A hero named Mor

Though the novel does give the reader some insight as to what Mor was thinking and experiencing, I don’t think it exactly places or removes blame; Durrow seems to allow the reader to do that. I can understand why many might think Mor was a bad mother for doing the things she did, but I see Mor as a kind, loving person who would do anything to protect her children.

Durrow doesn’t give the reader much information on Roger either, but there is some dotted throughout the novel. We can piece together that he was an alcoholic and perhaps abusive, seeing as he made a conscious effort to stay away from his children to protect them. Mor left Roger and brought her children to Chicago to protect them. While there, she was in a similar relationship and began to see the racism people had against her children. Mor realized the difficult and hateful lives her children would lead. Because of this, she brought them up to the roof with her, not because she was murderous, but rather to carry out a mercy killing. She was scared for her children because of the difficulties she knew they would face and in order to protect them, she killed them.

Malcolm Abbey post 2

The theory of social justice

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky provides insight as to how terrible and destructive racism can be, but this doesn’t come as news to most readers. It addresses the already familiar issues of racism from whites as well as racism towards mulattos from blacks. While I do think that publicizing these problems does help society progress towards equality, I don’t believe that pure social justice can be achieved. Hatred is much more fluid than we would like to believe and, as history has shown us, if one group gains equality, the discrimination simply shifts rather than disappears. Xenophobia will always exist because we, as humans, tend to suppress what we don’t understand, rather than embrace and learn from it. Social justice appears to be a theoretical state, rather than actually obtainable.

Malcolm Abbey post 1

A victim of her surroundings

This story brought out many things to my mind in what a mother who commits suicide with her children goes through. The author creates a sense of sympathy for this woman who in most cases people reading an article would say how horrible she is. But this woman went through so much being abused, neglected and just the problems bottling up in her life, who wouldn’t consider such things? It shows me that our actions towards others can put so much pain and pressure on a person that it would lead them to create a wall of isolation, a wall of no way out. If only we would consider how we treat people, maybe stuff like this would not happen. But oddly in this story, Rachel seemed to always love her mother even though she jumped off the building with them. This might indicate that she did understand what her mother was going through a little bit, maybe a portion of understanding that led to hold on to the loving mother that she had. Most people would hate their mother for what she did if they survived, but no Rachel. If we would only see things as Rachel did, maybe we would have more compassion in this world.

The Birds are out

When looking at the last page it points out that everyone is a bird. The black people in the story are one bird the white people a different bird and lastly the mixed race people a different bird. This points out that people were seeing each other as what they looked like on the outside whether than what is on the inside. People would just watch what each other would do instead of asking or wondering why they were doing what they were doing. Some people were different birds though all together in my mind whether they were black or white or whatever because they would be the people to discover why a bird looks the way it does and getting to know it better over just appearance and action. One character in the story that would be like this is Laronne because she accepted Nella, Rachel, and Robbie into her life and even told the apartment superintendent that they were family. The other character that is completely different is Rachel due to the fact she stops seeing everyone just as black, white or inbetween when she starts relating the blues to her life.
Rachel is the swan that is seen at the end of the story for a few different reasons. The first one is because swans are seen as beautiful and through out the story Rachel is described as being pretty or beautiful by many different people. The next reason she is the swan that takes a little while to start flying is because Rachel takes awhile to start seeing the positive side of things and not seeing just black and white anymore. The way Rachel even describes the specific swan as being awkward points out how Rachel was different from everyone else as being both white and black. There were swans who flew away when the nickel hits the water and there are birds that stay. This swan was both for a little bit by not exactly flying away as fast as everyone else, but instead is described as running on the water for a little bit. This shows how Rachel is both white and black. Next when the bird is flying now it is the beauty that is seen in Rachel.
Kevin Ostempowski Post 2

An unwanted bird

Rachel had put bird feeder outside of grandma’s house which attracted an unwanted black crow. A crow like a raven, can symbolize death in this passage. The imagery here is what I believe is describing what grandma is going through with the loss of Aunt Loretta. When the crow startled grandma as if someone was breaking in, it was almost like death was knocking on the door for her. Grandma in this chapter was very concerned about her death so she was obsessed to go through her collection and cash in for here pay day. Stuff like all her vegetables and flowers in her garden died,and nothing left to save all give an idea of grandma dying in side herself.
Rachel though, didn’t seem to mind the crow as grandma did. In this too, it might describe the longing for death in Rachel’s heart because she was the only that survived. With all the struggles she’s been through with the accident and being the new girl, the unwanted bird of death might seem pretty tempting for her. And for Rachel too, grandma told her to bury her father in her heart and stop holding on to him. And maybe in a way, that’s what Rachel wanted, is to bury what happened that day but she just keeps holding on.

