Running in the family 62-101

Confusing is the only word i can use to describe this book so far. It may just be the state of mind im in, but i get very easily confused while reading this book. Ondaatje writes this book like a hyper active 5 year old who can not stay on topic. Every chapter starts off with a semingly
irrelevant memory with a loose tie to his family history toward the end.

At first he talkes about a map in his brothers house i think and how it is somehow related to his family leniage. I am still trying to figure out what the writing technique behind this book is. i suppose he is trying to tell his family's story and expose his own love for his native country through these stories. unlike the two previous memoirs weve read this book is focusing more on the past of people in his family rather than completely on his own past. to add to the confusing nature of the book randomly half way through the chapter he breaks into peoms, then back to the story, then back to peoms. Im really not sure what im supposed to take away from this book. although im lost and not a big fan of the book. I did find the last story rather interesting when he describes killing the rattle snakes with the shotgun. Then about the confrontation between his family and the insurgents. So all in all this book is a confusing colection of irrelevant stories that i hope eventually come up with a common theme, but some of the stories do capture my interest for the brief 2 or 3 pages they cover.

Running in the family 17-60

Another confusing start. This book like both the previous, started out very difficult to understand, although not for the same reasons as The liars Club or Fathers Sons & Brothers.
unlike these books Running in the Family does not switch time frames rapidly. actually it seems like its starting to follow a pattern. He starts out talking about his grandparents at first and then transitioned into a little about his father toward the end of the reading. While unlike the other books in that aspect. It is similar in that the author is quite descriptive. He uses this description to tell about his grandparents and parents background. Overall i am not yet sure about this book. I guess i will have to read more to make a complete assesment of the book.

900 word FSB

In the book Fathers Sons & Brothers, Brett Lott writes about events and memories that have shaped his life. Unlike typical books Lott not only writes about what happened but he also describes what he was thinking. This strategy of basically analyzing his own writing helps us as the readers comprehend why Lott chooses the stories that are included in his book. Throughout the book Lott’s analytical writing is just as important to the lesson behind the book as are the events he shares.

I think this is strategy important because it helps the reader understand what Lott wants one to take away from his book. Unlike many of the books we have read in the past which are filled with happy, sad, or horrifying stories that are filled with blatantly obvious lessons or themes. In Fathers Sons & Brothers the book is compiled of a collection of essays that seem to have a very loose connection to one and other. As you read on you discover though, that there are many hidden similarities throughout these essays. These similarities include the theme of Lott connecting events from his childhood to those of his children as they grow up and mature. While it is obvious that these events are not actually connected, seeing as they took place years decades apart, but he connects these events through his thoughts about them. This is where the analytical aspect of Lott’s writing comes into play. Lott had the challenge of creating meaning out of his collections of essays he had compiled from past memories. The title of this book, Fathers Sons & Brothers hints as to what the main theme of the book is going to be but still the first few essay are very confusing due to the order of events. Throughout the essays Lott tells the stories in a manner in which it seems like he is trying to create a lesson out of it but cannot get across his point in words. This is shown very clearly in a strong sentence at the end of the "Brothers" essay.

Lott writes, “What I believe is this: That pinch was entry into our childhood; my arm around him, our smiling, is proof of us two surfacing, alive but not unscathed. And here are my own two boys, already embarked.” (32)

While this sentence seems to come from a lost and confused author, when put next to the context with the stories that were included in this essay it brings up a really strong feeling of Lott’s feelings regarding his childhood in connection with his children’s. The preceding stories were of the trials and tribulations Brett and his brother Brad had while growing up. Followed by how they grew out of this stage to become better friends and have more respect for one and other later on in life. Lott then cuts to a story of Zeb and Jake, Lott’s children, fighting and carrying on. The quote above is how Lott analyzed the situations he remembered. The quote basically says that by realizing his action toward his brother, and how there relationship flourished later in life Lott is beginning to notice many of the same qualities in his own children’s interactions.

While the central theme of Fathers Sons & Brothers is the relationships of Lott as a father, son, and brother. Not all the analyzing in this book has to do with this. Later on in the book many of these analytical portions turn into a blank canvas for Lott’s self reflection. While by definition self reflection and analyzing are not the same thing in Fathers Sons & Brothers the are used in much the same way. Like the analytical writing, the self reflection is used by Lott to give meaning to an event that may otherwise seem insignificant to anyone but Lott himself. A good essay to show this deep reflection is "Wadmalow". Indisputably one of the least connected essays of the book "Wadmalow" provides that canvas I described earlier. It is a chance for Lott to get away from his roles and focus more his personal feelings on some of his memories. Early on in "Wadmalow" it talks about how Brett is watching football on a Sunday and observing the behavior of his children. Throughout the progression of the essay Lott realizes how he is throwing his day away. This ideal is solidified by a quote at the end of the essay.

