Literature For Life

I want to yell at Louisa and ask why should would ever marry Bounderby when it is so apparent that deep down she does not wish to.  But I have to remind myself that times were different back then.  Not to mention, Mr. Gradgrind has, just about the worst advice possible regarding the marriage, telling Louisa to consider the facts:  Bounderby is wealthy, statistics show that couple's with big age differences can in fact be happy, and Louisa hasn't been asked for her hand in marriage by anyone else.  Of course, Louisa convinces herself that her father is right.  Who isn't influenced by their father?

If only Louisa were familiar with love as an emotion, maybe she could make this choice for herself.  Unfortunately, she is not familiar, and maybe never will be... (it's too early to tell).

The relationships between characters in Hard Times is almost identical to those in The Distance Between Us.

Sissy's father leaves her.

Louisa, the oldest sister loves her younger brother Thomas and cares for him like Mago did for Reyna.

Similar to how Reyna's mother, Mami did not make her family a priority, Mrs. Gradgrind obviously does not enjoy having kids.

Mr. Bounderby is pretty classist, condescending, snobbish, supercilious (should I go on?) for somebody who knows what it is like to start at the bottom.

I'm starting to sense a theme in this class:  fathers abandoning children, perhaps...

"NOW, WHAT I want is Facts" (p.1)  

This is the very first line in the book and seems to set the tone.  Mr. Gradgrind and Coketown are all about facts.  They do not encourage imagination in any way whatsoever.  If it does not have to do with hard solid facts, it is a waste of time.

After all, Mr. Gradgrind is "an eminently practical father," (p.8).

This mindset seems like it could suck the life out of people.  I already get the impression that Mrs. Gradgrind is boring as hell.  She seems like a robot with not life in her at all.  If the Gradgrinds keep at it, their kids will grow up to be robots too.

Creativity and imagination are evil to the Gradgrinds.  Mrs. Gradgrind even replied to Thomas and Louisa spying on the circus by exclaiming, "I declare you're enough to make one regret ever having a family at all" (p.13).  Seems pretty harsh for two young kids just satisfying their curiosity.  Granted times were much much different back then than they are now, but the mindset of this town is almost haunting - a town where you can fancy nothing, where you must walk through life with no inquisitions of the unconventional.  

I feel like all the people of this town should be in the same uniform with the same haircut all carrying the same book with them.

It is official, the title of the book, The Distance Between Us is referring to the emotional distance between Reyna and her mother.

At the end of the day, Papi did the right thing for his children by taking them to el otro lado.  Unfortunately, he lost himself in the process of raising them.

Diana reminds me of a role model of my own, Leslie Noel.  Leslie was my voice teacher from 8th grade through my senior year of high school.  She taught me everything I know about singing and performing and helped spark my love and passion for music.  I am now a recording arts major.  Just as Diana is helping Reyna pursue her dream of writing, Leslie has helped me pursue my dream of music.  

Dinner at La Perla may be the last nice memory Reyna has with her family.  And Carlos wasn't even there.

I guess it was only a matter of time until Mago moved out.  She's around that age.  I'm disappointed though that she is giving me reasons not to like her.  No goodbye... like mother like daughter in this case.  And pregnant or not, she could have done more than shout from a distance to defend Reyna from her father beating her.

Mila is a bit of a pansy and needs to acknowledge when Papi's punishments go from pretty harsh, to a little too physical (and illegal), to totally illegal.

However, Carlos dropping out on top of Mago dropping out does open up a door for Reyna.  Reyna has the chance to be the first Grande to graduate college.  She keeps on expressing this desire to be the first to do something to impress her father and now she has her chance.