Connection

Can't believe the semester is already over! It has flown by and I can't believe we have already finished all of our novels. I remember looking at the list of novels on the first day of class and wondering how we were going to get through them all. Never fear, we did.

Each novel brought something new to the plate, each one opened my eyes just a little bit more. Not that I enjoyed every novel, but each one had a distinct impact on my mind. Whether it was large or small, it doesn't matter.
Today in class the question was asked as to what the connections throughout the semester in all of the novels we read were. The first thing that popped into my head was identity, searching for an identity. All of the novels we read, the characters were in search for something that was missing in their lives, searching for answers but in the end they were searching for who they were. The characters were trying to find where they fit in, if they fit it and how. All of these characters I am able to relate to because of that element. I believe that we can never truly find an identity since we are always change, just like society. Thus, our identity will be forever changing as well. There might be some parts in our lives, just like in Paradise where you hit "rock bottom" and need something to change in your life since it doesn't fit. But in the end, there is not a single identity to form.

To jump to another topic quickly. I wanted to say that after reading all of the novels I think that I enjoyed Edward P. Jones the most, his novel All of Aunt Hagar's Children. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but my speculation is that it truly made me think. It made me stretch and search for answers that I didn't know how to find, or even know what answers I was looking for. When I am looking through the novels we read, I have a lot of annoations and highlighted portions in his novel, not of questions but of exciting and great details, or those "wow" phrases! Jones gave it real character in his novel and voice. He has something truly distinctive about him.