Personal Reflection

Unfortunately, despite my love and admiration for books and all the glories they offer, I often don't do them the justice they deserve. I am a fast reader and I often find that in my excitement for a novel I will devour it without truly tasting it. The journal entries, the apologia, and explication all drew me back to the novel consistently for I could remember pieces, snatches of beautiful words and ideas, but not well enough to adequately carry the ideas on to a pages to support the initial feelings I drew from the book. So I would go back. I would read and reread sections which I felt were important. I re-examined sentences and took from them more than I did the first time, for now that I knew what the conclusion was I could take my time getting there. I discovered a sense of humour in Reta I didn't fully grasp the first time, as well as a better understanding of some of the secondary characters like Lois, Reta's mother in-law, whom I really came to enjoy. By taking my time and rereading so often I feel I have become a stronger reader because I now understand the importance of real reflection to a novel's impact on the reader. If it's good the first time when you read it at super speed, it's bound to be even better when savoured. I've learned that because of my speed rereading is almost a necessity to get the full sense of the story at hand.

Such projects as the links list also helped to expand my understanding of the novel itself. We were to look for reviews, interviews, and other aspects that would reflect on the novel. I found that reading reviews, be they on a person's blog or by the CBC, help me to gain new insights for they would inevitably interpret the book differently than I. Also, because of the links I look at lots of interviews with the author, only two of which I posted, and I became very attached to Carol Shields as a person. I felt she wrote and spoke beautifully on complex emotions and (as silly as this is) I felt myself almost moved to tears when I read about her struggles with cancer that eventually led to her death. I have often felt a connection to the material and author puts forth, but very infrequently do I feel a tie to the author. Looking into Shields' life was a new and enjoyable experience, the understanding that she wrote Unless almost at the end of her battle with cancer put the feelings of smothered anger voiced in Reta in a new light. I feel this connection opened me up to Reta's feelings even more and it was through this interesting character that I learned more about the human nature of everyone, but especially women. I recognize in many women around me, for example my mother, the need to be heard and respected, but the fear of appearing too aggressive. My mother will get angry about dirty dishes being left on the counter, become angry, then apologize for her outburst. She doesn't want to appear nagging or angry so she retracts her statements and internalizes the feelings instead. Conduct of a woman who so often places others far above herself.

I can relate to not wanting to be exposed. Reviewing with peers is not a task I relish in; I in fact avoid it whenever possible and have done so successfully for most of my high school career. Then came this very public blog (mainly because I don't do well with technology and I don't know how to adjust privacy settings) and my ideas were out there, exposed to everyone. I wasn't afraid of people borrowing my ideas, I consider our class to creative to do that, I was afraid of not measuring up to everyone else. That my ideas, much like the first paragraph for my Hamlet's Swimmer's Moment essay, would fall flat. I got over it though, marks have to be earned, apologias have to be written. In fact, over time I began to value the system that allowed us to examine other people's work. I struggled with my apologia which may or may not be evident in my many rough pieces and have the tools to click over and see how others approached theirs was a immense help in finally getting mine down. I felt the project overall was an interesting experience. I abide by my dislike of computers but the capabilities to share and be creative with the new medium was refreshing and I enjoyed the exposure to Canadian literature. The diversity of the novel chosen were overwhelming and it feels good to know there is such a range out there. No longer does historical fiction novels on the settlers first spring to mind when thinking Canlit and I look forward to enjoying reading many of the books brought forth by my classmates.

Note for the Works Cited

I did attempt to underline the title of the periodical but when I copied it over from my word processor the lines were no longer under the words but beside them. I was unable to find a way to underline them on the blogging space itself. Sorry for the inconvenience, but please consider the words that are framed with the lines as underlined.

