New Orleans endured a tragedy of a different sort with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Happening over a week with implications that have lasted years, the results of the fury of wind and water caused death and destruction for miles and miles in a very flat and urbanized area. We could see the suffering and experience the loss on national television. Unfortunately, in West Virginia, the loss happens gradually over time as the mountains are reduced in size and the whole topography of the land begins to look more like Kansas than West Virginia. The catastrophes are smaller when the Mining Company holding ponds break causing massive flooding of a small narrow mountain valley. Only 20 to 200 usually working class or poor people are affected, and the mining brings jobs and a livelihood to many, so it becomes part of the cost to support the economy, unless, of course, it is your ancestral home that is destroyed or your son who is swept away and drowned by the torrent of toxic pond water.
This blog will be a conversation about the novel Strange As This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. This is a contemporary novel about a family, a place, and something which threatens to destroy everything that they have ever had. It is a novel about nature, about environmental ethics, but mostly, a novel about people trying to learn what their life is about and what values that they hold the dearest and what things matter most to them. It is about love and choices and amazing discoveries. It is about the conflicts in families, the differences in siblings and often tenuous relationship between nature and human beings. The quality of our understanding of this book and what it holds for us, the reader, will depend on our ability to help each other see it from the varied perspectives that our wide experiences provide. We will be scattered all over the world, yet this discussion will unite us and bring us back together about ideas and human longings and what makes life, in the end, worth living.
Your first post should address the following concerns: What are your impressions of this family- who stands out in the story so far (which character really gets your attention)- who is likeable and who isn't and what role does the location/situation play in the development of the story. Share a particular memorable passage or situation that stands out to you explain why. Due by class time on March 27th.
This family screams dysfunctional. While Lace and Jimmy Make may have been madly in love during their child-free years now their relationship is slowly crumbling; not unlike the mountains on which they live. The people living on the mountain depend on the mountain for water, food, and land to live upon. It would make sense that their relationships would also be intimately linked to the mountains’ health as well.
ReplyDeleteThe tension between Lace and Jimmy Make provides some stand out arguments, but Dane draws much more attention in a far quieter way. His personality is something that wouldn’t be expected to exist in Appalachia. Corey’s jealousy, Lace’s eco-obsession, Jimmy Make’s indifference, Bant’s unsure sense of self, and the various other character personalities all make sense. Dane stands out because everything that makes him Dane is so vastly different from everyone else.
Dane is also a very likeable character because he is a scared little boy who wants to do the right thing. It is very easy to feel sorry for Dane. Bant is the most likeable, she has Lace’s fire and her grandmother’s calm love for Yellowroot. Bant’s quiet drive is much different than Corey’s obsession with things he cannot have, which also makes Corey the most unlikeable. He is unappreciative, ignorant about his surroundings, and only cares about himself. However Corey’s personality is not entirely his fault, he is growing up on a diseased and dying mountain. He never had the chance to love the quiet clearings or hunt for plants with his grandmother. He has only ever seen the machines and the control the machines exude over the environment. Corey wants to feel that same control and freedom.
The mining company’s destruction of Yellowroot is the catalyst for change in the family’s life: Lace’s obsession with saving Yellowroot rips apart her relationship with Jimmy Make, Dane lives in fear that the flood that almost killed him once will come back and finish him off, and Bant’s purpose starting from the very beginning is to find out whether there is a sediment pond up on Yellowroot. The mountaintop removal in Appalachia influences every part of the family’s life.
A passage that stands out takes place within Avery’s chapter:
“it wasn’t just people who were sacrificed. This sacrifice of land, what he stands in now, is nothing new, it has been regularly slaughtered for well over a hundred years…This place so subtly beautiful and so overlaid with doom. A haunt, a film coating all of it. Killed again and again, and each time, the place rising back on its haunches, diminished, but once more alive… Only this, Avery knows, will finally beat the land for good.”
Anything with a will to live will get right back up after it’s been knocked down, but eventually it will grow weary, it will take longer to stand up again, it will be easier to knock it down again, until, eventually, it ceases to fight. This is Appalachia’s last stand. This time, the trees will not grow back, the rivers will not refill with clear water, the land will cease to live and instead sit in the sun like a decaying corpse, rotten and unsalvageable.
This family strikes me as one that is relatable to most people. Very few people live in the picture-perfect families that Hollywood and other types of media portray to the world as being common and normal. This family experiences the kind of problems that many people can relate to; at least within the family unit. Many people cannot relate to this destruction they are facing or the constant fear they live in of being swept away by a flood; however, many people understand the troubles and differences they face as being a family. This family is also more dysfunctional and absurd than most but yet somehow still relatable.