The Blues

When Rachel was talking to Drew about the blues what popped into my head was the reading of "Sonny's Blues" because of how the blues effects people in different ways. The way that was seen with "Sonny's Blues" was in my mind as a motivator, while in The Girl Who Fell from The Sky it was seen as a way to look forward to good times. This is shown when Rachel describes the blues as a blue bottle with a beautiful plant inside. Because of the dark color of the bottle it is hard for light to get inside the bottle. When the light is bright enough it does let the plant grow beautiful and green as Rachel said to Drew. She also goes on to think about how it would have been different if Mor would have known about the blues and been able to see better things during bad times. Rachel uses the blues to get through bad times and be able to keep her bad or sad feelings in that bottle also, but for the most part just letting the plant grow and see the beauty in life and see the good things in her life.
The fact she starts talking about the blues shows that she is now getting back in my mind atleast to the girl she was when she was with Mor and not seeing differences in races. I see this because anybody can listen to the blues where as she was starting to see what different things white people would do as compared to what black people would do. This is also points out to me that she is growing up because a young girl would never try to relate the blues or any other music to their lives because they don't necessarily have any big problems to deal with. The fact she is looking at the blues and connecting it to her life and along with Mor shows she is understanding of her life and all the problems or dilemmas she has to deal with on a day to day basis and will still look forward to the goood things or also the silver lining in her life to look at positively. For the most part I just saw this as a key part in the story to show when she is really grown up being able to not just look at the bad but also see the good. The only way this is really possible is because she deals with different races and also bigger problems day to day and at a young age to understand it better. Mor couldn't necessarily adapt to everything because of how she wasn't used to the problem of different races and therefor almost wouldn't be able to understand the blues ability to see the positive side of things she only saw the bad side.
Kevin Ostempowski Post 1

Escape Via Sexuality

Even though sexuality is not very prominent in the beginning of the book (because of Rachel's age) it progressively plays a larger role in the story. When Rachel is stumped or backed into a corner instead of fighting back against what she knows morally she should do, she caves and does what society and her peers would pressure her to do. First with Anthony Miller and soon after with Jesse.
Rachel caves into everything Anthony Miller could have ever asked for instead of standing up for herself and finding out on her own, she tries to allow sexuality to take over and give him what he wants. This also happens with Jesse, this is when sexuality is influenced by another escape route, alcohol. When this happens it gives off a double whammy effect and everything begins to go wrong because she does not ever confront the situation and stick up for herself. Time and time again Rachel caves and allows the world to get the best of her and she escapes by appeasing it.

Fight or Flight

Throughout "The Girl who Fell From the Sky" suffering and pain are often dealt with. There are so many different ways they are dealt with but what I've noticed is that when a problem arises in the book the characters are faced with a fight or flight response. Time and time again however, almost every single character chooses to fly away and escape the problem.
One significant example of this is when Rachel continuously bottles up everything inside of herself. Literally. When faced with conflict Rachel seems to flee and flee and run some more until it finally catches up to her. Her method of fleeing is storing everything in an imaginary bottle until it overflows and explodes, relating to the phrase "all bottled up." Eventually even though she flees most of the time, when she doesn't it is because her bottle explodes and she also explodes on everyone. Something opposing this but also a method of flight is what her grandma does. Her grandmother takes something out of the bottle to temporarily replace her feelings, and even though this works, when the effects of the bottle run out and the bottle runs dry she is faced with her problems again, until they eventually catch up to her.

The girl who fell from the sky

In the novel we read about rachel and we follow her life as she grows into an adult. We don't find out till later that fate has brought brick back into her life. She is brought to work for her deceased aunts fiance at a place where he helps people with drug and alcohol addictions get back on their feet. It is here that she meets a young white boy, the same age as her. And she beings to discover that the stereotype she has for white people, was completely changed by how this young boy acted. She then says how she discovers there are two sides to white people and two sides to black people.

