tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22165886734302188952011-04-21T16:56:40.529-07:00A Place to Exchange Information and IdeasAltheahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06905812375181816788noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2216588673430218895.post-18497780703721711202007-02-21T13:36:00.000-08:002007-02-21T14:18:21.873-08:00Last month's selection was the Pulitzer Prize winning Pre-Civil War novel "The Known World". If you haven't finished it yet, let me encourage you that it is worth it to keep on reading!<br /><br /><br />I had learned a lot from this book. Jones writes from the point of view of several characters. I found it interesting how an event would be interpreted differently by several of the people involved. Or how a person would be trusted by another and distrusted by someone else. <br /><br />Another aspect of the times was the fact that people did not move much, they were very connected to their immediate community and environment. Their "known worlds" could be extremely small and defined how they were understood (or misunderstood) by others. An exchange of information and ideas was extremely limited and slow for everyone, but especially for slaves. These are issues that I often take for granted whenever I read about this era.<br /><br />My favorite character turned out to be Celeste. I thought that Jones had painted a person of immense strength, compassion and understanding. She kept the balance in the slave community by reminding everyone of their priority to take care of each other. My favorite passage was when she left a plate of food for Moses, the black overseer, after she miscarried her unborn child in the field--an event that her husband, Elias, blamed him for because he forced her to work even though she did not feel up to it that morning. It was uncharacteristic of Moses to push his fellow slaves beyond their physical capabilities, or to ignore a protective husband or to speak his mind or feelings. I cried, because she was concerned about Moses, realizing that he was not himself for some reason, and reached out to him even in her grief over losing her baby. She saw Moses as a person who carried a lot of weight on his shoulders while running the plantation and who got no credit for it. <br /><br />Morally, everyone in the book faces some conflicts. I faced some conflicts over the institution of slavery that had been a part of society for thousands of years and still is, in some indirect ways. What is legal isn't always moral and vice versa. I did some in depth research online about slavery and its abolishment. <br /><br />I'm not going to reveal any more plot points! Enjoy reading!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2216588673430218895-1849778070372171120?l=thereadinggroupatokemosstarbucks.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Altheahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06905812375181816788noreply@blogger.com2