After reading the second section of this book, I was shocked with the ups and downs that seemed to occur. There were happy moments and some not so happy. The story buids as if there will be great victory, only to drop victory right out of reach. At times this is very frustrating.
The author constantly is making me sympathize with Mattie. It seems more and more as if she'll never accomplish her dream of going to Barnard College. An example of this is when Mattie describes what hope is to her. She says, "It's the Eighth Deadly Sin. The one God left out. Hope," (114). At this point Mattie is feeling so down on her luck that she doesn't believe in believing. She feels that going to Barnard can't even be a dream anymore because she is so discouraged and sure that it is never going to happen. She feels like completely giving up. This must be an awful feeling and I am glad it's one I have not yet experienced. Although at this point it seems that Mattie is down and out, she does regain some confidence in her dream when her Uncle Fifty says he is going to give her some money for her train ride to college. When Mattie finds out that her uncle is headed for Utica and not back to her with the money she narrates, "I felt all the breath go out of me. I leaned my forehead against Daisy and squeezed my eyes closed," (171). Ones again the pain inside Mattie grows with more and more disappointment. I cannot help but sympathize with her and what she is going through. I know what it is like to be dissapointed, and its a miserable feeling. But I have never been disappointed to the extent that Mattie has been so far in the book and I can only imagine how that must feel.
On another note, I am frustrated with the author and her delay of talking more about the death of Grace Brown. She keeps reading the letters, but none have seem to have had any significant relation to her death. They only mention statements like, "Chester, do you miss me and have you thought about everything to-day?... I get so lonesome dear," (139). I just know that these letters are going to be significant to the story, and I am just hoping that Jennifer Donnely will get on with it and give us something in the letters to think about, instead of just a girl who repeatedly mentions how much she misses Chester.
I completely agree with your post on pages 98-192. I also felt heartborken for Mattie. I can't imagine what it's like to contantly get your hopes up and have them be crushed everytime. I also feel badly that her one dream, to go to Barnard, is appearing more and more to not be a possiblity. I got excited when she was going to talk to her aunt but then disappointed when it was obvious that her aunt strongly disapporived of her going to college. And I got even more excited when her uncle Fifty came. I thought this was finally Matties chance and her life was going to turn around after her visit. Instead, his part in the story became a nonclimactic let down. I find myself getting attatched to Mattie in the reading and I'm hoping the best for her. I believe she will somehow find a way to get to college.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I'm having the same frustration about the hotel and GRace Brown's death. I'm confused about how the author is setting up the story. I feel like im reaing to seperate books whenever it switches time periods. I want to read more about what happened to the poor girl and hear about the letters. I'm interested to figure out more and more about Grace Brown. I hope their is a lot more of her story to come in the book.
I can see where you are coming from in the second section of reading pages 98-192. When see first brings up that her aunt is more wealthy then her family, and she is going to ask for money from her in order to pay for her ticket to New York and school books. Honestly at the second when like she looked at Mattie and paused, I thought to myself o she thinks its a great idea! Yes! Then after a few lines, she begins to yell at her saying out bad of an idea it was and I was just heartbroken for Mattie. How many times will this girl get denied of her dreams is what I thought as I was reading this. I thought that the mentioning of hope was a good reference to this topic, and hope can apparently also be another sin as Mattie had said.
ReplyDeleteAlso, It is not only you wondering where this mystery of Grace Brown is going to be revealed, I too am wondering the same thing. I also dislike the constant switching between the two different time periods of the story, and I will say that I am not a fan of this. I don't know when the author will eventually speak more about the death of Grace Brown, but she better because she just keeps leading us toward it with little bits of information and the readers are getting eager to know.
I’m not accusing you of copying me or anything but I used the same quote about hope in my response. I found that particular one quite moving. Once that quote brought the theme of hope to my mind, I began noticing how the book often times compares the good and bad sides of hope. On one hand, it can keep someone motivated if they’re feeling down. On the other hand, false hope can be devastating to a person’s attitude. I think even though it can be devastating, the benefits of having hope outweigh the negative aspects. We need hope in our lives to keep us going, even in times of struggle. Yea, false hope may damage our self-esteem but without any hope at all, we wont have any self-esteem. I would also like to say that I think the author makes good use of delaying the Grace Brown murder mystery because it adds suspense. You can’t honestly say that you don’t want to read on and find out what happened to her. Jennifer Donnelly utilizes countless literary tools to keep the reader engaged and she truly is an outstanding writer. More books by Jennifer Donnelly may be found here:
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