Annotation Reflection (I don’t know why the picture is that large sorry)

Even if you removed the archaic vocabulary and time splices, this book would still be a very difficult read. The family dynamic that the Dead’s have is very confusing, and never really gives the reader a completely accurate story. Many times I’ve been left to try and discern the truth from lies, like with the Doctors funeral story. While Macon II authoritatively states his side of the story with hard conviction, Ruth’s story is told through the lense of love, which makes us sympathize with her. Specifically on page 63, a lot of information about Macon II gets thrown at us, without a lot of answers. To add onto this, Macon II’s views about his son and wife are not corrected by the narrator, so I can’t quite be sure of anything. Furthermore, dates of events are few and far between, and adding the splices in time just makes me feel like this book is intentionally trying to get me to put it in the dumpster. And although I really love the convoluted and emotional family dynamic the Dead’s have, it took me a while to get over the amount of incest happening.

I’ve tried addressing these challenges by asking questions while annotating, and reading out loud. It’s easy to glaze over important information while reading, so this strategy ensures that I catch most everything. I find myself asking a lot of questions, which has actually been a good strategy because I can ask these questions in class and get more opinions and ideas than I can think of on my own. Lastly, I think it’s important to look up definitions of words you don’t know while reading. Even if I think I can assume the meaning of something, it’s better to know exactly what the author is getting at because past events are often referenced more than once.