Thank you

Works Cited in Explication and Apologia

"Inaugural Carol Shields Symposium on Women’s Writing:." _University of Winnipeg_ (2002): N. pag. http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/festival-of-voices


Jacobs, Heidi LM. "Shields: Why Literature Matters." _Shields, Carol_ Northwest Passages (August, 1997): N. pag. http://www.nwpassages.com/author_profile.asp?au_id=1234


Keshavjee, Serena. "The Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award." _University of Manitoba Press_ (2002): N. pag. http://www.mbwriter.mb.ca/mwapa/award_shields.html


LeBlanc, Romero. "Congratulating Shields on Winning the Pulitzer Prize." _Letter from Governor General _ (April 20, 1995): N. pag. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/writers/027005-3000-e.html


O’Malley, Martin. "Shields: Why Literature Matters." _CBC News Online_ : N. pag. http://www.cbc.ca/news/obit/shields_carol/


The Pulitzer Prizes. "The 1995 Pulitzer Prize Winners." _Columbia University_ (1995): N. pag. http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/1995,Fiction


Shields, Carol. _Unless_. Toronto: Random House Canada, 2002.


Weise, Elizabeth. "Maybe We are Different: New Book Argues Female Brain Wired to Nurture." _USA TODAY_ (August 26, 2006): N. pag. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2006-08-21-female-brain_x.htm

Apologia

A significant novel goes beyond one time frame of best seller lists. In order to have staying power a novel must be relevant to many generations for that is what will ensure that it will remain circulating into the hands of new readers and continue to share the story put forth by the author. Theme is what drives a novel for if the theme is both solid and true it will be able to impact upon the life of the reader and they will leave the pages with more than they started with. A theme that accomplishes this will hopefully be able to be universally felt for this will ensure will be able to carry on through generations, all being able to take something away from the story that enriches them some how. Unless by Carol Shields accomplishes this with its dynamic theme on the inner struggles of women, a topic which can and will apply again and again, for there will likely always be the feelings of being voiceless in the world that she puts forth.

Shields, despite being hailed as ‘among the most distinguished and honoured of all writers in the Canadian literary tradition’ (LeBlanc), was not a born and raised Canadian. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1935 and moved to Canada at twenty-two after her marriage to Donald Hugh Shields (O’Malley). Shield studied overseas in England at Hanover College and the University of Exeter in England and her formal education was completed at the University of Ottawa (Jacobs). It is needless to say that though many ‘celebrate Carol, her works and her legacy’ as Canadian, her reach is far more global. Shields is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her critically acclaimed novel The Stone Dairies, an award given out to a novel that is ‘distinguished fiction by an American author’(The Pulitzer Prizes). She has also been listed along with Jane Austen in the ‘top 10 list of Britain's best-loved books written by women’ (Jacobs) for her novel Unless, edging out Margaret Attwood (O’Malley). Despite global praise and acknowledgement, Shields considered herself a Canadian author and was quoted as saying Canada was a perfect place to write (O’Malley). Many of her books, Unless as no exception, are based in Canada. The awards bestowed upon her by the Canadian literary circles are extensive, the least of which including the National Book Critics' Circle Award, Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and the Governor General's Award (LeBlanc).

As aforementioned, time and the passing of generations is the real test of strength when examining the significance of both a novel and an author. Shields passed away in 2003 after a five year battle with breast cancer that eventually spread to her liver (O’Malley). The author passed but her influence for ‘redeeming the lives of lost or vanished women’ (Jacobs) through her words was not forgotten. Posthumously there has been a Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award created by the Manitoba Writer’s Guild (Keshavjee) and, in the spirit of Shields many novels, a Carol Shields Festival of Voices has been planned for May 2009 (Inaugural Carol Shields). The festival will host poets, playwrights, and authors, with intent to continue Shields’ work by ‘extending and crossing boundaries in creative writing’ (Inaugural Carol Shields) and a ‘focus on the intersection of feminism and women’s writing’ (Inaugural Carol Shields).

