Quarter 3: Week 2, Post A

VOCAB:

indefatigably (7): Incapable or seemingly incapable of being fatigued; tireless.
hypochondriac (14): A person who constantly believes he or she is ill or about to become ill.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:

1. "A sky hard-looking as blue tile" (4). This is an example of a simile; it compares the sky to a pice of blue tile.
2. "Most days I used the side door...the door to which Mom had affixed little bells that tinkled merrily like a shopkeeper's door..." (5). This is another example of a simile. The word "like" is used to compare the bells on the side door of Nikki's house to the bells on the door of a shop.
3. "Sonja Szyszko fluttered like a flag in the wind, mortified as if she were hours late instead of only a half-hour" (13).
This is an example of a simile as well. The author uses the word "like" to compare Sonja's flustered behavior to that of a flag blowing in the breeze.

QUOTE:

"One thing I knew: I didn't want children of my own. I didn't want to be married. Maybe because my parents had been so happily married, my mother was such a wonderful mother, I knew I could never measure up" (12). I think this quote really reveals a lot of interesting information about Nikki. She is strong, independent, and very cynical. She also seems to be sort of the "black sheep" in her family; her life is so different from that of her mother or sister. However, this quote shows a more vulnerable side to Nikki because she reveals her fears that she cannot measure up to her mother.

THEME:

So far the theme of this book seems to focus on the complexities within mother-daughter relationships and sister-sister relationships, and the contrasts between the two.