Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Beginning of Caucasia

I was a little surprised on how much their family grew apart in the first part of the book. The family wasn't perfect to start off, they had their share of fights, but I thought they would remain closer. We can tell from the book that this is a very controversial time period, where I thought they might have put more effort to try to keep the family together. It is probably because of this time period that the family does end up coming apart. The parents start arguing even more than usual, and Deck eventually leaves because he is sick of all of the visitors the mom has over. As the girls keep visiting him, he eventually starts paying attention to Cole only. He can barely look at Birdie when he is trying to talk to Cole. Deck also gets a girlfriend, Carmen, who pays all of her attention to Cole just as he does. Finally, Deck, Carmen, and Cole head to Brazil; leaving Birdie alone with her mom. They change their identities to Jesse and Sheila, and flee town. After four years they still have not met up with Cole and Deck. They travel around for a while, but finally stop for a while in New Hampshire.

One question that I had was what did the mom actually do? We were never actually really told but there are some possible clues. She held secret meetings in the basement every week, and one night a van full of duffel bags was unloaded into the basement. They probably contained guns and other weapons, which suggests violence. The mom ran out of money and had to borrow from their grandmother, whom she really dislikes. They feel like they are constantly being watched by the FBI, had to run away from home, and change their identities. Birdie is never allowed to discuss the basement or FBI, which supports they are somehow related and whatever happened was probably not something good.

3 comments:

  1. Nice blog Kevin. I really hope we find out what the mom did sometime soon because I've been wondering the same darn thing! I can't even imagine living in that time period and in Boston to be more exact. Jeepers I don't know what I would do if somebody like my parent or grandparent ignored me because of my skin color. I'm anxious though to see what happens. I like this book.

    bye kevin!!

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  2. Kevin-

    Sweet Blog!! I totally agree with you. I really would love to know what the mom did. She obviously did something very bad but what? What could she have done that would have possibly that bad in order for the to have to create new identities? I hope that somewhere in this book is a good explaination of all of this!!

    -Rachel :)

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  3. I agree with this. I also would like to know what the mother did. I think we can get some ideas from the clues that the author gives us so far; however I really would like a straight answer.

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