Thursday, February 24, 2011
Welcome to Foxcroft AP English Strange As This Weather Has Been
Welcome to a conversation about the novel Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. This is a contemporary novel about a family, a place, and something which threatens to destroy everything that they have ever had. It is a novel about nature, about environmental ethics, but mostly, a novel about people trying to learn what their life is about and what values that they hold the dearest and what things matter most to them. It is about love and choices and amazing discoveries. It is about the conflicts in families, the differences in siblings and often tenuous relationship between nature and human beings. The quality of our understanding of this book and what it holds for us, the reader, will depend on our ability to help each other see it from the varied perspectives that our wide experiences provide. We will be scattered all over the world, yet this discussion will unite us and bring us back together about ideas and human longings and what makes life, in the end, worth living.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We should take a field trip to mountain top removal site :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sarah
ReplyDeleteSo for my homework I am supposed to talk about the relationship between mother and daughter, and husband and wife. I think that the main difference in the relationship is the connection that each character has to nature. Lace has a huge connection with nature that started with her mother and was spread to Bant through the two generations. This connection bonds both Bant and Lace together, and separates Lace and Jimmy Make because he does not see as much of the significance that the two of them do. Lace is always worried about the destruction of the land, but wants to stay where they are living, while Jimmy does not think anything will happen, but wants to leave anyways. This shows how Lace will fight for her land and past while Jimmy Make is less emotional with the land and is willing to let it go. This strong connection that the women have with nature also drives them. Lace is hard headed and wants to fight the mountaintop removal men because she has this strong connection, and Bant's relationship with nature also drives her curiosity with the No-Trespassing site and her drive to be informed about the situation.
ReplyDeleteBy telling the story through different people’s perspective, the novel becomes more in depth because the reader is able to envision a single event through many different eyes. Beginning with Lace, the reader is able to enter the world of a West Virginian girl who has to endure flash floods as dams break and becoming pregnant with the baby of a fifteen year old boy. Switching to Bant, Lace’s daughter, the story focuses on one specific event: the flood and how it affected their home. Bant is perched in the front seat of Jimmy Make’s truck as they watch the water rush around their house, sweeping debris in violent whirlpools as Lace is fighting her way through the onslaught searching for the weed-eater. This same event is seen through the eyes of Corey who is in the house watching the rain pour down in torrents, the first of the household to see the roaring water approaching his home. He sits there watching as Lace races out to save the tractor and the weed-eater. It is the same event, but seen through different eyes, through different angles and with different details. This way provides a more in depth and detailed explanation of events, details that would have been lost with just a single perspective.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the third chapter, the reader knows that Lace is stubborn and bull-headed as well as confused about her role in life. The reader also knows that she is pregnant by Jimmy Make, the boy that she has been sleeping with. Bant is similar to her mother, yet she is shy and docile. She also respects her grandmother and tries hard not to disappoint her. She is hardworking and tends to think too much about the world, especially about the mountain top removal that occurs on the mountain above her house, for her age. Corey is just a kid. He is rebellious and goes against his mother’s wishes. He is also manipulative, talking his brother Tommy into doing just about anything. He is very self-centered and wants nothing more than to somehow elevate his position through material means. He really wants a four wheeler and decides that he will find the parts to make his own. Jimmy Make is immature. At fifteen, he is quiet, clever and mature for his age. As the story continues, he loses that cleverness and that maturity, belittling himself and acting immature for his age and the responsibilities he now possesses (his family).
I also agree with Sarah concerning the relationships. They really are centered around nature, both fauna and human. Lace cares for her children like a mother which compliments human nature while simultaneously caring what happens to her home, the land her family has lived on for generations. Jimmy's relationship with nature is different and because of this difference, Jimmy and Lace are stuck in a love/hate relationship, while Bant who shares her mother's opinions is in a loving relationship with her mother.
Bant is very similar to her mother. They are both stubborn and righteous, especially concerning the mountain top removal. Both mother and daughter are strongly against it, Lace because it is forcing her from her home. Bant cares for a different reason. She cared for her grandmother who in turn cared for the forest and mountain that the mine workers are steadily destroying. I believe that Bant cares about the mining because of this more than because of the fact that it will eventually force her to move. Also unlike Lace, Bant does not want to care; she possesses a morbid curiosity concerning the whole subject, wanting to know while at the same time dreading the answer. Overall, Lace and Bant are quite similar and possess a stronger relationship than Lace and Jimmy do.
