In Chapter 2 Hollis says that she does not want people to look into her eyes because she does not want them to see her soul. In Chapter 4 Beatrice tells Hollis that as an artist she is really placing her soul on the paper for all to see. It seems like consciously Hollis is hiding but subconsciously she is putting herself out in the open.
What do you think that the four pictures we have seen so far tell us about Hollis’ soul?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
What is she saying?
Posted by Mr. Z at 8:59 PM
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2 Comments:
I think that the pictures Hollis has drawn show us she is sad. I have evidence from all four pictures.
X: Hollis opens her mouth to say “How about “wish”, of “want”, or “woul;dn’t it be loverly” Like the song. She then crosses out another kids picture. Near the end, she say’s:
:But when I think of my W picture, mostly I think of the Regans’ house in Branches. I think of the Old Man, and Izzy, and their son, Steven. All they need to match my picture was a girl, G.
Steven: The “scutto woman” says, “no wonder she hasn’t been adopted yet. She’s a mountain of trouble, that Hollis Woods. Hollis then marched up the stairs, hitting everything with the woman’s umbrella.
Fishing in the Delaware River: At the very end, Hollis says, “Why do I have to mess up everything?”
The Old Man’s Mountain: Instead of telling her feelings, she ducks her head behind her bangs. She also says, “Don’t think about the end of summer, Hollis.” Indicating something happened. At the end, she says “I thought about the W picture in my backpack: the mother, the father, the brother, the sister.
And don’t think of that, either, I told myself”
(1) The X picture is a clear statement of the Hollis’s longing for a family.
(2) The picture of Steven is also clearly explained by the close of the chapter, “for the first time I really saw what it might be like to have a brother”.
(3) Fishing on the Delaware is a little more subtle. It contains many powerful memories for Hollis but I think the key moment was when she was slipping in the water, afraid because she could not swim, but Steven was at her side to keep her from being pulled in. More then just Steven, this picture represents her longing for connection to a family.
(4) Most subtle is the picture of the mountain. On page 39 she says, “Did I want to do that, stand of the top of the mountain, a mountain of trouble myself?” Hollis seemed a bit perplexed that the Old Man liked her for who she was, because the other authority figures in her life wanted her to change. The Mountain picture could either be a representation of the Old Man himself (someone solid and dependable) or it could be that she knows the Old Man loves the mountain, and she sees herself as a ‘mountain of trouble’ so it represents her hope that he would care for her.
In all of these pictures her soul is shouting out that it is lonely.
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