ReplyDeleteThe character that stood out to me the most is Bant. I really enjoyed reading her chapters because, in my opinion, she becomes the sort of catalyst for the chain of events that take place as you continue through the novel. She also acts as the protestor within her family against mountaintop mining. While her mother is against it, the rest of her family do not seem to understand the immediacy of the problem and how directly it will affect their lives. Bant shares not only her own thoughts but enlightens the readers in many of the other character’s thoughts and actions as well. The most likeable character is either Bant or Lace because of their determination in ending mountaintop mining. Ann Pancake writes this novel in such a way as to make the reader feel strongly against mountaintop mining and gives the reader a desire to stop it, or in the least, support the characters in the novel who want to stop it. That is why the readers have an inclination to like both Bant and Lace. The character that is hardest to like is Corey because he never becomes his own person. Instead of developing his own personality and making his own decisions, he follows his father’s every word up until his death; the fact that he dies does make the reader feel sad and sympathetic for him but it is hard to not say that he was naïve and needed a wake up call, perhaps not death but definitely something.
The location is what makes this story work and what gives this novel meaning and a purpose. If it was just a story about a family who has problems and faces obstacles, the readers could just look at their own family or a family they know and see that; but instead, there is this larger-than-life problem looming over their heads. The imminent danger that they live in fear of adds a sense of anticipation and tension between the members of the family and community.
I think one of the most effective and pivotal points in the novel is when Bant takes Corey up to the mine and hopes to change his feelings on mountaintop mining. Unfortunately, this is also when the reader realizes that no matter what Corey will not resent it the way Lace and Bant do; he is more interested in the machines and the enormity of it than the danger it imposes on his family and community. It just shows the reader how young and naïve he is and how much more mature Bant has become in her understanding of this problem.
Sadly enough, everything about this family seems banal and familiar in the regular scheme of poor to lower-middle class America. The dysfunctional aspects that surround this family’s home life are not only pathetic, but eerily real. I think what really highlights this is the contrast between the first chapter and the rest of the book; essentially, pre-Bant and post-Bant. It’s as if each tells an entirely different story, because at first Lace seems to be living a normal life until a couple of mistakes land her in this trapped, decaying environment. The fact that she blames herself and the time period in which she was pregnant on how each of her kids turns out to be is not only morbid but entirely true. Lace, Jimmy Make, and each of their children are defective in their very own ways; therefore, when combined into their one household, gives substantial threat for an imminent doom.
ReplyDeleteI think each character presents themselves with equal force as their turns to do so come and go, so naturally I find that every character has stood out to me with the exception of Jimmy Make- he seems like the usual one-sided, boring, predictable character. However, Bant sticks out to me the most. She was the baby that started it all, who enabled the other babies to happen. Her personality is strong, and it’s easy to that her connection with the West Virginian land is essential to the themes of the novel. What strikes me the most powerfully is how she is cautious about her relationship with RL, acknowledging the fact that she doesn’t want to be in the situation her mother was with her. Also, while her parents are arguing about what exactly is happening with the mining and how to deal with it, Bant goes straight in and investigates for herself. Her incidence with the security guard was funny, but also showed she had a lot of spunk and courage for facing the problem straight on, which the rest of the characters have yet to do.
I think all of the children are quite likeable in their own, quirky way. This is with the exception of the incident when Corey starts the “Homo” chanting at Dane in the Big Drain, which makes you want to hate the kid a bit and feel horrible for sad Dane. For most of the adult characters, I feel that you can’t really choose to like or dislike them but simply feel pity for them. For example, Lace’s father dying of black lung, Lace knowing how trapped in West Virginia she is yet feeling love for the land anyway, Mrs. Taylor and her unwillingness to leave the region her family has owned for generations, and Jimmy Make’s life in general. The pity felt for them overrides any sense of like or dislike.
This book is about West Virginia, after the major theme of family. These people are obviously part of the land, and I think a lot of their falling apart has to do with the destruction of the land that they have known and loved for their entire lives. If Ann Pancake wanted to say anything about West Virginians, it’s that they are connected to the nature of the land above all else. She connects many of the parallels between the destruction of the land and the decaying of the lives of its inhabitants.
A passage that especially caught my eye was Avery’s recollection of the flood that happened when he was young. If this passage of the book doesn’t capture the looming doom of the effects of mountain top removal the region is facing in the current situation, I don’t know what does. This passage really illustrated the desperateness and sadness of these people’s frustration within their situation and really explains for a lot of what’s happening in the area with the new mining.
Strange as this Weather Has Been takes a stand on nature, God, and the most important values of a family to all. The land becomes real; it adopts human characteristics and the pain of betrayal most clearly through Mogey, Grandma, Lace and Bant. I believe that Mogey stands out more than any other character because of his clear honesty and pain for the suffering land around him. He serves as a sort of moral compass for the novel; he remembers what Yellowroot was before the subtle destruction began taking place in the Hollow. Grandma more figuratively represents nature as a whole, and she feels pain when it is unjustly injured or abused. Lace adopts the characteristics of her mother and takes action. Ironically, she marries a man who is obsessed with material possessions and prefers to turn a blind eye to the destruction occurring right above him. I believe that the characters who care about the land are more humane and relatable. Jimmy Make is self obsessed and seems to become more introverted with those around him as he ages. His self worth is measured by his material possessions, specifically his truck. Corey takes after Jimmy’s mindset, and he perfectly demonstrates his views on nature when Bant takes him to the top of the mountain. While Bant mourns for the death of the Hollow, Corey is infatuated with the power of the machines. “…That giant, his body in that gigantic body, his body running that body, and the size, the power of that machine: inside Big John, Corey can change the shape of the world. Corey can” (Pancake 164). Although a childhood nature can be found in Corey, he seems to be destined for a life as a future Jimmy Make, unaware of the suffering around him and a true grace found only in metal and power.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Make and Corey are imperfect, but they are relatable and often deserve sympathy. I believe that the only truly unlikeable character in the novel thus far is R.L. He represents the destruction of Yellowroot that Lace, Mogey and even Bant work against. R.L. is described as a ghost after the ashes of the mountain cover him; he foreshadows destruction beginning with his first introduction into Bant’s life.
