Chapter 21 is the turning point of the book. It's not really a climax, there's not really a hero's journey, but I'd say chapter 21 is really the meat (tofu?) of the book. It's really the crux (clux?)
I'm sorry.
Up until now we've been plodding along, alternately having soft-spoken revelations and documenting chicken behavior. When suddenly, BLAM, we get to the whole point of the book: the chickens bring back her memories. Let me do this a la 9th grade immigrant student of mine.
The chickens bring back her memories. One quote that shows this is, "For, spending time with you, not only did Mommy recall and visualize her own mother's thumb with its deep, beloved scar, and from the thumb begin to see her mother's face and actions, but she also began to see, in stark detail, the house near Ward's chapel; the final and most wretched of all the gray shacks' the house that her mother attempted to hide, as she camouflaged all the others, behind the vibrant wall of flowers. (p102)" This is important because it shows that the chickens brought back her memories.
I'm sorry.
Chapter 21 is called "Sitting with the angels who have returned with my memories." Walker writes about writing this book (totally meta, right?), and it is not clear whether she's just gotten to the point of the book, or if the point of the book has just gotten to her. "That is why, just today, and after writing many chapters of this little book, Mommy realized what the subtitle should be: Sitting with the Angels Who Have Returned with My Memories. You are the angels. (p102)" If you look at it one way, it's absurd that she wrote half the book before she figured out what the point was. But if you look at it another way, this seems to be simply the biggest/most valuable nugget (egg?) that she picked out of all her vignettes. And indeed, chapter 21 is most unlike the other vignettes. Walker goes on for much longer than the other chapters, describing in vivid detail her mother; her house; okra' chicken eggs that paid for piano lessons; pig sexuality; bull slaughter, communion, and meat. Here we fully leave the somewhat-chronological story and go way back to another world. The only connection: chickens.
Without this chapter, the book wouldn't be much more than a travel blog: oh, I did this new thing today! Oh, I saw something really nice. Wow, doing this thing really made me understand this other thing about life/myself. Chapter 21 is the keystone.
I don't understand why you put so many "I'm sorry's" in your blog… did you feel bad for what you were saying? I mostly felt your opinion shine through this blog, more than how you actually felt it was the turning point. For me, the way she started the book emphasized the strangeness of chickens being so significant to her. She wasn't shy about loving them. It seemed to consume her thoughts. Than she realized something about herself after the reminiscing. Makes sense to me. And is done precisely. I guess I felt it was her style of showing the revelation, not the point in which she realizes what she is writing about. Although I think many authors stumble upon their points. Chapter 21 was where she let the readers in on her secret, mimicking how she came across it herself.
ReplyDeleteI was apologizing for for subjecting you to terrible puns and 9th-grade-ESL-style writing.
ReplyDeleteActually the puns are really funny and don't mind them because you push through to making a key point. Hannah is right in that the process Walker goes through is part of the revelation of the book. Nice understanding and effort ot have multiple perspectives.
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