Rachel is still struggling with the loss of her mother and her grandmother is beginning to act strangely now. Drinking all the time and talking about death more and more, her world is changing. It is at this time also where brick is beginning to struggle within himself to finally tell rachel what he had waited to tell her. The words her father told him, but he is struggling with finding the right way to do that. 

Cali Simmons (post 8)

The girl who fell from the sky

Since the novel had begun we have been reading and learning about a character named jamie a.k.a brick which he later changes his name to late in the novel. From the beginning it seems like brick had been there through it all. We haven't learned much about his home life other than my impression of his mother is for a lack of better words a prostitute, or someone who has sex with men for money. It always seems that whenever brick talks about her she has a "new friend" over, i've co me to this conclusion based on the fact from what brick share with us. That she uses the tv to cover up the sound coming from the room.

Brick tells us about the accident from an outside point of view, he helps us to see what really happened to rachel and her family. Later in the story it explains how brick shows up later in rachels life, i didn't think his character really meant that he would go to find rachel and tell her what her father had told him. And to tell rachel her families story.

Cali Simmons (post 7)

Together Forever

I believe that Mor jumps from the roof with her family because she no longer has any control over how people treat her children. She didn’t even know how horrible the world would be to her children until very recently. She didn’t know that her kids would likely be the victims of schoolyard taunting and adult prejudice. Even the man that she was dating was calling them a racial name. She could not be there at every turn to protect them. Not to mention that no one believed them to be her biological children. She loved them so much, and people were denying that they were hers. Just before she jumped, Mor said that her children are “the most important things in the world” (Durrow, 260). I don’t think she could think of a better way to keep her family together and safe from prying eyes. She thinks that they “will always be a family this way”, safe together forever in death (260).

There are characters that blame Mor, and there are others who don’t. Both sides are represented, so I think that Durrow really left it open for us to decide if Mor was to blame or not. Rachel’s grandmother does blame Nella for the death of her grandchildren. When Rachel insists that the reason why she is special is because she is her mother’s daughter, her grandmother asks “Tell us what a wonderful lady your mama was…You think that baby or Robbie or Charles would agree?” (237). Rachel, who could very possibly be the one blaming her mother the most, doesn’t blame her. When Brick asks if she still loves her mother, despite what she did, Rachel responds, “yeah. And I know she loved me” (262).

I don’t believe that Mor was evil at all. She was just a woman who did not know how to handle the incredibly prejudiced world that she suddenly realized that she was in. All she wanted to do was to protect her children, and keep them all safe as a family. While I don’t particularly agree with her decision to kill them all, I can see how she would see that was the only way out.

The Jump

I believe that Mor jumped from the building to get rid of her pain, and her children's pain. She did not realize that things could have gotten better. She took the easy way out. At first I got the impression that someone may have pushed her off the building because they were mad at her. But after you kept reading, Mor believed she had it rough, and was not giving her children the life they deserved. Durrow leaves it to you to figure out why she did what she did.

Rachel's grandmother, sees how Rachel is after the accident and knew that she was young. I feel like she blames Mor, and that is why there is no pictures of her up anywhere. I think the grandmother thinks she ruined her grandchildren's life and only one that survived is Rachel who has to suffer. The grandmother will now have to raise Rachel the right way. (Nicole Butzke, Post 8).

Birds

Throughout the book "The Girl Who Fell From The Sky," birds and bird references were used. Brick was the main character for the bird references. Durrow used birds in the beginning of the story all the way to the end. In the beginning, Durrow referenced to Brick bird watching, and went to identify the birds and they were people. At the end of the book, Brick once again describes Rachel as a bird. Only this time she was a beautiful bird, a swan.

