Okay, so explain to me why we make eighth graders read this book? What on earth do we think they're going to get out of it except a loathing for literature and literature analysis? I read this for a book club, and it was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Essentially, I've hated it for years based on my experience reading it in Ms. AnderSEN's English class. (I bear grudges enthusiastically.) The novel is actually rather beautifully told--after all, it's a classic. The elements that spoke to me most--the midwestern setting, the lives of children and their relationship to nature--I could not have possibly appreciated them when I was in my early teens. A couple of my favorite quotes:
"The pale, cold light of the winter sunset did not beautify--it was like the light of truth itself. When the smoky clouds hung low in the west and the red sun when down behind them, leaving a pink flush on the snowy roofs and the blue drifts, then the wind sprang up afresh, with a kind of bitter song, as if it said: 'This is reality, whether you like it or not. All those frivolities of summer, the light and shadow, the living mask of green that trembled over everything, they were lies, and this is what was underneath. This is the truth.' It was as if we were being punished for loving the loveliness of summer."
And from Jim's irrepressible friend Lena:
"Well, it's mainly because I don't want a husband. Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones. They begin to tell you what's sensible and what's foolish, and want you to stick at home all the time. I prefer to be foolish when I feel like it, and be accountable to nobody."
Yeah!
