Since the beginning of the novel the author has you see Baby as a strong child who puts up with all of her fathers problems. The constant moving from one apartment to the next, and Jules being a heroin addict formulated huge problems as how a child should be raised to me. The question I'm continually asking is, "Why are you doing this to your child?" Now that Baby has taken a liking to the attention that Alphonse is giving her, she is always wanting it and every time they meet I formulate that something much worse is going to take place and change her life. When Alphonse goes to compliment Baby I can't help but ask, "What could you possibly want her for, she's twelve." Baby is becoming riskier without Jules being around so much, and if this is going to be her attitude then problems are going to arise for the young teen. When Baby has to move in with Mary while Jules is away at rehab, Mary shows so much love and compassion towards Baby. I believe Mary was included in this novel to show that love still does exist and that the world isn't all that bad. A lot of the novel is focused on just the "bad," for example the way Jules yells at Baby, the way Theo's mom abuses him, the drugs, etc. Having Mary come into the novel and express love to Baby is something that she doesn't experience a lot of the time with Jules, and I believe she was brought into the novel to give Baby hope and believe that love exists.
When Baby first starting doing drugs, all I could think of was, "She's following in Jules footsteps." I believe the point of this event is to hint to readers that Baby is taking after her father and is starting to follow in his footsteps by beginning to do drugs. After Jules returns home from rehab he begins to act different with Baby and then starts leaving for a couple days at a time which leaves Baby open to try new things, and take after her father.
The impression the book is giving me on the kind of person who wrote this is someone who went through a rough patch in their life and may have experienced something that made life difficult. I do not find it hard to sympathize with her view of the world because I know that specific events in the novel are closely related to what really does go on in the world whether we want to believe it or not. Unfortunately, there are people like Jules and there are people like Alphonse somewhere in the world and I strongly believe that the person who wrote this may have experienced some related events discussed in novel.
As a person I'm learning more and more about how lucky I am to not be living a life that involves constantly moving and dealing with heroin addict parents. As a reader I've come to learn that a strength of mine is beginning to understand the true meaning behind certain events that are or have taken place and that they're not only there to make the story flow. A weakness that I have as a reader is explaining the mental pictures inside my head, I have them there while I'm reading but explaining them seems to be difficult.
I'm really looking forward to continue reading and seeing what's up next for Baby and Jules!
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