Friday, January 16, 2009

WEBA

WEBA= We eat Books Alive was born officially this month. We haven't even made it through the first book and are already having more fun than we can hardly stand. Our book for Jan is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Feel free to join in if you so desire.

Questions for discussion:

Why does Francie love her father more when he is the one who is a jobless drunk?
What sterotypes, prejudices, or assumptions do we have about those who are less fortunate and how can we remedy this?

4 comments:

  1. She loves her father more because he causes her to dream... tells her he will do this or that and gives her a false sense of hope but it is hope nonetheless. Whether or not it happens isn't as much of an issue... what is important to someone who has nothing is to be able to have a dream, a place they can go in their mind when reality is too much to handle.

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  2. I am not proud of my answer to this question because I know that I innacurately judge others without having a clue what road they have walked down and it is completely unfair and not what I desire to be considering these are the ones Jesus hung out with the most. If someone is poor I wonder if they have made bad choices, if they use drugs, are uneducated, may be likely to live in a certain area, may be lacking in character, etc. How I long to think of the less fortunate is more like hi, listen I don't know or care how you got here... is there anything I can do to help you?

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  3. I really like your answer to the first one. Don't you find that it is different how you see things now that you are a parent? Like I am trying to see it from her parent's point of view and judging them much more harshly than I would otherwise because well, I hope I would never do that to my children. There is a section in which Johnny turns away from Katie in the bedroom and it says he doesn't sleep all night (maybe around Ch. 18, it was after Francie told him about the infection from the shot)anyway, makes me think that maybe part of his drinking problem is how harsh Katie is with Francie and that it really bothers him more than we know. He certainly has his moments of shining through as the better half of that parenting duo.

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  4. this seems fun, if I can ever find time to read I would like to join! We may be coming into town this weekend. If so maybe we can stop by and see you guys if you aren't busy?

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