Monthly Review: Bastard out of Carolina

I read the book Bastards out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is mainly about a girl named Ruth Anne Boatwright, but also known as Bone, is a South Carolina bastard with an annotated birth certificate to tell the tale in this book. She finds herself caught in a family triangle between her, her mother Anney, and her step father Glen. This book has a very strong depth of tones and physical violence; it almost seemed so real.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.
I choose to write about Glen Waddell. Glen is the son of a socially prominent dairy owner. Anney, Bone’s mother marries him two years later after becoming pregnant but the baby end up dying in Anney’s stomach, which is a still born baby boy. The family’s fortune falls down hill and Glen losing his job after job due to his anger management problems. I have to say Glen is a two faced jerk. He has been nice and loving and gentle with Bone in the beginning, and he say that he loves her very much and her family and his wife, Anney, but then all of a sudden, he sexually molested her. The child abuse culminates in beatings and whipping that leave Bone nursing bruises and broken bones.
Anney finds out about the abuse that Glen did to Bone, and she leaves Glen, but he ran after her acting all guilty and crying and begging on his knees for her to take him back and promises her that he will never do it again. Anney was weak and useless and I say desperate, that she takes him back and the abuse and sexual content continues. Anney leaves Glen once again after her brother beat up Glen from finding out he’s been abusing her and beating her once again. Bone tells her mother that she will never live in the same house with Glen again. Anney told Bone that she won’t go back with Glen unless Bone comes with her. Glen finds out about all this and he got mad and attacks Bone at her Aunt Alma’s house, raping her on the kitchen floor. Anney walks in on him and started hitting him and beating him. Anney dragged Bone out to the car and Glen follows, begging for mercy and that he rather be killed than having his wife abandon him. Anney ends up crying and then again, goes back to Glen… For my analysis about Glen is that he is a selfish two faced jerk who always gets what he wants. If he doesn’t get what he wants then he’ll just fall down a hill and feel like he wants to die. I don’t see why Glen has to abuse Bone and especially rape her. I mean, rape is just like sex, but you just don’t like it right? Why would he have unwanted sex with an 11 year old who doesn’t even know what’s going on when he can have sex all he wants with Anney? I heard you can die from having sex. Is he trying to kill Bone? This makes no sense, unless he has some mental problems up in his brain. But that’s just my opinion.

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
For me, there are many weaknesses in this book, well I guess it depends on what you mean by the weaknesses of this book, is it like, the parts where I don’t understand even though I kept reading it and reading it repeatedly? Because I think this book is very boring itself and there are only like a few parts that I liked reading, like the Glen and Bone raping and beating incident or the Shannon and fire burning killing suicide incident and Anney and Glen acting all desperate for each other. And of course the ending of the book is okay; it’s not as boring as the middle parts, and especially not as boring as the beginning because all Dorothy Allison talks about is Bone’s family in the beginning; apparently Bone has a lot of family members that I got all confused by remembering all of them and knowing who is who. There are several weak spots in this book in my opinion, but then for other people who have read her books think she’s one hell of a writer, but I honestly thing this book is just plain boring, I’m sorry to say, but it’s just is.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)
The audience this book is intended to is obviously for the people who loves reading books like this; relationship between a mother and daughter, intense raping scenes, conditions of class, race, and sex. For my friends, I have a lot of friends who likes to read, like Priscilla Ng, I remember she told me how she hated reading books back in middle school but once school started, she was in my English and we would always read our independent reading books for the first 20 minutes of class. Then she got interested in reading, but I know that she won’t get interested in reading this kind of book. I don’t know who else who loves reading who would want to read this book. I mean, there are people who does not even like to read books at all who have read a couple of books that they have really liked. But the people I would recommend this book to is probably my cousin. She loves reading books, she’s such a book worm. I think she have read books that are this intense and I bet she’ll enjoy reading this. I think I’m planning on asking her if she read it or not. If not, I’ll tell her to read it. Oh yeah and also one of my other friend, she loves reading too and she wants to become a famous writer one day. I think write now she’s working on her first book. I don’t know what it’s called, she don’t even have the title named yet but I read her prologue, and it’s very good. I can picture the scene and stuff. And I am looking forward to reading her book. Back to the subject… I’ll recommend this book to people who loves reading (anything) and/or people who likes this type of story genre.

