitality. In books three and four, King Nestor at Pylos and then King Menelaus welcome Telemachus into their homes and feed him and help him, a complete stranger, as much as they can. This also happens to Odysseus in book six and seven. First, Princess Nausicaa gave him clothes even though he was just a random naked dude who washed up on the beach. Then in the next book her parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete, end up welcoming a random stranger, who just appeared out of nowhere might I add, to their feast. They then offer up their daughter for marriage without knowing anything about this dude -- not even his name. Still ignorant of the name of this complete stranger, they offer him a boat and other such things of value.

That's just kinda weird.

I don't know if that's how people actually were in Ancient Greece or if it's just a theme shown throughout the book to emphasize the way the swaggering suitors are being rude and taking advantage of Odysseus and Telemachus' home and valuables. Either way, this would not at all happen in current times. Nowadays, we are incredibly cautious and if I ran into a naked dude at the beach I would probably be really creeped out. If he asked for my help I'd give him a sweatshirt if he asked while calling the police so they could help him or be able to track my phone if he tried to kill me or something. And lets be honest here, if some random dude just appeared during dinner, I'd probably pull a Rapunzel and hit him over the head with a frying pan.

No Reality Allowed

In class the other day, we engaged in a rousing conversation (well, others engaged, I listened intently) about what our reactions would be if Batman was real. Besides the fact that I don't usually get to discuss my DC and Marvel interests during class time (with permission) it was a really eye opening experience for one main reason:

I realized that if I were to walk down the street and come across Batman or Superman or Spider-Man or Captain America or, oh god, the Hulk, I would freak the fuck out.

I don't mean freak out in that excited fan-girlish way that we witness outside One Direction concerts, I mean I would want to run away screaming in panic and the only reason I wouldn't is that I knew the supposed hero had the potential to catch and snap me in half before I could make it to the next sidewalk square if they really wanted to. The thing is, while the idea of a superhero to help keep the streets clean is very appealing, the reality is much less so. Do you really want someone who seems to be extremely powerful, seemingly uncontrollable and untouchable, walking around? Especially if part of their powerful-ness is special magic-type shiz you've never seen or been introduced to before? Especially if their only weakness is something like Kryptonite, which you can't even get on this planet meaning you're most likely royally screwed? Oh, AND they like to wear tights around just for fun?

You'd think most people would be freaked out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing on superheroes or anything, they are one of my hidden addictions; I'm kinda in love with Steve Rogers (he becomes so much more bad-ass in Cap 2) and I have a not-so-hidden, not-so-healthy obsession with Harry Potter. The fact that I have read all of the books 20-30 times each, read and write HP fanfiction for fun, have a dedicated Harry Potter shelf in my room for the books, spin-offs, my wand and other HP artifacts, and also based my blog title off of it (thanks Hermione) should be enough proof of that. All I'm trying to say is that if any of the superheroes were to exist in real life we would not know their back stories, or what they do while not in overly-gaudy garb, or who broke their heart back in the seventh grade. The only thing we would be aware of was that they were strong and we were not and thus we would be defenseless in comparison. This may not be the best example, but think Syndrome from the Incredibles; for all we know the superhero could just as easily be evil. And then we would be out of luck. Which would be extremely unfortunate.

I know that isn't really fair to the superhero if all they were really tying to do was help us, but that's just how it is. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, the writers for all of these superhero books and movies and cartoons seem to know that the public would not be the most welcoming to them. In the Avengers, the Avengers are blamed by the media for the destruction of New York post-battle, despite the fact that they just saved the human race from an alien invasion. In Harry Potter, Harry suffers from the Daily Prophet dragging his name through the mud. In Spider-Man (the cartoons at least) the paper bashes him over and over again because they don't think him being a vigilante in that way is good. That also happens in one of the newer Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield (whom I love, by the way) except I know the police have a lot to say about him and not so much the newspaper. I can't think of any specific other examples off the top of my head at the moment, but it is is a very common theme because it is human nature to be wary of those who are not the same as us.

Alas, I guess that although in my head having superheroes around would be super cool, the reality of the situation would not be nearly so pleasant.