The Color of Water #1
The Color of Water (Honors Memoir Blog)
There have been many quotes throughout the book that have stood out to me, and made me question life altogether. The quote that I chose to respond to is the quote on Page 83, Paragraph 2, and this quote says, “Folks were poor and starving. And I have to admit I never starved like a lot of people did. I never starved for food till I got married. But I was starving in another way. I was starving for love and affection."
I loved this line because I think it’s a line that so many people can relate to, because we've all had times where we feel upset and angry, and in these moments we wish to have somebody to lean on. For most of us, we have friends and family, but I think we don't realize that there are people who have nobody to turn to when things get rough. This line was so perfect, because it came right after the author’s mom had an abortion and she found out that her baby daddy had got someone else pregnant while she was away with her grandma having an abortion. This quote perfectly described her emotions and the description is so strong, that while I read this quote I could feel the emotions that the author described.
The author compares her starving for love and affection to the starving for food, and this comparison helps accentuate the quote because we all know how it feels to be hungry, and if you think of that hunger while reading this quote, you are able to visualize the mom’s emotions better. This quote is so awesome because even though we aren’t the author’s mom and we aren’t going through this experience at this very moment, the description is so vivid and real, that it feels like we are actually going through this experience, even though this is impossible.
I agree that the quote you chose was powerful and I loved reading it. The simile, as you said, made the quote especially powerful because when writing a story, you want the reader to be able to understand and connect to the characters,and the author did a perfect job of that by comparing starving for love and starving for food.
ReplyDeleteYes - you attended to the HOW of the sentence (how it was written and what effect it had on your connection to the work as a whole). Nice job, Oyinda.
ReplyDeleteI really think that this quote you have chosen can relate to everyone. Me, for example, just went through a really tough time trying to discover what was right and best for me. At this time, I really needed someone who understood what I was going through, but even my mom could not relate. It was like me standing alone in an ocean. I really love how you connected the quote to a metaphor or a simile. Great job!
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