Runaway Bride--Or Should I say, Groom

Outside reading blog #3

Just as Astrid thought suffering would never end with Marvel's wrath, she is taken to Claire--her new best friend and loving foster mother. Never before has Astrid met someone who genuinely cares about her and accepts her as who she is. Claire is sweet, always smiling, genuinely cares about the welfare of others and is always trying to please people. Clarie becomes the first person in Astrid's life that she can trust and admire as a respectable adult and role model. This intimate relationship between Claire and Astrid can be compared to the relationship between Oskar Schell and his grandmother in the book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. In the novels, both Claire and Oskar's grandmother act as guardians for their younger companions, Oskar and Astrid. Both Oskar and Astrid struggle with overcoming great losses in their lives--Oskar looses his father and Astrid, her mother. Claire and the grandmother play crucial roles in their process of healing by always being there in times of need and always expressing uncondtional love. Oskar even thinks, "She was always waiting for me [...] I don't know how she knew when I'd be there. Maybe she just waited around all day"(102). Similarly, Astrid reflects, "I had never come home to someone waiting for me before, someone looking forward to the sound of my key in the door [...] I had Claire now, waiting for me. She was all I needed"(217). Before, Astrid never felt such genuine love from someone and thinks it a little weird. But who can refuse love? Astrid certainly can't, and soon with trips to museaums, theatres, shops, a hiking trip in Oregon, and constant care, it seems like Astrid is on the way to full recovery.

However, it seems Astrid has the worst of luck. Even her blissful stay with Claire is jepordized by Claire's husband, who is having an affair and is also threaten by Astrid's own mother. In a visit to Astrid's mother in prison, Ingrid, who is jealous of her daughter's intimate relationship with Claire, ruins it by telling something secret that Claire is tricked into thinking will help her disputes with her husband, Ron. Astrid, at this point, hates her mother and warns her, "Do screw it up for me [...] If you love me, you'll help me." But Ingrid merely responds, "I would rather see you in the worst kind of foster hell than with a woman like that." She is selfish and this is eventually the cause of Claire's suicide.

to ms. froelich

Hi Ms. Froelich!
FYI, the order of the two outside reading blogs I put up are switched so read the second one first! =]

The book that I am currently fully enjoying and enraptured in is called White Oleander by Janet Fitch. It is about the struggle of one girl, Astrid to discover who she is where she belongs and how it feels to be loved and wanted through various Los Angeles foster homes.Ingrid, a brilliant poet, a struggling artist, and Astrid's mother becomes imprisoned for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Barry Kolker. Due to tramatic experiences with men in the past Ingrid becomes a heartless, self-centered coniving yet stunnigly beautiful woman who is unseduceable. She believes that nothing is purely good and always tells Astrid to guard herself from the world. Even when they are gazing at a beautiful full moon together, whereas Astrid describes it as a "baby-face moon," Ingrid counters, "It's a traitor's moon" (4) Because her mother always has an impenetratable iron wall around her, Astrid envies "the way [other] mothers sat on [their girls'] beds and asked what they were thinking." She thinks that her "mother was not in the least bit curious about [her]. Astrid even wonders to herself if her mother "thought [she] was a dog she could tie in front of the store," or "a parrot on her shoulder"(11). Ingrid's biggest fear is to fall in love and when Barry succeeds in seducing her, using her, then dumping her like a piece of trash, she swears revenge. Ingrid eventually gets sent to prison for killing her ex-boyfriend and leaves Astrid alone in an unwelcoming world to fend for herself. Her first foster home, run by a woman named Starr and her boyfriend Ray is a small dingy trailer home in a place called Sunland-Tujunga. Starr is a god-fearing, jesus-fanatic Christian who, ironically, enjoys showing off her body and coming off to others as "highly sexual." Along with Astrid, there is Starr's real son, Davey who is a kid-genious, Starr's rebellious daughter, Carolee who eventually runs away, plus two other foster kids, Owen and Peter. Astrid's experience here is a string of discoveries that result in conflict. Astrid rebels against Starr by having a secret love affair with Ray. She is only in 8th grade at that time. Without her mother, Astrid is desperate for someone to love and look up to and concedes with Ray. Astrid describes Ray as "solid." He was someone who "wouldn't let [her] drift away. Talking to [her], telling [her] nobody was going to hurt [her]"(59). He was Astrid's newly discovered support. However, with this new discovery of exhilarating passion and secret power over Starr, came consequences. As Starr slowly discovers that Ray and Astrid have been sleeping together, she cannot control her emotions and becomes an alcoholic. This impairs her mind and ultimately, during a fight with Ray, ends up shooting Astrid in the shoulder and hip. Although Astrid gets heavily injured, she never regrets loving Ray and realizes for the first time in her life that her mother's belief that love is non-exisitant is wrong.

