I really liked the book Animal Dreams. I felt like there was a lot of points in the book that are relevant to every one's lives. In the book Codi struggles to find out who she is and where she belongs in the world. This has probably been said a bunch of times, but that is not unlike what many of us are trying to do in college. I know personally I am trying to determine if I can really see myself as either a music therapist or a music educator after I graduate.
At one point in the book Hallie wrote to Codi that one of the huge problems with this nation is that, "(America is) a nation in love with forgetting the facts." That has so much truth to it. It is very easy to believe what we want to believe is happening and not really look and see if it is the truth. I know that I do not find history classes terribly exciting, but they are important so that we as Americans do not forget where we have come from so that we do not take what we have for granted or revert back to ways that have been proven to fail. I have a hard time grasping how recent the civil rights movement really was. It is not ancient history. I have grown up in a time where diversity is to be expected and not feared. I need to be reminded how fortunate I am in that.
This is my discussion question is based on, but I have some opinions on it that I would like to discuss. Doc Homer's hobby of taking pictures of objects so that they look like something different is mentioned multiple times throughout the book. I feel that these pictures symbolize his life. On page 140 Doc Homer makes a comment that leads the reader to understand that he is trying to capture memories from his past. This could be partially because of his Alzheimer's disease, but I think it has other meanings as well. Doc Homer has never really felt like he fit into Grace. He was constantly trying to mold himself and his daughters into something that, in his mind, would prove themselves to Grace that they were acceptable. He does the same thing with his pictures. Doc Homer looks at a normal, everyday object and molds it into his vision of perfect. On page 145 he fails to make the picture work like he envisioned. To quote what is written,
"He has manipulated this photograph in every possible way, and not of it has yielded what he wants. He sees now that the problem isn't in the development; the initial conception was a mistake. He fails in the darkroom so seldom that it's hard for him to give up, but he does. For once he lets go of the need to work his will. He clocks off the old red dwarf and turns on the bright overhead light, and the unfixed prints lying in the bath all darken to black. It doesn't matter. The truth of that image can't be corrected."
While this passage is clearly speaking of how he failed to produce the picture he desired, it is also speaking of how he failed to produce the results he desired regarding his family. He wanted so badly to be in control of how the Nolines were viewed, but at this moment he realizes that his attempts are for nothing and that he needs to stop trying to work his will on his daughters and just let them be who they are. He realizes that, "the problem isn't the development; the initial conception was a mistake." He had the right intentions, however what resulted was not as positive as he had hoped. It was difficult for Doc Homer to do, but out of his love for his children he he let go. By working so hard to change the viewpoints of those living in Grace, Doc Homer only succeeded in isolating himself and his family further.
I feel like Animal Dreams has many different passages like these two that can be examined much deeper than face value and much more is gained from doing so. It was the things like these that made me think that contributed to my enjoyment of the book.
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