First Required Post on Kincaid's _My Brother_
As you read Jamaica Kincaid's My Brother, (pgs 29-50) what stood out for you most? Are there any passages that you found particularly intriguing or puzzling? What, if any, questions do you have so far about the book?
What kind of research do you think Kincaid would have had to do to write this book? Do you see any parts in the text where she seems to be expressing some outside knowledge - knowledge that she would not necessarily know automatically, but have to look for or find out?
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posted by Erin @ 6:23 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
question 1-
What I found most intriguing was the bond that Kincaids family shares, I find it very odd. She loves yet hates her family. A passage that got me thinking was that from page 49 when she mentions her thought on taking her brother to the US to be treated for aids; she says " take this strange, careless person into the hard-earned order of my life..." I admire that she's being honest yet can't help but read the line 5 times to make sure that what I am reading is correct. I find it hard to accept. I guess that different peoples family values differ depending on their personal circumstances, and for me I could never think what she thought, I would have within a blink of an eye taken my brother in no matter the consequences as long as it helped him. Another passage that Sticks out to me is when kincaid describes the condition of the hospital her brother is staying at, I have been in and near hospitals like this and even though I can relate to it, It still shocks me when I am reminded of them and realize how this and other countries money (that come from the citizens and non citizens own money) is not being put to use in what matters; for example: good health conditions (or as it applies to in this memoir; AZT). I don't have many questions about the book, its pretty straight forward. I have a couple of doubts about what some words mean (jablese-page38) but that's pretty much it.
What I found most interesting throughout this whole book was fore mostly a certain line that that Jamaica Kincaid would continually use. She would say that she did not love her brother or she did not know what it was to love her brother. However, I found this line very hard to believe. The whole book was dedicated on the behalf of her brother’s death. She spent so much time trying to help her brother while he was infected with HIV. She even speaks of him and his life in a truly vital manner. She says “something so important that I want my own children to witness it. I had taken them with me to visit him, I had taken them with me when he died” (Kincaid 182). I feel that Jamaica Kincaid loved her brother very much. Nonetheless, she just seemed to have had a hard time expressing it to everyone. I believe that she was merely afraid to admit it; perhaps it might have hurt her too much if she had admitted it. They were 13 years apart and had different fathers, but something like this I feel was just her excuse to hold back the fact that she really did love him.
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