One of Lotts many reflections states, “A Sunday, a day of rest, in October on Wadmalow Island, a day dangerously close to having been lost to television and a rainy sky. Though she does not know it yet, the view from here is the most beautiful gift I can remember Melanie giving me,” (149).

In this reflection Lott describes the feelings he had after he resurrected that Sunday by driving to Wadmalow Island. He tells how although it seems as simple not wasting the day on the couch, it really opened his eyes to the realization that it was more than this Sunday, but more many parts throughout his life that he may have missed out on by partaking in frivolous activities.

Throughout the book Lott’s analytical writing is just as important to the lesson behind the book as are the events he shares. I think that this is a very beneficial tool for Lott to use. Not only for us as readers, but also for Lott himself to realize what significant point he wanted to get across to his audience. Overall Fathers, Sons & Brothers, was a difficult read due to the rapid and frequent change in tense and essays, but I think many readers will take many different lessons away from the book. This is greatly attributed to author Brett Lott’s innovative technique of analyzing his own writing to better explain his purpose.

300 word FSB

In the book Fathers Sons & Brothers, Brett Lott uses many very interesting writing techniques throughout the book. The one strategy I chose to expand on was Lott’s analytical writing technique. Unlike typical books Lott not only writes about what happened but he also describes what he was thinking. This strategy of basically analyzing his own writing helps us as the readers comprehend why Lott chooses the stories that are included in his book. I think this is important because unlike The Liars Club that we read earlier, Fathers sons & Brothers includes stories that are less substantial in the context that is included. I think Lott uses this analytical technique along side his stories to get across what he wants you to get from the story. I think this is an interesting strategy for a book mostly because he doesn’t always use the core events in his story to teach a lesson more-so he uses his own thoughts and opinions on these events.

This is shown very clearly in a strong sentence at the end of the Brothers essay, “What I believe is this: That pinch was entry into our childhood; my arm around him, our smiling, is proof of us two surfacing, alive but not unscathed. And here are my own two boys, already embarked”. Lott uses these thoughts to describe his feelings on the similarities between his relationship with his brother, and the relationship between his two children. This is one of many instances throughout the book where this technique is utilized to enhance the lessons behind these essays in the book. Analytically writing about his own experiences, while an unusual techniques it enhances the story and helps not only the readers, but I feel it also helps Lott himself realize what needs to be taken away from his essays.

Thesis

Brett Lott uses an analytical tone in his writing in order in increase the readers insight into his thoughts.

Family Myths, and My Role in the Family

I can't think of any family myths at the moment so I'm going to start with my roll in my family. If i had to pick one role in my family it would be best described as short fused decision maker. Most people say i try to please everyone, which is very true, but not always in the same way. What i mean is that while in my family dynamic i do try to please everyone, but it takes a lot less time before i get fed up with indecision and just make a decision. While do this outside my family as well it is not nearly as evident as it is when I'm with my family. A common occurrence of this is when my family and I are trying to go out to dinner, but everyone wants something different. At first i attempt to please everyone by coming up with someplace that will fulfill all our wants (which commonly doesn't exist) or i try to pick someplace everyone can agree on for the time being. Despite my best efforts no magical restaurants appear and of course no one can agree on somewhere. The nest step is where my short fuse normally runs out. Now we are sitting there my sister is dead set on getting her way, my mom says she doesn't care, my dad is fed up with the argument and making threats to not go at all, and that leaves me. I truly don't care at this point, but i don't want to see my sister get her way mostly so i just get mad and yell out someplace and say that's what we're doing no arguing. Then most of the time we will all march, irritated to the car and go to where i mentioned. I think i do this cause of my distaste for stress. when the situation gets too stressful i find a quick remedy. This is not the best way to go about things, but it is always the easiest at the time and will typically result in the least punishment. This pattern of events occurs often in my family for almost any topic imaginable. I think some people see this as a good thing, because it gets things done. While others feel this is a shortcoming due to my irritated demeanor when i make these decisions.

