Reading in the Elementary- Blog 2

I am reading Big Girl by Danielle Steel.  I read for 1 hour this week. 

  The next portion of this book that I read was about Victoria's summer at home before she went off to college.  She couldn't wait to leave because she had felt like an outsider in her own family for as long as she could remember.  But at the same time her parents were much nicer and sensitive because for some reason that Victoria couldn't understand they didn't want her to leave; Victoria's main reason for not wanting to leave was Gracie, for she couldn't bear the thought of leaving someone she loved so much.  Eventually the time comes and Victoria leaves for college.  College was exactly everything Victoria had wanted; most of all she wanted to focus on her studies because she saw them as her ticket to freedom.  Victoria got on this pattern of doing extreme dieting a couple weeks before she would return home, enough so that it was noticable for her mother to point out.  When Victoria came to the decision that she wanted to be a teacher, her father was immediately against it; he wanted Victoria to be able to get a job and a job that payed well enough.  Victoria also worked hard to get an internship, which would allow her make some money, get some experience, and not have to go back home for that time.  Eventually her family made it up to visit her, which meant a lot to Victoria .  Victoria met  a boy in the middle of her Sophmore year and the two fell in love with each other.  One night Beau, Victoria's boyfriend, admitted to her that he was Gay and even though he loved her that this would never work and so the two ended things (because Beau had wanted to; Victoria still felt that if you loved someone you could make it work).  This breakup confirmed Victoria's deepest fear, the one that'd she'd struggled and delt with all her life, that she was not wanted or loved.  The only person that truly seemed to care for Victoria was her younger sister, Gracie.

I'm enjoying this book.  I feel like self image along with lack of confidence is something that a lot of girls struggle with.  The fear of being alone and not wanted is something that everyone deals with at some point in their life (some more than others).  It's been interesting learning about the different ways I can identify with different characters in this book. 

Reading in the Elementary- Blog 1

I am reading Big Girl by Danielle Steel.  I read for 1.5 hours this week; pages 1-41. 

Thus far this book is about a girl who is born to two parents who are completely focused on centering their lives around what other people think of them.  The father, Jim, is the dominant male and likes to be in control of everything in his life, big part due to how he was raised.  Jim married Christine who was raised to be the "perfect" wife (she cooked, cleaned, and obeyed), she basically was devoting her life to please and praise Jim.  Christine's only failure in Jim's eyes is that she was unable to produce a son, which Jim so strongly wanted and was the one thing he could not control.  The main character in this book is a girl named Victoria and she was mistreated from the start.  Her father didn’t care too much for her because she turned out to be a girl, when all he wanted was a boy, and she wasn’t attractive (she didn’t look like either of her parents).  Since Victoria’s mother lived to please and serve her father, she never stuck up for Victoria or treated her the way one would think a mother ought to treat a daughter.  After seven or eight years Christine and Jim try again for a boy and end up with a girl again, but this time the baby is beautiful, perfect, and resembled it’s parents (according to Jim and Christine).  Jim made it known to his oldest daughter that she was basically their trial run.  Despite her parents lack of love, Victoria promises to love and take care of Grace, her younger sister, and to never let anyone hurt her.  Victoria takes good care of Grace as she is growing up too.  Though, Victoria has a difficult childhood and adolescence, everyone around her has made her feel like she isn’t good enough or not welcomed, even those who should flawlessly love her (her family).  She decides to go far away from her home in California to start a new life at Northwestern. 

I think I am going to enjoy this book as it deals with the idea that being different is ok and that we all need to accept who were are, for not a single one of us is identical to the other.  While reading this week, I have been re-assured in the idea that not everyone is fit to be a parent.