Picture Perfect continues to get better and better as the story goes deeper. This week I've learned a lot about the backstory of both Cassie and Alex, and the two of them together.
Cassie, like Alex, had a traumatic childhood. But she didn't let it get to her. She decided she would be an anthropologist and devoted her whole life to that pursuit. Growing up, she loved playing in the dirt with Connor, her one true love. But too quickly, the morning after their first kiss, he died. From a gunshot wound. To the head. His father ended up shooting Connor, his wife, and then himself on the morning of November 1, 1984. It was all too sudden, and something that Cassie held with her her entire life. Not only did she grow up and love Connor from the very beginning. He was the only one that protected her from her family, and stood up for her in school. He was the only thing that she had. And he was gone.
So naturally, he stayed with her. In her mind, in little bouts of self-doubt or accomplishment. He was there. He was always there.
But as for Alex, his story was somehow even more tragic. He grew up in New Orleans with a dead-beat dad and a drunken mother. He was always searching for someone to love and care for him although no one had since he was born. His dad was such a horrible role model and father figure, that he didn't even bother to pick Alex up when he got arrested for shoplifting. And the worst part of it is that Alex didn't want to be picked up. He didn't want to go home. He felt safer and more loved in a prostitutes arms (in the jail) than at home.
Eventually, his father drove Alex to a point that he couldn't stand. He disrespected his own wife and brought other people into the house to be intimate with. Even when she was passed out on the floor. So Alex took it into his own hands and in a flying rage, beat his father to unconsciousness. And what distressed him the most was that Alex's reaction left his father with a smile on his face. As if Alex had finally become the son he'd always wanted, and Alex was disgusted by that. So he ran away. Made his own life and was discovered accidentally. And since he was so good at acting anyway, as if his life never had existed, he was a natural on set.
Cassie met Alex in Africa, where he was filming a movie about an anthropologist and she was excavating a dig for some of her students. At first she was appalled at the way he treated her, believing that he was some stuck up actor instead of the real man beneath all the hype. But he had a way of intriguing her, so she went to dinner with him. He opened up to her about the truth of his life, something he had never done with anyone, and eventually she began to tell him her truth. About a week later, after they had a fight about a scene he was filming with another woman, he disappeared for three days and came back with a ring. And they would be forever entwined in each other, holding on to something that was real affection for the first time in both of their lives.
So how did it come to a place where he began beating her? Was that his real self or just his father in him? Is she right to run away, or should she try to work through it with him? Where should she draw the line between marriage and devoted love and personal safety?
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Truth Comes Out
As I continue reading Picture Perfect, the story becomes more and more clear about the dynamics of the relationship between Cassie and her husband, Alex. Originally, Cassie is starstruck and amazed that such an amazing and handsome man would choose her to be his wife. But what she realizes all too quickly is that he is VERY good at acting. Almost too good. To a point where she's not even sure she knows if she actually knows the real Alex.
From his perspective, being fake Alex is easier than letting the things that have happened in his life get to him. Instead of admitting that he had a rough childhood, an absent father and a not completely aware mother, he acts. He acts to escape. He thinks that being someone else, with a better story is better or easier than dealing with the pain and the repercussions of his real life.
So even Cassie doesn't know him deeply or completely. Because he's not completely himself. He hasn't come to terms with his story and he hasn't recovered from it, he's just buried it. And Cassie is lost in the mix between his acting and his actual personality. She has loved and married a different man than she thought.
And Cassie realizes this very quickly with her twinges in her gut when she knows that he's acting. She feels manipulated when he is intimate with her, like he thinks it will make up for something that might happen in the future. Like when they went to dinner, he charms her before so that she's prepared to deal with the beautiful women that surround him all the time. Which is potentially sweet and caring, but because of the way it's portrayed, it seems like he's taking possession of her rather than comforting and reassuring her. And while they're at dinner, he gets into a fight with a co-star because the co-star was talking to Cassie. After the fight she feels concerned and worried about how he reacted to the situation, and when he begins to yell and reprimand her for the trouble she caused (by talking to the co-star), she is frightened.
And if this weren't enough, when she returns to their home, she finds some of her secret artifacts that trigger her memory. She realizes that she ran away from home because he was abusive. She lost her memory because he hit her the night that she escaped. And because of the injury, whenever she fell asleep, she probably lost some of the conscious memory either due to the hit or her mind trying to protect her.
