English106-01-03 Introductory Composition

The quote that is shown by Williams on page 273 shows how those who have passed affected Williams’ life. When dealing with her mother’s illness, Williams did not know how handle her mother’s condition. In dealing with her mother, she shows vulnerability, sadness, and resentment towards those who do not have to experience what she has to. These feelings are things that she has not experienced before in her life. I think that because she has not experienced them before, her mother’s illness has taken that innocence from her.

Terry’s father John is coping with his wife by using anger. When Diane’s chord gets tangled up is when John really gets angry and promptly decides that everyone in the house needs to leave so he can tend to his wife’s needs alone. “Lights in the room are flickering as the storm wages its own battle outside. Tempest. Our father is honoring his name” (227). This quote sums up John’s attitude at this point. Terry uses the words anger, rage, fear, tense and helpless throughout this reading to describe her father and John is being exactly this.

The chapter that affected me the most was the chapter entitled: Bald Eagles. In this chapter, Williams discusses her religion and how it has impacted her mother’s battle with cancer. While planting trees and blessing them, Terry’s husband Brooke says “We’re never going to figure it all out, so we might as well acknowledge the intangibles. Who knows, maybe these trees do have souls.” I think that this statement could be the basis of the entire book. As you live life, you do not know what is coming next, how people will react, and what the future holds.

The character that I can relate the most to is Terry. I think that I favor her because I too have gone through a similar situation that she is going through right now. I have experienced her feelings as she deals with someone who is battling cancer. I think that Terry’s reactions are totally normal and she is dealing with this fairly well. When Terry is at the doctor’s with her mother and Dr. Smith is explaining what is happening to Diane, Dr.

I wanted to do another free write for this Journal.

On page 12o, Terry goes to the lake to find a dead swan laying on the ground. She smooths out the brids feathers, opens it's wings up, and un-tangles the bird's neck. After Terry does this, she lays next to the bird and imagines the "great heart that propelled the bird forward day after day, night after night." (Page 121) I think that Terry is using this bird to prepare herself for her mother's own death. When her mother does pass, Terry will need to make sure her mother is okay and think about the times she was alive and well.

When Terry and her mother are at the lake and they see snow buntnings, I think that this is supposed to represent Diane's cancer. These types of birds are very rare at the Refuge and Diane's cancer is very rare and is becoming more fatal. The fact that the birds are from such a far place could also mean that Terry's mother is drifting further and further away from them, closer to death. I think that when Terry told her mother that her cancer was gone it was very rude. Not all of the tests had come back yet and it provided her mother with false hopes.

For this blog, I decided to do a free write.

I think that Terry has underlying issues that are affecting her life today. She seems to relate everything that happens in her life to birds. I think that this could be important because this could be reflected that she has trust issues with humans. When Terry’s mom gets cancer again, I think that she did not know how to handle the emotions so she returned to her childhood retreat, the Refuge. The trip that she remembered that she took with her with her grandmother on the bird tour, I think symbolizes the trip that her mother will be traveling on in the future.