Lit Circle Letter #3: Bastard out of Carolina

I have never annotated Bastards out of Carolina because I think when I annotate, I’m just going to ruin the book even more like maybe criticize it, which I kind of did in my mind, but I just didn’t write anything down. There are several parts of the book that I did not like at all. I guess you can say I hated most parts of the book, except for the ones that are intense like the incident between Glen and Bone. But it’s not like I liked that part, it’s just a part that caught my attention. I really don’t know why Dorothy Allison wrote this book; is it because she wanted to? Well duh, of course she wanted to… Is it because something similar has happened to her life that has happened to Bone from the book? Or was she influenced from reading other books or watching movies similar to what she have wrote and wanted to write about it using her own imagination? I want to know why Bone’s mother left with Glen after what he did to her daughter. Maybe Dorothy Allison has her own reasons on why she made it like this, I mean, every author has a purpose on writing every little bits of the book. But I mean in the story in general… would any mother do that to her child? If it was me, I would dump that stupid ass and take my child and leave, far far away, so that he won’t have any connections with us. Plus I think it’s weird how a step father would do that to his own step daughter, that’s just sick. And I want to know, why exactly did Shannon lit herself on fire and die? After she talked shit about Bone’s family.
The questions that I’m planning on writing about is definitely 8, 3, and 2. I’m still not so sure about 2 or 3 though but I’m definitely doing 8.
This book has no relation to my life at all. It’s completely different from my life and family and friends. When I’m reading this book, I’m all like “What?” But then my family and most of Bone’s family are pretty cool and caring.

CAHSEE

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I took the CAHSEE which stands for the California High School Exit Exam. Only 10th graders take the CAHSEE. It's tested on English Language Arts and Math. We have to take it and pass it to leave high school. If we sophomores don't pass it, then we have to take it again during our senior year. But I don't think anyone failed it, well maybe some people did, but it was super easy and I don't see how you can fail this kind of test. I heard even middle school kids can pass this test and that the people who made this test aren't teachers or whatever. I'm sure I'll pass it.

I've been told that if I don't pass the CAHSEE, then I must be retarded. I laughed. I guess that's an easy way to put it. And I have to admit, this test is ridiculously easy. But it was super long though which took us like 2 hours? Yet we stayed in the classroom for like 4 hours. For me, I had to go to the PE classroom which smells really weird. I didn't notice if there was any lights in there too... It's like the sun shines through the windows for light.

The English part of the test was easy. We had to read a whole bunch of short stories and answer questions about it. But then I didn’t really read any of them, I just read the questions and then find the answer in the story. I think a lot of people did that; not reading the stories. Some of the questions were pretty self explanatory too.

There were 2 sections of the test. We finished the first part of the test before break and after break we do the second part. I could’ve just finished both parts before break because I finished it pretty early.

On Wednesday, we took the math part of the CAHSEE. I took this test faster than the English one because, of course, there weren’t any stories involved, although there were word problems to solve. There’s this one problem where it’s like “If n=12 then what is –n? A) -12 B) 4 C) 15 D) -11” Of course the answer would be -12… See how ridiculous this test is? It’s just a waste of time… but then it’s a requirement.

I finished the first part of the math test in like half an hour because it was only 20-25 questions? I think. After that, I continued doing the second part of it so I finished the test really early too. While the teacher was reading the instructions, I was already doing those questionnaires because it was the same as the English part so I copied it. I finished everything early yesterday and then I put my head down to take a nap because people were still working on it. I think I was the first person who finished?

The CAHSEE was super long and super easy and I am confident about passing it. I just wish the SAT would be this easy.

