Page 109, Paragraph 4
'"The girls are dressed like they're going to The Cave nightclub for cocktails and dancing. Too agonizing for words," Marion Walker whispered.'
I chose this quote because it illustrates the difficulties the newcomers had fitting in. They all dressed up for the dance and none of the Vancouver kids weren't nearly as formally dressed. They were thought of as weird and this quotation shows how the other children thought of them. This party didn't actually end up working at all, because the whole point of having the party was so that the orphans and the Vancouver children could mix. Marilyn even tells her father later that the party wasn't a success.
Text to Self: This reminds me of my friend Nina's twelfth birthday party last year. She goes to the school I went to until grade three, and she is the one friend from that school I still see sometimes. But when I went to her party last yea, I realized I completely did not fit in anymore. Everyone was talking about people and things and events that I kew nothing about. I kept to the fringes of the party, not fully participating, because I just didn't know these people anymore.
Text to World: This is the sort of thing I imagine the Aboriginal people must of said to each other when explorers from Europe first came to North America. They must have thought that the clothes they wore were odd, and said things like this to their friends.
Text to Text: This quote reminds me of a short story I read, Eating at the End-of-the-World-Cafe. In this story, everyone lives in this huge city, which is centred around the "Pit". You never really know what the "Pit" is, except that it's supposedly really horrible and people work there. At one point, a man who works there walks into a cafe, and instantly everything is quiet and people start whispering uncomfortably. He sits down away from everyone else and everyone ignores him after that. This seems a lot like the situation the newcomers find themselves in at Barbara's party.
I think that this is an important part of the story also because like you said, it illustrates the difficulties that the orphan kids had fitting but also it shows how the Vancouver kids thought of the orphans. I think that the main idea of the Greenies is fitting in and the party was a foreshadow of the climax because at the party everybody's talking about how the two distinct groups can't mix and when Max runs away everyone knows the two groups can't mix. You did a very good job at writing that up with your own experiences in your text to text, text to self, and text to world connections. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if your text to text quote was completely relevant because in the text there are two distinct groups meeting and in your relations there is just one guy meeting and there is not silence in the text just not much social interaction between the groups. There is also the same factor but lesser in your text to self response. I know it's hard to find experiences like that though, so the comments are better than they are worse. Once again I applaud you!
Yes, the party is significant. I remember when I read that part feeling very uncomfortable for the orphan kids. All of us can think of a time when we didn't fit in somewhere. For these young people it was their whole new life that was always on the line at home, at school, with peers. The alienated feeling was always there.
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