Coming to Age

“Dolly,” by Alice Munro is a snippet into a life, but it barely is that.  What it does provide is a humanistic view of how we react in certain situations.  Munro is able to accomplish this by writing this story with very little background as to who the characters are. 

“He is in fact a poet.  He is really a poet and really a horse trainer…  He doesn’t stress the poetic employment…I call it his aw-shucks persona- but I can see the point. When you’re busy with horses people can see that you are busy, but when you’re busy at making up a poem you look as if you’re in a state of idleness and you feel a little strange of embarrassed having to explain what’s going on.”

This simple passage is so very telling and completely relatable for me as a writer.  I understand this need to be something else as well as a writer.  Saying you are writing is often not considered concrete work.  There is so much thought that goes into it, so much revision and reading and thinking. And often, as this passage states, just being in a state of idleness and thought.  This idea that people just see you in this state of not accomplishing something is so very true.  It may appear that Franklin has an “aw-shucks persona” but really there is a difficulty in admitting to being a writer, it is hard to actually own that.  There is always a question that I find with artists being able to own their art, that they have a grave difficulty saying that they are an artist, a musician, a poet.  There is an assumption that all of someone’s income needs to be made from this art if they are deemed to be accomplished.   

Munro does an excellent job of character description from this small reveal in the quoted text. This is the remarkable talent of a writer.  In this example, a twist on their own occupation.  I admire how much character description can be derived from these descriptors.  It is through telling the story rather than description that the reader is extract the personalities of character. 

“Dolly” by Alice Munro, centers around perceptions. Particularly, the narrator’s perceptions of her partner Franklin and of his life before she became a part of it. Dolly, the character also known as Gwen, was a big part of Franklin’s life before the war, and continues to be an abstract fixture in his life because she is the subject of the poem that Franklin is most known for. In this story, one symbol that I found really fascinating are the dusty jars that Gwen/Dolly finds in an upper cupboard, and washes so that they sparkle. I think the jar’s work as a representation of how the narrator perceives herself and Gwen/Dolly, especially the Dolly that exists in memory.

Franklin’s memories of Dolly give the impression that she is (or was) a mystical, magical, “enthralling” person. For example, she believes she can prevent pregnancy by wearing a lock of her dead sister’s hair in a locket, and she gives Franklin a “magic tooth” (243) to keep him safe in the war. The way that the narrator describes these memories of Franklin’s about Dolly, it is clear that the eccentric or supernatural beliefs of Dolly’s have become only more magical with time. If those facets of her personhood were attention grabbing before, now through the transformation of memory, they sparkle and shine like the jars she has washed. Memory often transforms things into better versions of themselves, rose-colored-glasses, as they say. The narrator perceives that Franklin must desire Gwen/Dolly, as if she is the sparkling washed version of the jar. She perceives herself as the old, dusty jars that were important enough to keep, but have long since been forgotten. When the narrator has returned to her home with Franklin, they put the jars away together. She realizes that Franklin has chosen her, and that any perceived notion of desire for Dolly gets put away too.

“That fall there had been some discussion of death. Our deaths. Franklin being eighty-three years old and myself seventy-one at the time we had naturally made plans for our funerals (none) and for the (Immediate) in a plot already purchased … It was just the act of dying that had been left out or up to chance.” (Munroe, 342) 

The idea that someone would take time out of their life to plan for the absence of their life seems preposterous to me. It seems that there is not nearly enough time to live life to its fullest as it is, let alone planning for one’s own death. Death is such an unpredictable event that it seems almost impossible to “plan” for in the right way. That being said death seems to be one of the only promises life makes. The narrator accepts the truth of death in such a matter of fact way. When she thinks “that fall there had been some discussion of death.” She says it in such a casual manner that one would think she is talking about something as simple as what dress she should wear to a party. However, this casual sentence contrasts to the emphasis placed on the pithy next sentence stating that it was “Our deaths.” The narrator was discussing. This sentence structure makes sense because the concept of death can be discussed casually more easily than the idea of one’s own death. However,  the narrator continues to go on talking about planning her husband’s death in such a casual manner, she even calls it “natural” to plan for one’s death. Although she does acknowledge the unpredictableness of death when she thinks “ It was just the act of dying that had been left out or up to chance.” 

In America death is a taboo, it is not something that we are told to plan for as a child in the same ways that some of us plan for big life events like weddings as children. As a culture it seems that we are deeply afraid of death, we don’t want to acknowledge something that has taken so many of our loved ones from us and will continue to do so. We don’t want to acknowledge something that we know so little about. 