The location and situation of the See/Make family transform them into the characters that they have become. Lace lives for the land while Jimmy attempts to live on it. Bant and Mogey search for salvation in the mountains while Corey searches for power. The mountains symbolize life’s journey in some form to all. They demand maturity and pose questions and risks to all involved.
I believe the most graceful passage in the novel comes from the memories of Mogey, when the mountains were pure and beautiful. He describes a deer hunt from many years ago and says, “The buck was not there in body. But something else was…It melted my edges. It blended me, I don’t know how else to say it, right on out into the woods. It took me beyond myself and kept going, so I wasn’t no longer holed up in my body…And with it came total sureness. And with the total sureness came peace” (173). Mogey is wounded by the constant destruction as much as the trees, boulders, lakes, and wildlife are around him. Mogey’s transformation brings him closer to all aspects of nature, which enforces Pancake’s theme of unity in life.
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ReplyDeleteheyyyy kittty.
DeleteThe impression that the family gives seems heavily reliant on the situation which they are put in. The nature of the mountain, which includes destroyed trees and waste, is the only nature that the characters have known. These are their surroundings, their reality, and their life. A simple message begins to take shape; the destruction of the land directly effects the destruction of the people. Though the family comes off as quite dysfunctional, their living circumstances can be put to blame.
ReplyDeleteBecause of her powerful nature and desire to make things right, I believe Bant stands out to me the most. One might go as far to say that she is the voice of author, considering Ann Pancake wrote the novel in order to protest against mountaintop removal mining. Her determination to set things right makes her the most likeable character in my opinion. Though she is not thoroughly educated on the topic of the environment, she gives strong insight to those around her. As the novel progresses and the readers are exposed to the destruction of mining, one desires to be a voice in this awful predicament, the voice that Bant becomes.
The family is truly connected to the land, despite its shortcomings. Each character’s being relies on a part of the land, as the fate of the land becomes their own fate. Many characters live in pure fear of their surroundings, while others are fighting to stop it. Whatever the case, it dictates the lives of each individual.
The passage that stood out to me was, "It hurt to learn it, it did. It was easier to half-ignore it, pretend it wasn't that bad, anyway, or if it was, couldn't do nothing about it so why get worked up, that's how a lot of people lived."
This passage represents a major theme within the novel, and within a society. As a problem arises, the public tends to ignore it, and bury the reality of the situation. Because a body of people participates in a mass movement of apathy, nothing is able to get done, and madness is unable to be stopped. If each character within the novel had voiced the problem at hand, it would become more effective, and more powerful, but instead, each character lets their fear get in the way.
Strange As This Weather Has Been tells the story of a middle-class family in West Virginia, whose struggle against the obstacles in their personal lives is intensified by the destruction of their homeland at the hands of a mining corporation. The circumstances that have landed Lace in this situation seem wholly unfair, as do those which leave her children faced with similarly dismal futures.
ReplyDeleteBant, especially, seems to have fallen victim to circumstances beyond her control. Bant’s birth was the first in a string of events which led her family to its current position; and yet, despite the enormous impact of the events that surround her being, Bant’s personality is bold enough to persevere and strike the reader almost immediately upon her introduction. Bant sticks out in that she seems unhindered by the aspect of human nature that so often prevents us from feeling passionate about a major cause – the notion that the problem at hand is beyond our control and irrelevant to our own lives. Like her mother, Bant is an effective advocate for efforts to put an end to mountaintop mining.
Bant’s ability to understand the urgency of the cause, paired with others’ failure to do the same – as well as the way in which her story drives us to consider our own habitual dismissing of major issues– is reflective of several major themes in the novel. By presenting a family faced with countless obstacles of their own, the author makes the imposition of the major environmental issue at hand upon them relatable – we, too, have lives of our own, and often find it difficult to expend our energies worrying about those that do not immediately affect us. Yet, in this family’s case, the problem at hand is both enormous in scope – one controlled by numerous major corporations, all with far more power than any group of individuals could hope to generate – and relevant in the toll it takes on their personal lives.
The deteriorating relationship between Lace and Jimmy Make and the fallout from it provides many of the most obvious intrigue into familial dysfunction. Their young love was once powerful but once there was children involved it began to fall apart. Their relationship mutates into anger and hate resulting in arguments.
ReplyDeleteTheir failing relationship is reflected in each of the kids. Parents are supposed to set a standard that makes kids want to emulate it. Corey is arrogant and has unlimited wants within in a family of limited resources. He wants everything that is unattainable, but not for the betterment of anyone but himself. In this way he is very selfish. He has some redeeming likable qualities but he is one of the harder characters to like. Though the one action he makes that solidifies his vexatious nature is when he targets Dane as a homo.
