I really enjoyed reading the novel, Native Speaker.  I found it interesting reading about two people who were completely different.  Henry was an Asian American in which all he wanted was to be assimilated into American culture.  Lelia was a speech pathologist in which she worked with children and focused on language.  In the first half of the novel, I did not think that Lelia’s and Henry’s marriage would last. After Mitt died, it seemed like their marriage was not going to last. Lelia moved in with Molly and focused a great deal on her career.  Henry was struggling with Mitt’s death more and wanted to be with Lelia; however, she did not want to be with him at the time.  At the end of the novel, I was so glad to read that Lelia moved back in with Henry. Lelia was definately more loving.  It was as if she had completely changed. The quote, “Then you can work here… “I have too many kids.  I need another set of hands.”  Henry states, “Another mouth.”  She brushes my hair, gently kissing me now. “Yeah” (337) shows how their relationship has turned around. Henry helps Lelia out at work and they seem to be more intimate with each other.  Overall, Native Speaker was one of my favorite novels we have read in this class. Although it had death in it like every other novel we have read, it was a novel that was realistic in which people can relate to, especially being a person from a different ethnic background.

    This book started off to a very slow start.  I was not sure if I would enjoy reading it; however, once we read more into it, I became interested and wanted to keep reading.  The part that particularly caught my attention was when we found out how Henry and Lelia’s son died.  As I read this section, it saddened me exactly how he died.  He was only seven and died because of a tragic accident wrestling with his friends.  Their son struggled with fitting in with other kids his own age because of the way he looked. I believe Henry cared so much about his son and struggled with his death because he too had struggled his whole life with becoming Americanized.  Henry tried to hide his accent because I think he felt ashamed of his ethnic background. The children looked at the boy differently because of his appearance. The death of their child I feel pushed Henry and Lelia farther apart.  Lelia was away for months at a time and did not want anything to do with Henry.  I feel like she dealt with her son’s death differently than Henry’s grieving. I am interested to see how Henry’s and Lelia’s relationship will progess further on in the novel.  I wonder if they will work on their relationship or give up on each other.

     I did not mind reading the novel, Sula.  I actually found it interesting to read.  The ending of the novel seemed to be bittersweet.  Sula had died; however, Nel was able to mourn the loss of her best friend even though she had such resentment towards her.  Since Sulla had cheated with Nel’s husband, I did not blame Nel for feeling such anger and hatred towards Sula during those years that they did not talk.  If I was Nel, I would have been extremely disappointed in not only my husband, but probably towards my best friend the most.  A spouse is one thing, but to have your best friend do something like that to you is even worse.  That is something friends should never do because men may come and go but a best friend is always supposed to be there for you and never let you down.  Sula clearly let Nel down.  I was shocked, yet happy, to read that Nel was able to mourn the loss of her best friend. I can not imagine how hard this must have been for Sula.  This shows that Nel is the bigger person.  I was glad to see that she had forgiven Sula for everything she had done.  Nel realized she had loved Sula more than anything and I feel that she  looked up to her to a certain extent, in which she refused to think about until Sula had become extremely ill.  Unlike Nel who had struggled her whole life to gain social acceptance, she had realized that Sula had always refused this concept.  Although I do not agree with the lifestyle Sula chose to live, she certainly did what she wanted to make herself happy.  In the end, I think Toni Morrison left the novel with so many questions because she wanted, we, the readers, to think about the different situations that have occurred through out the story.  It is left to us to think about why the characters acted the way they did.

     My opinion about, Invisible Man, was mixed.  I enjoyed reading the novel because I wanted to see what would happen to the narrator.  The suspense of finding out his name and who he really was lead me to continue reading each chapter.  At the end of the novel, I must say that I was disappointed that we never found out the narrators name.  I mean that was the reason I wanted to continue reading the novel.  The quote in the epilogue, “I’m an invisible man and it placed me in a hole-or showed me the hole I was in, if you will and I reluctantly accepted the fact.”  After I read that quote I realized that although the narrator tried very hard throughout the novel to try and make a difference, especially by joining the Brotherhood, he was never going to change his conception of himself.  His life was certainly not easy; however, he felt proud during those moments that he worked to change the beliefs of others.  He was very bitter with everything that has happened in his life and at first chooses to stay underground, then changes his mind.  I was surprised to read that he was going to end his hibernation because he felt a social responsibility even though he felt like he had failed in society.  The narrator, I must say, was a confusing person to understand.  “Invisible Man” was the perfect title for this novel because the narrator struggled so much with his identity.  Overall, I’m glad this novel is done with because it was pretty much drawn out and I thought it could have been a lot shorter.