The novel is written in alternating chapters from the past and present. Later on in the novel, Mattie helps Minnie give birth to her twins. Mattie, a romantic, is jealous of her friend, Minnie's, loving relationship with her husband Jim. She cleans her rich and nosy Aunt Josie's house every week and tries to ask her for money, but Aunt Josie tells Mattie she is being selfish to try and leave the farm and the family, like her brother Lawton. Mother had made her promise to pursue knowledge, and Mattie intends to. Mattie doesn't give up completely on going to college. Many people think poorly of her, but she keeps writing, encouraging Mattie to do the same. She writes about the lack of rights for women, which is a sensitive subject at the turn of the century. Mattie soon finds out that Miss Wilcox clandestinely writes feminist poetry, which is unwelcome in the world of literature. Mattie gets "full scholarship" to Barnard but she knows she can't afford to buy the books and a train ticket, or to leave her family's farm. Weaver shows Mattie's writings to their teacher, Miss Wilcox, who sends an application for Mattie to Barnard College. Weaver is African-American and is as strong in math as Mattie is in literature. Her best friend, Weaver Smith, is also intelligent and has large aspirations. Mattie's is passionate about reading and writing she looks up a new word in her dictionary so that she can educate herself. Her mother died and her brother Lawton left home because of a fight with their father. While smart enough to go, her father does not allow her: there is no one to work on the farm except Mattie and her three younger sisters, Abby, Lou, and Beth. Mattie dreams of going to Barnard College in New York City. The novel takes place in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York (the "North Woods") during 1906. The novel centers on a feisty and smart sixteen-year-old narrator Mathilda "Mattie" Gokey with strong morals. The readers get a taste of how bitter and sweet ordinary life is in the 1900s mixed with a non-fiction murder mystery. Jennifer Donnelly intertwines this real-life murder of Grace Brown with fictional Mattie Gokey's story.
0 kommentar(er)