Dane, on the other hand, is very likable. He is kind and selfless and works hard to do right by everyone. He cares for Mrs. Taylor everyday. He is selfless because he gives his time to her and he cares for her. Dane has learned to listen to because “She seems to like it better when she just listens. Most people prefer it this way, Dane has learned, and he’s good at listening. It’s the only way he knows to be liked.” This passage stood out to me because it captures the essence of whom Dale is. He works hard to be liked and listening is his way of kindness.
The passage that stood out to me the most is the following recollection by Avery:
It wasn’t just people who were sacrificed. This sacrifice of land, what he stands in now, is nothing new, it has been regularly slaughtered for well over a hundred years…This place so subtly beautiful and so overlaid with doom. A haunt, a film coating all of it. Killed again and again, and each time, the place rising back on its haunches, diminished, but once more alive… Only this, Avery knows, will finally beat the land for good
This is about the land of Yellowroot and how is has had to fight to stay. The battle between the land and nature versus the destruction of man has been fought without end or a victor. The land would be destroyed but it was always able to re-grow, diminished but every present. However this last battle waged, Avery concludes, will only lead to destruction with man the final victor. The trees will decay into nothingness, with no fight to return.
It is arguable that Yellowroot and Lace’s and Jimmy Make’s relationship are foils of each other. Both were something of strength but have crumpled and fade it to empty memories. The grandmother knew the land and loved it because of the openness, but the land has now been corrupted by machines and is changed forever. Lace’s and Jimmy Make’s relationship also decayed with the births of their children. As said before I believe Ann Pancake does this to establish that people are connected to the land they live on. That if the land fails they fail. The relationship and land are foils and mirror the mutual destruction.
Dane stands out the most to me. His perspective seems to be the most unique and dark out of everyone in the family. Lace went through the darkest period of her life when she was pregnant with Dane so he was born “peculiar, mournful and sad” (152) which are unlikely adjectives for a baby in general. He describes himself as the darkest of the family and constantly compares himself to his siblings, defines himself by what others tell him and seems to become less and less relatable with each chapter. His presence in the family is the least noticeable, while the family’s presence in him is the only thing that gives him purpose. Each word anyone in his family has said to him has had so much meaning in his little life, (his grandma’s praise, Jimmy Make’s comparison to his siblings, his mom’s emptiness outside of town) while he says nothing and seems to mean nothing to anyone.
ReplyDeleteSomething that is odd is that Jimmy Make never gets his own chapter; his perception never gets explained. Literally nothing is known about his background. All that is necessary to know is that he is simple and that is the deepest we are allowed to delve into this main character. He is the only character that we can judge only through the perceptions of the other characters.
I think each character is likeable and relatable in their own way; however Mrs. Taylor is probably the least likeable because of the static flatness of her character and how she has such a negative presence in Dane’s life. Bant is the most likeable and seems to have the fewest character flaws and the most sense in the family.
Location and situation are everything in this story. If this story took place in an upper class neighborhood in Miami, everything would be different; each character would have a completely altered personality. It is the uncontrollable change of location/situation that is the cause of most of the character development and progress in the story; without it “Strange As This Weather Has Been” would have no theme.
Lace’s first few months of her first pregnancy stood out to me. Lace experiences a huge amount of pain, realization and epic emotional growth in just a few pages, making those passages really stand out.
This family comes off as dysfunctional from the very beginning relationship between Lace and Jimmy Make. This is originally revealed when Lace can barely hold a conversation with Jimmy Make, but still claims to be madly in love with him. The early pregnancy also creates conflict and dysfunction, as they are forced into a permanent relationship and family.
ReplyDeleteThe character that stands out the most to me is Lace and Jimmy Make’s daughter, Bant. Bant’s existence separates the book into two different eras: before the miners came, and after. Previously to Bant’s existence, life was easier, the land and community they lived in was safe, and Lace and Jimmy Make were able to live freely as children with few worries. Bant’s birth brings on a whole new conflict, as well as marks a time in her parents lives when life became much harder. Her parents make the transition from children, to adults with a huge amount of responsibility.
As a girl, Bant is almost raised as a boy. She has few female qualities, but lots of responsibilities. As the oldest, she is forced to get a job as a fence painter top help support her family. She also feels a lot of pressure to try to fix the problem of mining that has overcome her town and life. This is revealed by her constant interest in the mountain, as well as her visit to the mining location.
Most all of these characters are likable. Individually, they all are trying to live through a dreadful situation. The characters who seem to be unlikable are not necessarily unlikable characters. The way the reader is able to view the situation through multiple narrators gives them many different points of views of unlikable characters. This results in them seeming unlikable not necessarily because their personalities, but because of their surroundings, and the opinions of them that the other characters reveal to the reader.
A passage that stood out to me was one describing the mountain and the relationship they have with the land.
I did know you’d have to come up in these hills to understand what I meant. Grow up shouldered in them, them forever around your ribs, your hips, how hey hold you, sit astraddle, giving you always, for good or for bad, the sense of being held. It had something to do with that hold (99).
