Conceal

Does the author use point of view primarily to reveal or to conceal?

 

In the book the point of view is first person, therefore Christopher is the narrator. The author, Andrew E. Kaufman uses this point of view to conceal what’s really going on. The author wants the reader to stay trapped in Christopher’s mind and believe what he sees. Even though Christopher was losing his mind, his point of view made sense and made it seem like there was a chance he wasn’t actually going crazy. Part of having schizophrenia meant that Christopher withdrew from reality. He had a voice in his head that told him what to do and he listened. 

 

When Christopher wakes up from one of his dreams he thinks, “Moments ago, I was walking into my son’s room, but I’ve got no memory of what occurred after, no idea how I ended up here. Or is it actually a memory? Did the trip to my son’s room even happen?” (103)

 

Christopher’s mind made it seem like everyone was out to get him. His best friend betrayed him. He even thought his boss was in on it. In the book there were things that made it seem like Christopher was right. For example when Christopher started seeing new faces at Loveland he went to his best friend, Adam, but all he would say was that he didn’t know what he was talking about. At the end of the book the truth is revealed to Christopher seeing it as the doctor’s point of view.

 

When Christopher tried to explain what has been happening in Loveland Adam responds with, ” ‘Chris,”… “I’m very concerned about you. Has Rob called back with the results of your MRI yet?’ ” (228)

Reality

Is the ending happy, unhappy, or indeterminate (just ends, leaves you hanging, the conflict is not clearly resolved). Is the ending the appropriate ending for this book?

 

As the book is ending Cristopher starts seeing different scenes of his son, Devon, dying. He has a hard time realizing what’s real and not. Once in awhile Cristopher would come back to reality and see Donny Ray’s face, but this time he was not the patient. A white light flashes and Christopher starts dreaming again

 

When Christopher wakes up from “that sleep of death” he, “…notice[s] the badge clipped to his shirt. Dr. Donald Raymond.” (313)

 

Christopher gets very confused as to why the killer is sitting up over him with a badge that said he was a doctor. Donny Ray starts to explain that everything. That what Christopher has dreamt wasn’t real. His mind flipped everything backwards. The story ends with Christopher killing Devon on a car accident. In the book there was a scene where Christopher had a car accident but he was alone. He claimed that the tree he hit was evil and put a curse on him. Now that Christopher knows what happened to his son that gave him clarification. Donny Ray tells Christopher that he’s been sleep for a year, then Jenna walks in and instead of having a dissapionted face she is truly glad to see him. They hug and come together in unity and the book ends.

 

As Christopher drives home he thinks to himself, “The tree looks worse at night, and drawing closer, I could swear the big ugly thing is staring at me,  it’s gnarled roots bulging from the ground like giant arteries full of poison, waiting to wrap themselves around me.” (93)

 

I feel like the book ended good because there was really no solution to Christopher’s problems. I expected something more like Jenna leaving him but it was the opposite.

Going Insane

 Is the main conflict between sharply differentiated good and evil, or is it more subtle and complex? Sharply differentiated means that it is easy to see the contrast and the characters are clearly good or evil.

 

The main conflict in the story is very subtle and complex. Christopher, a psychologist at Loveland Hospital, has a history of schizophrenia that started with his father. Throughout Christopher’s youth he’s experienced his father’s abnormal behavior while his mother refused to see reality. Each day he feared he would become the monster his father once was. While Christopher is evaluating one of the most dangerous killers at Loveland, he realizes that Donny Day, the patient, is out to kill his son. Or at least that’s what Christopher believes.

 

During a session with Donny Ray he says to Christopher,“‘I came into your life to tear it down, and I’m not going to stop until I break it. That sweet, beautiful boy of yours is the last thing holding it up. But not for long.’” (262)

 

Slowly Loveland is slipping through Christopher’s mind and he accuses Donny Ray for it. In the book Christopher has a car accident and hit a tree. From there he began to lose track of time and his memory. To relieve him from the thought of following in his father’s footsteps, he goes to get an MRI. Christopher and Jenna, his wife, began to worry more when the MRI confirms that the accident did no damage. Now Christopher knows that he has a limited time before his mind slips completely. The conflict is that Christopher doesn’t know what’s real and what isn’t. He begins to see Donny Ray everywhere.

 

Christopher is fighting Donny Ray and “In a flash, [He] spring[s] upward. Donny Ray flies into reverse and smashes into the wall, but before he can regroup, [He’s] on him again, hands gripped tightly around his neck. ‘Dad, stop! I can’t breathe!’ The sound of Devon’s voice startles [Him]. [He] see my hands clutched around his neck. [He] see him choking for air.” (278)

 

Racism

In this book, it deepens what we already know about racism. There has been many stories about the struggles of blacks and whites and this was one of them. There were many times in the story where Nathan faced racial problems that affected him in throughout his life. Many of the racial problems in the book are also common things that happened back in those times like segregation and unequal treatment.

