Background Information/Vocabulary:
- Here's Meg's novel of choice: Ivanhoe. (P. 52)
- Blancmange, as far as I can tell, is like milk-flavored Jello. The closest thing I can think of that I've actually eaten is panna cotta, although I think that's made with cream and this recipe for blancmange calls for milk. (p. 54)
- "redoubtable" (p. 59)--formidable, tough, deserving of respect
- "conservatory" (p. 60)--while this can sometimes mean a specialized school for the arts, in this context, it means a room with a glass ceiling and walls, like a greenhouse room that's part of the Laurence home.
My Noticings:
- I have often wondered why the Marches' small, shabby house is right next to the Laurences' mansion. I guess it happens, but it strikes me as unusual: typically, houses in a neighborhood are at least kind of similar to each other.
- Oh, Laurie. I know it was a different time and all, but really? "Oh, well, I have this nice bedroom all to myself, but it's messy because the maids are lazy and won't listen to me, woe is me." I feel like that is not the way to impress a girl. I kind of wish Jo hadn't cleaned the place but instead informed Laurie that, in fact, he has working arms and legs and could always do it himself.
- I suppose both Laurence men win points for refusing to take credit for the Christmas feast they sent over to the Marches. (Remember when Jo mentioned it to Laurie at the dance? He said his grandfather did it. Now, when Jo meets old Mr. Laurence, he calls it "the boy's affair.")
- In his letter to Beth, Mr. Laurence mentions having lost a granddaughter. My best guess is that she would have been Laurie's cousin. When Mr. Laurence talks to Beth a few pages before, he says, "I had a little girl once, with eyes like those," which I took to mean that he had a daughter. So I guess this granddaughter might have been her daughter? And they're both dead? Add that to Laurie's dead parents, and presumably dead grandmother, and it comes out to a pretty rough life for Mr. Laurence.
- For those of you playing along at home, the scene at the very end of chapter 6 between Beth and Mr. Laurence marks the first of many scenes that makes me tear up a little.
It finally feels like we're in full swing now, with Laurie and Mr. Laurence more or less becoming part of the family. At this point, pretty much, you've got a good sense of how the first half of this novel will go: relatively self-contained stories about the March and Laurence families, shifting focus among the four March sisters. We've yet to hear too much from Meg or Amy, but the next chapter coming up--an Amy chapter--is maybe my favorite in Part 1.
Question for readers:
What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of telling this story in 3rd person, using an episodic (one small story after another) structure? What effect do those choices have on you as a reader?
The benefit of telling the story in 3rd person with am episodic is that the reader gets to know each character quite well. The problem, for me, is that the characterization is very direct. The author comes right out and says that Jo is like a boy rather than dropping clues and letting us figure it out for ourselves. This makes the story less interesting.
ReplyDeleteLike maddi, I thinking benefit is that you get to know th characters fairly evenly. I think the downside to this is the author doesn't go in-depth in to what the characters are really feeling
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