MOR Reading

I think it’s very interesting that the two conflicting images in the book so far are peaches and honey, both food items.  The live trees and peaches seem to represent safety and security for Lily (another living thing hidden in her name), yet the dead peaches seem to symbolize the death of her mother and the death of any good qualities in T Ray.  Seriously, how abusive can you get?  It’s sad how Lily doesn’t believe until later that he could be lying, and even sadder that Rosaleen believes it could be possible, ‘“You’re probably right.  Knowing your daddy, he could do a thing like that”’ (52).   

How do you think Lily’s mother really died? I don’t think that T Ray would be honest about something like that.  I also think that they should have just been honest with the sisters from the beginning, none of the complex lying.  Also, what kind of naming scheme is months of the year?  I mean, I remember August most from Wonder.  How did their other sister die?  Are their personalities based on the months they were named after?    

I wonder how strange it must have been for the first people in the South, who had supported slavery for a long time, to see a black Mary mother of Jesus.  How did August get that into a store?  You would think that no self-respecting white man would ever allow such a thing to take place (sarcasm in case it wasn’t obvious).  I wonder what went through their heads when they first saw that jar of honey.   

What do you think some of the themes are?  I can only imagine that the honey and bees will relate to something, maybe the fruits of a hardworking familial unit as opposed to peaches, which are an actual fruit, but were gathered and sold by the hate in a family.  So, is her stabbing the peach in the beginning of the book symbolize the divide that she feels between her and T Ray?  And seriously, what kind of a name is that?   

What was Rosaleen thinking?  I don’t understand why she felt the need to 1, steal the fans from the church, and 2, poor her spit jar on those men’s feet?  I think she’s a little to prideful for her own good.