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Continue writing short story--due Tues. Oct. 9
Answer 2 of the following questions in a post:
9. Music is an important element of Fugitive Pieces, and it is central
to the lives of at least three of the characters, Bella, Alex, and
Naomi. What does music mean to each of these characters? Why has
Michaels given music such a prominent metaphoric role in the novel?
10. What does Fugitive Pieces say about the condition of being an
immigrant? Jakob never feels truly at home anywhere, even in Greece.
Ben's parents feel that their toehold in their new home is infinitely
precarious, an emotion that communicates itself to Ben. Does Michaels
imply that real integration is impossible?
11. Can you explain the very different reactions Ben's parents have had
to their experience in the Holocaust? What in their characters has
determined the differing ways they respond to grief and loss?
12. The relationship between Ben and Naomi is a troubled one. Why is he
angry at her for her closeness to his parents and her attention to their
graves? Why does he reject her by leaving for Greece without her? How
can you explain his intense desire for Petra--is his need purely
physical? How do Petra and Naomi differ? What is the significance of
their names?
13. Science has as important a role in the novel as poetry and music.
Why is geology so important to Athos, meteorology to Ben? Does science
represent a standard of disinterested truth, or does it merely symbolize
the world's terrifying contingency?
14. Why might Jakob have named his collection of poems Groundwork, and
in what way does that title relate to his life? Jakob calls his young
self a "bog-boy" [5]. Why does Ben take such an interest in the
preserved bog people he reads about [221]?
15. The last line of the novel is Ben's: "I see that I must give what I
most need." What does he mean by this? What does he most need, what will
he give, and to whom?
16. What is the significance of the novel's title? What do "pieces," or
"fragments," mean within Michaels's scheme? Where in the novel can you
find references to fragments?
ANOTHER INTERESTING BLOG ABOUT FUGITIVE PIECES:
fugitivepiecesgroup.blogspot.com/2007/12/outline-of-what-ill-say.html
10) Being and immigrant is tough. I think that Michaels is saying that if you have a home in one place, it's almost impossible to find a true home anywhere else. But it's still possible. Jakob took a very long time, but eventually managed to find a home with Michala.
ReplyDelete16) The "pieces" can refer to a few things. The book is written in a fragmented style. The story is composed of non-chronological pieces, with less structure than most stories. There's also the way Jakob was broken as a person after he loses his family, and struggles to pick up and organize the mess he has become.
16. The entirety of the novel is snipped into pieces of a larger story. The title of the novel refers to how the pieces of memory are fugitive, mostly in that they are fleeting. The story switches between the times of Jakob as a child and as an adult. When he's an adult he experiences moments with Alex, where he is recalling pieces of memory and she pulls him from his memories, causing the fleeting pieces of memory to escape forever. The memory escapes him when Alex saves him, showing memory's quality of being fragmented and fugitive.
ReplyDelete10. Fugitive Pieces doesn't portray being an immigrant as easy. Throughout the novel you have various immigrants, many of which keep to their old traditions. For example, Joseph never wastes food in Canada even though he's left the place of food shortages behind him. Jakob repeatedly returns to Greece, unable to leave it behind him. Athos successfully situates himself in Canada, but he can't leave behind his memories of Biskupin. For each of these characters, it's possible to integrate into society, but there's always some sort of barrier that separates them from everyone else. So integration is possible in that you can become a highly functioning part of society, but it's impossible to create a complete sense of integration without the baggage that weighed you down before immigration.
9.) In the novel our connection with Bella has always been through her use of music. Her favorite Piano piece, Moonlight Sonata, is echoed throughout the book in Jakob's dreams as well in real life. For Naomi she is a collector of poems and folksongs, and this has become an obsession of hers. Also Alex and Jakob met in a music library. However for all of the main characters the key part of music is that its a way for all of them to communicate. Whenever they hear a certain song, such as Moonlight Sonata, Jakob is brought back into a previous life. It is also while listening to Naomi recite a poem that Jakob and Michaela first had a "moment."
