Adolescent Fiction: Annie on My Mind, first impression

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Annie on My Mind, first impression

I don't really enjoy this book right now. Broken record: it starting out slowly. However, we get a present-day view and then it goes back to fill us in, slowly on why Annie is in California and how Annie and Liza's relationship started. I am a fairly chronological person so this writing style annoys me. Going back and forth between present day and then filling in the back story is something that I encountered once before and what I did on that occasion was to read all of the numbered chapters and then go back to the beginning and read the present day inserts. I may begin to do that for this one.

When we first see the sign for the ear piercings(19), I expected Liza to go in and stop it and that would be the cause of the initial conflict. I thought that she would be having a fight with one of her friends from school. When she merely inspected the procedure and tools(23), I was extremely angry with her. I think that she was suspended for the wrong reasons, but I agree with her suspension. I don't see why everyone else wants to brush it off so quickly. As was stated in a previous post, I feel embarrassed for the two of them in the museums. Her unwillingness to write a letter back to Annie, when Annie's letters show us that their relationship did not end bitterly(4), aggravates me. She was the one to put her arm around Annie(92), which precludes their kiss so it seems like Liza should be shouldering a little more of the burden in their relationship. In short, I guess Liza's character kind of annoys me.

2 comments:

KimberlyFebruary 23, 2012 at 10:49 PM
"In short, I guess Liza's character kind of annoys me." This response makes me laugh because I'm beginning to get annoyed by Liza, too. I have never read a book with irritating characters who told such a real and intimate story.
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JenMarch 11, 2012 at 11:30 AM
It sounds like you think Liza doesn't really want to hold others accountable or be held accountable. I can see that, and I'm interested in what you think by the end of the book.
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Post #9 Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (due MONDAY, 4/30 by class time)

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup explores a number of themes, among them grief, identity, coming of age (Bildungsroman), friendship, love, and others. Kevin, our adolescent narrator, shares his story with us as a poetic narrative which includes poems written in conventional forms and free-form poems. Choose one theme which the book develops, and show its development through the text. As you do so, be sure to consider and articulate how the book's structure (as poems) affects whatever theme you discuss.

Post #7 Warriors Don't Cry (due Sunday 4/15 by 8 pm)

Choices for responses:

1. The title of this text refers to warriors. How are the characters warriors? Are you comfortable with that depiction? Why or why not? Be sure to offer specific description as you explore characterization.

2. While it could certainly be argued that the author of our last novel does place himself in the text, that book is fiction. This text is not; rather, it's a memoir. How does knowing that the book is non-fiction shape your reading of it? Does it cause you to respond differently? If so, how? If not, why not? Consider characters, events, and the historical context carefully as you respond.

Post #6 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (due Sunday, 3/25 by 8 pm)

Post #5 Annie on My Mind (part 2) due Sun 3/11 by 8 pm

You have several different options for your response:

1. How is social transgression framed and treated in the novel? Do you as a reader find that the characters are affirmed or punished for stepping outside of social conventions?

2. We've talked a bit about parallel spaces in texts, spaces in which characters encounter very different experiences. After reading this novel, can we argue that those parallel spaces never intersect? What function might those separate (or not so separate) spaces serve?

3. The story is written in the epistolary (letter writing) tradition. How does that framing affect your reading? Your interaction with characters? Your response?

Post #3 Due by Monday's class (2/20)

For this post, you have three options:

1. Respond to some theme you identify in the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the book.

2. Apply the article's claims to the novel. Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the article and the book.

3. Examine the novel as science fiction. How is it both utopic and dystopic in its function? What might it be warning us as a society against? Be sure that you make a claim and support it using specific examples from the text.

Post #1 Due by Thursday's class (1/26)

Ellen Raskin's novel The Westing Game is a detective novel, yes, but we can tease out many themes as we examine the text. A few we introduced and explored briefly in class today:

the Cinderella effect

the roles of women

identity construction

gaming and strategy

trust (as it relates to other themes or on its own)

oppressive/repressive (think Trites) parents

Choose from a theme on this list or choose a theme you've noted in the text, and write about the way the theme is introduced and developed through the novel. As you show how the theme works throughout the book, be sure to offer specific examples to support your ideas.