“The thing was, he would do what I asked. I wouldn’t, in his place. I would rip it open, no matter what promises had been made. He’d obey. What a mix of rage and admiration I could feel, at  his being willing to do that. It went back through our whole life together” (254). 

I chose to look at this quote because I think promises are a consistent theme throughout this piece. We see some explicit references to promises regarding Dolly/Gwen, and some related references to commitment and dedication in relationships. 

The first time we see someone make a promise in this story is with Dolly (who we only know as Gwen at this point) making a promise to the narrator that she will drop off the lotion that will “restore [the narrator’s] youth” (239). This promise immediately struck me as shady–the idea that you would give your money to a complete stranger with the “promise” that they will return with what you have paid for seems absurd to me. Dolly, however, follows through on her promise, and the narrator is as surprised as I was reading this story. The narrator and Dolly cultivate a kind of bond here, with the narrator giving Dolly her copy of Wild Geese, and Dolly promising to read it, “no matter what” (240). Once again, the narrator gives Dolly, still almost a stranger, something she does not hope to get back, and Dolly promises to follow through in some way. Promises, between any two people, are deeply connecting–they hold an understanding of commitment, and an ability to see what is important to both people. 

Dolly precedes her promise to read Wild Geese by telling the narrator “she didn’t know when she had ever read a book through because of being so busy” (241). She uses this language of business similarly when talking about her relationship with Franklin, the narrator’s partner: “He might have written her a letter or two, but she was just too busy for letters” (243). This statement indicates a broken promise, a broken commitment, in which Franklin had the desire and time to write to Dolly, but Dolly’s business becomes a way out of the commitment. This statement creates a clear contrast between Dolly’s relationship to Franklin and her relationship to the narrator, where her business does not (yet, at least) excuse her out of the promise, but strengthens the promise. Dolly is not going to read the book if she has time for it, but is going to read it despite not having time for it, where she did not write back to Franklin despite not having time to do so. Franklin, though, had maintained a commitment to Dolly in writing her letters, even maintaining some dedication by writing poetry about her. Thus we have a tricky triangle of relationships between the three: the narrator and Franklin, who is not technically her husband but has been her partner for a long time and shares a promise (if unspoken) with her that they will continue to be partners until they die; the narrator and Dolly, who are oddly bonded by Dolly’s promises despite being practical strangers to one another; and Franklin and Dolly, who were estranged by Dolly’s inability (lack of desire?) to keep up with Franklin’s commitment to their relationship. It seems that the narrator holds more power in this triangle than she thinks she does, with Franklin having long held his promises to her, and Dolly showing a desire to be her friend. Franklin and Dolly, though affectionately excited to see one another, do not seem to waiver in their individual commitments to the narrator. 

The narrator is hurt at a perceived breaking of a promise by Franklin–she acknowledges herself that the “deception” that was “unbearable” to her was “perhaps…self-deception” (247). This imagined broken promise the narrator knows to be potentially non-existent. But because her promise to Franklin is still strong (“there could be no thought in my head of any man but Franklin, ever”), even the thought of a broken promise is enough to be hurt (249). 

This last passage is important, then, because the narrator reaffirms to herself that her fear of Franklin breaking promises is not in line with the reality of their relationship–Franklin keeps promises, especially to the narrator. 

By Lila Goehring

“As the shops and their signs were an insult, and the noise of the cars with their stops and starts. Everywhere the proclaiming, this is life. As if we needed it, more of life” (Munro 248).

Anyone who has ever experienced heartbreak, sadness, jealousy, or serious anger can understand the feeling that cheeriness and signs of life as normal are insulting, even a sign of betrayal. The fact that the world may not match our emotions can feel isolating and lonely, and it is clear that our main character is experiencing this during her brief escape from her own life. 

In this moment, the narrator has fled her own life (perhaps for good) after some unsettling and upsetting events surrounding a visitor, Gwen, and her husband, Franklin. For a brief time in which she considers never coming back, the narrator’s life is flipped upside down. In the world of her own mind, nothing is okay, and nothing is ordinary. So, it is completely understandable that even after escaping to a different town, the world is not acting as if there’s anything wrong. It reminds me of the chorus of a Louvin Brothers song, “My Baby’s Gone”: 

The milkman whistles softly as he comes up to my door

The mailman brings the letters by just like he did before

They seem so busy all day long as though there’s nothing wrong

Don’t they know the world has ended, my baby’s gone

This scene is not the first time that cheeriness/positivity have had a negative effect on our narrator: when Gwen first appears in her life and needs a place to stay, the narrator is worried that Franklin will be quiet as Gwen talks all evening or retreat to another room (which would also be her fault, as she worries). Instead, Franklin is talkative and cheery, which disheartens our narrator. Like in the highlighted passage, this cheer feels like betrayal; it is not the same cheer he shows his wife. 