The main reason she ran away was not to escape him for her own good, but for the baby that is growing inside her. Alex is adamantly against having children, and because of the way he reacted to her trying to encourage him about the Oscars, she doesn't think telling him will be healthy for her or the baby. She's running away primarily to take care of the baby, because she will not let him grow up with an abusive dad and distraught mother. She wants to care for her child and love him in the only way she can, and that's without a dad.
As she realizes this, she begins frantically packing, to try again to escape from the man that she calls her husband.
From his perspective, being fake Alex is easier than letting the things that have happened in his life get to him. Instead of admitting that he had a rough childhood, an absent father and a not completely aware mother, he acts. He acts to escape. He thinks that being someone else, with a better story is better or easier than dealing with the pain and the repercussions of his real life.
So even Cassie doesn't know him deeply or completely. Because he's not completely himself. He hasn't come to terms with his story and he hasn't recovered from it, he's just buried it. And Cassie is lost in the mix between his acting and his actual personality. She has loved and married a different man than she thought.
And Cassie realizes this very quickly with her twinges in her gut when she knows that he's acting. She feels manipulated when he is intimate with her, like he thinks it will make up for something that might happen in the future. Like when they went to dinner, he charms her before so that she's prepared to deal with the beautiful women that surround him all the time. Which is potentially sweet and caring, but because of the way it's portrayed, it seems like he's taking possession of her rather than comforting and reassuring her. And while they're at dinner, he gets into a fight with a co-star because the co-star was talking to Cassie. After the fight she feels concerned and worried about how he reacted to the situation, and when he begins to yell and reprimand her for the trouble she caused (by talking to the co-star), she is frightened.
And if this weren't enough, when she returns to their home, she finds some of her secret artifacts that trigger her memory. She realizes that she ran away from home because he was abusive. She lost her memory because he hit her the night that she escaped. And because of the injury, whenever she fell asleep, she probably lost some of the conscious memory either due to the hit or her mind trying to protect her.
The main reason she ran away was not to escape him for her own good, but for the baby that is growing inside her. Alex is adamantly against having children, and because of the way he reacted to her trying to encourage him about the Oscars, she doesn't think telling him will be healthy for her or the baby. She's running away primarily to take care of the baby, because she will not let him grow up with an abusive dad and distraught mother. She wants to care for her child and love him in the only way she can, and that's without a dad.
As she realizes this, she begins frantically packing, to try again to escape from the man that she calls her husband.
Friday, February 15, 2013
The Continuation of Cassie
This week, I read three more chapters in Picture Perfect. The search for Cassie's memories and true identity is still a major part of her life, but she quickly grows close to her husband, finding a safe place in all of the mess that her life has become. Their intimacy quickly returns and they feel comforted by each other's presence, but there's a slight evidence of distress due to her recognition of whether or not he's acting. She realizes this as he calls her beautiful, that he's acting, and when he admits that he "was" going to tell her about her job in UCLA.
There are some traces of codependence in his relation to her. He believes that "he would cease to exist" "if she was gone, if she ever left" (65). He deeply relies on her presence and her love to hold him together, to make him something. But he's never admitted that to her, and she believes that she's the luckiest girl in the world, for marrying and loving the most popular man in America (he's a famous actor). Their lack of communication coupled with their extreme dependence on the other for some sense of self-worth is not a healthy combination, and yet seems to be the fuel that their relation lies on.
But as Cassie is returning to her own reality, she is remembering her past, and her childhood friend Connor. She has several dreams about him, and begins to wonder what happened to him. One time, they dug up the bones of their old pet dog and she was utterly fascinated, while he was disgusted and queasy. That night, the night she realized her calling in life, she realized her affection and devotion to Connor, and under the moon lite sky, he kisses her for the first time. And her flashback ends, eerily stating that that was the last time she had ever seen him alive.
Cassie's past is coming alive in her, and she's reliving all the pain and sorrow that made her who she is today. So how does that affect her relationship with her husband? And how will it affect his attachment to her? What does her past mean in this present?
There are some traces of codependence in his relation to her. He believes that "he would cease to exist" "if she was gone, if she ever left" (65). He deeply relies on her presence and her love to hold him together, to make him something. But he's never admitted that to her, and she believes that she's the luckiest girl in the world, for marrying and loving the most popular man in America (he's a famous actor). Their lack of communication coupled with their extreme dependence on the other for some sense of self-worth is not a healthy combination, and yet seems to be the fuel that their relation lies on.