This passage allows the reader to understand the relationship that these people have with the land. It is an attempt at connecting the reader to the land in the same manner as the natives who live there. It expresses how it truly is a part of them, and the respect they have for it. It describes that the land has given so much to them, literally keeping them alive and saving them from tough times. It turns the reality of mining into a greater issue than what appears at face value, providing an emotional connection to the reader.
Strange as this Weather Has Been is an eye-opening story about one family’s plight to save and adapt to their small, changing world as it is literally plowed to the ground by money-hungry miners. This story revolves around Lace and Jimmy Make’s growing family and each of their trials and ordeals that they must suffer through in order to grow, learn and evolve. Early on in this story, two characters in particular grab a hold of my attention and often come back to me. Bant and her grandmother are at the core of this novel. The novel’s didactic approach in teaching readers to take care of their environment is reflected in the grandmother’s lessons while on the mountain with Bant. Their interactions with each other may seem critical and often harsh on the young Bant, however, the grandmother teaches and punishes the girl in an attempt to instill in her a connection with nature – one Bant later learns to appreciate. It is easy to see that Bant is a representation of all man-kind. Ann Pancake’s message is that although humanity is easily led astray, as a whole, people just need a stern hand to be set straight.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast to Bant’s outgoing nature, Dane is more reserved. The weakest of the family, Dane often feels less connected because of it. It is clear, in a society where men should be strong and women should be beautiful, Dane does not always fit in and suffers for it emotionally. However, his caring nature, and is compassion for others leads him to be a very likeable character. His dedication to Ms. Taylor is admirable and proves that he truly is a good person.
The least interesting character within the novel thus far is Lace. Although she was interesting at first, Lace only improved on white-trailer-trash stereotypes. Quitting college, getting pregnant with a boy much younger than her, and proceeding to bare a number of children which she has no control over does nothing in the way of helping her future or that of her family. She is weak, and despite her gripes about being too controlled by her own parents, does nothing to improve her situation. Her entire character seems to revolve around her many sexual encounters with Jimmy Make. She is essentially a flat character.
The most prominent quotation in the novel is found in Avery’s chapter. “Although he pretends that he doesn’t, Avery understands what you lose to leave. What his mother learned she’d lose was different from what Avery learned he’d lost, but both of them learned it firsthand” (215). These two sentences summarize the whole book in the simple understanding that loss is not equal for everyone. When change happens, what one looses may not pertain to their neighbor, therefore each person’s loss has its own unique aspect, regardless of the universal consequences. In the end, as Avery makes it clear, everyone must experience loss, the only difference between two people is their interpretations of the loss.
To the readers, the family is utterly dysfunctional and in ways it is. As we learn more about the family though, we come to understand that they are just like any other family. They want to be loved and to love, to believe in something greater than ourselves, and to be connected to a home. The dysfunctional part about them is the way they go about their lives. Between the early pregnancies and the coal mining jobs they have, they seem to be the quintessential lower to middle class family stereotype. What we consider to be abnormal though, is what is normal to them. The way they connect to their homeland and each other is something that we will never understand, but somehow relate to at the same time. This book shows the raw truth of families living in an area that is affected by the land they live on. This family is dysfunctional and utterly and completely real.
ReplyDeleteThe characters that stand out to me in the novel are Bant and Jimmy Make. Bant and Jimmy Make are both drastic turning points in the life of Lace. From the moment Lace first met Jimmy Make she was enamored by him. This caused her life to change because she wanted to be around him as much as she could. Jimmy Make’s personality made that hard to understand. He is quiet and immature. Even as he continues to get older physically, mentally and emotionally he stays young. He immaturity causes him to withdraw from his family and Lace. Thus creating the continuing deterioration of the family.
Bant is the other character that stands out to me. She is tells the perspective of the life before and after the mountain-top removal. Bant straddles the life of living on the land and the dysfunctional life that she lives now. She sees the stress of the mining and the loss of the mountain has on her mother as well as her father. Bant struggles with the feeling that she can fix her family by understanding and stopping what is being done to the mountain.
Jimmy Make is unlikeable and likeable. His lack of motivation and his immaturity make is hard for readers to like him or to relate to. In his defense though, he was only fifteen when he got Lace pregnant. The immediacy of having a family affects his personality his ability to grow up. He never had a chance to mature into an adult before he became a father. This does not make for an excuse for his behavior but it does make his personality easier to understand.
Bant is a likable character. She is mature and yet immature. Bant has an old soul but she is still young. Her naivety makes her likable because she really believes she can help fix the mountain that she loves so much. In doing so, she believes that she will also fix her family.
A passage that stood out to me is in Mogey’s chapter. Mogey says, “we live in our mountains. It’s not just the tops, but the sides that hold us” (173).
This chapter helps the reader truly understand the affects that the land has on this family. They have learned to live with the mountains and to respect them. The mountains are apart of the family and not just a pretty piece of horizon. The dreams the Mogey gets are a direct result of the loss of the mountains and the loss of apart of him. Mogey also explains that the mountains are a religion to him and now they are gone.