Lit Circle Letter #2: Bastard out of Carolina

I think the second part of the book or I mean paper clip is kind of boring… It’s not as interesting as the first part. I don’t know… I guess it’s because how Bone’s step dad was raping her. He raped her twice. And the way that the author was describing that was pretty intense. I really had like a visual affect of that happening… Like it’s very clear in my mind and stuff. It seemed so real. I still hate Glen for doing that to Bone.

This book is boring and all but there are only certain parts that catch my eye. During the second part of the story the only thing that caught my eye was when Shannon was talking shit about Bone and her family. And I remember when in the first part of the book, Bone was this quiet little girl who was only maybe 9? Not even 10 yet. And she was a very clueless girl who doesn’t know what’s happening. But then when Shannon said that about her family, Bone got all mad and then told her to “fuck off” Later at a picnic, Shannon practically lit herself on fire then she died. Bones was like right in front of her too! She saw her die just like that. Why did she do that? What happened to innocent little Bone? All of a sudden she got all this confidence in herself. How did that happen so fast?

Honestly, I wish we could’ve chosen a better book to read. I mean, this book is okay, like some parts are really good to read and I have to admit, Dorothy Allison is really one hell of a writer; she make things look so real in your mind. But for some parts, I don’t even know what’s happening or who those people are or where they are even at.

Summer 2010

There are exactly 3 more months until summer vacation! How exciting is that? This is so exciting because after these 3 months, I will finally be done with PE! PE is such a hassle and I really hate doing pacers. I've never made it to 40 pacers before last year and this year, I've finally made it to 40 pacers like a week ago and since then, I made 40 every time we did pacers!

I will also be done with Spanish too. I'm in Spanish 3 right now and I don't think I will be doing Spanish 4 because Spanish 3 is already hard enough. I'm already thinking of what classes I want next year but I'm not 100% sure.

During the summer, I'm thinking of going to Laney College to take pre-cal and probably chemistry, because I don't have chemistry this year at school. I know it's not mandatory to take chemistry but I kind of still want to. But then again, I'm not sure if I will want to actually take chemistry. But I'm for sure going to take pre-cal. I asked my friend from Skyline, Brian, to take it with me too and he said okay. Leon also said he's going to take it with me too! He lives in Castro Valley but he said he can live with his dad for those 6 weeks to take pre-cal with me at Laney. My friend Eileen said she's going to take either Japanese 2 or Chinese 1 there too! She goes to San Leandro high and the last time I saw her was on December and she's also one of my best friends so I will be happy to see her again!

During the summer this year, I want to hang out more. Now since Leon will be taking pre-cal with me, we can hang out with each other every single day after class! Last summer, we only saw each other like once a week because he took auto shop at Chabot College and I think that's in Hayward. Right now, we only see each other like once a month...

I remember last summer; my friends from Skyline invited me to go to Water World. That day was fun but my face got so burned that I looked so weird. I hope this year I get to go somewhere again like Six Flags Marine World or Great America. 4 years ago, I went to China for summer and that was my first and last time going there. I really miss it and I wish I can go there again. My mom said we don't have enough money this year, but my cousin is going to China next month and she invited me to go, but I said no because I have to go to school. They're not even going during Spring break anyways, but I already have plans for Spring break. So I'm probably going to China with my parents next summer.

3 months seem like a long time, but it really isn't. Sophomore year is almost over and next year I will be a Junior! Junior year is going to be so hard because I'm going to take AP or HP classes. Sophomore year was definitely the best for me and the easiest year for me too. I finally got my first 4.0 this year! I hope I can keep it up next year. Time is flying by way too fast! I heard that the earthquake in Chile that shortened the length of days on our planet, is that why time is flying faster? Or maybe it's just all in the mind. After all, time flies super fast when you're having fun, and during these few year, I had a lot of fun! Even if it's at school or not.

