I first want to say I very much enjoyed the style of this novel, the book flowed very well, and although many parts were a little drawn out in description, but the way it was written went smoothly...like water (Haha because the book was called Rainy Lake...Get it?)
Within the book I wanted to point out the role of feminism specifically in chapter Bats. The mother, May, in the book was running around frantic about the bat loose in the house, while the daughter, Danielle is calm, and doesn't quite understand all the fear. I feel this plays on the stereotype of women.
May needs to be clean, hates anything crawly, stays looking nice, and so on. Danielle on the other hand likes the idea of bats, isn't afraid to get dirty, and doesn't focus 100% on her appearance. I believe this is also why the author has her name portrayed as Dani, a more tom-boy form of Danielle. As a coming of age story Danielle slowly does grow to be somewhat more like her mother, though still keeps her true self close. This perhaps is symbolic towards from childhood we grow up to care for what our parents show as important.
My favorite aspect of Danny's character is that she is not like anyone else. She seems to have very little inner struggle, though, in defining herself without using the example of her mother as a template for her own identity. I wondered if the treatment of the mother's character was shallow for this reason. Very little intimacy is shown between May and Danny in the novel and any struggle Danny may have felt with the demands of being a daughter or rebelling against it are almost entirely glossed over.
ReplyDelete