Outside Reading

My outside reading book The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper is very interesting and thought provoking because it takes place in a completely different part of the world, Liberia. Even so, the people there are very aware of the US. At one point Cooper says of when she was young, "Standing in my bedroom looking at myself in the mirror, I tried to relax my cheeks and drop my consonants like the American kids did, and added extra r's. 'Hey thar. How ya doin? What's up blood?'"(94). There fascination seems so odd because living here it doesn't seem like something special, it's easy to take the country's uniqueness for granted. But reading this book shows the "American Dream" is very much alive in other places. Helene strengthens this fact, but from her view as a young girl. She says, "In my fantasy, I looked fresh and hip and American or British as I swept off the plane after a year living in the States or London" (17). Her dream isn't to succeed in America, but to act and seem like one. It's a different take on the dream, but interesting still.

Even though the book does take place in a different hemisphere, there are still common things, such as Santa Claus. Cooper describes one of her Christmas experiences, saying, "Eunice and I were in my bedroom working on our Christmas lists when we heard the drums sounding in the distance, from the top of Sugar Beach road...At exactly the same time, we realized who it was. 'Santa Claus!' we yelled..." (107-108). It's fascinating to think that while children here are asking Santa for gifts, so are children across the world. It shows the unity of the world, that we are truly all connected, even though we aren't physically near. Still, we're reminded of the differences too. Later on the page Cooper describes her version of Mr. Claus, "...on stilts and wearing a grass skirt, a wooden mas with eyeholes, and a long blond wig, loped into the yard" (108). The Santa we know is old, fat and dressed in a large red robe. This is not Liberia's though. Even though we have eventually the same holiday, the takes are different. It reiterates the fact that, even in our unity there is differences which makes each place unique and interesting.