Lastly, the idea of too much “life” is relevant to this story: early on, when thinking about death, the narrator wishes for liveliness in her life, even if that means in the form of an argument (which she calls “too polite” to be exciting). It is true that this strange turn of events involving Gwen has given the narrator’s life excitement, but it is so much that she feels the need to get away. Therefore, the “life” she witnesses in this place surely does not bring her joy.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/digital-reading-driven-by-older-women-study-claims

Flood, Allison. “Digital Reading Driven by Older Women, Study Claims,” The Guardian, Guardian News & Media Limited. 15 April 3016, Accessed 18 April 2020.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/people-age-65-and-older-more-likely-than-younger-people-to-read-for-personal-interest.htm

“People Age 65 and Older Are More Likely to Read for Personal Interest,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C. March 05 2018.  Accessed April 18 2020.

Part 2: The general reading habits of Americans

“Part 2: The General Reading Habits of All Americans,” Pew Research Center, April 4, 2012.  Accessed April 18, 2020.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080b/0360127870130608?journalCode=uedg20

Scales, Alice M. and Briggs, Shirley M. Educational Gerontology. Informia U.K. Lima. 14 July 1987. Accessed 18 April, 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2014/01/most-likely-person-read-book-college-educated-black-woman/357091/

Bump, Philip. “The Most Likely Person to Read a Book? The College Educated Black Woman.” The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group. 16 January 2014. Accessed 18 April 2020.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/29/leisure-reading-in-the-u-s-is-at-nan-all-time-low/

Ignerman, Christopher. “Leisure Reading in the U.S. Is at an All Time Low.” The Washington Post. 29 June 2018. Accessed 18 April 2020.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/why-we-dont-read-revisited

Crain, Caleb. “Why We Don’t Read, Revisited.” The New Yorker. Conde Nast. 14 June 2018. Accessed 18 April 2020.

Caleb Crain, “why we don’t read, revisited,” the New Yorker, comes nast, June 14, 2018, accessed April 18, 2020.

https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/books/2011/06/26/the-great-gender-divide-on-reading-habits

Lin, Rowan and Yew, Geoffrey. “The Great Gender Divide on Reading Habits. The Star. Star Media Group. 26 June 2011. Accessed 18 April 2020.

Rowan Lin and Geoffrey yew, “the great gender decide on reading habits,” the star, star media group be hard, 26 jun 2011, acsessed 18 April 3030.

• E-book use is dominated by older women
• People 65 and older are most likely to read for pleasure
• College-educated black women are the most likely whole to read books
• Leisure reading is declining in America
• Games and computers are taking priority over reading

What do you read for fun? Fiction or non-fiction?

Do you use E-Books?

What is your highest level of education?

Do you participate in any book clubs? Why or why not?

Where/how do you shop for books? How do you find recommendations for a new book?

How have your reading habits changed since the Shelter-in-Place?

What were your favorite books as a child?

Besides books, do you read much news, research articles or other works?

Do you have any observations about how writing has changed or not?

For my final project, I am interested in interviewing old women of different education levels about how much they read of each hendre. I will also ask what they read as kids, what they think of e-books, and how their reading habits have changed since the quarantine.

I am interested in this idea because elderly women are often ignored in the literary landscape—book recommendations always seem to be based of off what Millenials are reading

and reading is a crucial activity in culture right now. I am interested in expanding who we think of when it comes to reading habits. I will start by interviewing my grandmother and finding interview subjects through her. I may also research English professors online.

While researching, I have noticed that older people are seen as less trusting when it comes to reccomedians, and less likely to have good taste. I think it’s a good goal to change whose opinions we most trust.

Admissions in The Liar’s Wife

(this response was, unfortunately, written for the wrong text, which has the same title as the one we were assigned. The author of the text I read and responded to is Samantha Hayes). Ruth gave me permission to post this response even though it was for the wrong text)

            My first sense that Ella is hiding something from herself comes when she finally divulges why she is working so hard to avoid interacting socially with her coworkers. The reason is that she fears revealing details about herself. Specifically, things she isn’t willing to ‘admit’ (page 5 of ebook). The word admit, caught my attention. In this case, it reveals a lot about Ella. She says that conversations away from work would inevitably become personal, and about her. In regards to discussing herself she then says, “And there simply isn’t anything to tell. Not that I’m willing to admit, anyway” (5). This choice of word indicated to me that Ella, undoubtedly, is ashamed of her past. Consider for a moment if admit was replaced with something else, for instance the word ‘share’. If there was nothing Ella was willing to share then the underlying message could be that she is a private person. Perhaps she has a rule not to share personal details with coworkers. But, that is not the case. The word used is admit, which by definition, includes reluctance. It indicated that Ella knows she has done something wrong, something to be ashamed of. I think the choice of the word ‘admit’ serves as possibly the earliest indication that Ella is hiding something not just from her coworkers, but also from herself.