This family is far from being close. They are all very disconnected from each other and each person seems as though are from different families. Each family member lives such a story it’s as though none of their experiences seem intertwined. So far in Pancake’s novel, the characters that have stood out the most to me are Lace and Dane. I find Lace intriguing because the story is truly about her life and growing up. There are traits that I like about Lace, such as how she does try to be different from the rest of the people in her town. But one thing I do not like about Lace is how nothing can be her fault, and how she is also hypocritical. She always is complaining on how Jimmy Make is not growing up on the inside, but neither is she. When she was pregnant with Lace she sat at home for months doing nothing. She also did the same thing while watching Tommy, and she got a wake up call when he went missing. I also enjoy Dane because although he seems as though he is the forgotten child, he has the most to say. He feels many emotions and learns a lot about the past history of the town he lives in because of Ms. Taylor.
ReplyDeleteThe coal town that Lace, Jimmy Make and their children live in represents their family. The town started as a united content town. As the coal companies came however, people started to leave and the town is slowly being destroyed. This represents the failing of their family. Jimmy Make and Lace were once in love, but now they are growing farther and farther apart and they are losing connection with their children.
A memorable situation in the novel to me was when Lace became pregnant with Bant. I did not expect nor do I think Lace expected to get pregnant at such a young age. Instead of choosing to take control of her life and to grow up, she instead shrunk; she hid away in her room for months in denial, refusing to see people. However, once she had Bant, she proved that she could be mature and could be a mother.
The family in the novel Strange As This Weather Has Been are victims of their location and the constant changes that are occurring around them due to the mountaintop removal during this time. The flow of changes that come as consequence to the mountaintop removal during this time force the family to constantly rearrange their lifestyle, creating chaos and dysfunction. The unfortunate events in Lace’s life set up the ultimate failure of the rest of her family throughout the novel and their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe character that most stands out to me and is most subject to these changes is the oldest child, Bant. Her birth is the beginning of Lace’s misfortune and is therefore the reason for the family to be forced together, despite the apparent dysfunction in Lace and Jimmy Make’s pre marital relationship.
Bant’s character and her insight creates a bridge between the pre destruction times and the present times. Her relationship with her grandmother and her Aunt Mary and Uncle Mogey give her the knowledge of the beauty of the land she lives in before the mountain top removal and all the consequences from that movement began to disrupt her lifestyle. The relationship she has with her father gives her the knowledge that she has about the mountaintop removal as she goes with him to break into the mining plants.
Bant stands out most to me because her insight is the most clear and relatable due to her age. Her experiences and conflicts are the most life like and understandable in comparison to the problems that her brothers, Corey and Tommy experience as they march up the creek barefoot, avoiding the monkey creature.
I find all of the characters likeable because of their contributions to the story. Some characters such as Jimmy Make and the Grandmother may be harder to understand, though their insight is key to the story as they both knew what the land was like before the mountain top removal began. The location is the background of the story because the struggles that this family encounter are result of the changing land that surrounds them. Understanding and adjusting to the difference between the past and the changing land creates the central conflict of this novel and the family’s growth through these changes forms the story.
The following is a passage that is from the beginning of the story that stood out to me and began to help me to understand the conflicts in this story. The passage is from the first chapter of the book, from Lace’s perspective and is as follows;
And I asked myself, what is it about this place? What? I pressed my forehead against the oak. Because for a long time, I’d known the tightness of these bills, the way they penned. But now, I also felt their comfort, and worse, I’d learned the smallness of me in the away. I understood how I left, I lost part of myself, but when I stayed, I couldn’t stretch myself full. I twisted the cigarette out on the trunk. I reached for the sweet peach-pink. College, I almost said out loud, was just something you had to get used to. Then I flinched. Because it was Mom’s voice that had come in my head (10).
This passage shows Lace’s hatred for the area, which she lives in, and that tone is instilled on the rest of the book. This tone is passed on through Lace’s family; her determination to be negative sets up her family for disaster.
The chapter with Corey and Rabbit is extremely dysfunctional and so illegal. The perseverance of Corey to make get these parts is impressive though. He goes through such lengths to really get all the pieces of to make this car. The mechanic, Rabbit is basically so inebriated through the entire night but still manages to keep Corey safe. This advances the novel because it shows clueless this family really is about the mountaintop removal. Even though the signs to keep people out are for the safety, they think the miners are just trying to keep them off the land.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter about Bant and Dane just allow the readers to fully understand how the flood and mining affects this family’s life.
Strange As This Weather Has Been Blog Post #2
ReplyDeleteThis section is divided between three chapters: one of Corey’s, one of Bant’s, and one of Dane’s. Corey goes on an adventure with Rabbit to go pick up some parts out of a mine. It’s the first time we see Corey let down his “tough guy” guard and really freak out at anything. Rabbit seems to be a constant drunk, and is definitely drunk the day he drives out with Corey to this mine. Corey thinks about how mature he is and how he’s really giving his parents on for their money, but when he actually gets there, becomes afraid of being hoisted down into a dark mine by a drunken man. He ends up getting out okay, but Rabbit is pulled over by a cop on the way back. I think this may be a turning point somehow for Corey’s attitude about everything, that maybe at ten years old he isn’t exactly invincible. Bant’s chapter is very short highlights when she travels up the mountainside, and not only does Tommy find her but a blast goes off. Poor Bant sounds like Dane with the End of the World scheme. Dane’s chapter is a mess, with Lace running around looking for Tommy after the blast (who was with Bant on the mountain). But then again, Dane is always a mess.
