22; caucasia comes to a close
November 28, 2009
I have finished the book! I liked this story better than any other material we’ve read or viewed so far in the class. This huge section brings up a ton of things to talk about. I wanted to jot down a few things as I leaf through the pages and look at my notes.
1.) The fact that Birdie left in a drunk state; why did she do this? Did the alcohol give her the courage to do what she had decided she’d eventually do so long ago?
2.) Birdie consistently brings up things her father had said, views he held and had perpetually instilled in her, i.e. page 296 about the Boston T routes.
3.) The way she imagines situations playing out for her mother or other characters in the story: her mother’s reaction to her leaving on 306;a follow up to this imaginative story on 311; Cole grieving on 377; being killed on page 381…
4.) The differences in appearance between Deck and Dot on 308, just like the differences in appearance between Birdie and Cole were mentioned throughout the story.
5.) Sandy’s reaction to Birdie running away; her selfish outlook when she says, “Fuck you. Do you even realize what you’ve put me through, you little two-faced son-of-a-bitch…” “…It’s not just about you.” (318-319) I’m sorry, hypocrisy?? Two faced? PLEASE. Birdie knows her mother doesn’t need her, as shown on page 329. Jim and Sandy show up at the apartment, and Birdie gets in a fist fight in the street with her mother. What does Sandy NEED her for? I do not like Sandy at this point in the book. Birdie finally sticks up for herself on page 332 by saying, “My name’s not Jesse. It’s Birdie Lee.” Woohoo!
6.) The multiple views possessed by others who were close with Sandy about what she is running away from and if it’s a big deal or not (325, 389).
7.) “It’s funny. When you leave your home and wader really far, you always think, I want to go home. But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist.” -Dot, 315
I especially liked the above quote because of the fact that a lot of college students may feel this way. It reminds me of the death cab lyric “Home’s face, how it changes when you’re away.”
7.) “My grandmother had always loved me more than my sister. Or maybe it wasn’t me she loved, but rather my face, my skin, my hair, and my bones, because they resembled her own. It wasn’t a pure love, if such a thing existed. It was clear in her face every time she looked at us, every time she had reached out the stroke my hair. She believed that the face was a mirror of the soul. She believed, deep down, that the race my face reflected made me superior. Such a simple, comforting myth to live by.” (366)
8.) The intrigue of Deck’s Canaries in a Coal Mine theory- which I thought was over the top clever and witty.
9.) Other things bothered me, like when Birdie said she went to sleep at Dot’s at 10:30 and woke up a few hours later when the clock read 12? Not OK. And the fact that Taj is not even 4 yet and is in Kindergarten (it is March, meaning she’d have been in Kindergarten since she was 3;5). And the fact that, from a language development standpoint, it is improbable she could follow the complex multi-step directions that Dot gives her.
10.) But in the end, I am glad that the sisters were reuinted. I liked the scene in the coffee shop, and the section in which they exchanged stories and how they felt the past six years.
I’m gonna recommend this book no doubt.
