I was (and still am) originally interested in how Kathy approached the past. Particularly at the beginning when she says "there have been times over the years when I've tried to leave Hailsham behind, when I've told myself I shouldn't look back so much. But then I stopped resisting" (5). I find Kathy's approach for the past really interesting as unlike other characters we have seen she isn't trying to run away from her past. I am really interested to see how this will affect Kathy's future. I wasn't really sure where to take this idea and now after tonights reading I think I may be taking it more in the direction of growing up. It seems to me that in order to grow up/fit in/be normal Ruth seems to think she need to forget everything about Hailsham and leave her past behind, but Kathy is taking a very different approach. Ruth is also "struggling to become someone else, and maybe felt the pressure more than the rest of us because, as I say, she'd somehow taken on the responsibility for all of us" (130). I'm not quite yet sure where I am going with this, but right now this is my starting point.
Some quotes:
"we didn't really want to leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because underneath, a part of us stay like that: fearful of the world around us, and ––no matter how much we despised ourselves for it––unable quite to let each other go" (120)
"you were never embarrassed about your collection and you kept it. I wish I'd done that too" (131)
"struggling to become someone else, and maybe felt the pressure more than the rest of us because, as I say, she'd somehow taken on the responsibility for all of us" (130)
"so many of their mannerisms were copied from the television" (120)
"there were two quite separate Ruth's" (129)
"We certainly didn't think much about our lives beyond the Cottages, or about who ran them, or how they fitted into the larger world. None of us thought like that in those days" (116)
"Like you say, Kath. We're going to be leaving here soon. It's not like a game any more. We've got to think carefully" (110)
(betrayal is on 127)
Questions:
Do you need to let some of the past go in order to grow up?
What is the benefit of being normal?
What leads someone to betray someone else's trust? How do people react to betrayal?
(not a thinking question) What is Kathy looking for in the porn magazines? And why is art so important?!?
I don't really have anything to post on the blog tonight so I was planning on looking at posts because my ideas haven't really expanded yet. And I came across your questions Talia, and they got me thinking a lot. and as I was reading your questions I came up with more connected to those... For example, for the first question...you can also say-Does anyone ever really let go of their past? Or when they do "grow up" they more push it to the side and don't let it worry them? I also like the big question you had at the end with the "why is art so important?"
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