A Complicated Kindness PDF

Preview

Summary

For English class....

Description

A Complicated Kindness: Exploratory Writing Arani Mahendran Mr. Hammond

A Complicated Kindness: Exploratory Writing In the book a complicated kindness Nomi is the main character she is a protagonist. She is 16 years old, the story is most often told in her perspective. She is always curious and eager to understand why her community is the way it is. Nomi is from a Mennonite Community also known as East Village. Her family is torn apart because of the regulations of their church and religion. She is struck with struggles such as the disappearance of her mother Trudie and older sister Tash. She is eventually shunned from her church for executing rebellious behavior and she strives to have freedom in her community. Her father Ray wasn’t supportive but love’s her enough to let her make her own choices and leave town and their religion behind. She never really knew why her mother and sister left and she put her head all around it. Also Nomi fell back in school a lot in her senior year and she got much more into drug use thanks to her boyfriend Travis. Nomi ended up being shunned from her church because she was barley showing up to church and also set Travis’s truck on fire. The genre of the novel was female because the whole book was from a female perspective and talks about feelings and relationship and most guys wouldn’t be into books that talk about female’s feelings. The whole book is in first person narrative, from Nomi’s narrative. There really isn’t a dominant atmosphere but you there is a lot of imagery of each setting, such as the Happy Family Farms is where the chicken slaughter house is where Nomi looks at as an only option for her future. Suicide Hill, where she met her boyfriend Travis. I use to watch a show called Breaking Amish which consists of four Amish and one Mennonite who leave their community to experience a different life. In the book A Complicated Kindness, Nomi is faces the challenges of her strict religion and in Breaking Amish the cast is faced with the same challenges and all of them are shunned from their community just like Nomi for

breaking the rules and trying to be a part of western society. Nomi reminds me of the cast member Sabrina High. She was also a Mennonite and felt like an outsider in her community, she faced a lot of challenges such as being adopted into a Mennonite community and having to deal with the challenges of their religion when in reality it wasn’t even her actual religion. Nomi and Sabrina are alike because they both feel out of place in their communities and have other plans for their future. Also in the book Catcher in the Rye and A Complicated Kindness both main characters are impacted by their families. Holden was asked what he liked and he replied with Allie his sibling whom had passed. Nomi believed the unconditional love her parents had hopes that her mother and sister would eventually come back and Holden and Nomi are similar because they can’t seem to both move on with their future because there past keeps getting in the way. The main characters are Nomi, Ray, Tash, Trudie, Travis and Lids. Nomi is always curious and eager to understand her complicated religion. Ray is Nomi’s father who has conformed a lot to the values and regulations of the community. He always is stunned by his daughter and wife and is trying his best to be the perfect citizen for his community but he can’t choose between the rules and his love for his family. Tash is Nomi’s sister. She is the rebel of the family. She is against all the values of her community and church. She is open about who she is and has a very carefree attitude. Trudie is Nomi’s mother she is overwhelmed with the expectations of the community and she wants to take a stand against the system but it only makes her tense. Travis is Nomi’s boyfriend. He brings out the self in Nomi but he is also her bad influence and is very free-thinking. Finally Lids is Nomi’s good friend. She is from a more traditional Mennonite family but she doesn’t judge Nomi. She is affected by a unknown food illness that no one can figure out and able to treat. She is eventually moved to a mental hospital. None of the characters are sterotyped because all of them are very different, you would expect most people for

Mennonite community to be very conservative but they seem to conform more into western culture then their own. One of the obvious themes in the book is Kindness. She is very afraid to lose her family, because of her kindness, regardless of the fact that her mother and sister left she still can’t find it in herself to leave because her father is still there and she would do anything to stay with him. Nomi has kindness but it is very complicated because she just wants her family to be put back together. Another major theme is religion because religion is the main cause of why Nomi’s mother and sister left. In East Village the whole community preaches the morals of the Meno religion and the only way to escape it is to leave town. Nomi hates this way of life but can’t seem to run away from it because she can’t leave her family behind. Some imagery is Nomi lives in a low-brick bungalow out on a highway. She also worked in a slaughter house after graduating from her high school. This explains why the cover has a rooster and axe on the front. The slaughterhouse is a symbol of maze, you are lost in a religion that no one wants to follow but there life is revolved around it. If they don’t follow these rules they will be punished. The author uses effective literary devices because you understand the book and its relevance to the cover after you read it. I feel that author’s purpose for writing this novel is because to shine light on the challenges Mennonite communities face. The author herself Miriam Toews is from a Mennonite community and also questions the religion. The novel is a Feminist novel because there is a lot of pressure and bright light on personal choice and acceptance of the social norms. I feel like the whole book would not be accurate if it was written in different perspective because the experience and knowledge wouldn’t be as deep and realistic....