            The idea that Ella is not only hiding from her coworkers, but also from herself, is supported when one considers her chosen method for avoidance. She chooses to be reclusive, to stay home night after night. I found myself asking, why doesn’t she just lie? If she wanted to go out, and it does seem that deep down some tiny part of her would like to be more social with her coworkers, then couldn’t she lie, fib, make something up? This doesn’t even seem to occur to her. I think the reason behind this is because to make up an untruth, internally one must acknowledge that there is a truth that is being covered up. Some people make up lies and disseminate them until their own reality has shifted to accommodate. Ella seems to deal with things differently. It is as if she has decided to completely ignore whatever it is she feels ashamed of. Rather than lie about it and acknowledge it on some level, she appears to conduct herself in such a way that she just pretends her shame doesn’t exist.

Being an online student these past few weeks has been undeniably challenging. I have greatly missed interacting with everyone in person, but seeing everyone on screen was really delightful. I couldn’t help but giggle. Perhaps they were giggles bubbling up from feeling awkward after seeing myself, a digital image on my screen attending class. Surely they came from seeing some of my classmates giggling too. I greatly enjoyed seeing the seniors join our Zoom meeting too and was curious to know how they felt about participating in an online meeting. I would have really liked to hear more about how they’re doing, or any words they wanted to share in general. Even in an online meeting though, I could feel a sparkling energy exuberating between all of us as we gathered virtually to discuss “The Balm Yard” by Patricia Powell. To my surprise, Patricia is a professor at Mills! I only wish I had gotten acquainted with her sooner, because I very much enjoyed the chapter that she shared with us and I bet I would have really fancied taking a class of hers. 

I was particularly drawn in by the characters of this story, as well as their history and future. I really appreciated the attention to detail that Patricia brought to this chapter regarding spirituality and all of the many ways in which it manifests for everyone, even Dorothea who wanted no part in it whatsoever. As someone mentioned in the discussion, I was struck by how Dorothea’s reactions and defiance against her mother rendered like that of a teenager going against the advice or guidance of a parent. I wonder if this is because Dorothea left home many decades prior and is in some way unpausing the relationship that she had been establishing with her mother. 

Additionally, I love the messages woven through this piece including the very true sentiment that it is never too late to learn about and get spiritually in touch with yourself. Another message being that as much as we try to run away from our roots and the core of who we are, it is always with us in one way or another. It brings to mind this quote that I learned in meditation which I have recently been ruminating on which says, “Wherever you go, there you are”. I am greatly interested in reading the remainder of the story to continue along with Patricia’s beautiful creation. 

Even though I sometimes feel strange being in these online settings, I am truly looking forward to our next, and sadly final meeting with the seniors. This class has opened my eyes in more ways than one and I hope that I will be able to express my gratitude in my final project. 

by Elizabeth Rangel

I had a nice time in class last Monday, it had been a while since I had seen many of my classmates and seeing everyone’s faces again was a nice surprise. I was not looking forward to being online for almost two hours because I find it difficult to concentrate in my classes when they are online but I did not find it as difficult as I first thought it would be.

I found Patricia Powell’s “The Balm Yard” to be a page turner and I sped through the chapter because I was so enthralled in the narrative. I found the chapter Powell provided us with far too short and I am  ready for the rest! I think I the mother-daughter relationship had a profound impact on me because the characters were written well, each with their own complexities. I think it is easy for the readers to connect with Dorothea and her mother, it was for me, and I credit that to Powell’s writing.  I thought the aspect of dreaming in the narrative  was very interesting and I am really intrigued  to see how it would pan out in an entire novel. I would like to have had a full grasp on why Dorothea struggles with spirituality, while the chapter delves into it slightly, it is difficult to fully form an understanding from a chunk of a novel.

Nevertheless, the concept of an entire  community being interconnected in such way that they can understand not only themselves but predict and prepare for Dorothea is mind boggling! I hope to read more soon!

Ultimately, I had a great time in class on Monday. As I said previously, seeing everyone in class again was something I did not know I needed. It  was nice to have a little bit of normalcy.