History as Fiction - Erin

One of the first books I have a distinct memory of reading is Harry Potter. I must’ve been around kindergarten when my mom started reading it to me at bedtime. Sure, looking back on it, maybe this was a bit young, but I ate it up. It’s now been several years since I last reread any of the books, but the memories are still prominent in my mind. If you’re unfamiliar with the plot of Harry Potter, it follows the story of an eleven year old boy, who finds out that he is a wizard, after living with his neglectful aunt and uncle for the past ten years of his life. The following books then proceed to follow his journey in an attempt to protect the wizarding world he comes to love from the villain who is responsible for his parents’ deaths. As many of us did, I became enamored by his story. One memory that particularly stands out to me to this day is that I would wake up early before school in the mornings and sit on the floor in the living room to read ahead of what my parents ...

            As the semester is coming to a close, I thought I’d look back on the books we’ve read this year. I was attempting to find commonalities between the books, but while there are some similarities between a few, it’s difficult to find something that applies across the span of all of the books we’ve read. So I decided to focus on Song of Solomon.             Something about Milkman’s situation struck me as familiar and I realized that I could see a lot of similarities between him and Antoinette, especially pertaining to their social status. Neither of them really fit into their surroundings. Antoinette, born on the island with a French mother, doesn’t quite fit in with the Creole community, however since she is still white, she doesn’t fit in with the freed slaves, either. Milkman is in a somewhat similar situation. He clearly doesn’t fit in with the w...

One thing that I come back to every time that we talk about Antoinette and Rochester’s relationship is how unhealthy the dynamic seems. I think we mostly agreed that as the book and their relationship develops, it turns darker, as Rochester becomes more jealous and more possessive. However, before we get into Rochester’s controlling tendencies I want to look back and reflect at the beginning. We generally had an optimistic view of Rochester in the beginning, which was the point. He was mostly friendly and more willing to learn about the island and it’s culture than Mr. Mason ever was. It’s also at this point where we see their relationship growing as they get to know each other and figure out what the other expects. Around this time is when we start to see Rochester talking about making her into an English girl. As time goes on we see his efforts in trying to make sure that she fits the ideals he has for her (PSA you should never have to change who you are for your ...