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| Photo of Bedfordshire town, UK |
B) What do you make of Nora’s reluctance to interact with Dan not because she doesn’t care for him but because she does?
C) Nora says that it is a basic law of thermodynamics that the universe tends towards chaos and entropy. How might that belief influence someone's life choices?
Responding to B and C. At this point in Nora's life she's on a downward spiral, and I think that she's trying to distance herself from other people so she doesn't drag them down too. It's typical behavior for people with depression. Plus the belief that the universe tends towards chaos sounds like an excuse someone might use to live recklessly and let go of life much like the YOLO mentality.
ReplyDelete-Byron
I agree with what you said about Nora and Dan. Nora was afraid she would hurt Dan again so she felt it would be better to just not have any interactions with him. I also agree with what you said about her belief on how the universe tends towards chaos.
DeleteC. Nora’s mental state is slipping away and she’s grasping at straws to explain why. Desperately she looks for a logical answer to an illogical problem. Depression is a serious condition that can manifest delusions and push you towards giving up. That’s what this statement is. She’s started giving up trying to return stability to her life. People who use such lines of thinking likely seek temporary happiness and poor decision making because they don’t trust that their tomorrow could be truly be better at all.
ReplyDeleteB. Her mental state is plummeting and she doesn’t want to pull those around her down with her. This is why she’s pushing people away. This is exactly what depression does to people, and it’s terrifying. Especially since the best way to escape is to embrace help and the people around you.
Question A: Opening the chapter with the city’s description helps us to relate to Nora's emotions that she has been feeling. If we are haunted by reminders of people who are no longer around anymore, it can tear a person down instead of helping them to get better. Nora cannot move on with her life because even going out onto the town memories of her mom, dad, and Dan are everywhere.
ReplyDeleteCarolanne Eddy
B- Her reluctance to respond to Dan isn't a reflection on him at all. She wants the best for him, and she knows that she is not it. It feels like she may have backed out on their wedding because she doesn't think she deserves to be loved. A public display of his love maybe didn't feel real to her, and now that he is continuing to pursue her she doesn't want to bring him down to where she is mentally.
ReplyDeleteC- The idea that chaos follows chaos and that it keeps piling up is a mindset. It's how you look at situations. Nora could have seen being laid off from her job as a good thing like Neil said: "freedom", but she took it as the another moment of chaos to spiral. This belief can affect someone by allowing them to feel out of control of their life because the universe is creating this problems, not them. At that point does the person even feel they are really making their own choices?
B>> Sometimes, we care for someone so much that we recognize our mindsets/interactions with them can be harmful to their well-being. Nora is in a deep state of self-pity, so she does not want to make Dan any more miserable, especially because she already believes she has ruined his life. Her reluctance to speak to him shows how much she cares about him. She is so painfully self-aware of the heartache she’s caused him that she doesn’t want to ruin anything else for him. The true test of caring about someone is your ability to let them go when you realize your presence and influence no longer serve them.
ReplyDeleteQuestion A: Haig describes the city’s atmosphere as a “conveyor belt of despair” and describes different memories that Nora had at different places in the city. I believe that your feelings and state of mind directly affect how you see your environment and Haig’s description of the city is a direct parallel to Nora’s feelings. I also think that Haig’s decision to describe the city in that way makes readers better understand what Nora is feeling.
ReplyDeleteQuestion B: I think that Nora’s reluctance to interact with Dan shows that she cares deeply about him. I think that she just wants the best for him and I think she also knows that it wouldn’t work out between them. I think that Nora doesn’t want to text him to give him false hope that things might work out between them. She might also feel bad about what she did and doesn’t want to think about it or talk to Dan about it.
In response to A and C
ReplyDeleteA- I think it goes to show the state of mind that Nora is in along with how the town affects her. I think the effect that it has shows that Nora is in a gloomy state and somewhat connects the atmosphere of the city with how Nora is feeling.
C- I think it can influence them in many ways. If someone is naturally prepared for chaos to happen, they will be better prepared to handle the chaos when it happens. It also works the other way around though. If you are always suspecting chaos, then chaos will always happen. Chaos isn't always bad, but having to deal with it constantly can be very taxing for someone.
