Its apparent by now that Mary Karr uses imagery in her writing that have more to them than the actual image itself.
They're many examples of this, and because of that fact, I wanted to pick two examples that I believed would be less obvious than others, and hope that I stumbled onto something big. What stuck out to me was the theme of white hands in times of crisis. The owners of these limbs having the life some what metaphorically sucked out of them, for one reason or another. With the life, went the color.
"Then out of all the darkness I see Mother's white hands rising from her lap like they were powered and lit from inside. Like all the light in the world has been poured out to shape those hands. She's reaching for the steering wheel, locking onto it with her knuckles tight. The car jumps to the side and skips up onto the sidewalk. She's trying to take us over the edge" (138). Mary's mom is nothing short of an emotional train wreck. Throughout the book being represented in many occasions with the "Nervousness". How she got to that point is an argument in itself. The fact remains though that she is mentally unstable. With that being said, being mentally unstable doesn't just happen on its own. It's a result of the things we go through in life, and the things that have happened to us. Whatever the case may be in Mary's Mother's life, I believe that each trial and tribulation sucked a little piece out of her at a time. All of these things building up, and hitting a climax(even though worse things happen later) at the point where Mother reaches for the wheel. She wanted to kill herself and her family. In my opinion you must be lifeless on the inside, or void of any good emotion's a normal human being should experience. So Mary describes her hands as being "powered and lit from inside". That's a very white glow. White being colorless. Colorless being lifeless, in a book that uses a vast majority of colors to describe many situations and emotions.
"But there was another hand from that time that also got seared into what I can remember. It was the hand of Bugsy Juarez's wife. It was covered in flour one morning she came to our backdoor. She pressed that white hand onto our damp breakfast table while she said to Daddy, please come quick, Bugs shot hisself"(174). I don't know much about Mrs. Juarez state before this incident. I do know, that if your husband kills himself, and you loved him, it would suck every good emotion out of you until you recover. Her white hand, being metaphorical to having no color, which means being void of any good emotions in my opinion, represents another example that makes me believe Karr uses colors to describe emotion. No color means no emotion, or at least no good emotions you might feel, like what other colors might represent. She just lost her husband, which means she probably felt as though she just had a big piece of her life sucked out of her. What is left when you suck the color, or emotion out of something? Plain, blank, white, emptiness
These two examples are proof in my opinion to my claims. If these aren't enough, then I ask why Mary chooses to emphasize the colors in these two situations? She's caucasion, so we obviously know what her family's natural skin color is white. Why then did she choose to point out the white in these two situations? This is why it stuck out to me as something deeper than what was being read. Hopefully it does to you too. If not, I could be wrong. "We all see the same shit, just through different eyes", to quote one of my favorite musicians.
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Hey Georden!
ReplyDeleteI think you need to be more confident in what you say because you definitely make some excellent points! The the white colorlessness in times of trauma made an impact on me as well. I think you have stumbled onto something big. I think you have a good thesis sentence, and you remembered to address Mary Karr early on in your paragraph however you left out the name of the book so I would add that in somewhere by the authors name. Some might argue that you had no transition to your quotes for support however I like that you jumped right in to them. You have quite a few sentences after your first quote about Mary's mother, and though I feel you are correct, I think you consolidate that section and put more emphasis on the imagery of colorless limbs and not so much focus on her mothers sanity, or lack there of. I think your opinions did prove your thesis. I agree that she did use the color of limbs as being void of emotion. I think you restated yourself a few times with in your proof to your second example so maybe you could reread that and find a better way to state some information that it doesn't sound like repetition. Once again, be proud of your writing and your opinion because I think your on to something.
1. I can tell that your thesis is the statement about theme of white hands and the following statement. My only problem with it is that it isnt really an argumentive statement so much as it is a descriptive one.
ReplyDelete1b. You definitely named Mary Karr right off the bat but you didn't name the book at all.
2. I like the two quotes you took, they are very good supporters for the argument that you are presenting. In your rewrite I'd look to change the way you introduce them though, instead of jumping right into the quote at the start.
Besides that the analysis connects well with the thesis and the quotes work well as proof.
3. I think in your first paragraph there is the perfect amount of summary, not too much not too little.
The quote you chose for your second paragraph kind of summarizes itself since it is an isolated story in the book so not much is needed.
4. The only counter-argument I could really see would be that others might see the white hands as representing something other than the person's feelings at the time.
5. As far as grammar and stuff; the first word would be it's, the second sentence would start off There are not they're, The third paragraph: Mrs. Juarez's. I think that's about it.
6. I don't think you really ever used your own opinion as fact as most of your opinions were followed up by some fact from the book
7. You never really got off track during the entire essay except for in the second paragraph you may have gotten a little too much into the background of the mother.
I really liked the topic of your essay, it was something that I didn't totally catch at first pass while reading.
1.) I really liked your topic, I thought it was different and refreshing. The thesis is good and is definetly argumentative because, I'm sure there are people who may see the hands a different way or just think of it as nothing.
ReplyDelete1b.) You just need to throw the title and author in, no big deal.
2.) You bring up 2 quotes from the book that support your thesis. And you follow them with evidence and your interpretation of them. They do need an introduction though. They are extremely relevant to your thesis.
3.) I can't find a lot of summary, and that's a good thing. It's more analyzing and interpreting of the events to support the thesis.
4.) Counter arguments could be brought up. The biggest argument would probably be that the white hands and knuckles are not significant, just something that happened. I don't think so, but I'm sure some one would be willing to argue that.
5.) The only grammar that caught my attention was there seems to be a lot of commas. I can't remember all of the comma rules, so I'm not sure if there alright or maybe one or two are unnecessary. I also might change "have" to "has" in the first sentence.
6.) I think that any of the opinion offered in here is used as legitimate proof for the thesis. You interpret things as metaphors the way you see them and I think that serves as proof for your thesis.
7.) The entire essay is on-track and focuses on the white hands and what you think that means/symbolizes.
Thank you guys so much for all your opinions. They were really helpful and I'll definitely take them into account in the re write.
ReplyDeleteGeorden,
ReplyDeleteI like that you've focused on specific images. I wonder if you can give us some more context about hands in general. In quite a few places, Karr writes about Lecia's hands giving comfort, and her Daddy's hands are huge and comforting. In these places you mention, the hands have lost that power. Since she focuses so much on hands elsewhere these images have an additional power.
Why would hands be so important to a child? Think about this particular child. She's been loved with gentle touches and violated with mean ones. She hopes for safety but often battles against coldness and the unexpected. Is she looking for a steady hand, for a hand to hold onto? And is she particularly morbid? Would she notice white hands and think about death?
Please don't try to answer all of these questions. Let your own inquiries guide you. You've got great thoughts; let's hone them and try to remember some formality (though I love the final quote...seems like something to introduce with. We all see the same shit but through different eyes. In The Liars' Club, Mary Karr's different eyes allow her to focus on scary white hands. . .These hands contribute to a feeling of. . .
Then you're filling in the blanks. Of course use your own language. But focus on the ways the sentences are leading into one another. Seduce us into your argument with your language.
Good luck