Heroic Character Traits Throughout the Semester

1. Allison's curiosity that started an entire revolution within the Silo.

2. Juliette's survival skills and perseverance to bring the truth to the people and defy the corrupt IT.

3. Odysseus's cleverness throughout his extremely long homecoming journey.

4. Telemachus's development into manhood and eagerness to find his father and help him destroy the suitors.

5. The Saggy Bottom Boys's undeniable teamwork on their quest to find the "treasure."

6. Anse's determination to fulfill his wife's wish to be buried in her hometown, despite every obstacle thrown the Bundren's way.

7. Dewey Dell's courage to search for a Doctor by herself to get her baby aborted during a time extremely against women in her predicament.

8. Cash's humility and easy going attitude, especially when he gets his leg cut off.

9. Smithy's open and accepting view of human nature, even when others easily judges him on his appearance.

10. Jack's bravery during the "great escape" from Room as well as learning to adapt to the outside world.

11. Ma's unbelievable ability to provide her child with a relatively normal childhood while stuck in her own personal hell.

Out of all the hero's we have studied this semester, Ma's character to me was definitely one of the bravest. After all the constant physical and emotional abuse, she managed to raise a smart and bright kid and I think thats an incredible accomplishment despite everything she went though. Comment if you have any more character traits/ which hero impacted you the most this semester.

Where did the Doctors go?

Ever since Ma and Jack escaped Room, I feel like the Doctors could have handled Ma's situation better. They should have tried to help Ma adjust to the real world more instead of reminding her of all the problems she needs to face. They shouldn't have allowed Ma to be on the interview for the sake of her health. Though it was ultimately her decision, it should have been clear to the doctor's to persuade her against it or at least delay it until Ma was in a more stable condition. Ma could barley talk about her situation to nurses without getting defensive, let alone tell the world and expect them not to judge her. They also should have found out Ma's history with medications in room and have known better than to leave a bottle of pain killers next to her bed since clearly still suffered from serve depression.
I think it also should have been in Ma's best interest to have consulted a doctor before going back to Room with Jack. The items the police brought back from Room for Jack were like ghosts to Ma, so imagine how much it would affect her to go back to Room itself. Though I do agree seeing Jack say goodbye to Room helped Ma find closure, what if Jack decided he didn't want to leave Room? It was his home for his entire life and is possible this could have happened. This would have caused Ma even more psychological damage and would only add to her list of problems. Despite what could have happened, I do think it was extremley brave of Ma to go make herself go back to the place she hated the most and attempt to find peace with it so she could move on to the next chapter in her life. If I was in Ma's position, I don't think I could handle being reminded of the memories.

The Empty Closet

I don't want to write about The Memory of Running. I don't want to write about The Great Gatsby. I want to write about the empty closet. It used be filled to the brim with clothes, clothes that would cause  hundreds of fights over who could borrow what. I remember how cool I used to feel when I had permission to go into that closet and wear something of hers, knowing my outfit had to be on point because it belonged to my big sister. Every piece of clothing told its own story, from the numerous outfits we would parade around the neighborhood in, looking for out next "photo shoot worthy" spot, to the ratty old clothes we would wear when mom made us play "cinderella" and clean the whole house  for "fun". It was always filled with life, filled with colors, filled with memories. Now whenever I walk by the closet, all I feel is emptiness. Like a shell of what it used to be. While it wouldn't make sense to say the closest was my hero (though it did save me from many bad outfit days), looking back, my big sister always has been. I've always looked up to her from her smart-ass comments that made everyone nearly pee their pants laughing at the dinner table, to her uncontrollable dance moves at all the Uni dances I will never live up to. Maybe looking up to someone doesn't  make them a hero, maybe I just miss her and the second she comes home I will delete this post and think "why did I write this again?" But for now, I'm counting down the days until the closet will be full and again my big sister along with it.  

Dear Smithy, please stop obsessing over boobs. -Love, every women who has read this book.

Most readers of "The Memory of Running" can say Smithy's journey has definitely changed his life for the better, and like Isaak said, he essentially saves him from himself which I believe is very noble. However throughout the novel, I've never really been able to completely trust Smithy. What I'm struggling with Smithy is mainly how he views and judges women on their appearance.

Both present and past Smithy are constantly judging women on their physical appearance and it's really starting to creep me out. Throughout the novel, McLarty has made the reader feel close to Smithy, and that they can trust him because of his honesty. He is constantly making negative comments about himself and has truly told us his entire story, even the parts he told us he wanted to leave out. However I think McLarty might have gone too far by telling Smithy's thoughts about the female body. Ever time we encounter a female character, the first thing Smithy tells the reader is her breast size. Some may argue giving us these personal details makes Smithy seem like a more reliable narrator, and while it does make us feel more close to what Smithy was thinking, for me it is a little too far and makes me not like Smithy as much as a person. Smithy is always so self conscious about people judging him by his outside appearance because he is insecure about his weight. However ever time he encounters a female character, the first thing he thinks is a comment about her body and I think its a little hypocritical.

While I am very proud of Smithy for all the progress he has made both internally and physically, he needs to stop constantly obsessing over women's bodies.      

Bike, Smithy, Bike!

