blog post

I have read a little ahead, but my favorite part of the reading so far is from chapter three. To me, pages 35 to 39 are the comic relief. I feel the speaker's aggravation with the adults in her life is relatable, insightful, sassy, and humorous. I think Andrea's frustration with the teachers' contrived attitude toward the bomb captures her greater annoyance with authoritarian figures. Andrea's feelings about the bomb are similar to her's about the molestation when she was younger. Her thoughts are defined by their chaos and confusion: she seems to lack understanding of the situation, and is unable to state events as they are. As she did not know how many hands he had, now she does not know why the Russians hate them, or why, and when the bomb is coming. She is misled by teachers as she was let down by her mother. Her mother would not call what happened to her daughter anything by "nothing," and the teachers want the students to look at the wall when the bomb comes. Neither want to face reality. Instead, they act like assholes. Andrea does not want to ignore her fate.
I thought it was interesting that all the girls whined that they did not want to die virgins. In chapter three, Andrea is supposed to be 18, and from the tone and place of this novel, I would have thought the girls were no longer virgins. I do think the point of this chapter is that the town where Andrea lives is built upon fear: that is why she describes the brick houses as made of blood, and the disintegration of the buildings as no longer ugly and poor. Andrea leaves for New York to escape the fear of her hometown.