ReplyDelete14.) Because it these thoughts that he put onto paper that made him the person that he was. If he hadn't gone through all of those situations his life would have been completely different. Its the groundwork for how he shapes himself. And I believe hes interested in the bog because he sees himself as a part of that history, forever imprinted in the history of the world.
Jack Symes
9. It's easiest to see how extremely significant music is in this novel, it plays a very needed role allowing us to attach ourselves to certain characters. Our way of connection to Bella is always through her love of music or the song she always practices, Moonlight Sonata. Almost always Jakob has a memory of her finger practicing her piano pieces. Ben's wife, Naomi is devoted to music of all kinds. It's kind of her little obsession, she discovers songs from all over the world, like lullabies. Alex and Jakob met in a music library, this is very subtle but it still displays the important and very present role that music takes in this novel. Michaels employs musical themes from beginning to end of the story.
ReplyDelete15. The book is about healing, living, love and loss. I feel like this quote could have a number of meanings but Jakob needed to let go of his sister and in a way he's learning to move on by choosing to name his daughter after her, its making him grow.
11. Ben’s father can’t seem to let go of what happened during the Holocaust. He still remembers and holds on to the times where every little thing was to be appreciated regardless of its value. For example, when his son, Ben, attempted to throw away a half eaten apple he sternly made him pick it back up and finish it. He also explains the struggle they went through during the Holocaust and everything was to be cherished and appreciated, as it was their last. During that time period, times were hard for him and his family and be unappreciative of things was surely not an option. Neither was throwing away food because money was tight. He’s also afraid of the darkness because it reminds him of the horror they went through. Ben’s mom on the other hand doesn’t forget but try’s not to let that interfere with her life that she’s finally able to live now because it’ll just make it even harder. She says that things eventually change either for the better or the worst.
ReplyDelete14. His life is ultimately a fragment of stories. When he writes, it leads him to a new obstacle in his life and with out the passion of writing, encouraged by Athos, Jakob wouldn’t have accomplished so much that he did. Groundwork is what made Jakob that the reader was ultimately looking for.
10.Throughout the book we see that Jakob is never really at home anywhere. Neither are Ben and his parents. This homelessness could be talking about the condition of being an immigrant and the feeling of never fully settling down, especially when they were running from something as terrible as the Holocaust. It's something we'll all probably experience to some degree at some point in our lives, when we go off to college, when we move after living one place for a long time. But for an immigrant, especially one from a non-english speaking country, it probably doesn't wear away quite so fast as it would for us. There is also this idea, showed to us through Jakob and Bella that home is always with you, that it's not a place but something that you can always find within yourself.
ReplyDelete16. Fragments and pieces are talked about throughout, physically and metaphorically. When Jakob first goes to live with Athos in Greece he is fascinated by all the chips - fragments - of rock and petrified wood that his new friend has lying around the house. There is also the way Micheals writes, giving a little of the present, a little of the future, along with some of the ditant past all within one page. This fragmented writing is the trademark style of the novel. The idea of 'fugitive pieces" is probably talking about how some of the memories are like fugitives, scattering to the edges of Jakob and Ben's concusses, things they tried to forget. Along with the obvious idea of Jakob himself being a fugitive this was probably the driving idea behing the title.
16. The pieces resembles Jaccob's life and what he's been through, and his struggle to pick all the pieces up and continue on with life.
ReplyDelete10. I think what Anne Michaels is saying there is no place like home, and Jacob didn't feel comfortable for years because his home and what he knows has been destroyed. Now that he's older he deal with it better with the help of his girlfriend.