Blog Post #2
ReplyDeletePages 300 - 330
What strikes me most about this section is the complete separation between those who care for Yellowroot, Lace and Bant, and those who only care for themselves, Jimmy-Make and Corey. Bant is her mother's daughter and Corey is his father's son. They share the same ideals as the parent they take after, and the divide between the four of them could not be any farther.
Lace and Bant do whatever possible, to the detriment of their relationships and pride, to save Yellowroot. While Lace's relationship with Jimmy-Make is already on a downhill slope, there is still something there that she could fight for if she wanted. However, Lace decides that the mountain is more important than any semblance of a relationship she could have with Jimmy-Make. She lies through her teeth to get away from him to attend rallys and talk with Charlie. The farther Lace extracts herself from her relationship with Jimmy-Make, the more she throws herself into saving her beloved mountain. Bant is the same as her mother. She sacrifices her pride to a scab for the chance at finding the slurry impoundment. Even when he tricks her and she ends up with nothing, she doesn't shed tears for her own loss, but for the mountain's loss.
Corey's chapter comes in between Lace's and Bant's at the perfect moment. Lace sacrifices her relationship with Jimmy-Make to save her home, Corey steals a four-wheeler, and Bant sacrifices her virginity to a man she doesn't even like for the opportunity to get into the more restricted areas of the mine. Corey stealing Seth's four-wheeler shows his obsession with material goods and penchant for selfishness, which comes right in between two completely selfless acts by his other family members.
At this point in the novel, issues quickly begin to burst into the personal safety of the See/Make family. Lace is exposed to the devastating and influential network of the coal industry. It seems that conflict will surround Lace wherever she goes due to the fact that nature is the most important aspect of her life. Readers are forewarned that relationship issues with Jimmy Make will not come to a peaceful compromise. The conflict and jealously in their family reaches a point that passes amendable. I believe that Lace finds her youth in her later years while Jimmy finally loses any sense of innocence that so strongly prevailed in his teenage years. He feels powerless and worthless among the quickly shifting land that he dislikes so much.
ReplyDeleteBant also discovers that she must give up her worth in hopes of saving Yellowroot. She is extremely similar to her mother due to the fact that she will always love Yellowroot selflessly. Bant senses danger as well as Lace does, but she takes after Jimmy Make’s earlier traits of complete determination.
Meanwhile, Corey becomes closer to the metal that foreshadows disaster. This section is interesting because it connects the family through their everlasting dedication to what they really believe in.
Blog Post #2
ReplyDeleteLace and Bant show their true courage within this section of the novel. Both characters put the safety of Yellowroot above the safety of their own lives. Bant sacrifices her body and her dignity in order to discover a section of the mine. She would much rather give her virginity away than pass up the chance to uncover a new treasure. As for Lace, she is on the verge of sacrificing her relationship with Jimmy, and is willing to make this sacrifice. She graciously gives her time to the mountain, which may not give anything back, but she is willing to take this chance. Though the future is uncertain, she is devoted to fight for a cause close to her heart. Though a reader may make radical decisions, it displays their passion for the cause.
These chapters pick up with Jimmy Make’s final destruction of his and Lace’s marriage. Their problems, always having been obvious, but never addressed, are finally dragged into the light, slamming Lace with the realization that their marriage is completely unwinding, in a way so destructive as to be compared to the mining industry itself. While Lace continues to preoccupy herself with her vendetta against the mining industry, she must endure the verbal and physical threats to both herself and her family. Unfortunately, while she is preoccupied with her double life, Bant is left alone to pick up the pieces of her failing relationships. Bant, without the guidance of her mother, and Jimmy Make’s skewed parenting skills, is lost in a fast-changing world. All she knows is that she does not want to end up like her mother; however, it seems anything is worth risking in an attempt stop the destruction of her home, including her body.
ReplyDeleteThe chapters constitute great grief as Bant places her trust in the wrong hands and is taken down a dangerous road after being guided to the mountain top mines. Bant’s strong character is literally beaten down in an attempt to subdue her curiosity, a punishment she must suffer due to her mother’s lack of involvement in her life. Ultimately it is Lace who influences Bant’s life the most, and it is Lace who is too preoccupied to notice her daughter is slowly being pulled further into a dark abyss.
These few chapters highlight Bant,Corey, and Lace. The characters that strike me as the most powerful throughout this section of the novel are Lace and Bant. In Lace's chapter, it is evident to the reader that she is finally starting to 'hold her own ground'. She becomes passionate about the mountain, and grows strong enough to stand up for what she believes in - even if it jeopardizes her marriage. Bant's chapter also demonstrates the power that Bant has within her. Similarly to Lace, Bant puts her beliefs to save the mountain first, and becomes a strong and powerful character.