Lit Circle Letter: Bastard out of Carolina

The book that me, Ryan, Asmita, and Michelle are reading is Bastard out of Carolina. This book is about a girl name Ruth Anna but also known as Bone. This book is written in her perspective so it's sort of like an autobiography. Bone's father left her and her mother, Anney when she was just 8 days old. Anney then had another child name Reese with another guy name Lyly. Lyly then died when he was on his way to work.

One day, they all went out to eat with the rest of Bone's aunts and uncles and one of her uncle bought his friend Glen to eat with them too. Glen and Anney began to date and soon got married. He seems like a nice guy and all but he really isn't.

Anney got pregnant. Glen hopes for a baby boy. Anney was in the hospital giving birth while Glen, Bone, and Reese is in the car in the parking lot waiting at night. Anyways, Reese was sleeping and then Glen touched Bone in a very disturbing way and next thing you know it, he starts to molest her. She began to cry and says It hurts a lot. After he was done, Bone went to sleep. The next day, Bone and Reese woke up, they were still in the car and Glen wasn't there. He was in the hospital and he came out with terrible news. The baby boy was dead. How sad...

What I want to say is that I don't know why they couldn't be with her when she was giving birth, especially Glen, he is her husband after all, what kind of husband waits for his wife to give birth in the car? From his actions, not being with his wife giving birth, being in pain, I know he is not a good guy at all. Plus, he also raped his step daughter. What man does that? Or father? I mean I guess there are people who do that, but I think that's just sick. It's absurd. And Bone is not even 13 years old yet and she doesn't know what he was doing, but all she knew was what he was doing hurt her. If Bone's mother found out, I bet she will totally knock him out. But who knows?

2012

2012. Is the world really coming to an end? Is it just a rumor? Or is it real?
Recently, there was an earthquake that occurred in Haiti with a magnitude of 7.0 on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. About three million people were affected by it; and 217,000 to 230,000 were pronounced dead. The earthquake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince. Everyone was talking about it all over the news and all over the world. Even in Disney Channel, the Disney Channel stars were talking about it and how we should cooperate together and donate money for Haiti. Even school clubs are asking people to donate money for Haiti.
I remember on a Saturday morning on this month, I was on the internet and on Yahoo news, it says that there was another earthquake that is going to happen in 3 hours in Hawaii. I was shocked. When I came home from piano lessons, it said the earthquake was at Chile instead that was a magnitude of 8.8 which may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet. (I wonder is that a good thing, like, for me, because usually I feel that the days, especially in school are very long and I just want the day to be over, so I guess it’s probably a good thing for me, but for the world, I’m not sure.)
Earthquakes have happened so many times for these few years and I am still pretty focused on the Hurricane Katrina that happened in 2005 which was the coastline hurricane as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States. Hurricane Katrina happened at the Bahamas and crossed southern Florida. It caused deaths and floods and strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sometimes I am starting to wonder if the world is really going to end soon. Thinking about this right now makes me pretty scared to even think about. Even when I was watching the movie 2012 (which is totally not true, of course) made my skin crawl. It was a good movie and it's so realistic (well yeah, they make all movies realistic) I am just starting to wonder if the world will actually end soon. The people in the movie are considered lucky to have been in those giant ships and survive while a whole portion of people of the world are dead.
I am also much focused on having a bright future and having a successful job and getting married and having children and living in a nice big house and having pets with my wonderful husband and I really don't want the world to end. I mean who knows if it is going to end? People say it's not true but how do they know for sure? The Mayans are pretty smart right? And they just say the world is going to end because they only stopped making the calendar or something. But whatever is the truth; I'm still nervous and still need to be cautious. I think they say it’s going to happen on December 2012 so around that time, I’m supposed to be in college, middle of my freshman year of college.
What's going to happen if there's an earthquake that's going to hit California? Probably as big as the one at Haiti or Chile? Then a whole bunch of people are going to die. Things are going to get damaged. People getting injured... Everything is going to be bad. I'm being really paranoid right now, but I'm just saying. Things lead to other things in unexpected ways.