I think Durrow is trying to get a symbolism point across. I think she wanted to show that birds are free creatures. Mor wanted herself and her children to be free, and when they jumped she thought she was getting free of all the problems. She left a problem, but from the problem she left, Rachel made a valid point in life and realized why she was on Earth and why she survived that fall. Durrow uses birds as a symbol. (Nicole Butzke, Post 7)

Mrs. Morse on Mor and Boys

Rachel's grandmother makes it very clear that she does not want Rachel hangin around with boys. This opinion is directly related to Mrs. Morse's feelings about Mor. Mrs. Morse does not like Rachel's mother, in fact she dislikes her so much that she won't even acknowledge her existence. The only time we gain any insight on grandmas feelings toward Mor is when she is drunk. From these times, it becomes clear hat grandma thinks Mor was easy and slept around. She resents Mor for having children with her son, and may even blame Mor for some of her son's issues. Although it may be unfair to blame Mor, she is a scapegoat for grandma to blame, instead of havin to blame her own son.
Because of grandma's opinions about Mor, she is very weary of Rachel hanging out with boys. She thinks that if she allows Rachel to hang around boys, she will end up just like her mother. There is also mention earlier in the story of white women stealing all the good black men. Grandma obviously jinks very boult of her own son, and may resent Mor for being the white woman that stole her son and led him into a bad situation. Grandma wanted better for Rachel, she wants her to be well read, well educated and then to find a good man. She thinks that if Rachel gets caught up with boys early, she will not accomplish these other things.
Cailee januszkiewicz-3

Selfish or Selfless

Brick is a very important character in this novel because he allows us to view Rachel's life and her family's accident from another perspective. Most importantly, Brick gives us insight to Rachel's father, a man who would've remained a mystery to the reader otherwise. Throuhout most of the story we are unclear about why Roger and Rachel's mother split up and why Roger did not take Rachel in after the accident. Through Brick's story we are able to learn about Roger's motives. It's as if Brick has a "bird's eye view" of Rachel's life because he has insight about Rachel's father that Rachel herself did not know.
Through Brick we learn that Roger's motives were not selfish, but instead selfless. From Brick's narration of his hospitL visits shortly after the accident, it becomes very clear to the reader that Roger is in a very bad place. He is clearly an alcoholic and not in a good state. It also becomes clear that Roger's drinking was the reason for his split with Rachel's mother. Recognizing that his alcohol problem was negatively affecting his children, Roger left Mor to care for the children on her own. Despite his love for his children, Roger knew it was the ring thing to do. After the accident, Roger visits Rachel in the hospital; Brick is our only insight to these visits. Brick enables us to see that in fact Roger did deeply care for and live his daughter, and that is the reason Rachel is sent to live with her grandma. This is made clear to he reader when Roger tells Brick that he only wants Rachel to be safe. Roger knew that he was not in a state to give his daughter the love and attention she deserved. He knew his prescense in Rachel's life may do more harm than good. Altjouh some may think Roger was selfish for not cleaning up his act to care for his daughter, I think Roger's actions were more selfless than selfish. He made the best decision for his daunted at he time, and delft her with people he knew would love her and take care of her.
Cailee januszkiewicz-2

Rachel the Swan

Several of the characters in the novel are related to birds or have a bird reference attached to them. I think the importance of this is because a bird has the ability to fly and escape their situation when needed. At the beginning of the story we see the Peterson Field Guide that Brick has, then throughout the chapters we are reminded of birds. However, I think the most important reference is to Rachel and her family. The social pressures, which would be similar to the predator of a bird were extreme on Mor and her family, which pushed her to do what she did. The last lines of the book, Rachel mentions only if her family had been birds.

This line is influential and sums up the entire story because if the family had been birds, Rachel would not be the only one living. Mor wouldn't of done what she had done and the family would still be together. If they had been birds they would have been able to jump from that roof, spread their wings like the swan at the end and fly away from the social pressures that they were facing. (Shawn Parkhurst 8)

The Ending of One life and the Beginning of Another

Throughout the story, Rachel is in a personal struggle to find who she really is. After the tragic death of her family she is forced to move in with her Aunt and Grandmother and it is at this point where her true struggle begins. She is caught between the lines of racial identity and doesn't know which part of herself to follow. It is not until her teens and help from a boy called Brick that she's finally able to identify with who she really is and handle the pressures of society.