This topic, writing ‘books which examined women’s friendships and women’s inner lives’ (Jacobs), are the biases of so many of Shields’ novels. It is obvious through her many awards and celebrations that she touched the lives of many through her books and it is with projects like the Festival of Voices that we can see just how important her influence was. Shields gave a voice to many emotions felt by women, often ones hardest to express. In Unless there are two such characters who feel unable to speak out. Reta, an author, mother, and the antagonist of the novel, feels that women’s voices are pushed aside and ignored in favour of men’s. She writes (but never sends) letters to authors who publish works that only site men as academic influences, asking for equality and consideration. She feels this suppression is at the core of why her daughter, eighteen year old scholarship winning Nora, now sits mute on a corner in Toronto holding a sign saying GOODNESS, panhandling for money and giving it away.

Unless is the story of Reta’s ‘anguished insight into the injustices of the gendered world’ (Shields 149) and this is why the story carries relevance. Shields’ capability to write believable and true characters who express emotions that women will likely always carry with them is what makes her significant, not just as a Canadian author, but as a writer in whole. What is good for the whole of the writing community is inevitably good for Canada. Having such a globally revered novelist not only call Canada home but a ‘very good country for writers’ (Jacobs) is inevitability excellent for Canadian literature. Both Shields with her continuously strong messages on womanhood, and her novel Unless are without a doubt strong contributors to Canada’s diverse literary canon.

Word Count: 856

Explication of Self-Sacrifice of an Ideal in 'Unless'

