English

Cost-of-living crisis

Me and Roos made a news report about supermarkets and the cost-of-living crisis.

Louisiana comfort food

A summary of my new knowledge of Cajun food and my experience with Randy, my native speaker.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson 

We read this novella in three parts, for each part I took a passage and discussed why I chose it. For all three parts, I also opened a discussion on a particular topic. 

Chapters 1-4

Once I was going past, the Harris boys' mother came out onto the porch, perhaps to see what they were all yelling so about. She stood there for a minute watching and listening and I stopped and looked at her, looking into her flat dull eyes and knowing I must not speak to her and knowing I would. "Can't you make them stop?" I asked her that day, wondering if there was anything in this woman I could speak to, if she had ever run joyfully over grass, or had watched flowers, or known delight or love. "Can't you make them stop?" "Kids," she said, not changing her voice or her look or her air of dull enjoyment, "don't call the lady names." "Yes, ma" one of the boys said soberly. "Don't go near the fence. Don't call no lady names." And I walked on, while they shrieked and shouted and the women stood on the porch and laughed.

I think this passage struck me the most, because I feel sorry for Merricat but at the same time it also made me add another suspect to the list of who the killer is. Merricat's mother makes me believe that she put arsenic in the sugar to kill everyone. In Merricat's perspective she seems so unhappy in the Blackwood house, this is not only most apparent in this passage, but in all three chapters her mother is always presented as a sad, unhappy women. It could also just be that I think this because this comes from Merricat's perspective. To me, it seems that she doesn't like her mother very much. After all, why is Merricat not allowed to talk to her or why does it seem like she doesn't want to protect Merricat from the Harrys boys'. Who, by the way, sing a very cruel song as children. I think Merricat describes her as an unloving mother and that's probably why I chose this passage.

Predictions and an analysis of our protagonist

After specifically saying in the beginning of the last chapter that change would come, I have made some predictions. First, Constance will go outside once but you can argue about that. Constance seems to doubt the idea mainly because she is scared but also because her younger sister advises against it. But on the other hand, Helen Clarke seems to be getting inside Constance's head because she wants Constance to leave the house.

Second, Uncle Julian will die, the sick man should have died earlier and is unlucky to be the only survivor in my opinion. He has been having more bad days so perhaps the day comes sooner than we think.

Lastly, I predict that in one of the following chapters the real killer will be discovered. Perhaps it's Merricat because she was never on good terms with her family, maybe it's Mrs. Blackwood because she was unhappy in the house or it's Constance after all in the end. Yet in the way uncle Julian described that day, it is suspicious that Merricat was not present for dinner. These are just my predictions, I could also be wrong but Merricat gives plenty of information with lots of details in little time. So many things that strike me that I find myself asking a lot of questions each time. Such as why Merricat is not allowed to do certain things.

Merricat keeps reminding herself what she should and should not do. It says a lot about her, she is a very interesting protagonist. Merricat has dark sides that other students don't seem to acknowledge. What normal person describes in three lines wishing all the inhabitants of a village dead and then starts back telling their story as if that has just not been mentioned. She will never stop surprising me because of how special she is. I would really like to know more about what she is thinking, what is going on inside her head. So, I'm excited to continue reading in this novella. 

Chapters 4-7

I was trying to think charitably of him, since I would never be able to speak kindly until I did, but whenever I thought of his big white face grinning at me across the table or watching me whenever I moved I wanted to beat him until he went away, I wanted to stamp on him after he was dead, and see him lying dead on the grass. So I made my mind charitable towards Charles and came up to him slowly.

Same thing Merricat, I understand how you really feel. The way she describes how she feels in such a long sentence struck me, and the fact that I know what she is talking about too. Having to calm yourself for a person when all you feel is anger and hatred for that person. In my opinion, it is an art to contain yourself then. You could say that you should be honest with that person if you don't like them and even then, stop interacting with them but sometimes that is not possible. I don't want to sound crazy, but sometimes I also imagine myself hitting someone I feel hatred and anger towards. Maybe it's something we all wish sometime, but we do not go as far as Merricat and imagining and wishing them dead.

You can connect her thoughts with cruelty and imagination. Merricat imagines stomping on his dead face and seeing him lying dead in the grass that's cruel of her. Usually when she imagines things it is either very cruel or she imagines escaping reality. When she wants to escape reality, she is on the moon and when she talks about how she feels towards someone who is not Constance or Uncle Julian, she is very cruel and rude.

For Merricat, suddenly, a man comes into her house who is not just an ordinary man, more a man with narcissistic traits. He may be family, but he disrupts their lives, habits and routines, he disrupts their peace in my opinion. Charles is a difficult person, I can't seem to figure out what he wants, other than money of course. Let's be honest he is very greedy, always asking about the money and being worried about it. We understand that your father didn't leave you a penny in his inheritance, but to come to someone else's house and act all nice is suspicious and we can see through that, but so does Merricat. So maybe Merricat's thoughts can be justified?

