"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find laughter in anything, even poverty, you can survive it." Bill Cosby
This quote could have come straight from the pages of Jeannette Walls' memoir The Glass Castle. It focuses on the hardships her family faced and how they managed to survive - one of those ways was through laughter. Rex Walls, her father, was a master at not only making people laugh during a miserable situation, but also completely turning it around and no one remembered why they were upset. "Dad got out of the car, knelt down, and tried to give me a hug. I pulled away from him...he said, 'you busted your snot locker pretty good.' I started laughing really hard...I told Brian and Lori and Mom about the word, and they all started laughing as hard as me. It was hilarious" (Walls 31). (At the time this occurred, Jeannette had been hurled from the car and left stranded in the middle of the desert until the family came to retrieve her some time after.) Rex was not trying to get her to forgive him, he was just doing what a dad should do - comfort his child. However, that single statement was enough to make Jeannette forget all about what happened and proves laughter can lighten a situation. No matter who said it or how it was said or why, we are always looking for something to brighten a bad situation.
The second part of the quote explains how powerful laughter can be. According to Bill Cosby, even something as miserable and degrading as poverty can be lightened with a little humor. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her family were forced to move from place to place with nothing but bare necessities. And yet, despite every time their father came home drunk or the roof leaked or there was no house to come home to at all, they survived. "We didn't have many toys, but you didn't need toys in a place like Battle Mountain. We'd get a piece of cardboard and go tobogganing...we'd jump off the roof...The thing we like to do most was go exploring in the desert" (54). Although they did not have much, the Walls were able to make the best of every situation. In this example, rather then whining about not having anything to do, they used their imaginations and came up with interesting ideas that brought hours and hours of fun. Laughter, in this sense, came from all the time Jeannette spent with her family having a good time and not worrying about their current social and financial situation.
* * * * *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW0XVno-0gM&feature=related - This is a link to a video I found on YouTube with Jeanette Walls reciting parts of her book. Her mother is also in the video showing some of her paintings - she is actually a very good artist. I thought this would be a great way to associate the characters from The Glass Castle with the real people (kind of like when we saw those pictures of the Clutters and where they lived).
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - 12
Besides the fact that Oskar participated in his school's production of Hamlet, there are several more connections between the two based on parallel structure of the families.
Both Oskar and Hamlet are affected by tragedies dealing with their fathers. In the latter's case, King Hamlet was killed by his brother Claudius. Hamlet was suspicious of his uncle, even though it had not been proven that he orchestrated the murder. Those feelings towards Claudius were fueled by his unresolved anger and frustration all stemming from the death of King Hamlet. Although he had a right to suspect Claudius, Hamlet lost focus and his emotions turned into a blind search for revenge. This same situation is also present in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Although Ron did not kill Oskar's father, he replaced him as the male figure in the family and thus all negative feelings were channeled towards him. In Oskar's eyes, Ron was stealing his father's position and did it intentionally. In both of these stories one can find examples of Sigmund Freud's Oedipus complex, which describes the subconscious sexual feelings a young child feels towards the parent of the opposite sex as well as hostility towards the parent of the same sex. With a new father entering the picture, both Hamlet (even though he is not a young child) and Oskar felt threatened.
Another example of the parallel structure between families is the relationship of mother and son. Hamlet and Gertrude did not have a particularly strong relationship. They were distant from one another and could not understand each other's points of view on King Hamlet's death and Claudius' new position. This barrier between the two isolates Hamlet as well as the fact that he has no father figure to confront. Instead, he is forced to search elsewhere for someone to understand. And although he has Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, there is no one he can trust implicitly except for himself. Like Hamlet, Oskar and his mother have a distant relationship. With Ron suddenly thrown into the mix as a "friend", as well as their unwillingness to see the other's point of view, Oskar is left with nothing but his troubled and questionable thoughts. "...but they didn't even hear me, because they were playing music too loud and cracking up too much...Even though I knew I shouldn't, I gave myself a bruise" (Foer 37). Due to the sudden disappearance of a father figure and the lack of attention and understanding from their mothers, Hamlet and Oskar are alone.
Both Oskar and Hamlet are affected by tragedies dealing with their fathers. In the latter's case, King Hamlet was killed by his brother Claudius. Hamlet was suspicious of his uncle, even though it had not been proven that he orchestrated the murder. Those feelings towards Claudius were fueled by his unresolved anger and frustration all stemming from the death of King Hamlet. Although he had a right to suspect Claudius, Hamlet lost focus and his emotions turned into a blind search for revenge. This same situation is also present in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Although Ron did not kill Oskar's father, he replaced him as the male figure in the family and thus all negative feelings were channeled towards him. In Oskar's eyes, Ron was stealing his father's position and did it intentionally. In both of these stories one can find examples of Sigmund Freud's Oedipus complex, which describes the subconscious sexual feelings a young child feels towards the parent of the opposite sex as well as hostility towards the parent of the same sex. With a new father entering the picture, both Hamlet (even though he is not a young child) and Oskar felt threatened.
Another example of the parallel structure between families is the relationship of mother and son. Hamlet and Gertrude did not have a particularly strong relationship. They were distant from one another and could not understand each other's points of view on King Hamlet's death and Claudius' new position. This barrier between the two isolates Hamlet as well as the fact that he has no father figure to confront. Instead, he is forced to search elsewhere for someone to understand. And although he has Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, there is no one he can trust implicitly except for himself. Like Hamlet, Oskar and his mother have a distant relationship. With Ron suddenly thrown into the mix as a "friend", as well as their unwillingness to see the other's point of view, Oskar is left with nothing but his troubled and questionable thoughts. "...but they didn't even hear me, because they were playing music too loud and cracking up too much...Even though I knew I shouldn't, I gave myself a bruise" (Foer 37). Due to the sudden disappearance of a father figure and the lack of attention and understanding from their mothers, Hamlet and Oskar are alone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
