History as Fiction - Erin

            As we’ve followed Ma and Jack’s story once they’re outside of Room, I find myself sympathizing more and more with Ma. From the beginning, we talked about how impressed we were with her patience with Jack and her ability to continue to keep him engaged and out of trouble despite being around him nonstop for five years. However, to me, her level of dedication is an even greater feat once they’re Outside, even though Jack sees more of her frustrations there. We as readers can’t even begin to fathom what must constantly be going through Ma’s head all the time: relief about being out of Room and back to the familiar, frustration about the things that aren’t so familiar, and maybe even regret about the things that she has missed and the fact that she can’t just slip back into her old normal life.             It has come up in class a couple of times whether or not Ma is moving too fast for Jack to keep up and if she should slow down and give him time to adjust

            As we near the end of A Lesson Before Dying, the religious symbolism has become more and more clear to me. It’s something that we’ve only brushed up against in class but is something that I think is pretty prominent in the book. There’s the obvious religious influence of Reverend Ambrose and the importance that religion has in the community. While Grant does not partake in religion, he makes it clear to the reader the role it plays to the adults in the community. Miss Emma brings in the minister to talk to Jefferson as well as Grant because she does worry about Jefferson. Jefferson’s reaction to Reverend Ambrose is a little bit harder to determine though. Perhaps he is less responsive to the reverend simply because he is not able to relate and connect to him the way that Grant eventually is able to. Yet what I am more interested in is the symbol of Jefferson in the same position as Jesus.             It was briefly mentioned in discussion that Jefferson could