Monthly Archives: September 2012

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An end to Bone

The main conflict in Bastard out of Carolina was man vs. man. The climax of the story happened the night Daddy Glen decided to rape Bone in the hospital parking lot. This is where the story took a turn for the worst. After this all you read  about is the downfall of Bone and her emotions and everything that she has to go through, which is when the conflict also turns into man vs. self. The conflict in this book is never revolved. At the end of the book Bone gets beat and raped very badly by Glen. Her mother walks in and finds her and takes her to the hospital. After that you see Bone and her mother “trying” to work things out. But at the end of the story Bone’s mother just decides to go back to Glen even after all that he did to Bone.

Bone also changed throughout this book drastically. In the beginning she was just a normal little girl doing things that a little girl would do . But after Daddy Glen rapes her she starts to become hard inside. Her whole attitude and personality change. She becomes meaner and her face becomes harder and angrier. She closes her self off to people and to the world. She doesn’t want to allow anyone in because she just knows they’ll disappoint her. When the rapping’s start Bone also just lets them happened and she doesn’t yell or try to get away. This continues throughout the book until the last rape scene. At this point Bone just doesn’t care anymore and she decides that she is going to try and fight. When Daddy Glen is attacking her she talks back to him, she stabs him with  a knife and she trys to yell to get someone’s attention. At the end I think Bone learned that she has to stand up for herself and she has to move on and start a new life. She also learned not to expect much from people and that life is going to disappoint her. (Not a very good discovery I might add). The one thing I was surprised about at the end was that Bone’s mother goes back to Daddy Glen. Actually I can’t say I was surprised but I am just disappointed that the mother would do that to her own daughter. What kind of mother goes back to someone who beats, rapes and wants to kill her daughter.

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Conflict in Bastard out of Carolina

The conflict of the main character Bone in Bastard out of Carolina is man vs. man and man vs. self. Man vs. self would be that conflict that Bone has with herself. She thinks that she is worthless and that all the bad things that Daddy Glen does to her is her own fault. She also feels ashamed of what she does to herself (masturbating) and she feels ashamed because of what Daddy Glen does to her. Now this is another conflict all in itself. Daddy Glen vs. Bone would be a man vs. man conflict. Daddy Glen sexually abuses, rapes and hits Bone all the time. Bone never fights back she just lets it happen to herself, which connects to her man vs. self conflict. The book is mainly about how Bone is struggling and how she is afraid of Daddy Glen. She always wants to run away from him and stay out of his way when he’s home.

Unfortunately for Bone, I don’t see this conflict getting any better or being resolved. I feel like this book has no happy ending and that she is never going to tell anyone about what is happening to her. Because of this neither of these conflicts will get resolved. I would have to say that my favorite scene in the book so far is in Chapter 8 on page 108-109. During this scene Bone is explaining her fear of Daddy Glen and how it is getting stronger and stronger. This scene also ties in greatly with the man vs. man conflict. Bone explains how Glen takes advantage of her and acts like he’s angry but then he rapes her or sexually abuses her. Also she tries to explain or put a reasoning behind why Glen does these things to her when there really is no reason at all. I just like the descriptions and details Allison uses during this scene to show the terrible relationship between “father” and daughter.

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A walk in the woods…

During this “wisdom” walk I was able to find a place to start with.  I started in my favorite scene in nature, I was sitting in the middle of the woods on a dirt path, the sun was shining brightly and warming my skin ever so much. It was clean in the woods, there was no one around, the trees stretched to the skies but the light still shown through them, and there was a little creek with water running downstream to the side.  As I went on my walk in the woods I did indeed find a talking tree. It was extremely tall and had a large round base. It looked like the tree from the movie Pochohantus. It had wrinkles in on it and was light gray in color; it looked like it had been around for hundreds of years. The tree didn’t have anything to say to me, the minute you mentioned a talking tree my mind shut down and thought this is stupid, trees don’t talk to people. So at this point I just looked at the tree and didn’t imagine it telling me anything. As I kept walking there was a doorway with many doors. I opened the first door and to no surprise there was a king sized bed inside. (Clearly you can see where my mind was).  There was a squirrel inside too and the room had dirt walls. The bed was made of gold and had red sheets and a white comforter. It looked like somewhere Whinnie the Pooh would live. When I tried to walk into the room something kept pushing me back and telling me I wasn’t allowed in there. Maybe it was the talking tree? So soon after I decided to leave and walk back to my original spot which was so peaceful and relaxing, I think I’ll visit there more often.

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Meditation Experience…

On a day like today when i’m running on 5 hours of sleep I would rate the meditation experience at a solid 9 out of 10. I thought it would be harder to concentrate and stop my mind from roaming around but I guess I was so tired it decided to take a break. Sure my mind wandered a little but I was so close to falling asleep that I jumped up when Professor started talking again. This meditation was almost like a small power nap. Thinking back though it felt a lot longer then it actually was but yet it felt short at the same time. It seems like so much time has passed, but on the other hand I wish it could have been longer. My mind felt relaxed and at peace, like if I had the chance I could have fallen into a deep sleep. One interesting thing I realized was that once Professor told us to slowly start coming back I can’t remember anything I was thinking about in those 10 minutes, it’s almost like it never really happened.

