Elizabeth Strout’s 2008 novel, Olive
Kitteridge, focuses on a stressed, depressed woman in need of relaxation, so
I would give her a day at the spa and a cat for her birthday. Olive needs a day
at the spa more than anyone I know. Her father’s suicide, husband’s stroke and
death, son’s divorce and separation from, and her own issues with adultery,
depression, and loneliness create an extremely tense life and a trip to the spa
could begin to help her relax. As a very self-conscious woman, she also constantly
worries about her appearance. Olive struggles to stay involved in activities and
interact with others so a spa day would keep her busy and combat her loneliness.
Towards the end of the novel, she begins dating for the first time since her
husband’s death, but she struggles to embrace her new relationship. While out
on a date, she fears she looks “like a whale” (261). Through Strout’s use of a
simile comparing Olive to a massive animal, she indirectly characterizes Olive
as insecure in order to juxtapose Olive’s sensitive feelings with her
indifferent attitude and highlight how important Olive really views her
appearance. Throughout the entire book, Olive’s doubts about her body plague
her and lead her to feel even more isolated from others, so a day at the spa
would help her self-esteem and overall well being. However, I recognize the
need for a long-term solution to her problems so I would give Olive a pet cat because
she often feels lonely and unneeded in life. After her husband dies she finds
herself “drowning in the emptiness”
(257). Olive owns a dog but I think she views her dog as more of a burden than
a comfort. Additionally, unlike a dog or many people in Olive’s life, a cat
would require very little from her and accept Olive’s constantly changing
emotions. When Olive feels anti-social, which she often does, she would not
need to worry about entertaining the cat, as cats often act aloof. However, Olive’s
loneliness consumes her at times, such as once when for a “few days she stayed
in bed” (267) due to her depression. I appreciate my cats most when I lie in
bed, sick, and my cats quietly curl up next to me and sleep. A cat would
provide Olive with love and comfort but need little in return, the perfect gift
for a lonely woman who struggles to connect with others.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Escape from Reality
In Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth
Strout’s 2008 book, I disagree with Olive Kitteridge’s coping mechanism of
ignoring her problems and focusing on others, but I understand her denial after
her life suddenly changes for the worse. Before her husband suffers a stroke, Olive
admits how it feels “‘nice to hear other people’s problems’” (108) and gossip for
fun because her life seems better in comparison. However, after her husband
becomes ill, Olive begins to rely on others’ pain to help her survive. With her
husband living in an assisted living home and unable to recognize her, Olive
struggles daily with her grief and seeks out other people suffering. Unfortunately,
each time she does, she ends up disappointed and with the realization that
others’ lives seem better than hers despite their problems. When talking with a
grieving widow, she becomes jealous of the women because her family and friends
love and support her while Olive admits to herself, “no one will miss her”
(172). Instead of trying to move on, she continues to ignore her grief and spontaneously
visits Louise Larkin, a woman whose son murdered a girl, causing his parents to
become pariahs in their small town. Olive hopes to “feel
better…knowing the woman suffered” but even in such a horrible situation,
Louise maintains her self-assured attitude and chips away at Olive’s façade of normalcy
(162). Instead of focusing on improving her own life, Olive concentrates on
other people’s problems, as if her life will improve if everyone else suffers. At
first, Olive seems selfish and I resent her self-pitying nature, but Strout divides her novel into thirteen different stories
with multiple points of view in order to demonstrate how many characters incorrectly
view Olive as abrasive and aloof even though she simply hides her emotions. Strout
creates sympathy for Olive as the novel continues and she reveals Olive’s
loneliness and depression. After Henry becomes ill, Olive finds herself
alone with her fears and self-consciousness for the first time in her life. While
I pity Olive, I also recognize that she allows herself to continue suffering as
a result of her resistance to change; she still waits for her son and husband
to return home. She spends her life controlling her son and husband and all of
a sudden, she finds herself unable to control even her own life. I can understand why she wants to escape from reality
when her life suddenly falls apart, but I also think she needs to seek positive
help with her life, whether in the form of a therapist or support group
meetings. Olive refuses to take the initiative herself and move on with
her life and becomes even more depressed when she realizes that others accept
their situations.
Knowing Everything
In her 2008 novel, Olive
Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout portrays the world as full of suffering people
who make little effort to understand those around them, a view I find extreme
but accurate in representing basic human nature. Almost every character in the
novel deals with a horrendous situation such as suicide, death, drugs, or depression.
While I do not believe Strout’s novel accurately depicts the world, I find her focus
on such distressed people effective in highlighting the need for more awareness
of the pain in the world. Specifically, I consider Strout’s pathos and her
theme of depression very effective, as they demonstrate the characters’
internal conflict. Despite her characters’ misery, Strout prevents them from taking
action and committing suicide, Strout reveals the hope within them. Nina, a
teenage girl, becomes anorexic so she can fulfill the sexist views on how women
should look but she admits to Olive, “‘I don’t want to be like this’” (96). The
author uses internal conflict to demonstrate how Nina desperately wants to fit
in but realizes the dangers of her eating disorder. Strout’s use of internal
conflict creates pathos to target people who allow others to suffer to instill
feelings of guilt. Nina struggles with anorexia and drugs, yet when Olive, a
woman she barely knows, tries to help her she attempts to turn her life around.
Though Nina dies, her death highlights the need for more people to take an
interest in helping others, regardless of personal feelings about them or their
decisions. The townspeople’s need for gossip continually overcomes their human
compassion, a tragedy that occurs every day in the real world. Every day,
magazines and Internet articles highlight celebrities’ arrests, drug
addictions, and eating disorders to become skinny, because people read those
articles for amusement. Few people try to help Nina and give her support
because most of them see her as another source of entertainment rather than a girl
struggling to survive. When one man, Kevin, returns home after several years
and finds that people know specific details about his life, he questions, “does
everybody know everything?” (35). Everyone in the town whispers about scandals,
embarrassments, and trivial details and think they know the subjects of their
gossip but few people actually make an effort to look beyond the surface and understand
people’s troubles. As Olive explains, “nobody knows everything- they shouldn’t
think they do” (74). In today’s society, people often judge others quickly and move
on with their lives, rarely stopping to try to understand someone else’s life
and how they can help.
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