I really enjoyed the ending when Rachel and Brick are sitting by the lake. In my opinion this is the exact moment where Rachel realizes that she is what she is...a mix of two cultures and that is acceptable. She understands that it's okay to have a past different from others and to be proud of who she is. I'm not completely sure what Rachel does at the end after she realizes that she can start over with her new life, whether she leaves her situation similar to the swan in the lake or does she stay because she realizes she has a new life and can share it with Brick. (Shawn Parkhurst, 7)

Brick and Rachel

On one saturday Brick and Rachel went to the amusement park without Jesse. They spent some time in the arcade and Rachel spent her last three tickets on darts. Since she was terrible at it, she gave her darts to a man that was good at it to try and win her a prize. The man hit ten bulls eyes in a row and won her a big prize. She gladly declined it and said that since the man one he should have the prize. The man followed them and pressured Rachel into taking the prize but she didn't want it. Brick stepped in and told him to get lost so the man did. They then decided to go on the ferris wheel. This wasn't such a good idea because when they were on the ferris wheel Rachel felt dizzy and sick. She wanted to get off the ride and wanted to stand up. Brick tried to calm her down but it wasn't working. She fell into Brick's arms and it made everything okay.

After they got off the ferris wheel they went to go sit by Laurelhurst Park where it was Brock's last day in town. He was going to Chicago. Rachel hands him a nickel that is worth 500 dollars but Brick doesn't want it. This symbolizes the friendship that they shared. When Brick tossed the nickel into the lake, it meant something to both of them. They knew that that nickel would remain in that lake so it meant that their friendship will last forever. They shared a bond that was unbreakable so their friendship will never be forgotten. They watch the birds come in and out of the water and as the final sentence states, "If only Robbie had been a bird, if only we had been a family that could fly," (Durrow 264) symbolized the importance of her family. She realized then that she could fly away and be free. (Mason Roessler Post 8)

The Girl Who Fell for This Guy

In the later parts of the book, Jesse, Brick, Lakeisha, and Rachel are hanging out at Laurelhurst Park eating pizza and drinking beers. Jesse and Rachel sit in the front of Jesse's car and Brick and Lakeisha are in the back. It was not long when Jesse pulls out some drugs and asks for a light. Everybody else that was in the carwas against it and thought it was illegal. Brick and Lakeisha got out but Rachel stayed because she really liked Jesse. Jesse was telling all this stuff that Rachel wanted to hear to try and take advantage of her. It seemed like he didn't care for her as much as she did for him. Jesse knew she had a few beers so he saw that as an opprtunity to try and take advantage of her and get what he wanted. This worked because Rachel fell for it and was even convinced to move to South America with him.

When Rachel got home that evening, her grandmother was waiting for her. It turns out that Brick called her house to give them a warning that Rachel may be in danger. The grandmother was really disappointed in Rachel and started yelling at her and Rachel could not take it anymore. The bottle inside of her broke and she ran upstairs crying and not feeling well. Brick only called because he really cared for Rachel and cared for her safety. Rachel did not want to be locked up any longer. She wanted to do the things she wanted with no restrictions. Since she was the one that survived the fall, she deserves to be doing the things she wants and not have to be supervised all the time. (Mason Roessler Post 7)

Beautiful Swan

I believe the last chapter definitely closed up the book well. It showed that Rachel does start to realize who she really is thanks to Brick. Brick was an important character to help Rachel find her place in life. "Brick puts his arm around me. When he looks at me, it feels like no one has really seen me since the accident. In his eyes, I'm not the new girl. I'm not the color of my skin. I'm a story. One with a past and a future unwritten" (Durrow 264). This paragraph really proves Rachel is realizing that she doesn't have to be the new girl. There is at least one person out there that sees the real her. Brick was really the only one besides Rachel that was a witness to what had happened up on the roof that day. The fact that he did everything he could to find her to tell her the stories her dad wanted him to tell her makes him very important. I believe the he waited for the perfect time to tell Rachel what he knew because he wasn't sure if he was ready but also if she was ready. Birds were a big analogy in the story and when the story ends, it ends with another bird analogy.

When the coin dropped in the water all the birds were frightened and ran away. There was one awkward looking bird that ran across the water away from the commotion. This is like Rachel in a way because she escaped the fall and no one else did. She had a different escape which ultimately saved her life. The bird finally caught wind and flew away and so did Rachel. She flew away from the person she used to be. She goes back and wishes that her family had wings and could fly away too but unfortunately they were gone. I am guessing her last wish was to have her family back with her.