But as Cassie is returning to her own reality, she is remembering her past, and her childhood friend Connor. She has several dreams about him, and begins to wonder what happened to him. One time, they dug up the bones of their old pet dog and she was utterly fascinated, while he was disgusted and queasy. That night, the night she realized her calling in life, she realized her affection and devotion to Connor, and under the moon lite sky, he kisses her for the first time. And her flashback ends, eerily stating that that was the last time she had ever seen him alive.
Cassie's past is coming alive in her, and she's reliving all the pain and sorrow that made her who she is today. So how does that affect her relationship with her husband? And how will it affect his attachment to her? What does her past mean in this present?
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Question of DIVORCE
“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man,should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled?
But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers— would you now return to me"declares the Lord. --Jeremiah 3: 1
"“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” --Mark 10:6-12
Clearly, in the Old and the New Testament's the covenant we make with our husbands is supposed to last for life, otherwise any other man or woman we marry will be adulterers and us as well. There is no getting out of the covenant you made before God. There is no escape from the promise you made to stick by each other's side no matter what. But when does God ask us to love ourselves and do what's right for our spiritual walk and journey? Is there room for that in marriage? Is there any circumstance where leaving the marriage is dignified?
Clearly, in the Old and the New Testament's the covenant we make with our husbands is supposed to last for life, otherwise any other man or woman we marry will be adulterers and us as well. There is no getting out of the covenant you made before God. There is no escape from the promise you made to stick by each other's side no matter what. But when does God ask us to love ourselves and do what's right for our spiritual walk and journey? Is there room for that in marriage? Is there any circumstance where leaving the marriage is dignified?
I don't know, but I can surely sympathise with many couples who've been divorced. I can empathize with their struggle and painful interactions with each other, and I can even understand falling out of love, but where do we draw the line for divorce? Because it's so much of a cultural norm to get divorced and remarried, have we lost all touch of what marriage is meant to be? Are people getting married to early? Before they know that they will commit to each other for the rest of their lives? If so, what do we say of their children? Where do they come into this?
It's a hard topic and a frustrating thing to wrestle with, but the Bible is clear that marriages should last forever. I think there is some discrepancy with emotional and physical abuse, but if you just plain married the wrong person, what do you do? Do you start to think about marriage differently from the start or do you get divorced? Do you bend to the other person or give up? How and when is divorce applicable, and why?
But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers— would you now return to me"declares the Lord. --Jeremiah 3: 1
"“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” --Mark 10:6-12
Clearly, in the Old and the New Testament's the covenant we make with our husbands is supposed to last for life, otherwise any other man or woman we marry will be adulterers and us as well. There is no getting out of the covenant you made before God. There is no escape from the promise you made to stick by each other's side no matter what. But when does God ask us to love ourselves and do what's right for our spiritual walk and journey? Is there room for that in marriage? Is there any circumstance where leaving the marriage is dignified?
Clearly, in the Old and the New Testament's the covenant we make with our husbands is supposed to last for life, otherwise any other man or woman we marry will be adulterers and us as well. There is no getting out of the covenant you made before God. There is no escape from the promise you made to stick by each other's side no matter what. But when does God ask us to love ourselves and do what's right for our spiritual walk and journey? Is there room for that in marriage? Is there any circumstance where leaving the marriage is dignified?
I don't know, but I can surely sympathise with many couples who've been divorced. I can empathize with their struggle and painful interactions with each other, and I can even understand falling out of love, but where do we draw the line for divorce? Because it's so much of a cultural norm to get divorced and remarried, have we lost all touch of what marriage is meant to be? Are people getting married to early? Before they know that they will commit to each other for the rest of their lives? If so, what do we say of their children? Where do they come into this?
It's a hard topic and a frustrating thing to wrestle with, but the Bible is clear that marriages should last forever. I think there is some discrepancy with emotional and physical abuse, but if you just plain married the wrong person, what do you do? Do you start to think about marriage differently from the start or do you get divorced? Do you bend to the other person or give up? How and when is divorce applicable, and why?
Saturday, February 9, 2013
The Beginning: Picture Perfect, a novel
I'm reading Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult for my Biblical Heritage class in order to examine the morals in our modern day opposed to the morals found in the Bible. The pretense of the book is about a marriage that has begun to fall apart, due to the husband's abuse of his wife.
We meet Cassie Barrett as Jane Doe, sleeping on a tombstone in the middle of the graveyard. She wakes up with no recollection of her former self, what happened the night before, or how she got to be where she is presently. Her first reaction is to walk outside of the graveyard, and once she gets to the street, she sees Will, a newcomer in town, and she runs straight into his arms.