ReplyDeleteThese few chapters complete this novel and bring it to a close that satisfies the reader in the sense that all ends appear to be tied. It begins with Lace's chapter where she speaks about the relationships she has with her children and how they differ from one another. As a reader, you can tell that Lace is close to Bant, trying to protect Dane, feels almost like a stranger with Corey and Tommy is still her baby who has innocence. Lace also talks about the argument she had with Jimmy Make that makes the reader believe that this really is the end to their marriage. Pancake confirms this when at the end of Lace's chapter she acknowledges that Jimmy Make has finally grown up.
ReplyDeleteThe next chapter is Dane's, this is a very dramatic and sad chapter. It begins with him recalling the story of how the monkey in the hallway "called" to him and then also noticing that Jimmy Make was not there. Perhaps the most prevailing part of this chapter is when Dane notices Corey and Tommy headed up to the Snake Ditches on Seth's four-wheeler and what happens after that. Dane follows them to find that Corey is trying to perform tricks on the four-wheeler and ends up crashing it down on top of himself, killing himself. While Jimmy Make tries to save his son, Corey ends up dying.
The last chapter is given to Bant who once again returns to the mountain. However, in the beginning of her chapter she describes the breaking up of her family. Jimmy Make had left after Corey's death, but now returns ready to take the kids with him to Raleigh. Dane and Tommy go but Bant decides to stay with her mother, Lace, and fight for the mountains and the forest. This moment once again shows the vast differences between Jimmy Make's selfishness and Lace's selflessness, as well as Bant's selflessness. This leaves mother and daughter together once again, just as it was in the beginning.
The final scene is perhaps the most impacting when Bant goes back up to the mine and finds the piles of trees atop sediment ponds. She then notices that they've moved on to Cherryboy. Bant almost separates herself from the situation and runs through the forest as she used to, connecting herself to the forest and the mountain. At last she finds Dane's box of memories. It is at this moment that it seems as though the family is once again reunited in a way, even though they are separated by distance and difference of opinion. They still come from the mountains of West Virginia, which they will be forever connected to.
The end of Pancake's novel is quite sad. Corey has died, Jimmy Make, Dane, and Tommy move to Raleigh, and Lace and Bant stay home. Jimmy Make has given up hope, which is demonstrated in his moving to North Carolina. I believe that Dane went with Jimmy Make to have a fresh beginning. He has so many horrible memories of West Virginia it is understandable that he wants to escape. At the end of the novel, I felt that actually everyone had given up, except for Bant. She decides to stay behind with Lace and start a new chapter of her life; I believe what symbolized this was when she went on the walk in the woods. When she finds Dane's lunchbox full of memories, it gives her the small glimpse of hope that she needs and reminds her why she stayed behind. The future of the family is unknown, as well as the future of the coal mine towns.
ReplyDeleteTHe ending of this novel provides conclusion for both the readers and the characters involved. Corey's death is a catalyst for the ending of this novel in the way that it provides some sort of closure and ultimatum for the rest of the family. Prior to Corey's death, Lace comes to the conclusion that after 31 years, Jimmy Make has finally matured. With this realization comes Jimmy Make's decision to move to Raleigh with Dane and Tommy. This leaves Lace and Bant alone in the hollow, back to the way that it was at the beginning of Bant's life, and in that way, both of their stories come full circle. In Lace's final chapter, she discusses that the relationship that she has with her only daughter is far different than the one that she has with the rest of her children because it was just the two of them for the beginning of Bant's life. Jimmy Make's decision to move to Raleigh gives the boys (Dane and Tommy) to start new after the death of their brother, where neither of them were able (physically and mentally) to do anything to prevent his death. Their move to North Carolina also gives Jimmy Make the opportunity to be happy, as he was so miserable while living in the hollows with his family. The fact that Bant stayed behind with her mother shows her attachment to her mother's side of the family and the attachment she has with the land around her. The future for Bant seems bright due to this new beginning though everything is still changing, much like the land around them. The same can not be said for the boys as they have moved out of the constantly changing land an into a more secure surrounding.
ReplyDeleteThe ending of this novel is truly sad as expected. The dysfunctional family finally separates in a way only fitting to them. Jimmy Make announces that he is leaving and Lace is staying and asks the kids to pick the parent. Dane and Tommy abandon their home of West Virginia for hope of a fresh start in North Carolina. I believe they leave because nothing is left for them other than the past which they want to escape. I believe that drives Jimmy Make, Dane and Tommy to leave. Bant stays remaining the sole fighter of the family. When wondering along she finds Lace's old lunch box filled with Dane's mementos and memories. It is like Pandora's box from the myth. She opened it letting all of the evils into the world and shut it before the last thing could fly out, hope. This box gives Bant the hope she has been seeking. The text ends with the acceptance of the incoming destruction. Corey is dead and the family is broken. But Bant opening the box released the hope, the blind hope that she needed to keep fighting. The text ends here with no other indications into the future. We as readers never discover how the others made out in North Carolina or even how the mining for coal in West Virginia. All we know is that Bant is not giving up.
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