Lady kills cockroach and goes insane - aka The Passion According to G.H.



    Well then! Ignoring the themes and deep meanings that I barely understand I have to just first stop and take a moment to question what I just read. Simply summarized, lady kills cockroach, goes insane... for over 100 pages. I don't know what I was expecting storyline wise but it was really impressive that an entire novel was created around one event. I wish I had a bit more time to dig into this novel (I procrastinated reading it over break woopsies) but as I don't, I have just had to try my best to understand haha. 

    Unsurprisingly, its pretty difficult to have a constantly original train of thought about one event occur for essentially an entire novel and I noticed there was quite a lot of repetition throughout. Little phrases and also just ideas (feeling/being unclean was a pretty continuous thing). Honestly the whole thing was pretty hard to read, I got lost a lot and found myself skipping large chunks of text in confusion. However, this repetition also made it feel as if you were going along with her, experiencing the same spiraling mental state that she was. I have noticed often when I have been confused by things we have read in this class it has added to the meaning of them. While, like always I had a difficult time picking up on little details and symbolism, of which I am sure there is lots, I can tell you this novel as a whole felt very spiral-y simply due to the way it was written. Not sure I enjoyed feeling like I too was having a mental breakdown/existential crisis but it was certainly interesting. 
    
    The things I am most curious about were the drawing G.H.'s former maid left on the wall, along with the possible symbolism of her (literal) baggage in the room. I honestly have no idea about the drawing and would be interested to hear other's thoughts about it. The baggage however I found interesting, more so as I got into the story. I may be reaching but G.H. mentions her childhood and she obviously has some sort of trauma from it judging by how weirdly classist she is despite growing up in poverty. So she has her emotional baggage and her literal baggage in the same room. Given that she does directly mention her bags a few times I feel justified in giving them significance.
    

Thats all :D This book was a challenge for me but definitely interesting lol

Comments

  1. PatricioFebruary 28, 2022 at 10:21 PM

    I like your title like a Youtube video. Other than this, can you bring something that has caught your attention, be it a topic, an idea, etc?
    It would also be interesting if you added tags and questions for the class.

    ReplyDelete
  2. harshi jhaveriMarch 2, 2022 at 1:34 PM

    Hi Dee! Great post:)
    "Not sure I enjoyed feeling like I too was having a mental breakdown/existential crisis but it was certainly interesting."
    I completely agree ahah! Although I did find the novel itself to be really intriguing in the beginning, the more I read, the more confused and annoyed I got – I reckon this has a lot to do with, like you mention, the reading making me feel like I was having some sort of crisis of my own.

    I also really liked your interpretation of G.H. and the (emotional and literal) baggage in the room! I didn't think to make that connection while reading the novel, but now that you mention it, I don't think it's too far of a stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JennaMarch 3, 2022 at 3:06 PM

    Hi Dee!
    I really enjoyed your post!
    I was also really confused about the charcoal art piece on the maid's wall but in my interpretation it had something to do with identity and the way that G.H views her own self. In the beginning of the novel, G.H sees herself primarily through the perspective of others and when she finds the drawing she immediately recognizes herself in it. I think that the drawing was supposed to represent the literal perspective of others imposed on G.H and her own breaking free of that perspective and gaining some self-identity throughout her transformation.

    ReplyDelete

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