This last section of the book was a banger filled with some surprises, and some victories. Some of the surprises that came with this ending section of the book were near the beginning of this reading. After having a week off of work, Mattie has to go back and she is spending her last day with Miss Wilcox and Royal Loomis, and before leaving "Well, here then,' Royal suddenly said. He held out a small square of tissue paper. It was folded over several times. There was something inside of it. I opened it and saw a dull gold ring" (298). So Royal asks to marry her. This is a surprise, but also it could be seen that it was going to happen soon. With the past incidents between the two of them in the book, things were heating up and Royal finally asked her. Mattie said yes to Royals request, and knew that this would kill her chances of going to Barnard. However this was not the only surprise that occurred in this section of the reading. I felt that this was even more surprising was that Miss Wilcox was leaving. A package had been sent to Mattie, but was unable to get to her when Miss Wilcox had sent it herself, in this package she also got several books and five dollars from her great teacher. "As I wish to leave you something by which to remember me. I am departing Eagle Bay tomorrow. I won't be teaching next year. I had hoped to tell you this in person, but Mrs. Morrison was unable to locate you" (305). This is the big shocker of the section, and Mattie is heartbroken so she leaves to go and speak with her in person back near home. Mattie proceeds to go to Miss Wilcox's house and finds out that she must leave or her husband with come get her, and although really not wanting her to leave Mattie accepts what is happening. I feel that the reason why she wants her to stay is because she is thinking that she is going to stay in her hometown when marrying Royal, because if she was going to Barnard then she would leave her anyway, but since she plans to stay she has to tell Miss Wilcox why she is so sad that she is leaving. Mattie even tells her teacher leaves her feeling good a brave about herself and she does not want her to leave because she will feel powerless.
Finally for what I would say is the victory of this final section, is that Mattie Gokey finally decides that she wants to go to college! After a long time of hard work, thinking, and discoveries, Mattie finally decides that she wants to go to Barnard. But its not a way that everyone knows where she is, she leaves early on in the morning and only tells one person, and that is Weaver. Weaver asks Mattie why he is going, and she replies "Because Grace Brown can't " (376). Because Grace Brown can no longer fulfill what she wants to do, Mattie says its for her. I think it is because it has been what she always wanted to do, and she snow going to be able to do it. So as she finally goes to the dream college that she was dreaming of, she abandons the life that she had as a farm girl, and gets ready for her future, and her new life.
I really liked how this book finished up, and I am glad that she finally got to do the things that she wanted to do, making all the hard work she put in worth something.
Hyperlink: Barnard College: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/HAR/ny_col_barnard01.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment