My mind is mush right now in trying to keep track of who is talking, who is white, who is Native American and, basically, who is who. I finally had to give up trying to piece it all together, because as I move along in the book, names and people all become interconnected. The story also seem to move back and forth in time, which has also led to some confusion because it will somtimes take me a while into the chapter to realize that Erdrich has shifted the story. Her writing is obviously not done in sequential order.

Despite some confusion on the characters and happenings, I have enjoyed the book and watching how Erdrich creates such a spider web of events and people. Somehow everything connects to everything - the land, whites and Native Americans, names, and religion. However, there are so many jumps that Erdrich makes with new characters that I no longer know who is white, who lives on the reservation, and who is Native American. I guess I need to print the list posted in order to keep track.

I am also finding all the possible symbolism interesting and to see how these will work themselves in throughout the story. Erdrich's use of doves is a fairly common imagery and symbol, which I have seen used in other works. Although, I have always associated doves with peace and hope, but this is not what Erdrich does.

Almost finished with it, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Catching up here...

It is difficult to come up with much to say this week regarding the readings other than the fact that I really enjoyed the book The Invisible Man." I found it to be very thought provoking. The invisibility = identity issues in the novel raised quite a few questions in my mind with regards to our own invisibility and identity. Although the book relates to the issues of racism, there was so much more to the novel than this.

There was so much content in this novel that struck close to home with respect to how a person can be visible yet not visible to those around us. Not to disregard or not recognize the importance of racism in this country, I don't think a person has to be a minority to feel the struggles of identity. I recognized myself in the narrator to the extent of changing my identity to the circumstances of the time or to what I think someone expects of me. In doing this, it is so easy to get lost along the way. Learning to understand that we need to be ourselves, live out our own ideals and lives is difficult when all we want is to be recognized and accepted by others and society.

Dana