9. The importance of music in the lives of several different characters is a reoccurring theme throughout the entirety of the novel. The musical motif is first evident through the memory of Jakob's older sister, Bella. Jakob remembers Bella's love of Beethoven, how she would play his pieces lovingly on the piano, on her arm, on his back, how she would dress up as the dead composer and recite facts about the way he took his coffee. For Jakob, music becomes the essence of Bella. Through remembering her love of music he is able to keep her tied to him in memory and in reality. Music continues to play an important role in Jakob's life when he meets his first wife, Alex, at a record store. This time music completely alters the course of the lives of both Jakob and of Alex. Lastly we learn about Naomi's love of music. She collects songs from all over the world, lullabies from different countries. Most every woman of significance in Jakob's life, (Bella, Alex, Naomi), have a strong tie to music. This helps keep Bella alive in Jakob's mind, each woman becoming Bella in a different way.
ReplyDelete10. Michaels has an interesting take on the immigrant experience in Fugitive Pieces. Jakob and Ben's parents seem to always be hyper aware of their displacement. No matter how long they are in Canada it never seems permanent. There is always an underlying nagging, a central pull towards their homeland. The trouble is for Jakob, he's not quite sure where his homeland is. Is it in Poland, the place that harbors his memories of his parents and Bella? Is it in Greece where he was saved by his adopted father Athos? Or is it in Canada where he and Athos migrated and where Jakob reached adulthood? Jakob seems to settle on Greece as his true home. He returns there to write and to be close to Athos and to Bella and to all of those he has lost.
12. Ben is angry at Naomi for her close relationship with his parents, because he never felt that way with them. In Naomi's kitchen conversations with his mother, Ben felt pushed out and excluded. His mother shared family stories with Naomi, things that even he didn't know, like the fact that his parents had a son and a daughter before the war. He somehow feels that Naomi was using a power play in trying to get close to his parents, or some sort of manipulation. Ben leaves Naomi because he feels betrayed that she knew something so personal about his family's history and he didn't. He leaves her because he can't stand the fact that she was able to crack the secrecy of his parents and their silence, when he had tried his whole life and never seemed able to do it. Petra means "rock" or "stone", while Naomi means "pleasant". I think that Ben was looking for a harder relationship. Petra was more cool and detached, while Naomi had sort of burrowed into Ben's life.
ReplyDelete14. Jakob probably named his collection Groundwork, because he was so influenced by Athos' geologic studies and because the collection was a basis of his life, of the things he went through. The title relates to his life because he was called "bog boy", a boy of the earth, buried in the ground at Biskupin. Ben takes an interest in the preserved bog people because they have untold stories and unknown names.
What is the significance of the novel's title? What do "pieces," or "fragments," mean within Michaels's scheme? Where in the novel can you find references to fragments?
ReplyDeleteJakob doesn’t know everything about his past. He remembers things in pieces, not all together. He doesn’t know what happened to Bella. That is a missing gap in his memory. He can only imagine what happened to her. Jacob himself is broken up into fragments. He isn’t a whole person until near the end of the book.
9. Music is an important element of Fugitive Pieces, and it is central to the lives of at least three of the characters, Bella, Alex, and Naomi. What does music mean to each of these characters? Why has Michaels given music such a prominent metaphoric role in the novel?
Music is Jakob’s way of remembering Bella. The piano she played is stuck in his head. It is something he will never forget. Words cant leave our memory quickly but if you’ve heard a song, you’re most likely going to know that you’ve heard it again. Sometimes, you can even remember what happened when you first listened to that song.
10. It's hard for an immigrant to become accustomed to a new country, because they'll always be looking for similarities between their new home and their old. While they may get over the grief of moving away, the memory and feeling of a first home never goes away because it sets the tone for what a person feels a home should be, and they will always be looking for things about their new home that are familiar to them.
ReplyDelete11. Ben's mother seems to enjoy life despite her past, appreciating every moment of her new life with a positive outlook. Ben's father doesn't want to forget the horror of the holocaust because it means forgetting the lessons learned from the experience, so he clings on to his old ways to preserve that knowledge for his son Ben.