Voice 2

Voice: Critic

Written on the Body was a very interesting and well written book, but I think it would have helped the reader understand the book better if we knew the gender of the narrator. When first reading the book I was a bit confused as to who the character was and took it upon myself to assume it was a woman. When we hear stories about love and relationships, we tend to associate that with women. I enjoyed the stories of love and heartache and making sacrifices that were included in this novel. I think any person could put themselves in the situations that the characters were in; especially the break up with Louise. Overall I really enjoyed the book even though it did not always make sense to me, but maybe that is the point; Love doesn't always make sense?

Written On the Body: Voice 1

Personal Voice:
"I love you. Why is it that the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear?" This is the first quote in the novel that really intrigued me. I could not agree more with this statement because when you think about it, 'I love you' is short and unoriginal, yet it is the one statement that is the most self fufilling to someone. This book was probably my favorite book we read in this class because I could relate to it the most. The relationships were not just terrible and not just perfect, they were hard. They had ups and downs and this is what I can relate to. Sometimes I feel a relationship isn't really a relationship if there are no hardships to overcome. I read the back of the book before I started to read it and I realized that the narrator was unknown. For the most part I pictured the narrator as a woman because it was easier for me to relate to thinking that is was a woman.

Skim

At first I was hesitant on whether or not I would enjoy reading another graphic novel. I was not the biggest fan of La Perdida so I was not sure if I would like this book either. Surprisenly, I did like it. The graphics were a lot different in this book compared to La Perdida. I was able to follow the book easier and it was a quick read. I found myself looking at the pictures a lot more in this book which helped me get a great visual of Skim herself. The fact that I was reading her diary was different. It was a very random was to read a novel, but it was very realistic. Skim is a girl going through adolescence and she has many thoughts and is indecisive. You can see her indecisiveness throughout the novel because she crosses many things out and rewrites them. At first I only thought about the aspects of the book according to how I felt during adolescence, but I soon realized that this book can apply to anyone. As we get older I believe we still have desires and wishes. I also believe that we are confused as we grow older as to who we are. We need to "find ourselves" and realize what we really want out of life. It is not just through adolescence that we experience this. I was a little dissapointed at the end of the book and how it ends, but then I thought about it and it made sense to me. Skim isn't done with her journey yet. She has much more to experience in life, as we all do...

DESIRE

I desire trust. Trust from my friends, family, and one day from my husband. Women want to feel secure and trust others. I know that I have had a hard time trusting others, but this is something I truly desire.

I desire confidence. In order to feel confident I like to work out and live a healthy lifestyle. I am still desiring confidence. My mom always tells me that I will gain my ultimate confidence level when I achieve goals in my career and have a family. She said that I feel so good about myself the more I achieve in life. I, along with every other woman, desire confidence.

I think every woman desires a long lasting love. We all dream of the day we meet the "love of our life" and of course the day we get married. Ultimately, we all desire to be with that person for the rest of our life...to grow old with that person. At the end of the day every woman desires love, but a love that will last forever sounds absolutely perfect.

La Perdida

Before reading La Perdida I found myself very hesitant to read it. I guess you can say I "judged the book by it's cover" which I shouldn't have. The comic book set up of it really threw me off and did not look appealing to me. After reading the first few pages I got used to the pictures and it really helped me get a visual of what the characters looked like instead of invisioning them myself.

I enjoyed the character Carla and her passion for wanting to become more "mexican" and learn more about her heritage. It made me think about my Italian background and want to learn more about it. I enjoyed Carla's desire to want to conform to her Mexican background, but of course she was going to run into some problems along the way. I liked how this book had so many different types of characters in it. Harry, Carla's old time fling, Oscar, the pretty boy who sells drugs, and her wingman Memo.

I liked how this book demonstrated the struggles of someone and how sometimes you have to "get lost" to find yourself. Making mistakes and learning from yours and others mistakes are what push us to grow up as humans. Everyone goes through a point in their life where they are trying to find themselves and I really think Carla does this by the end of La Perdida. Overall I enjoyed the book, but I am not sure if I truly enjoyed the graphic part of it.

Like Water for Chocolate

What if someone told us all that we could not love who we wanted? I know for a fact my world would be turned upside down. I can't imagine the feeling that Tita had when she found out she could not be with Pedro. How could a mother not want her daughter to experience love? I realize that Mama Elena was not able to be with the man she loved, due to his death, but it boggles my mind as to why she would not want the best for her daughter.

I thought that there were many strong relationships throughout the book, but they all discluded Mama Elena. I believe everyone in the house made eachother stronger and built relationships because they were all eachother really had. Not only was Tita in love with Pedro, but she shares relationships with Chencha, Roberto, Esperanza, Gertrudis, and Dr. Brown. Tita seems to be the person in the center of everyone that bonds them all together.

I really enjoyed the relationship of Tita and Pedro. It illustrated a picture of love that was realistic and everlasting. Sometimes in life, we can't always get what we desire the most. Life and love are hard, but I think they are meant to be in order to make us stronger people. Like Water for Chocolate was a much easier and more enjoyable read compared to Love. I think it is a great book of hope...

Reaction to "Love" by Tony Morrison

I found Love to be a book that I necessarily did not "Love" in the beginning. Throughout the entire book I was very confused and it was hard for me to follow the characters and how they were all connected. I guess that was the point of the book though; to not know how they were all connected but in the back of my head, I knew they had to be. I guess I was just taken back on how the word "Love" was expressed in this book. Instead of the typical way we think of love, it seemed to be the opposite.

At first, Bill Cosey seems to be this warm hearted, understanding, and in a way the women's "savior", but then I realized how controlling and pig headish he was! It blew my mind that an older man would want an 11 year old girl to be his wife. Especially when the girl was his granddaughter's best friend. I truly believe the women in the book were longing and searching for this "love" in their life that they were not receiving from their families. I don't think the women really knew what love was and they truly believed that Mr. Cosey was the man that would give them this unfulfilled feeling.

Mr. Cosey not only destroyed the love of a friendship, but he destroyed these women's lives and view on life. He made them think that they deserved the treatment that he was giving them. It made me sick to my stomach at some points as to how he took advantage of all women. May, helping out with the hotel, L and her cookings abilities, Christine for being a good granddaughter that he wanted to send away, and Heed for his sexual pleasure. I was so glad to see a character such as Junior to kind of bring the love back into the lives of the women. To make them realize that this man was not what they deserved and that they should try to find their love for one another.

Overall, this book was not my favorite to read. The only thing I did respect about it, was the fact that this is pretty realistic in some womens cases. In the real world, every man is not perfect and relationships go bad. Some how women stay in these relationships because they can't get out and in some cases they think they can't do any better. I would not recommend the book to anyone else, but it definitely was a bit of an eye opener and a different take on love.