(Kelcey Summers, 8)

A Very Important Mission

Brick is a very important character in this book. While he might seem inconsequential to the story, he actually plays a major role. We are introduced to Brick when his name was Jamie, back when both he and Rachel lived in Chicago. He was one of the only, if not the only witness to Rachel’s family falling from the roof of their building. Brick witnessing this is very important to the story. As readers, we needed a witness, so we have someone to corroborate Rachel’s version of the story, which might have been a bit unreliable, given that she was also a victim in the situation.

He and Rachel have an interesting relationship. At first glance, it might seem that Brick might be interested in her in a romantic kind of way. I personally think that Brick was on a mission to tell Rachel the story that Roger told him. His whole life developed because of this mission. He left home to find Rachel and tell her this story. He never forgot his task in all of the wandering he did. When he finally found her, he waited for the right minute to tell her the message from her father, making sure that she was ready to hear it, and that he was ready to tell it. I then started to think about why Brick might do this for a man he barely knew. I think that he went on this mission for Roger because he was possibly the only father figure that Brick ever had. Or at least the only man who treated him like a real son.

(Sarah Jaworowicz, Post 7)

Blog Prompt For This Week

1. At the beginning of our discussion of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky I mentioned that the novel was the winner of the Bellwether Prize in 2008--an award that is given to a novel that promotes and takes a stance on issues of social justice. What are the main social justice issues the novel deals with? How does the novel make an impact in relation to these issues? Did it make an impact on you? Do you believe that literature has the ability to create social justice? If so, how?

2. Is Rachel a "tragic mulatta" in the manner of Nella Larsen's characters, or is Durrow successful in imagining an alternate future for her?

3. Durrow never tells us exactly why Mor jumps from the building with her family. Rather, she leaves it to readers to fill in the blanks. Why is it that Mor jumps? Does the novel blame her, or allow us to understand the difficulties she faced in a highly racialized society? Do we agree with Rachel's grandmother that Mor is "evil" and a bad mother?

4. Why is Rachel's grandmother so fearful of her dating boys? Do her fears at all relate to Mor? Is she overreacting, or are her concerns justified?

5. Discuss the significance of the swan at the end of the novel. Why does Rachel wish that her family could fly?

Happy writing,
--JI

"Bird" Hidden Symbols

We discussed in class how there might be different passages that symbolize the bird notions. The passage on page 151 is Rachel discussing going up onto the roof with her mother and siblings. This passage definitely brought up the bird symbolism to me again. The passage first talks about how this was the third time they were brought up to the roof. They moved closer to the ledge each time. The part of this message that says "Mor wrapped her arms, like wings, around our shoulders and breathed onto our neck to keep us warm. (pg 151)" Birds wrap their wings around their chick in order to keep them warm. Throughout this whole book there are little symbols hidden inside the story.

This part was very important to the story as a whole because, like we discussed in class, a lot of the things Rachel and Brick say can be compared to birds. The title can also be compared to birds. Typically you do not see girls or boys falling from the sky. The only living things you usually see falling from the sky are birds. I think that she uses birds in the story on purpose to give the story a deeper meaning. It makes the reader really examine the story. I am not sure why it had to be birds but it definitely is a re-occurring theme in the story.

(Kelcey Summers 7)

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky 4

As we have learned throughout the story, Rachel has lacked a father figure. Drew begins coming around a lot more now. When Rachel's grandmother goes out of town he says he will stay and watch over her for a few nights.
In this time it seems like Rachel and Drew really get along, he begins calling her his "daughter," and i feel like when he says this it really makes her get the feeling of having a father figure. I think she really dislikes Drew's daughter because she almost takes advantage of having a father. Which was something Rachel almost never had.

Anthony DiChristopher
post 8

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky 3

Throughout the story we've learned that Rachel has been almost held back from learning about her black culture, or so we thought. While Laronne is talking with Nella one day, Nella tells her she calls the kids "jigaboos," but she does not know the true meaning of such a word. Laronne then explains to her that it is like calling a black person a derogatory name.
I believe this is showing that Nella never really hid her children from their black culture, but she herself lacked any knowledge of it as well. This is why when Rachel's grandmother was pretty much changing every aspect of Rachel's life when she first moved in, that this was all new to Rachel. Not because she was sheltered from it but because even her own mother didn't know the "other" side of their life either.

