First Impressions

First impressions are an important thing. They determine how a lot of relationships will end up. If you have a good first impression it's more likely to have the outcome of a good relationship. And let me just tell you, Black Swan Green has had a great first impression. 

First of all, the narrative voice is great. I love Jason as a narrator. He reminds me of Holden in a lot of ways (relatable, pretty chill). I really liked Holden as a narrator, so the similarities I see between him and Jason make me really excited to read more. 

Another thing I love about this book is Julia (Jason's sister). She is literally such a great character and I relate to her a lot. Especially in the dinner scene in the chapter "Relatives". When her uncle was bashing her for not wanting to go to a school of his choice, I RELATE. Most of my family is the exact same way and I can't even express how much I can relate to Julia in this scene.

Overall I'm very excited to read more of Black Swan Green. It seems like a book I'm really going to like. 

Let's Reflect

Many times I have expressed my ideas on coming of age. I believe coming of age is when you find yourself, when you finally find the true you. A lot of the time we won't know that we've come of age until we actually reflect on our life and think "hey, this was a big milestone in my life that helped me find myself" (or at least some version of that, everyone's realizations are probably different). I think this is very much what Housekeeping is representing, a reflection on one's life.

Housekeeping seems to be told from the point of view of future Ruth. As one reflects on their life, they tend to remember important events or moments that effected them in some meaningful way. In this book I think that is exactly what is being depicted. Future Ruth is showing us milestones in her life that shaped her as a person. With each moment, we see Ruth begin to realize who she is or who she wants to be. We watch as important people come and go in her life and change her in some way.

The most important person in this process (at least I think so) is Sylvie. Ruth is someone who tends to follow others, tries to be like them, and Sylvie is a prime example of that. Sylvie leads Ruth through many stages in her life, and she helps Ruth find herself and figure out who she wants to be.

And I think in some ways the situation worked the other way around too. Ruth changed Sylvie's life significantly as well. Someone mentioned in class "this is the first thing Sylvie has tried to keep ahold of" (in reference to Sylvie's relationship with Ruth). Sylvie tries to be a more responsible person in someways (like when she attempts to clean things and such) and I think that is an important thing to think about while reading the book.

This novel is truly a coming of age novel, someone reflecting on their life and showing us their coming of age experience through moments in their life that were influential to them as a person.