The Antelope Wife:Realities

Almost Soup is as Indian as a the humans who want to eat him. As a pudgy young white puppy he was set to be perfect soup, until Cally saved him with her young girl charm. A twist to the story being told from a human point of view Almost Soup guides us through the reality of the life of a reservation dog. Our little puppy and soon adult dog shows us reality for not just himself but the Indians as well and also demonstrates to us the more harsher realities beyond anything I have read thus far. Indians have a variety of tradtions, white puppy soup, tying down a dog with stones and throwing them in a river, leaving pets alone and abandonment. To me it has seemed that we have been faced with only the realities of harshness the writers have chosen for us to see, not the ones that may show signs of their own harsh actions. (Erdrich, 73-98).

The Antelope Wife

     I found that the first part of this novel is not exactly comforting. Through Erdrich's writing, she expresses times of anger, rejection, and guilt through exactly your every day, "safe" read. I feel like the point of the reading so far is that if you try hard enough for something, it will come to you, with in reason. I think that her writing exposes a native american take on a sense of despair and magic, but at times it can be humorous.

Antelope: Scranton Roy

         The first few pages of this novel amused me and caught my attention right off the bat. The first quote that I found interesting was "Scranton Roy was most disturbed not by the death yells of old men and the few warriors shocked naked from their robes, but by the feral quiet of the children." I think that it set the stage of the violence and madness occurring in the village. Soon after, his contempt for the children, the paragraph mentions him as he, "bayoneted an old woman who set upon him with no other weapon but a stone picked up from the ground." This certainly interested me, but what caught my attention even more was the dog.
          The dog interests me not only because Roy takes pity on the child and therefore it, so he follows it, but it also becomes a symbol to lead throughout his journey away from the horrifying scene. I have found that dogs always seem to hold emotional entitlement in many pieces of writing, and typically, they die, or are injured when this happens. I found it interesting that Scranton and the dog "found rhythm" in their breathing. Soon after Roy was afraid to "frighten him with a rifle shot", soon after he had just destroyed a village. The connection between the two seemed interesting, when he repeatedly cannot connect to the child. The fact that it was so easy for him to fall in sync with the dog was a thought of value.
     I was a little taken aback by the fact that he let the child mock breast feed, because I couldn't think of many men who would have gone that far, that I know personally to comfort a child that wasn't theirs, when they had little skill with children. The ending of that idea was a bit confusing as he gave a milk from his breast, I was a bit quizzical all and all as to if it was a dream or not. Mostly It made me excited to keep reading on and tied me into the book.

The Antelope Wife

The starting chapters for The Antelope Wife are possibly startling,  yet seem to prove if you want something hard enough and keep having faith it will come to you. The story starts with, "a dog bearing upon its back a frame-board tikinagun enclosing a child in moss...a cavalry soldier, spurred to human response by the sight of the dog, the strapped on child, vanishing into the distance, followed them and did not return" :(pg. 1). Over time the man is able to convenience the dog and child to come close to him. While caring for the child he is unable to figure out how to take care of the child's basic need, food. One day seemingly giving up the man brings the baby to his chest, the child takes to it although no food is produced. The man is happy he is able to help the child, but unhappy he is unable to provide nutrients for the child. Over time though and by a seeming miracle his body produces the child's necessity for survival.

This is quit a role reversal and not one I had expected. Usually when the roles of gender are being reversed it is a female becoming a male. She becomes strong, capable, and dominating. To have a male take on the gentle and paternal piece of a female is rather unusual. Its more unusual for me since the author of the story is a female. I say this because female empowerment usually doesn't involve making a male female. 

I-Hotel

"if you want knowledge you must take part in the practice of changing reaLity.":(301). While the story of Olivia and Ben plays out little poems or rhymes a placed in to seemingly carrythe story along. Some seem to give insight into the story itself. This piece comes after Olivia tells Ben she has overran cancer and he is pondering how he will go on without her. I honestly find this story difficult to follow with the poems inter placed, but have also found some of them to be simply insightful. It's sad for this young couple to have to face a harsh reality, but because of how they ,et they have already faced a harsh reality.

I Hotel Chapters 1-3

     I found it very interesting how Ria became sort of obsessed with her job. I feel like a lot of it had to do with her break up with JB. A lot of times people have weird ways of dealing with break ups and need to fin a way to keep themselves busy. She says that the break up is not the reason why she is constantly working and that it is because  she is passionate about it. She likes to see the women walk through the door who are beautiful and that she is living for the fact that the business is changing, (p. 388)
     I enjoyed how the second chapter started off. It was interesting reading the introduction as they wrote about philosophy. I didn't think that it would go from a group of people to a story mainly about Ria. I liked that she was a such a career focused person. I think that the fact that she didn't engage in a fist fight with Olivia showed how professional of a person that she really is. I also think that it was a good idea for her to go back to school because of what Mrs. Lee told her.