Thoughts on Character

So I just finished reading A Separate Country and boy, did it take me a while. Honestly the only reason why I finished it was because over break I had a 10 hour car ride. And what else can you do besides read cramped up in a car for that long? Let me know if you have any ideas.

Anyways, so throughout this book I found a particular character quite interesting which would be Anne Marie Hood- General Hood's wife. The main reason why I like her so much because the reader could see a change in her as the story progressed. In the beginning, as a teen, she is a very open minded person who is always ready to risk her life for an adventure. For example, one time she treks into the forest and befriends two homeless boys who live like cavemen. Seriously, where do you find girls like that these days? Nevertheless, you could say she is a symbol of noncomformity because she demonsrates that in the early stages of this book. However to her society she is considered as young and immature. And she ends up doing the very thing her mother didn't want her to do- she falls in love. To her family the problem was that she fell in love with a man who experienced countless amounts of failures in his his lifetime as a General. What I especially loved about her was the fact that she didn't care what others thought and only focused on her goals and aspirations. In fact when she met Hood she describes him much differently than other did as they saw him. She says, "I was. But God, his eyes! They were not the blue you see in the eyes of men. They were wet and deep and clear, the blue of the sky reflected in a clear creek. There were clouds in them too. I should be forgiven for looking him in the eye, though it was not proper or demure" (72). She even says that it wasn't proper for ladies to look men directly in the eye and the fact that she did that shows she wasn't afraid of being a little different. however she didn't care about what others thought about Hood- she only cared for what he meant for her. In that sense Anne marie seems like a great role model in the fact that she is so real and should represent the young girls of today's generation who aren't afraid of stepping out.

After her marriage with Hood the audience sees some major changes in her. Mainly because she had so many kids that through all the experiences with them she is growing out of her previous old self. She becomes a lot more involved in her own work minding the little things she used to go after. This may be because there eventually became financial problems in their family. The once rich family who lived their life in comfort went through a phase of difficulties years into their wedded life. Some changes you notice in her are her mental changes. She is a lot more quiet and controlled whereas before she was much open and "out there." Overall she becomes a little dull in her life- she loses all that fun she used to posses when she was younger. Unfortunately nearing the end of the book, she loses her life to yellow fever which at that time was a ranging epidemic. Overall, as I look back to her character I realize that she reflected every person who has acted like Anne somewhere throughout their lives. I think at some point in a person's life they are going to be dull struggling or they are going to step out of their comfort zone and make a difference.

Anyways, I enjoyed this character throughly and hope I find more qualities Anne Marie had in other characters of other books I read.


Link to an article talking about why people change in their life