A: it does show her state of mind. as it shows how she is viewing the town "a conveyor belt of despair" I remember at my old school, during 5-8 grade, the worst years of my life, the world seemed greyed out like it lost all life. this description of her town shows the feeling she has for it, she feels like it's where everything went wrong.
ReplyDeleteB: she still cares about him. she feels terrible for leaving him at the altar. She probably thinks that if she starts to talk to him she'll make it worse and just cause further trouble. plus to answer C as well. her life is steering towards chaos so she most likely doesn't want to drag him down with her and ruin his more. which it then spirals more into chaos when she sees Ravi causing a whole argument and even more pain
A) I think that it is important to show what's going on in Nora's environment instead of just what is going on inside her head. The "heavy soot-grey clouds" can be seen as a reflection of the darkness that's going on in Nora's life. I think including the details about her environment helps the readers set the mood for what's about to happen.
ReplyDeleteB) I think that Nora feels guilty for backing out of their marriage and that it is easier to cope with the fact that it didn't end well by herself rather than with him. She is scared of potentially ruining their relationship even further so I think she puts her walls up to avoid that.
Responding to C: If someone believes that the universe tends towards chaos and entropy, their choices and actions are going to also reflect that belief. It may make the person think irrationally and make choices that could harm others due to believing that it would harm them no matter what.
ReplyDeleteC. Nora’s thought process about the universe suggests a mentality of possible self-destructive behavior and carelessness. If we saw people with that kind of mentality out in the real world, actively believing that everything leans toward chaos, they themselves would lean toward chaos and not have a care in the world. It is also a casual explainer for everything going wrong in your life, even if things going wrong might be entirely your own fault. You always have to consider that things going wrong may be caused by your own actions, and not the universe giving you a “message” or a spiritual sign.
ReplyDelete-Carson Dill
One of the most common symptoms of Depression is self-isolation. In the first few chapters, we as readers encounter Nora’s isolation in the form of her best friend Izzy and her ex-fiance Dan, where she is reluctant to reach out to both because she does not want to hurt them. However, I think Nora’s fear of not wanting to hurt them is an excuse that she convinced herself of to gloss-over the deeper feelings she holds. In the case of Dan, Nora’s worsening self image, coupled with the guilt she feels from leaving him, influences her to genuinely believe any attempt to reach out would have a negative impact on Dan. I think the deeper implication of Nora “not wanting to hurt him” is not completely about Dan’s feelings, but her belief that Dan, and by extension the world, would be better off without her. Because she cares about Izzy and Dan, she thinks that isolating herself “saves” them from having to interact with the terrible person Nora believes that she is.
ReplyDelete-Bailey Howe
DeleteResponding to B, Nora blames herself for ‘ruining’ Dan’s life. To me, she feels stuck. She called off her wedding with Dan but still loves him deeply. In Nora’s mind if she lets Dan back into her life, she will hurt him again. If she does not let Dan back into her life, the only thing it causes is her longing for something more (which is a fair trade off to Nora).
ReplyDeleteResponding to C, The belief that the universe leans towards chaos motivates Nora to give up. She feels as if no matter what she does nothing positive will happen, furthering her downwards spiral.
A: I think that Haig describes the city atmosphere rather than Nora’s mind because it shows more about Nora’s mind in its themes rather than words; the soot-grey clouds represent how bleak her existence has become bleak and colorless, and that her path ahead is clouded with doubts of what she should do and where she should go.
ReplyDeleteB: Nora’s reluctance towards Dan because she loves him because she does not think she is good enough for him and that she would hurt him less if she stay away from him. Her mother thought of her as a mistake, and it seems that Nora accepted that she will always be a mistake, which explains why Nora pulled out of the wedding and distanced herself from Dan. After hurting him like that, Nora does not want to mess up and hurt him again, so she distances herself even when her state keeps getting worse.
I feel as though the description of Nora's surroundings tie in to her mental state as she begins to succumb to all the negative thoughts she has been stewing in. The surroundings are ugly just like her subconscious dialogue at this moment. As for her reluctance to respond to Dan, she feels as though he would be much better off without her presence in his life. She made that decision when she abandoned their wedding day, and now she feels it's too late to ever attempt to repair that. Her depression convinces her and tells her each and every day that she hurt him and will always and only ever hurt him, so she chooses to isolate.
ReplyDelete