First response to "Fun Home"

When I first got this book I was intrigued by the format that it was in. The way its set up like a comic book and pictures really caught me off guard. Growing up I was never really into comic books and as far as I can remember, I don't think that I had ever read one. This book is bringing on a new experience of reading for me because not only can I capture an image in my head through the text, but the pictures that are illustrated through out the entire book help paint a better picture in ones head through facial expressions, scenes, etc. when you might not know exactly whats going on the pictures clear up the confusion if any at all. When I found out that Alison was in fact gay, it was kind of like a go figure because of the pictures in the book when she was little she dressed like a little boy with a boy haircut. This isn't to say that any young girl that dresses like this will in fact turn out to be gay but had the pictures in the book not been there.

In the time of the butterflies

This book was pretty interesting. When i first started reading the book it seemed to drag a little bit and wasn't really appealing. I think this had to do with the fact that it started off with Dede meeting with the interviewer so i thought that the story would be just her recount of what the book was about. However in the second chapter when Minerva came in i realized that the this book would be like that. I think that that was the most interesting thing about the book that certain chapters were told by a different Maribal sister giving the reader a different point of view. The books ending surprised me as well when i found out that three of the sisters were killed although it was expected because the went against Trujillo, alot of the times the main characters always make it!!

Minerva is the third maribal sister. From an early age she was smart, and self confident. From an early age she wanted to become a lawyer but her father did not want her to, however he agreed to let her attend Inmaculada Concpcion with her older sisters. This was after she spent 3 years at home after graduating high school. Once shes up at school she becomes friends with Sinita Perozo. Sinita tells Minerva about the deaths of her male family members. They were murdered for resisting Trujillo. This is really what ignites the fire in Minerva to become involved in the anti-Trujillo underground movement. She discovers that an old childhood friend who was a boy that she definitaly had a crush on was writing her letters in which her father had hidden from her. This angrys her but she reaches a truce with her father although shes still cold to him. She discover she has four other sisters out of this. She then attends law school where she meets her husband Manolo Tavarez. I haven't read much farther than this! Hopefully ill be done with the book by sunday

"I dance"

The first page of this poem was a little hard for me to interpret what was going on because it was all just one word per line. This caused some confusion as to what exactly the point of the poem was. Of course as I read on, I was able to recognize that the author was in fact talking about dancing. But I think that this poem has to do with alot more than dancing. I think that "dancing" in this poem actually symbolizes moving forward in life and progressing. She mentions dancing when doing normal everyday things; "I dance to the traffic/to the crowds/to the silence." "I dance cause I'm pissed off/I dance cause I can't study anymore." Not only does the author refer to everyday things and "dances" through them but she also mentions "dancing" to bad times in history; "I dance past the killing fields/ I dance past Wounded Knee/ I dance past the skeletons and bones/ I dance past slave branding and holocaust tattoos." I think that this story passes off a very important message about life, and "dancing" really means moving forward and progressing regardless of mood, history, problems etc.

So this girl is trying really hard to fit in with the popular girls at school. She try's to imitate there fashion, and do what they do in order to fit in or be popular. She is even mean to Wendy who she claims to like only in front of these girls because Wendy was apart of them but no longer is.  However none of this seems to work because Julie and her "posse" are constantly nit picking little things which makes her feel left out, and won't even let her sit next to them at lunch. All she wants to do is fit in with these girls and be popular which is surprising because they are pretty nasty towards her. I don't even know why she bothers she even says to herself in her head "Grow up. Be real. Stop pretending. Leave me alone." So you can tell as the reader that this girl herself doesn't even like these girls. So in reality shes not even trying to fit in with Julie and her friends but just desires to be known as one of the "popular" girls. The ending of this story really confuses me. She goes from yelling at julie and her friends in the lunch room to collapsing then waking up in Wendy's bedroom. I think that Wendy is in-fact the narrator of this story. Wendy is the girl trying to fit in. I say this because in the end of the story it says "Wendy is sitting next to my bed drawing a picture of me as an angel in transition." and at the end says "Wendy is laying in my bed" I think this story illustrates the importance of being yourself and not conforming to anyone. Wendy was in fact putting herself down by letting these girls make her feel like a piece of garbage.