Immediately the Dramatic Situation that struck me was Polti’s twentieth ‘Self-Sacrifice for an Ideal’. This is perfectly fitting to Shield’s incredibly impacting theme, for Carol Shields’ accomplishment with her novel Unless’ was that she articulates a side of womanhood that has the power to speak to women throughout generations. Nora is an antagonist in the novel, the main antagonist’s daughter, who has chosen to sit mute and beg for money on a busy corner in downtown Toronto. Nora’s quest for GOODNESS is her personal ‘Self-Sacrifice for and Ideal’, and Nora’s mother, Reta, sees it as a struggle to be heard. She feels that her daughter is sitting on the curb panhandling for money because she has no other choice. Her opinions can never really be heard or valued at the same level as a man’s so she must find completion in another way. Nora ‘loves the world’ (Shields 128); everything from ‘earth tipping in space’ (129) to ‘branches of languages’ (128). She must fulfill her own search to ‘find where [she] fits in’ (130) and her solution is to beg for money and give it away. She takes comfort in nothing and lives in a shelter for how can she possibly have possessions when others do not?
Here is an idea that has the capabilities to touch everyone, not only women. For who has never felt overwhelmed by the catastrophes that surround our lives? We are safe enough in our own small comfort bubble of daily life, but outside it there are pirates in Somalia, fires in California, and global warming. We want to help, feel the need to, but how can we? Faced with the expensive and seemingly hopeless problem of the world we retreat back into our bubble of protection and think about only day to day matters in order to maintain reason for ourselves.
Nora can do that no longer. She there is no longer a safe mindset for her to return to, for she has been too exposed. Nora witnessed a ‘Muslim woman’ (41) who ‘poured gasoline over her veil and gown, and set herself alight’ (314). She attempted to smother the flames and save this woman, another female who we can imagine as feeling trapped inside her own body. Nora failed to save the unknown woman and carries the scars both internally and on her body from her collision with helplessness. In order to remain even slightly sane, she feels she must give everything, even herself, away and so she becomes the ‘Person Sacrificed’. Women, raised and programmed to be caring and nurturing, for science seems to support the view that females have ‘brain circuitry and hormones that make women so much more attuned’ (Weise) and ‘constantly aware of the emotions and needs of those around you’ (Weise). If an instinct to nurture is inbred what happens when your private world suddenly expands to include the whole planet and all its creatures? Nora seems to feel there is nothing she can do but shut down and do as much as she can, as quietly and unassuming as she can. She wants to help, but does not wish to cause any fuss, and so she does not speak, does not make eye contact, and does not keep any possessions she collects from panhandling.
Reta feels that Nora is silent because it is her only choice. Reta is a writer who has one acclaimed hit as her own work, the rest are books translated for her mentor. Her book is listed as a beach read; a far cry from the poetry and other intellectual books she produced with her earlier works. Reta is also a reader and what strikes her as she reads her chosen articles is that, be it a man or woman writer, is that there is a severe lack of female voice being cited. Reta is an educated woman, her role model is an extremely intelligent and vocal feminist, and her writing group consists of three very successful and bright women. She knows there are female opinions ringing out in the world and she feels they fall upon deaf ears and then are lost. If there is no one listening, then what is the purpose of speaking? Nora writes pointed and well written letters to the authors of such articles, expressing her distress and explaining her daughter’s situation. Once again Shields remarks on what it is to be a women. Reta does not shout or become angry in her letters, ‘whispering is more like it’ (Shields 220) in her pleas to be heard. Reta’s whisperings never leave the page though, she signs the letters with false names which is pointless considering she never sends them but rips them after writing. In this is the female situation Shields repeats again and again in Unless and the encompassing ‘Self-Sacrifice for an Ideal’; women have ideas, are capable, intelligent people, and yet despite the claims of feminism are not partners with men. Their voices are not respected equally, ideas often being glanced at then cast aside for the “better and brighter” solutions of men. Still these voices refuse to shout, for to do so goes against inner nature; it is better to see and accept, then to deal with the problem in one’s own way, making as few waves a possible. Everyone does it differently, be it by begging without expectations on the corner of ‘Bloor and Bathurst’ (25), writing dozens of letters that will never be seen, or not challenging yourself enough to write more than ‘a light novel’ (14). All are self-sacrifice for the ideal, a wish to belong and be heard.
What is missing is the ‘Hero’. Is the ‘Hero’ what brings Nora back to the loving and grieving arms of her family, or is it Nora, the one who is sacrificed, for giving herself away so freely to her cause? Pneumonia from the Toronto winter causes Nora to collapse and be sent to the hospital where the ‘severe second degree burns’ (301) are discovered and the connections are made to the incident with the Muslim woman. There waiting at the hospital is the whole of Nora’s family, and it is Nora’s mother Reta who Nora first wakes up and speaks to. Reta, a mother who felt the loss of her daughter colour every sensation in her life, is the ‘Hero’ for it is Reta who does all she can to both understand the GOODNESS that Nora is seeking and still bring her back to the surface. Reta is the last person Nora speaks with before the incident and her disappearance and the first she speaks to upon her awakening. Reta is there to pull her daughter back into a world where she can function. Though the Nora’s personal ‘Ideal’ in its consuming form of total world love through sacrifice has been lost, it is for the better because now it is possible to focus that attention in a way that is healthier. Nora can give back in other ways, she doesn’t need to live with nothing to contribute and feel connected. She can rebuild and function in the world for her family is with her and they will carry her experiences for her and they ‘will do this gladly’ (315).