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Meditation is…

Meditation is a way to relax your body and come at peace with the world and yourself. It’s a way to connect your body to the world almost like you are in a trance or state. I’m pretty sure that’s how hypnotists control people; they bring them into a state of meditation or relaxation. Meditation is also a way to calm your nerves and to not think about your problems for a while. It’s supposed to be a break from reality so that your body and mind can relax and come together as one. What are you suppose to meditate on though, I don’t understand? You can’t just think about nothing and expect your mind not to wander off. But maybe that’s what meditation is…just thinking about nothing for long periods of time.

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When I think of Meditation…

When I think of Meditation  I think of peace and comfort. It reminds me of many different things from yoga to Buddhism to sleeping. If you think back to your K-12 years in school gym class and they tell you to meditate you always think of that time as the chance to relax and sleep. Meditation is somewhat taken as a joke in this case, which I seem to think it is anyway. It is almost impossible, for me at least, to completely clear my mind and focus on nothing. There are way to many distractions, way to many things to do, and frankly not enough time in the day. Why would I meditate when I can just sleep? Meditation also reminds me of Buddhism. Although I’m not too sure why, but I’m pretty sure they do that in their religion. Gandhi meditated as did other spiritual leaders, that’s where they claimed their answers from a higher power came. In fact I could probably use some meditation right now. I wonder if it if actually works. Is there a way where you can almost shut down your body and actually feel peace? I guess I’ll have to find out… 

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Bastard out of Carolina

Bastard out of Carolina is a book about an illegitimate child who is born in South Carolina in the 1950’s.  At this point that is really as much as I know. After reading the first 64 pages of the books there’s really not all that to much to summarize. There were a few major plot points that shaped the story. For example, the Mom Anney, has the first illegitimate child and just 15 years old! The state labels the child, Ruth Anne also know as Bone, as a Bastard of the state of South Carolina. You can tell that during this time period is was frowned upon to have a child out of wedlock, and many people would label you for it. The story continues and you find out that the Mom gets married to a boy named Lyle around age 19. Soon after they have a child named Reese and then Lyle dies in a car accident. The Mom is all shaken up and she thinks that she will never love again but eventually after a couple years and many desperate attempts by a man named Glen, the  two date and get married. Now here is where the story picks up a little bit. Glen gets Anney pregnant and when she is in labor in the delivery room, Glen goes out to the car to check on the other two children, Reese and Bone. While he is there he keeps saying “Your mamma is gonna be alright”. At this point he picks Bone up and rapes her right in the front seat of the car. Bone is confused by what is happening and is put back to sleep shortly after. This is about all that happens in these 64 pages. I can’t say I like the book, but I also can not say that I hate it. I will say though that I do not like the way in which the story is being told. The story is told through the character Bone, but I am not a fan of the descriptions that are used throughout. It almost seems like there are to many details at some points. There’s only so many ways you can describe one scene before it’s time to move on. Also, the book doesn’t have a lot of plot points. Sure some stuff goes on here and there but while your waiting for something to happen you almost get bored. I understand that the story is told in memories and flashbacks but there are so many scenes that seem unimportant that don’t add anything to the stories plot.  Another thing that I don’t like is that the author of the novel never really sets a time line. As bone narrates the book she rarely says what the year is or how old anybody is. I am over 60 pages in to the book and I don’t know how old aby of the characters are? Now someone tell me something wrong with that. At the time of the rape you have no idea how old Bone is and that is a major fact in determining how bad of a crime this man committed. Yes, it is horrible to rape someone no matter how old they are but it would give you a different outlook on Glen if you found out that Bone was a child, a preteen or a teenager.  Although the story is lagging at this point, I am still hoping that it is going to get better. I feel like the rape scene was one of the climax points and that a story is going to build off of the family running away from Glen once everything unravels. 

One point that I can say that is good about the book is that when your mind does start to wander she throws another plot point at you, I just wish she would do it more often instead of spacing everything out so much. Also Allison does give you insight into the life of the family. It seems like you know almost everyone of their stories and what they do in their daily life. 

 

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What is Justice?

            Justice can be defined as many things to different people. Some people feel like they have been cheated out of Justice while others feel that they have experienced it. Justice can simply be described as being fair, reasonable and equal. Each and every person wishes that life could be fair, but in reality it ‘s actually not. Certain people get treated better then others and that’s just how life works. Justice is also written in the first lines of the constitution, “We the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, and provide for the common defense…” So what does that mean? Basically when the constitution was established the United States wanted to establish justice, meaning that they wanted everyone to be treated reasonably and fair. But if you think about it Justice really was never established! When they wrote this line, African Americans were still being used as slaves, women didn’t have rights, and a whole bunch of other things in America were screwed up too. Justice can also be seen in a courtroom during a trial. Is it really justice when the person who murdered someone gets off on a not guilty verdict because the police didn’t do something right? That murderer is still going to be out there and terrorizing people in the world. That doesn’t sound like justice to me. So is Justice really ever achievable? Is anything in life or our world actually fair? Is anyone in this world really considered equal?