ReplyDeleteLace and Jimmy fight at every opportunity. They dislike each other with a passion, the same passion that ironically brought them together. It is revealed that Lace does not marry Jimmy until she realizes that she is pregnant with his second child. Up until this point, their relationship was rocky; Jimmy was never around and went long stretches of time without seeing either Lace or Bant. Their relationship revolved more around sex than anything else. In the case of Lace and Jimmy, regardless of circumstances (Bant and the new pregnancy), Jimmy and Lace should not have gotten married. They are two completely different people and they will never be able to reconcile their differences. Their relationship is based on yelling, screaming and hatred while Lace’s relationship with Bant is full of love and compassion probably because they are so alike.
Lace is driven by her sheer stubbornness. She refuses to leave West Virginia because it is her home and she is willing to do everything in her power to stop what threatens the land: the mining mountain top removal; she is dedicated. Bant, on the other hand, is more driven by the fact that her grandmother loved the mountain so much. She cares that it is being destroyed because when she was growing up it was the place that she and her grandma went together. Bant constantly thanks god that Grandma is there to see what the mining company is doing to her precious mountain because Bant knows that the destruction would have killed her.
How do the relationships between the mother and daughter and the women and their husbands differ? What drives each woman? Why?
ReplyDeleteStrong mother-daughter relationships span three generations in the novel, beginning with Lace and her mother. Although Lace resists her mother's authority from time to time, she has genuine respect for her mother, who teaches her the ways of the woods and inspires in her a deep appreciation for nature. Lace's relationship to her mother mirrors the relationship she develops with her own daughter, Bant. As soon as she is old enough to walk, Bant begins to learn about and to value all the plants, animals, and other natural aspects of Yellowroot. Later on, despite growing to reject her mother's advice on matters such as visiting the nearby mine site, Bant still holds the same essential spiritual connection to nature that Lace does. Nature provides for Lace, and gives her strength in times of need, such as when she collects and sells plants and herbs to earn money during her first pregnancy. For Bant, nature allows her to feel closer to her deceased grandmother, who honored the natural world as something almost sacred. Both women are driven and empowered by their connection to nature; ultimately, it is what tethers the two to Yellowroot. The rest of their family members, however, do not share the same attachment.
Lace's husband, Jimmy Make, seems particularly detached from Yellowroot and its surrounding environment. This stems from Jimmy Make's status as an outsider, placing him in contrast to Lace and Bant, who were both born and raised in Yellowroot. Lace was once in love with Jimmy Make, but gradually loses all feelings for him except for anger and resentment. Much of this is the result of Jimmy's passive regard for nature, which he does not feel the same need to preserve and protect as Lace does. While Lace joins an environmental group and protests mountaintop-removal mining, Jimmy wants only to leave West Virginia and return to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he will be able to find a job. Jimmy's "city" mindset juxtaposed against Lace's "country" values drives them further and further apart as the novel progresses.
I appreciate how Pancake portrays the three generations of women through out the novel. Lace's mother, Lace and Bant are all bound to Yellowroot because of their love of the land and their dependence on it. The appreciation for the mountains and its bounty serves as a common thread between the three women that ultimately enriches their relationships with one another. Strange as This Weather is a novel in particular highlights the strength of rural southern women.
ReplyDeleteOn the back of the book the author is hailed as "Appalachia's Steinbeck". After reading that particular comment I could not help but think about the similarities between Strange as This Weather Has Been and Grapes of Wrath. Lace, her mother, Bant and Ma Joad are women who amidst poverty, fraying of familial ties and natural disaster exhibit vast fortitude and strength during times of hardship. Parallels continue between the women of both novels as they are compelled to solely serve their families when the patriarchs of their families (Jimmy Make, Lace's father, and Pa Joad) no longer serve as figure heads.
