Sep 17 2009
Singing My Sister Down
This story was a story with one of the most confusing introductions that I have ever read because at first you don’t truly understand what is going on. Not only that but the whole premise of what happened truly didn’t make sense, about how you could receive such a punishment for a crime. Now while it does not tell you the actual crime that was committed it is safe to assume that it was bad enough to have merited the death penalty. Lastly from the premise of the exposition you can tell that while this woman was a criminal, that she did not seem like a evil or malicious person.
The point at which I realized exactly what was going on was when it said that she had spent her time in prison, but doesn’t say her charges. The reason why this is a vital part is because this explains why Ikky is out there and dispells that fact that you may think that she was out there by her own free will. But instead it is that she was forced to by the governing force of her community. The way that Langan actually keeps the interest in this very confusing story is by leaving up questions that the reader would need to know the answer to, due to the odd situation. Langan is also able to the mastery of short stories to manipulate the plot and its contents for a confusing, but also an interesting read.
Hi Justin,
Here is the bit of ‘SMSD’ that explains why Ikky is being executed:
‘I’m stuck now,’ said Ik, and it was true—the tar had her by the feet [...].
‘Oh yeah, well and truly stuck,’ said Mumma. ‘But then, you knew when you picked up that axe-handle you were sticking yourself.’
‘I did know.’
‘No coming unstuck from this one. You could’ve let that handle lie.’
That was some serious teasing.
‘No, I couldn’t, Mumma, and you know.’
‘I do, baby chicken. I always knew you’d be too angry, once the wedding-glitter rubbed off your skin.’
[Then later, when she's walking home, she says to her son:]
‘All you can do about it is watch out who you go loving, right? Make sure it’s not someone who’ll rouse that killing-anger in you, if you’ve got that rage, if you’re like our Ik—’
All the best,
Margo.
[...] with wonderful reflections from their novel study. I move on to Upper School and see that an author has commented on one of @snobles’s ninth-grade blogs. So cool.The seniors also continue to post about their [...]