This is similar to an attempt at an online annotation of the book. It is intended to show my thoughts and questions along the way, including what I like, what I can relate to, and what I do not fully understand:
The Coven:
The Novel so far is very descriptive. The author takes a long time to describe every detail of the scene. This is something that so far has held true throughout section I: the coven. Alexandra seems to be the main character even though the story revolves around all three witches. As Alexandra notes, and I did not realize until reading in most myths or folklore, "Things fall into threes. And magic occurs all around us as nature seeks and finds the inevitable forms, things crystalline and organic falling together at angles of sixty degrees, the equilateral triangle being the mother of structure." (4) Along with the obvious meaning of the previous statement, I have a feeling that it also portrays the structure of their relationship as being very strong.
Directly after this statement, the reader can infer that whatever is going on in Alexandra's mind or heart affects the literal world around her. As she put jar upon jar of spaghetti sauce in the cabinet, she "dimly perceived [that it was] some kind of ridiculous tribute to her present lover, a plumber of Italian ancestry." (4) In addition to jar after jar of spaghetti sauce, Alexandra notes that when Joe Marino "had begun to come into her bed," her plants most likely a representation of herself began to rapidly grow, Alexandra stated that “there was something frantic in such fertility, a crying out like that of children frantic to please." Next, one of the paragraphs in this scene that completely caught me off guard, until I became used to the authors style and use of metaphors and simile’s especially in a sexual or physical context was as follow; " Of plants tomatoes seemed the most human, ager and fragile and prone to rot. Picking the watery orange-red orbs, Alexandra felt she was cupping a giant lover's testicles in her hand. She recognized as she labored in her kitchen there was something sadly menstrual in all this, the bloodlike sauce to be ladled upon the white spaghetti. The fat white strings would become her own white fat." *note: at first, due to what I have been hardwired to think and believe especially concerning school, I was cautious to include this text. However, throughout the novel sexual images and scenes are repeatedly used. As Alexandra grows however, these sexual encounters and references are of a more liberating manner. Also along with sexual references, descriptions concerning Alexandra's weight and the weight and physique of other are important. Although Alexandra SEEMS to accept her weight, it seems like in reality it is still something that she struggles with. This is one of the aspects of Alexandra's character that I find the most real, and that I can truly relate to. While I know what I should think concerning myself, It is hard not to fall into the cultural snare of the ideal body being the stick figure of a model. That figure is not natural. For most women, we are meant to have curves. We are meant to have a womanly figure not the figure of a child with no hips, boobs, or fat on our bodies.
These repeated topics of weight and the acceptance of one's body remind me of something that is both ironic, and flawed in our current culture. While in the past, when food was scarce and only the privileged were capable of eating a decent meal, it was viewed as a status symbol and a symbol of beauty to be plump and to have extra weight. However, now in the states especially where we have more than enough food, our culture portrays the thinnest figure as the ideal. It’s as if now that we have what we need to survive; food, we are expected not to eat it.
While this is an issue that most people associate to women more than men, I have seen many guys, guys who are not obese, guys who while not the "ideal" figure in relation to the models, or "Peoples: sexiest man alive", are healthy, turn down a cupcake. I have seen guys skip meals and starve themselves to lose weight. I have known guys who after half a pizza while at a friend’s house could not help but to puke their guts up in order to prevent gaining more weight. Psychologically guys are still just as concerned about their image as women and if anything, they are at a disadvantage since nobody realizes it. However, with women it is expected.