Anthony DiChristopher
post 7

The Role of the Jazzman Again

Well we found out now that Brick has turned into a musician. He has also gotten into alcohol and drug problems. Sounds familiar you could say. Is it a reincarnation of Sonny's Blues? From observation there is quite a similarity in this section of reading to Sonny's Blues. The biggest to me is the role of the musician as a story teller. In Sonny's Blues there's talk of how Creole is talking to Sonny through the music telling him to let loose. Telling him we've all been through hard times. Well in The Girl Who Fell From the Sky we now find Brick having to tell Rachel a story. Though it's not truly through music, music is how he has remembered the story Rachel's dad told him in the hospital. Music is also the memory Brick has of simpler time before his drug abuse. He has held on to the song he learned on the harmonic from Rachel's dad for so long and has longed to tell the story of this song. He made the promise to Rachel's dad to tell her what he said and he never forgot that promise.
I wonder what made Brick travel down the road of drugs and alcohol. Maybe it was his lying about what he saw the day he saw Rachel's mom go off the roof. Maybe living with that was to much to bare. Maybe the drug abuse was his way of killing himself, but now he found Rachel what if she's the bird that has come to help him? Maybe Brick went down this road because he had to hold on the promise he made Rachel's dad all those years ago and wasn't able to find her to tell her. Or could be that he himself never felt like he belonged. We find out in this section he is light-skinned maybe he dealt with racism and bigotry just like Rachel and it was to much to stand sober. Maybe this is why he was angered with her comment about what his race was.
Thomas Moss (post 7)

Growing up too fast

The relationship between Nella and her children is beginning to take a turn for the worse. Before, she was care-free and naive about about how the world worked and was only concerned about herself and her family. Now, she realizes that the world is full of hatred and racism, and that she herself was contributing to that racism, but without her own knowledge of doing it. She realizes that everyone does not see the world the same way as she views, but rather as a world of black and white. She wants to bury that concept and be happy about who is she, despite that fact that her family is different in race. She wants to believe that everything is ok although deep down inside she knows that it isn't. Nella sort of beats herself up for calling her kids the racial name, and really takes it hard upon herself. I think each day Nella is becoming more and more distant until she decides to jump from the building. The growing distance in their relationship is the building in a way in that kept getting higher until there was no return and it had to end.

After viewing both of the characters of Brick and Rachel, it is evident that they have changed. They have both grown much older and are beginning to display the characteristics of young adults. Brick has left the his old life and at one time was even a recovering addict, while Rachel is beginning to emerge herself into womanhood. It is as if the author wanted to speed up time, until Rachel and Brick finally meet. Brick was of particular interest in this part of story, because he bared a strong resemblance to Sonny in "Sonny's Blues." He is introduced to Rachel as the piano player and is a recovering addict whoes life had spiraled out of control. He he even mentions blues music to Rachel to test her knowledge on the subject, which is the same way Sonny had talked to his brother about his career in blues. Brick seems to be searching to find himself and to finally obtain a sense of happiness.
(David Roberts, Post 8)

Don't Belong

I found this section of the reading to be rather interesting. There were constant flashbacks to Nella writing in her diary, which helps to expand upon the thoughts that were going through her head that helped to lead up to her own demise. She so desperatley wants to please her children and cares so much about them, almost as of she is trying to instill some happiness in them, despite the fact that she is not happy with herself. It is unsettling when she realizes that her children are not like her on the basis of race, which can only distant their relationship, which is sad to see considering how much Nella cares for her children. I think that Nella feels like she is really alone in this world and is only seen as a misfit in her position in the family. Perhaps this and her feelings about her boyfriend and past husband, is what drove her to jump off the top of the building.

Brick went through a drastic change throughout this section of the story. Brick was once a quiet child who displayed a love for birds, and appeared care-free about the world in which he lived in. However, now he is running away from his past life, looking to start over in hopes of creating a new life for himself. I think this is where he steps into the realms of reality, and prepares for a hard life that lies ahead of him. He is used and abused by a couple of junkies, who just want to use him to make money in order to reach their highs. It is like he is an image of his mother in the fact that he is being used for his services, which is a life that he did not wish to follow. He wanted to escape his old life in order to start over, but only realized that he was destined to end up the same way. It seems as though there is always a road block in his life that is preventing him from reaching his own salvation.
(David Roberts, Post 7)