An Echo

First, I would like to point out how amazing of a person Lucy is. Lucy is so far away from her home, which was exactly what she wanted to be away from, yet she still misses it and almost everything she mentions about her new home with Mariah and Lewis reminds her of home. I don't think I would ever be able to be that far, with no contact (even by choice), knowing I can't go back.
Next, I would like to bring up my favorite quote in the whole book. On page 36, Lucy confesses, "I had come to feel that my mother's love for me was designed solely to make me into an echo of her; and I didn't know why, but I felt that I would rather be dead than become just an echo of someone." This quote struck me because for me, it brings together one of the main themes in the book, the relationship between Lucy and her mother. Even though Lucy is so far away and has no other contact with her mother other than the letters her mother sends (which Lucy never even opens), her mother has such a large influence on Lucy's life.
As can be seen in this quote, Lucy does not want to be like her mother or anyone else for that matter. She seems to be very much an individual, as is Peggy, which is why I think they became friends and why they remained friends throughout the book. Lucy also continuously mentioned how people tell her she is exactly like her mother, and while she refuses it in words, on the inside she knows that it is true. That is why I love this quote, I could just hear her saying it with doubt in her mind about how she would rather die than be like anyone else, yet at the same time realizes that is exactly what she is.
Does anyone else see the relationship between Lucy and her mother as being a main theme in this book? What other themes are there?

God's Works

As I was reading, I never could quite get a sense of where the story was going. I thought that maybe they would discover that someone they knew kept placing things there on purpose, or perhaps that the previous owners has purposefully left them there and why they left them.
I also thought that the relationship between Twinkle and Sanjeev was a curious one. Twinkle, in accordance with her name, seemed very childish. While it says she was 27 years old when they met, she still acts like a child. She doesn't help around the house, seems lazy in that she continuously says she will do something and then doesn't and she acts as if she couldn't care less what the house looks like.
Twinkle also doesn't seem like she has as strong of a Hindu belief as Sanjeev does. Twinkle identifies more with her American side. Sanjeev wants to keep his Hindu identity strong, and doesn't want to have to explain to all of their house-warming guests that they are not Christian, because Twinkle keeps displaying all the Christian items she finds around the house on the mantel. Twinkle also seems more carefree about what others think and even gets everyone up in the attic looking for the next item.
ALSO, a question I have is about a short scene after she gets out of the bath. Do you think that the blue mask on her face is supposed to have a correlation with the Virgin Mary? I know I often read readings in high school in which blue was a symbol of Mary. Another question is about the tears she shed in that scene. Was it trying to relate her to the large poster of Christ crying in her study?

Writing Process

As you can see in a blog below...this same blog has already been posted, but despite many many many attempts at fixing the sizing of the letters, I am incapable of editing that post. I have re-typed it here (with only a small section of font that will not return to original size) so that it is more easily read and not so distracting:

I have been brainstorming for this paper for about a week now. All weekend I came up with some topics I wanted to talk about, managed to form some main points, created an introduction, AND formed with a thesis (the last thing I do before I begin to write). So things are going great...until I go in to class yesterday and we begin discussing counterarguments. I am sitting there and can not come up with a counterargument for the topic I already started for the LIFE of me. Of course, I then think of a counterargument for a totally DiFfErEnT paper topic. I quickly write down some of the main points of this new topic and the counterargument I had come up with. After class I go in to talk with Professor Ambrose, and now the problem is finding a THESIS for my new topic. And that is where I am now, trying to come up with a thesis for my new paper.
Does anyone else have this problem?? Knowing what you want to write, having evidence, and points and a counterargument...all that JAZZ and then not being able to write a thesis that brings everything together? Guess I'll start writing and hope it comes to me...

"O"

One very interesting thing I was just thinking about is the use of drugs in this movie. In the play, Othello was accused of using drugs (Act 1, Scene 2, line 75) in order to get Desdemona to marry him, and in the movie, Hugo gives Oden drugs in order to numb all the pain and hurt he feels after Hugo convinces Oden that Dessie is cheating on him with Mike. While they are obviously not talking about the same drugs, it is still curious to think about why the producer of the film chose to have Oden start doing them. Was this a coincidence? Did the producer not realize the connection between the use of drugs?

Do you all have any other insights on the use of drugs in either the play or the movie? Is something else being symbolized by their use in the movie?