The shifting voice molds the story because we get a view point of each character and we are able to obtain a deeper understanding of what is going on. Each character tells their part of the story, which ties the whole story into one. The shifting of voices is very interesting and keeps the reader entertained because something different is constantly happening. In the beginning chapters we learn that about a woman named Lace, who drops out of college and gets pregnant by a 15 year old named Jimmy Make. These characters are from a rural West Virginia. We are also introduced to Lace's daughter, named Bant. We learn that Bant is very familiar with the woods and land. Her grandmother would take her out and tell her that she can live off of the land. We also meet Bant's brothers Corey and Tommy. Corey has a obsession for Seth's four wheeler, which his family cannot afford. Tommy is always following his older brother Corey in whatever he is doing. So far we know that this story is about a poor, West Virginian family, who love the land.
ReplyDeleteBant is so concerned about what is happening on the mountain because the mountain is everything that she knows. Bant was born and raised on the mountain, her most precious and fondest memories come from the mountain. Her grandmother would take her out and teach her the ways of the land. Her grandmother told her that if she knows what she is doing that she can live off of the mountain. Bant spent a lot of time on the mountain, since she was a little baby and her mother took her berry picking. The mountain is Bant's home without her home what is she left with. She is so concerned because if her home (the mountain) is destroyed nothing is left for her. Her memories, family, and home will be destroyed and ruined forever is the mountain top is destroyed. Without the mountain and the land Bant has nothing.
ReplyDeleteIn response to: What is striking about Mogey’s chapter?
ReplyDeleteHow does Lace’s chapter complement or contradict Mogey’s?
Mogey’s chapter stands out due to the amalgamation of the notions of religion and the essence of the woods. The chapter begins with Mogey stating how his beliefs stand – “I have never felt in church a feeling anyplace near where I get in the woods.” He elucidates that although he is a Christian, his encounters in the woods and the feelings he derives from the sheer presence of it all, the trees, the dirt, the animals, is what equates the holiness that most people derive from prayer. His encounter with the buck and his ability to feel its presence without actually seeing the animal gives Mogey a divine sense of life, which is why he holds within him such a strong affinity and sense of possession for the land.
The progression from the spiritual encounter of the buck, to the atrophying state of him mind due to headaches brought on by the toxic contents of the mining site and the inner torment of the fact of the evil happenings of the sites, brings to attention the extent of the damage that the mountain top removal causes. The nightmares about the fanged and metal teethed deer, to the dreams about the ending of the universe, are the products of the mental and emotional troubles that Mogey, and the other inhabitants of Yellowroot suffer.
Lace’s chapter morbidly compliments Mogey’s chapter in an unsuspected beautiful manner. The focus on both Lace’s and Jimmy Make’s aging, hers being inner and his outer, bring about the notion of the toll that the troubles of Yellowroot and the mining companies inflict upon the townspeople. Jimmy Make’s distance is brought about by the strenuous workload he undergoes everyday at the mine, and Lace’s torments stem from the blockading of the land, as well as the emotional separation from her husband. Although the family has fallen upon rough times, especially when Jimmy Make is laid off, Lace continues to sincerely feel and believe that they still possess a sense of togetherness – because, in the end, they are in it together.
When Lace and Jimmy Make move to North Carolina, they last a few years, until Lace’s mother’s death causes her daughter to have a violent yearning to return to Yellowroot. This beautifully compliments Mogey’s chapter in that it showcases the heartfelt connection that the people who grew up on the land feel and how they always find a way to return, because it is their home, first and foremost. The morbidity of Lace’s chapter stems from not only her mother’s death, but due to Lace’s realization of the reality of her life, as proven to her upon the move. The industrial setting of the townhouse, which is situated near a highly busy interstate, and the coldness of the people towards her and her children (Jimmy Make is seemingly detached because he has a role in Raleigh through working as a miner), causes Lace to feel the extent of her unimportance in the world without her family as well as the woods of Yellowroot.
****THIS IS CLANCEY YOVANOVICH****
ReplyDeleteI just want to say, that this blog is the hardest thing I've ever had to conquer....
I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of this novel. However, I really like how Pancake illustrates the relationship between mother and daughter. Although Lace and Bant suffer through the struggles of generational differences, they both share a deep compassion for their home. Bant seems to have this love for West Virginia since she was a child. She went through her youth with a playfulness and curiosity for the world around her. However, Lace's love for her home comes with age. As an adolescent, Lace sought to get away from home. She often argued with her parents, snuck out, and attended college. Home was a place that she felt suffocated in, but after college she grew to appreciate it.
