Tara Road

So today the question is: Does real love exist as it does in novels? I would have to say no. And not because I’m a cynic about love and life but because it doesn’t exist that way.

Unless you’re looking at novels like Gone With The Wind, where Scarlett and Rhett battle each other the whole way, only to lose each other in the end. Not that all love ends that way, but I think the proof that this happens lies in the divorce rates around the world. For a short period of time in the novel, they have this great love affair. However as times change, circumstances and their love does.

So that is what I think most novels are missing. I think that novels like Pride & Prejudice and The Notebook only serve to set standards that cannot be achieved in real life.

One of my favorite books that I have probably read many times over is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It’s told from Francie Nolan’s point of view. To give a brief synopsis of the book:

The Nolan family is a family, living in Brooklyn. Like all the other families in their neighborhood, they are poor. Papa is an undiagnosed alcohol, who peddles away his time at the local bar. He was once a good singer. However, now, he sings as a waiter for events. Katie better known as Mama is a cleaning lady for the building that the family lives in. By cleaning the whole building, she manages to forego rent everything month. Then there are the two children, Francie and Neeley. Francie is a smart girl. She knows she’s smart even though she is poor. Everyone tells her she won’t succeed. In the end, she’s the one that gained the most. The story was set in Brooklyn during the early 1900s.

So now that you have a little more information, I think that you would really like it. Francie is this amazing child who has a will to learn. I suppose I like her because why anyone likes a certain character. She overcomes diversity. She becomes whom she wants to be without having to sacrifice who she is. I think that’s what all of us want in the end. To get where we are going, without having to give up part of ourselves along the way.

I also think that I like her so much because I can somewhat identify with her. I mean that is why books are written, so the reader can identify with the characters. I guess I feel like somehow I’ve fought my battles to get where I am today. And I’m not going to take less than what I perceive is the best for me. Being from a poor neighbor, Francie is thought of as dirty and worthless because she comes to school “unclean” and not clothed appropriately. In this particular era, there is a large gap between the successful and the down right dirt poor. And well if you aren’t in the successful half, you aren’t worth the time of day. Teachers tell Francie that she is stupid and that she won’t succeed. She is forced out of school when her father dies of alcoholism. She is forced to work so that she can provide for the family so that they won’t starve. But she, a poor girl from Brooklyn, makes it. She takes the college entrance exam without going to a day of high school. She passes them.

So in all this book is good. It makes you feel good at the end to see her succeed!