When Nathan was young and attended a mostly white school he says, “At Mapp I was the only African American in most of my classes. When I walked into one room and sat down, the students near me would get up and move away, as if my dark skin were dirty and hideous to them.” (19)

In most cases that was considered a normal thing to blacks, or at least it was becoming normal to Nathan. What made what we already know deeper was that Nathan was one of the few blacks to actually become somebody. It was the hardships and determination he had that made the book interesting. What we already know is that most blacks were not successful in life and that many of them were exactly like the stereotype whites made up, but this book helped to look at things from a more positive point of view, where a black person made it into the “white” world. What was even more positive about it was that Nathan made it out even with a criminal record, what most blacks in the book admired.

Makes Me Wanna Holler?

The title Makes Me Wanna Holler signifies the frustration and the hardships of life as an African American. The word holler, to me, signifies the frustrations coming out from blacks as a way of hollering, because that’s all they could do to express themselves. Since the title refers to someone wanting to yell but not actually doing it, means to me that all the emotions and anger that they feel is kept inside.

“In the book Nathan uses the title as a way to describe his emotions. After listening to a song he says, “That’s how I felt. I wanted to holler. Listening to that album and thinking about all my problems made me feel like crying.” (133)

Because of the title, I understood better the way Nathan reacted to things like racism or difficult situations. Once he was released from prison he decided to approach things in a more subtle way. To me that represent the part of the title that means keeping all their emotions inside because Nathan began to close off from people rather than express his true feelings like he did before. He began to realize that in a world like that, with racism and unfair treatment, there was no room for messing up. Messing up included expressing his true feelings because expressing your feelings caused more problems. As for other characters in the book, ones who chose to express their feelings in ways of anger and resentment, tend to live harder stressful lives only because they don’t know any other way to express themselves.

The Change

Nathan Mcall developed a lot while going through the struggles growing up as a black male in the late 1900’s. He faced many racial discouragements that led him to troubles throughout his life including 12 years in prison for armed robbery. This had made a huge impact on who he was and how it changed him. During his time in person he met a lot of wise people and got involved in the religion Christianity. In one section of the book it shows how Nathan began to change his way of thinking about life and the choices he’s made now that he was in touch with his spiritual side.

After reading a poem that inspired him, Nathan thought,“That poem challenged me to reexamine self-imposed limitations and encouraged me to fight nagging fears that I had ruined my life beyond repairs.” (173)

Looking at all the people Nathan grew up around, I think that he changed drastically. Many of the people in the book described as Nathan’s homies have positive effect on him making him realize his past mistakes and by helping him see where he doesn’t want to be. After 3 years he was released from prison and he immediately started a new life in a new city. To me, this change is believable because I feel like if I were in prison for that amount of time I’d make those changes also. In the end, all of Nathan’s hard work, dedication, and success led him to become a better person, not only for himself, but  for his family and his 3 kids too.

Good and Evil

The main conflict in this book is between sharply differentiated good and evil. In my opinion, I believe that Nathan, and the blacks, are good and the whites are bad. The reason why I feel like the whites are bad is because throughout the story Nathan faces many racial problems that affects his emotional and mental state, and not just him but also the people he cares about most. As Nathan goes through 3 unexpected pregnancies and 2 divorces, he finds the harder problem hiding his perplexed life as a black man from his job life with white the judgmental people. On top of that, he struggles to find his identity as an African American in a white society.

When Nathan was at a second job session for a newspaper he thought to himself, “Blend, as much as your pride will allow. Speak in crisp, clear Queen’s English, hardening the d’s, the t’s, and the “ing’s”. And don’t forget: Sit straight, but not tall. That might be threatening to them.”(254)

Situations like that helped Nathan to see the different perspectives from each race. As I read more situations, like the one at the session, I began to agree and understand some of the emotions he had toward whites. Nathan felt like he was limited in his life because of his race. Every time he went back to his hometown he felt like every black he ran into was going on the wrong path in life which made him work harder to prove their stereotype wrong.

About Me as a Reader

My name is Divine and I am a sophomore in high school.

My favorite books are Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Biography of Jenni Rivera by Jenni Rivera. The reason why the book Of Mice and Men is one of my favorite books is because it caught my attention the first time I began to read it. I’m not a reader either. When I read books I always tend to read them and never finish. It was actually a class assignment to read this book, and at first I didn’t want to read it but I was fascinated by the interesting stories and characters it had. The reason why the biography of Jenni Rivera is one of my favorite books is because I thought her life story before she was a singer was very shocking and I was always was intrigued by all the stories she had throughout the book.

The books I dislike are The Giver by Lois Lowry, Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, and Nancy Drew books like The Hidden staircase. These books were so boring to me because they had stories that were very plain and didn’t have events throughout the story that captured my attention. I also felt like their writing was very dull and lifeless to me.

My favorite character in of Mice and Men was Lennie. Lennie was my favorite because he was different, he wasn’t a normal person. I liked the fact that he had a caring heart even though he did things unintentionally like kill Curley’s wife. Another character I liked was Jenni Rivera because she was the main character and all her the book was basically about her.

My least favorite character was Curley. Curley was very rude and had an attitude that wasn’t pleasant and I didn’t like it.

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