Thursday, November 20, 2008
Quarter 2, Post 2
My reading this week for The House at Sugar Beach explains the lineage of Helene, the main character. Since it is an auto-biography it's in first person and as Cooper talks about her amazing family history she writes it as if it is nothing and very matter of faculty. She talks about one of her less accomplished relatives like this, "Cecil Dennis, the minister of foreign affairs, was my cousin, although we called him Uncle Cecil" (12). Cooper is related to these amazing historic figures of Liberia, but show that her eight-year old self doesn't see them as anything but aunts and uncles. The position that Helene is in is like being somehow related to all four of America's founding fathers. Or as Cooper describes it, "Daddy had clout, but Mommee ruled Sugar Beach" (13). It's very interesting to view the royal class from the perspective of a young girl when the royal class is all she knows.
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2 comments:
I had to go back and read your first post to understand what the book was about, but now it sounds really interesting. Your thoughts on her perspective are very observant, and require some pondering. It's strange to think about how someone else sees themselves, or how others see you. For example, what if a way underpriveleged person saw us living the way we do with the education we get and went "Wow, all of their friends and family are well educated and well off. That's amazing!" Weird to think about, huh?
In the connection that Helene has to these important figures, we can see that to her they are family and their position hardly crosses her mind. This could be because of her childish ignorance but it could also signify what he stance on family vs. society is. In society it appears her family is upper-class and this could get messy as it does for many people with these kinds of connections; however, Helene's stance on the ethical question seems to be family over society. If Helene's uncle Cecil committed a felony as minister, I'm sure Helene would (aside from what her parents tell her to believe) believe that Uncle Cecil was dishonest or did something wrong rather than denouncing his acts because of his higher status.
I'm not sure if this is a strong assumption, but this is what I can conclude from reading your post.
:) sounds like an interesting book.
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