Bant is alot like Jimmy Make. They are both laid-back and natural, unlike Lace who often seems very anxious. Pancake plays with this relationship. Jimmy Make is not an award-winning father. He is still young and has not been able to step up to every fatherly duty, Lace might have hoped for. However, there is no denying that Bant is his child.
I agree with what Claire said about Lace and Bant being very connected to nature. It is evident even from the beginning how they are both linked to their surroundings. Lace feels a pull home from life at college because she misses the mountains and the place she grew up in. Even in Lace's pregnancy with Bant, she travels into the mountains to pick and dig up things from the ground to sell. Perhaps this is why Bant is connected to nature when she is born, because of the inexplicable connection her mother instilled in her before birth. Bant's oneness with nature is clear even in her beginning chapters. When she is running through the woods to her Uncle Mogey's the reader can see how she loses herself in the nature around her. Then later when she visits the mountain top removal site, she feels an emptiness inside herself after seeing the destruction the land: what the land feels, she feels. Both Lace and Bant display early in the novel their link to the world they live in and it is not a surprise that they both remain there, fighting for the land and themselves, in the end.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Maggie is me, Arabella. Just a heads up!
ReplyDeleteChapters 7-10-
ReplyDeleteBant is so concerned with the mountain’s destruction, because it is her whole life. It is also her last connection to her grandmother. Her grandmother gave her the gift of being able to love the mountain and appreciate it and what it can give. Also the mountain gave her a house and food for her whole life because that is how her father got a majority of his income. She has these concerns because such a large amount of her life revolves around these mountains. She feels bonded to the mountains, so she worries about them. Also the destruction of the mountains can lead to the destruction of the town she lives in and all the people she loves. Bant has not resolved her relationship issues. She still has a nonexistent relationship with both her parents. She shows no real affection towards them and only discusses them fighting.
Pages 100-167-
The mountain and her love for the family drive both the grandmother and Bant. Bant does not want to do wrong by her family, so she works hard. She loves the land the surrounds her and cannot deal with it being harmed. Lace is driven by angry and her family. She is angry, because she cut herself short and got pregnant. She is angry with Jimmy, because she had to marry him. She is driven by her family, because she loves them and must raise them. Lace rarely interacts with Bant, so there is not much of a relationship there. She gives her the best name she can and loves her dearly because she is her first born and helps her grow up, but other than that there isn’t much, because Lace is always working of fighting with Jimmy. The relationship between Jimmy and Lace is one built off resentment. They were obligated to marry because of Bant and then also Dane. There is very little love left in their marriage, and they are always fighting. The relationship between daughter and mother is one based on love, while the other is not.
For my homework/blog lead: pp. 200-278 How does Avery tell his story? What effect does it have on you as a reader?
ReplyDeleteAvery tells his story through a series of memories resurrected by his interactions with Dr. Livey. He does not reveal any specific details to Dr. Livey, claiming that he only remembers waking up next to a dog, floating on a log. He lets the reader learn the true story through his internal reflections about the Battle Creek debacle. Avery uses many specifics in his story, such as what he and Tad wore that day and what debris floated by him as he was floundering among the removal sludge, that allow the reader to better picture his experience. Avery also tells the story out of order, which allows the reader to put the storyline together piece by piece, creating a more intimate understanding of Avery and his encounter. As a reader I was able to see Avery in a new light after the telling of his tragedy. Before, I had seen him as the outsider from Cleveland who could not relate to any of the other characters, but now I see him as the easiest to relate to of them all. He experienced what all the other characters fear will happen to them. In essence, he is their probable future. I also see Avery as a more understanding and sensitive man after hearing his thought process through the event and his regrets about Tad’s death.
How would you compare Dane and Corey? What do they add to the family?
Dane is sensitive and meek. His body is disproportioned and shaped more womanly that man. He is very concerned about his lack of masculinity and is always brooding, internally, about his want for strength and muscles. Corey also carries concerns for his masculinity, but the difference is, Corey is developing into his masculinity. He is already more muscular than Dane, even being two years younger. Corey takes risks and is much more adventurous than Dane. He is not afraid to take a chance or do a stupid stunt, for he thrives on living on the edge. Dane is much more self-preserved, but because of his older age, he must be the working son. He works for Miss Taylor as her housekeeper/maid, which further emasculates him. Corey is much like Jimmy Make, sort of a miniature Make and adds that sense of familiarity to the family. He will be the one to step up to the plate and do hard labor to provide for the family as only a “real man” can do. Dane adds sobriety and sensitivity to a hectic household and differs greatly from his siblings.