Word Count: 1207

Rough Apologia Number 2 - Comments much appreciated

Carol Shields’ accomplishment with her novel Unless’ was that she articulates a side of womanhood that has the power to speak to women throughout generations. Through Nora’s quest for GOODNESS the antagonist Nora’s mother Reta sees her own struggle to be heard. She feels that her daughter is sitting on the curb panhandling for money because she has no other choice. Her opinions can never really be heard or valued at the same level as a man’s so she must find completion in another way. Nora ‘loves the world’ (Shields 128); everything from ‘earth tipping in space’ (129) to ‘branches of languages’ (128). She must fulfill her own search to be whole and ‘find where [she] fits in’ (130) and her solution is to beg for money and then give it away, taking comfort in nothing and living in a shelter. How can she possibly possess things when others have so little?
Here is an idea that has the capabilities to touch everyone, not only women. For who has never felt overwhelmed by the catastrophes that surround our lives? We are safe enough in our own small comfort bubble, but outside it there are pirates in Somalia, fires in Chicago, and global warming. We want to help, feel the need to, but how can we? Instead we retreat back into our bubble of protection and think about only day to day matters in order to maintain reason for ourselves.
Nora can do that no longer. She has been pushed too far outside a comforting mindset to return, for she witnessed a ‘Muslim woman’ (41) who ‘poured gasoline over her veil and gown, and set herself alight’ (314). She attempted to smother the flames and save this woman, another who we can imagine as feeling trapped inside her own female body. Nora failed to save the unknown woman and carries the scars both internally and on her body from her collision with helplessness. Women, raised and programmed to be carrying and nurturing, for it has been scientifically proven that females have ‘brain circuitry and hormones that make women so much more attuned’ (Weise) and ‘constantly aware of the emotions and needs of those around you’(Weise). An instinct to nurture is inbred and when your private world suddenly expands to included the whole planet and all its creatures, what other choice is there but to shut down and do as much as you can, as quietly and unassuming as you can, as Nora does? She wants to help, but does not wish to cause any fuss, and so she does not speak, does not make eye contact, and does not keep any possessions. Only carries a sign reading GOODNESS and small cup, giving what she gathers away.
Reta feels that Nora is silent because it is her only choice. Reta is a writer who has one acclaimed hit as her own work, the rest are books translated for her mentor. Reta is also a reader and what strikes her as she reads her chosen articles is that, be it a man or woman writer, is that there is a severe lack of female voice being cited. Reta is an educated woman, her role model is an extremely intelligent and vocal feminist, and her writing group consists of three very successful and bright women. She knows there are female opinions ringing out in the world and she feels they fall upon deaf ears and then are lost. If there is no one listening, then what is the purpose of speaking? Nora writes pointed and well written letters to the authors of such articles, expressing her distress and explaining her daughter’s situation. Once again Shields remarks on what it is to be a women. Reta does not shout or become angry in her letters, ‘whispering is more like it’ (Shields 220) in her pleas to be heard. Reta’s whisperings never leave the page though, she signs the letters with false names which is pointless considering she never sends them but rips them after writing. In this is the female situation Shields repeats again and again in Unless; women have ideas, are capable, intelligent people, and yet despite the claims of feminism are not partners with men. Their voices are not respected equally, ideas often being glanced at then cast aside for the better, brighter solutions of men. Still these voices refuse to shout, for to do so goes against inner nature; it is better to see and accept, then to deal with the problem in one’s own way, making as few waves a possible. Be it by begging without expectations on the corner of ‘Bloor and Bathurst’ (Shields 25), writing dozens of letters that will never be seen, or not challenging yourself enough to write more than ‘a light summer read’.


Word Count: 797

More Rough Apologia

A Tale of Two Cities, 2 00o Leagues Under the Sea, Uysses, all very different novels which have left their mark in history and are still widely recognizable stories and titles to this day. What makes them so remarkable is a mixture of litary triumphs. To create a story that lasts there must be a theme that is continuously enjoyed by all generations. New generations bring new ideas and insights and a novel must be able to stand up to adapting view points and ideas. So herein lies the biggest problem for authors; to create a theme that reflects human nature because that is what will create appeal for new readers. If a reader feels they can relate they will invest more in a novel and therefore carry pieces away with them. This is what gives a story it's timelessness, an ability to continue to leave and influence a reader. A theme that continues to be relevent because of it's reflection on the the struggles of women. Shield's contributes to the cannon of liturature extends beyond Canlit because of thi

Shield's novel Unless contributes to the cannon of Canadian literature with her theme that is relevent to women through generations.

A story with real signifigance must have timelessness. Yet, how can one decided on the timelessness while standing in a position when the novel in question is relatively new? What characterisctics create a novel that can be carried into the future? Should we consider the sales charts when deciding which books will be around for the next generation? I believe a novel must go beyond it's sales and look at more. At this time, a in that it will reach beyond one time frame. It is able to tell a story to not just one generation, but the generations that come after it. At this point in time toping the best sellar list are such novels as The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks and A Good Woman by Danielle Steel. This is Sparks eighth novel and Steel's In order to have signifigance a novel must