Outside reading blog #2

After Astrid's disasterous ending in her first foster home with Starr, she is taken to another unwelcoming foster family in Van Nuys run by Marvel and Ed Turlock. Each member of the family, Marvel, Ed, Justin, Caitlan and now, Astrid, all live together in one house yet they're all enveloped in their own private bubbles. Ed escapes to the Good Knight bar nearby as soon as he can, Marvel could care less about either her husband or her children (let alone Astrid) and only cares about herself and criticizing others. Justin and Caitlan are dumped into the hands of Astrid as soon as her hip mends and are poorly nurtured. As soon as Astrid's hip mends, Marvel establishes Astid's role around the house: "babysitter, pot scrubber, laundry maid, [and] beautician" (124). Marvel always speaks of Astrid's future as if she can't decide for herself. When Astrid dyes Marvel's hair, she says, "This is good practice for you. You could go to beauty school. That's a good living for a woman,"(126) and later advices, "The army would be a good place, [with] job security, [and] benefits"(159). Overall, Marvel was one of the most controlling woman Astrid had ever encountered.

To cope with lonliness, Astrid concedes to overdoses on her prescribed Percodan to keep herself high and numb to all feelings. Another more positive escape was to bury herself in books. she read everything--"Colette, Francoise Sagan[...] short stoires"(129) and even a book called The Art of Survival. This book became Astrid's bible, a stratagy to overcome conflicts.

Even above books and overdoses, the number one hope that Astrid holds dear to escape her hardhearted foster home is her neighbor, Olivia Johnstone. To Astrid, Olivia is the perfect model for all women to follow: "her eyes were almond-shaped, the color of root beer"(135), she had delicate features, and an impeccable style. "Olivia was linen and champagne and terra-cotta, totanical prints and 'Seven Steps to Heaven'"(141). Unlike Astrid, who worships Olivia, Marvel thinks she is nothing but a "damn whore" who thinks "she's the Duchess of Windsor"(133). Marvel forbits Astrid from speaking to her, but Astrid is fascinated with everything involving Olivia. She ends up having secret visits to Olivia's house (when she was supposed to be training for the army) and ends up finding an irreplaceable friend. Olivia plays an important role in Astrid's development from a young girl to a woman. She teaches things about men, fashion and life that no other woman in Astrid's life would have bothered with.

However, in Astrid's life, sweet fairy tales don't have happy endings. She ends up getting attacked by vicious stray dogs as she is taking a walk which leaves horrible red gashes everywhere on her face, arms and face. This ruins Astrid's beautiful face and she realizes that beaty never lasts. Even Olivia begins to drift out of her life, and to top it off, randomly one day at school, Ms. Cardoza, her caseworker, arrives telling Astrid to get her belongings for another trip to a new foster home in glamorous Hollywood.

Memoirs=self reflection and revelation

Memoirs are a great way to teach lessons in real life through a personal story or experience. They are an excellent tool to use if an author wants to offer the reader insights about mistakes he has made in the past and wants to help them avoid making the same mistakes. Most memoirs involve self-reflection when the author wants to find a deeper meaning or purpose in his life by tracing back to his past experiences.

By telling our own stories, people (friends and family) get to understand us better. Through memoirs, readers can personally connect with the author and may even have insight of himself and his life. Through writting a memoir, the author's past is revealed like a confession which always leaves the reader with something deeper than a good story to delve into.