English106-01-03 Introductory Composition

When Terry says, “With mother I buried my innocence. With Mimi I will bury my haven,” (273), it reveals a lot of things to us. One thing that it reveals to us is that with her grandma, she felt as is she could confide in her and share all her secrets. With her mom, she kept her innocence. So it is as if she wanted her mother to know only the good things about her, and her grandmother knew everything, the good and the bad about her. She tells us, “Mimi and I shared a clandestine vision of things” (273).

Terry begins this chapter by talking about the Great Salt Lake. She says “Great Salt lake has peaked for the second time. The birds have abandoned the lake. Borders are fluid, nor fixed. There is no point even driving out to the Refuge,” and continues by saying “I hardly know where I am,” (239). We can see now that she feels like she doesn’t know who she is or where she is. She has lost all hope and optimism that kept her going in her life because nothing is the same way it uses to be.

In the beginning of the chapter, Terry discusses her mother’s weakness and the family’s inability to cope with losing her. Hank refuses to believe that she is going to die, and Terry’s father can’t go to sleep as night because he thinks when he wakes up his wife will lie dead next to him. Terry tells us, “Dad’s fuse is getting shorter as his fears become greater,” (212). Her father doesn’t know how to handle the loss of his wife, and so that fear of losing her is turning to anger.

In the beginning of the chapter Terry starts talking about the Fremont people. Their life flourished on the edge of Great Salt Lake. Their lives moved with the levels of the lake.

The person that I can most relate to in this book is Terry. She is the daughter that has to keep the family together and sane. She holds in her feelings and releases them when no one is watching. She does her best to make everyone happy, even when she isn’t, which I think I do often. She says, “I feel like a potter trying to shape my life with the materials at hand. But my creation is internal. My vessel is my body, where I hold a space of healing for those I love. Each day becomes a firing, a further refinement of the potter’s process.

The Curlew is a long-billed North American shorebird that due to plowing and other land development seem to be going extinct. They even go as far as being considered extinct in the Midwest. Its’ genus name Numenius americanus means new moon. “If new moon is defined as no moon or dark moon, the curlew could be associated with destructive powers , for it was long believed that ghosts, goblins, and witches were at the peak of their power in the dark of the moon”(145). This tells us that the curlews could be associated with the dark or goblin.

Terry begins the chapter by describing the swan that she saw on the beach. The swan was dead and it, "lay contorted on the beach like an abandoned love"(121). She goes on to untangle the swan's neck and lay its chin on the sand. She lies next to the swan and imagines the "great heart that propelled the bird forward day after day, night after night" (Page 121). Her imagination of the bird tells us of what she thinks about it. She is saying that the swan was strong and something motivated it to go on each and everyday even though it had its obstacles.

In the beginning of the chapter Terry and her family is told by her mother’s doctor that she doesn’t have cancer in her system, only to find out later that she does, which hurts the family a lot. The mother becomes very angry because she was being optimistic with the good news she received, and when she finds out the real problem with her cancer and how it still exists, she no longer wants to try to fight it.

In the beginning of the chapter, Terry begins by describing the processes of child birth and what the mother and child go through this journey of producing a human being, such as the cutting of the umbilical cord. She then goes on to discuss a barn swallow that she had seen. The barn swallow’s legs were wrapped around a wire fence, and there was no way it could get its leg out. Terry helps it, but because it had tried so hard to get out losing its breath and energy, it dies.

I think that terry has faced many hardships in her life. One that is effecting her the most is her mother being diagnosed with cancer again. Her family had heard this terrible news before, and now they must go through it again due to her mother being diagnosed again. Terry doesn't know how to react by this news, but supports her mother by taking her to the hospital and helps her during the worst time of her life. she says "its easy to ignore. An underlying restlessness seems to accompany it like birds flocking before a storm.