I had a hard time coming up with a myth about my family, simply because i could not think of anything that involved the entirety of my family. As i thought about it more the myths i could come up with had to deal with my perception of people in my family. I think one of the biggest myths i remember is my perception of my grandpa as i was growing up. My grandpa passed away when i was only 2 years old, so i have no personal memories of him. The only solid information i knew about him when i was young was that he fought in WWII in and airborne division as a paratrooper. I always idealized this as a soldier jumping out of the airplane and fighting as soon as he hit the ground. It was years later over a grilled cheese sandwich lunch i discovered he was actually an engineer, and while he did jump out of planes it was his job to design and place airstrips, and the jumping was just a cost effective way to get him there. As a young boy this was kind of a let down since i had made my grandpa into somewhat of a warrior in my head. As i reached my later years i began to find out many ways in which my grandpa was not the hero i had once pictured. My dad is the youngest of three boys, and while the all enjoyed athletics, my grandpa was overly competitive as there coach and made sure that winning was the most important thing which did end up creating great athletes, as my dad was twice a state golden gloves champion and a center for Ohio University football, but it took the fun out of playing. He pressed these sort of misled views on my father later in life when it came to careers. Where again he told my dad money was the most important thing and shot down my dads aspirations to be a teacher and coach. among these shortcomings were also personal issues dealing with alcoholism and ill behavior toward my grandma. After learning of these things my warrior image of my grandpa faded into a much more realistic, less flattering feeling toward him. part of me wishes i could have held on to these mislead admiration's of my youth, but i also realize that this truth is very revealing toward things that i myself have lived through.

New 600 Word Post

Throughout the book The Liar’s Club author Mary Karr undoubtedly uses many writing techniques to gain reader interest and strengthen her points, but I think she cleverly uses more than one technique to discretely show her feelings about events that will come. I think Mary Karr cleverly combines foreshadowing and explicitly graphic description to implant her thoughts and fears from childhood atrocities that she experienced.

From the very first sentence of the story Karr uses detailed description to foreshadow multiple events later on in the story.

“He wore a yellow golf shirt unbuttoned so that sprouts of hair showed in a V shape on his chest. I had never seen him in anything but a white starched shirt and a gray tie. The changed unnerved me. He was pulling at the hem of my favorite nightgown” (3)

This image right away makes your mind wonder what is going on. Whether a defense reaction or inquisitiveness many people automatically assume this is an image of sexual assault. We quickly find out this is not what is happening at all, in fact the man described above is the family doctor and he is there to help Karr not to hurt her. This instance has nothing to do with sexual assault, but subconsciously you gather a feeling that Karr has experienced some event in her life that would make her describe the situation as she did. I feel the way she wrote this was intended to make you feel suspicious of the doctor and for the readers to question the intentions of the doctor in this situation.

To support my earlier claim of foreshadowing throughout the book, I bring up a disturbingly graphic situation played out in chapter three.

“It was going dark when he got hold of me under God knows what pretext. He took me into somebody’s garage. He unbuttoned my white shirt and told me I was getting breast” (65).

This is the first instance in the book where Mary Karr is actually sexually abused. This image is what I think Karr was foreshadowing in those first few sentences. You can draw many similarities between these two images, which show Karr was thinking of this instance when she earlier described the doctor. The first thing that sticks out to me is Karr’s sense of detachment. While it is obvious Karr knows the doctor in the first scene she never refers to him as his name, she always uses “he” or “his”. She again uses this technique later on in the book when describing the rape scene she calls him “the big boy” or simply uses “he” or “his” again. Now we find out she doesn’t know her attacker very well ,she must have drawn similarities between the rape and of the doctor attempting to examine her later on, because of her obvious detachment during the period of trauma. This shows that Karr uses the image of the doctor to foreshadow what will happen later in the book.

The most disturbing instance of foreshadowed sexual abuse shows up toward the end of the book. This again shows the detachment similarity shown in the last two quotes, but this image uses disturbingly graphic imagery, imagery that is to descriptive and vulgar for me to comfortably repeat on here, in order to create a culmination of Karr’s feelings on these assaults

“This whole scene rushing through my head when the babysitter’s zipper hits bottom. His hand fishes into that zipper and farther, into the shadow of his shorts” (243).

This quote alone portrays a deeply disturbing situation unfolding, and also the only image from this part that I was comfortable repeating publicly. This again shows Karr’s detachment and change of tone when she recalls these instances of abuse. This also uses Karr’s extensive description which quite honestly sickened me and deterred me from blogging about this particular issue, but in the end I decided this was defiantly a very important, but underlying issue throughout the book.

I think Mary Karr cleverly combines foreshadowing and explicitly graphic description to implant her thoughts and fears from childhood atrocities that she experienced. I have shown how the first few sentences of the book foreshadow an underlying theme throughout the entire book. Karr is undisputedly a master at implanting these themes within The Liar’s Club in order to foreshadow events that shaped her writing and her thoughts, but along with the foreshadowing she uses description to immerse the reader in the moment. Be it happy, sad, or quite frankly, disturbing, Karr unarguably has and many traumatic experiences that have shaped who she is and how she portrays that in her writings today.