Gothic fiction

We have always lived in the castle is, in my opinion, a gothic novella, but not entirely because it does not feel very gothic. It has many elements that make it gothic, but it also lacks some elements.

An element that comes out strongly is death, almost her entire family is dead. Merricat also wishes death upon many people like the villagers. It is an element that occurs a lot because, for example, the night her family was killed is mentioned and described several times. Another element that is present but does not make it feel gothic is the setting. Yes, we find ourselves in a 'castle' away from the village secured by fences. However, the house itself feels so homelike, on the inside Merricat describes it as house with the smell of biscuits and a beautiful garden where vegetables and plants grow. It is not described as a dark creepy house where crazy things happen like creaky doors or scary footsteps that can be heard in the night. Inside the house there is a soft and joyful atmosphere but as soon as we are out of the house there is a dark and gloomy atmosphere. The setting and atmosphere are always well described though.

Something else are the supernatural elements that occur. Merricat buries things, hangs things on trees to scare away evil. She likes to talk to her cat, who also talks back and then her three magic words, which I think have nothing to do with each other but are supposed to protect her and bring her luck. Finally, something very important is the escapism in this novella. Whenever something happens that Merricat finds unpleasant, she imagines herself in her own world on the moon or runs away. She would like to go to the moon where she can escape reality, where everything would be better.

Now our protagonist is not your typical (anti)-hero, it's more like she could be the villain herself. Merricat is a dark person and imagines dark things and we have yet to find out who poisoned the sugar. So that is something that is not gothic, other small things are that she is a woman who is an active character and not some damsel in distress like her sister. I feel that Constance is the damsel in distress because she often still needs to be guided in her life while Merricat takes charge and in a way is also very independent. 

Chapters 7-10

"Yes, Constance?" "I was very wicked," she said. "I never should have reminded you of why they all died." "Then don't remind me now." I could not move my hand to reach over and take hers. "I wanted you to forget about it. I never wanted to speak about it, ever, and I'm sorry I did." "I put it in the sugar." "I know. I knew then." "You never used sugar." "No." "So I put it in the sugar." Constance sighed. "Merricat," she said, "we'll never talk about it again. Never. "I was chilled, but she smiled at me kindly and it was all right. "I love you, Constance," I said. "And I love you, my Merricat."

That Constance apologizes for reminding Merricat of her past actions is so sad, but also because Merricat is a bit upset and disappointed that Constance brought it up again. In the end, she might be relieved that it is the last time they remember why they all died, as it represents an event at a time in their lives that they do not wish to look back on.

The sisterhood is shown so wonderfully, the love these sisters have for each other is so much and genuine. They care for each other so much, Constance even took the blame for killing their whole family while Merricat killed them. Even though we still don't know why Merricat killed her entire family, we do know that she only wanted Constance to stay alive. The one person Merricat loves so much in her live, her lucky person. I never thought Constance loved her back as much as shown in this passage because she always says things like "silly Merricat". So it really touched me as it's such a heartbreaking moment. 

Parallels and similarities with The Lottery 

The throwing stones are a good example of a similarity between The Lottery and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. In the short story, the stones are thrown at a woman because she 'won' the lottery, while in the novella the villagers throw stones to destroy the Blackwood's house. The villagers in the novella feel that they deserve to have their house destroyed because they are the Blackwood's and there is a clear hatred towards them. The starting shot for throwing stones was always given by one person in power, in The Lottery the man who organized it called the villagers on it, while in We Have Always Lived in the Castle Jim Donnell, the chief of the fire department, was the first to start throwing. So it is obviously a man in power initiating something gruesome and cruel.

Shirley Jackson has something with children, whether she loves them or hates them I don't know but what I do think is that she loves the innocence of them. A child's innocence is something we see in both stories, because of children's naivety you can make them do cruel things and you can also convince them to believe lies. For those children, they are just normal, harmless acts, while we as adults know it is a horrible act they committed. In the novella, the children think it is okay to bully other kids and in the short story, they think it is normal to kill someone by throwing stones at them.

While they have some similarities in content, the writing style is different. What makes The Lottery so wonderful is the use of reverse dramatic irony, the villagers know all along what is going to happen while we never knew until the winner got their prize, then we knew something they did not and that was how crazy they are. In We Have Always Lived in the Castle there is none of that, we know what Merricat is going through as the story is told in her perspective. I think that is what makes the stories so different from each other, the writing style is different in both. 

Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson 

A linguistic assignment where everyone took a chapter from Bill Bryson's book and explained it to the class.