There are many similarities between the book "Memory of Running" and the movie "Forrest Gump," both being known as social outcasts, Vietnam War survivors, childhood friends as romantic interests, and of course their distinct journeys from Smithy's biking and Forest's running that starts off as nothing and ends in self discovery. While the parallels between the two unconventional hero stories are interesting, their difference in the way each story is told is especially significant.
Both Smithy and Forest's stories are told in such a way that it sounds like a conversation. The tone is informal, however it still feels like you connect and trust with narrators from their small, personal details. Forest's story is told by Forest nararating his life in chronological order to people he encounters while sitting at the bus stop. Smithy's story, on the other hand, depicts present day Smithy and flash backs to his childhood that help the reader uncover what happened that made his life spiral out of control.
From comparing the two stories, it makes me wonder how different Smithy's story would be if like Forest, he told it in chronological order. What makes "The Memory of Running" so special is the mystery behind how Smithy went from being a boy with so much opportunity, but somehow lost himself along the way. If the story was told chronologically, I don't think it would be as nearly as interesting and I think its clever the author chose to tell the story this way.
Though there are parallels between the two stories of such unconventional heroes, the way the two stories are told are so fundamentally different, they wouldn't make sense if the way they were narrated way switched and would leave a completely different message.

Dewey Dell vs. The birds and the bees

Out of all the members of the Bundren family, Dewey Dell's situation really impacted me the most. Like Mr. Mitchell said in class, I can see how Faulkner adding her story was very risky during this time period because women's issues were never really discussed. However I respect him for contributing her story because it really does show the reader a lot about the status of women during that time and how they were treated.
Dewey Dell's lack of sex education from her family can definitely be seen as one of her main flaws. Unaware of the dangerous of unprotected sexual intercourse, she blindly lets Lafe take advantage of her because she felt she had to do it. For one thing, I find Lafe a repulsing character for knowing how much Dewey Dell's reputation he put at risk and still pressuring her to have sex. I feel so sorry for Dewey Dell and think it would be unfair for the Bundren's to be angry at Dewey Dell for her actions because they never properly educated her in the first place.
Once Dewey Dell found out she was pregnant, she was desperate to find a doctor to illegally get an abortion. So while the Bundren family was on a journey to the big city, Dewey Dell was on a secret journey to find a doctor with the "thoughtful" $10 Lafe left her. The first time we encounter Dewey Dell asking a doctor to help her, she won't even refer to her situation as being pregnant, but as the "female problem." When the doctor finds out she isn't married, he flips out at her and tells her to take that $10 to get a marriage license. This shows the reader how much of a big deal her premarital pregnancy is and how much the doctors would have to risk in order to help her because it is so frowned about in their society.
When the Bundren's arrive at Jefferson, Dewey Dell tried one last time to find a doctor to help her and finally found a man who claimed to be able to help her. He gave her some "medicine" and told her he would perform an operation at night in the basement to "help" her. Though its obvious Dewey Dell is skeptical, she is so desperate to find a cure she goes through with it despite knowing it was sketchy. Once again, Dewey Dell is clearly taken advantage of and is raped by the illegitimate doctor. Because the man sees Dewey Dell as a trashy farmer girl who is desperate for any type of cure, he thinks its ok to take advantage of her because she isn't important. This situation shows how poorly women were treated in this society and how precious it is to keep a good reputation because essentially that was all they really had.
Though the issue isn't as severe, women are still taken advantage of and abused in our society today. We can use Dewey Dell as an example that even though policies have changed, having someone to educate  women on safe sex is very important for teaching them to have their own boundaries and respect their bodies.

Sympathy for Addie?

From the very beginning of the book, the reader sympathizes with Addie because she is dying. We feel sorry for her because she is leaving such a quirky, but loving family. From the way her family treats Addie at her death bed by hand making her coffin and staying by her side and fanning her, we believe she must have been a loving mother that cared for her family. For over half the book, this is how we view Addie, and the Bundren's journey to fulfill her dying wish to be buried in her hometown seems justified. However then Faulkner adds in a chapter out of nowhere of a flashback in Addie's perspective , and the reader's perspective on Addie is completely changed.
The chapter opens with Addie talking about how her dad used to say, "the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time." We learn that Addie is deeply depressed with being a school teacher and wishes she would die. This was very confusing for me as a reader because I thought it was ironic how the whole plot of the book revolves around Addie's death when she actually wanted to die. She talks about how the only part she enjoyed about being with the children is whipping them so she could leave her mark on them. This can be seen as Addie wanting to leave her mark on the world in any way she can because she is trapped in a life she doesn't want.
Then she goes on to talk about how she hates Anse but married him because she felt like she had to. And once she gave birth to Cash, she felt so alone and unhappy she couldn't even describe it. Then she had an affair with the preacher Whitfield and gave birth to Jewel, her only child she ever really cared about. To make up for her sin, she "gave" Anse two more children. Addie's whole predicament although to the reader seems appalling because the Bundren's are risking their lives on a mother who doesn't even want them. However really Addie's persona tells us something about the status of women during this time period. We repeatedly hear Addie talk about how she "did what she had to do," never really having a say in what she wanted to do with her life. This theme can also be seen in Dewey Dell when she got pregnant because she felt trapped in a situation and did what she had to do to get out of it.
Overall, I feel sorry for Addie. She never got the life she wanted, but did what she had to do to be socially acceptable.  However I also feel sorry for the Bundren's who never really found out Addie's real feelings towards them, and the family will live a lie the rest of their lives.