In response to one of the early blog post prompts "Does Bant successfully resolve her relationship issues? Why is she so concerned about what is happening on the mountain?" Bant in her relationship with her family is fairly detached but she sympathizes with her siblings. She wants to shield them from witnessing the dysfunction of their parents relationship and greatly pities her brothers because they cannot remember when Yellow Root was untouched by mountain top mining. The state of nature reflects the happiness and well being of many characters in the novel. The perfect example of this phenomena is Mogey. His health greatly degenerates as mining companies further defile the natural beauty of West Virginia. This also occurs with Lace and Bant. For the three characters nature provides a spiritual sustenance and when the natural landscape suffers so do Mogey, Lace and Bant. This is why Bant is so concerned with what is taking place on top of the mountain and compels her to take whatever measures she needs to take in order to obtain the truth.
ReplyDeleteHW question: Does Bant successfully resolve her relationship issues? Why is she so concerned about what is happening on the mountain?
ReplyDeleteBant finds herself attracted to a young miner from Ohio when her mother, Lace, fights against the mountaintop removal strip mining. She gets a chance to hear both sides of stories here. She has heard from Lace the environmentalist, all her life, that the mountaintop removal strip mining is a calculated evil. The young miner, R.L., however, explains that he needs the mining job for "good money." Bant struggles between her personal connection to the mountain and her passion for R.L. Although she has lived around the mountain most of her life and all her memories are set there, Bant is attracted to R.L. She even asks herself, "if you love him, is it still a sin?", and decides that she is not going to touch or fall in love with him. The relationship, however, gets deeper, for she cannot control her passion.
THIS IS ARABELLA
ReplyDeleteHW QUESTION:What is striking about Mogey’s chapter?How does Lace’s chapter complement or contradict Mogey’s?
Mogey’s chapter highlights the relationship between man and earth- especially the relationship between Mogey and the land he lives on. Mogey has a greater connection with the mountain, animals, and nature, than he does with God. He does not find God in the church, he finds God in nature: To him, God is nature. Mogey’s chapter is striking because it is less about the immoral, dangerous and destructive forces of mining, but more about the inexplicable connection Mogey feels to the earth. He disagrees with mining because it kills the land, people come from the land, and therefore people should feel the destruction too. Some fight against the mountaintop removal and mining because it is wrong and hazardous to their safety, but Mogey fights it for the land. Lace chapter complements Mogey’s chapter because they both talk about the pull they receive from the land. Even as Lace gets pulled away by children, North Carolina, and other forces, she ultimately returns to her home in West Virginia, because she is forever connected with it.
Strange as this Weather Has Been utilizes very different relationships between characters to represent the human species symbiosis (or lack there of) with nature. Probably the most interesting example of two characters working both with and against the land (and against one another as well) is the relationship between Lace and Jimmy Make. Pancake compares their attachment initially to a vine. The vine symbolizes the “aliveness” of their relationship as well as the land. As time continues, however, that vine turns to rope. The relationship becomes synthetic and the land begins to die. Lace and Bant have a very different relationship from that of her and Jimmy Make. Bant has a very living relationship with her mom. Both Lace and Bant have a strong connection with the land, and so long as the land lives, so does their “love”.
ReplyDeleteHW question: Does Bant successfully resolve her relationship issues? Why is she so concerned about what is happening on the mountain?
ReplyDeleteBant never truly resolves her relationship problems with R.L. But then again, does she ever want to? The relationship between R.L and Bant , though mostly physical, takes an emotional toll on Bant. In the midst of dealing with the age gap of the relationship and his “pressures” on her, R.L also changes her view on the mountain top mining. Her whole life she has thought it a disgusting and horrible act, however, R.L, a miner, convinces her that it is needed for her family and his to make money. She is torn between making her own decisions about the mountain top, moving away from her family, or moving away from the boy who makes her feel “grown up”.