Will is escaping his former life as a Native American in South Dakota and realizing that the racial tension in Beverly Hills is exactly what he expected. Just pulling over to the side of the road to ask for directions, he was shoved around and treated as scum. And he realizes that his escape may not be as promising as he was wanted it to be.
The beginning of the book begins with a Native American tribal story about a man, Strong Wind, who refused to marry just any maiden, and said that "he would marry the first maiden who could see him coming at night" (Picoult 3). And every maiden who tried failed because they lied and said they could see him when he was never there. Until the youngest daughter of the chief, confessed that she did not see him, and because of her honesty, he revealed himself to her, and they married.
Somehow, what happens in the first chapter of the book, the reunion of Jane to Will, like long lost lovers, seems reflective of this story. However, what's strange about this "reunion" is that they've never met each other before this fateful day. So, what does this story reveal to us? Our modern day culture's obsession with love at first sight? Or love in general? Does it show us that we are over obsessed with love and the need to be happy because another person is supposed to make us more human, becoming our other half, our soulmate? Does it dig into these issues or is it a beautiful story of one unique chance for redemption for both of them?
Cassie (Jane) and Will find each other in vulnerable places and without any prompting, lean and support each other despite the minimum amount of time they've come to know each other. Will houses Cassie (Jane) until he helps her figure out who her husband is. And while he is off on his first day of work as a police officer, she begins to unpack for him, in the hopes that he will feel more at home in a strange place. But what she doesn't realize about him is that he's never felt at home. It freaks him out, and his heritage is not something he wants to hold on to. He wants change, a new town, a new life, a new start. Not some reflection of the past.
And she, just beginning to remember some small things about her life suddenly realizes (from reconstructing their chicken bones from dinner) that she was and is an anthropologist. Excited for something familiar, she enthusiastically searches through the library for modern archeology and anthropology and remembers finding a hand that was pictured in one of the recent books.
The next day, her husband, Alex Rivers, the famous movie star, comes searching for her at the police station. And as he takes her into his arms, she feels slightly anxious, but glad to have someone who knows her.
Will, on the other hand, is silently distraught that the one thing that made him feel safe and comfortable in Beverly Hills is leaving him. He hopes that she will keep in touch but doubts that he will ever be someone important in her life ever again.
The depth that Picoult goes into to explain the emotions and thoughts of the characters make it all the more real to the reader. I begin to understand and hurt for Will as he looses the one thing that meant the most to him in this new life. And I worry that Cassie will just cycle through the same situation again and again as her husband continues to abuse her. But we don't know that yet, do we? All I know is that she woke up in a graveyard with no recollection of herself, and her husband was off filming in Scottland. So what happened? How did she come to be in such a state? And will she begin to remember her true feelings for her husband before she's in danger again?
Either way, this book is diving into some of the most complex situations in modern society. Abuse, marriage, racism, and love. But in order to find out more, I need to keep reading. And so do you, if you want to discover the truth about Cassie Barrett.
We meet Cassie Barrett as Jane Doe, sleeping on a tombstone in the middle of the graveyard. She wakes up with no recollection of her former self, what happened the night before, or how she got to be where she is presently. Her first reaction is to walk outside of the graveyard, and once she gets to the street, she sees Will, a newcomer in town, and she runs straight into his arms.
Will is escaping his former life as a Native American in South Dakota and realizing that the racial tension in Beverly Hills is exactly what he expected. Just pulling over to the side of the road to ask for directions, he was shoved around and treated as scum. And he realizes that his escape may not be as promising as he was wanted it to be.
The beginning of the book begins with a Native American tribal story about a man, Strong Wind, who refused to marry just any maiden, and said that "he would marry the first maiden who could see him coming at night" (Picoult 3). And every maiden who tried failed because they lied and said they could see him when he was never there. Until the youngest daughter of the chief, confessed that she did not see him, and because of her honesty, he revealed himself to her, and they married.
Somehow, what happens in the first chapter of the book, the reunion of Jane to Will, like long lost lovers, seems reflective of this story. However, what's strange about this "reunion" is that they've never met each other before this fateful day. So, what does this story reveal to us? Our modern day culture's obsession with love at first sight? Or love in general? Does it show us that we are over obsessed with love and the need to be happy because another person is supposed to make us more human, becoming our other half, our soulmate? Does it dig into these issues or is it a beautiful story of one unique chance for redemption for both of them?
Cassie (Jane) and Will find each other in vulnerable places and without any prompting, lean and support each other despite the minimum amount of time they've come to know each other. Will houses Cassie (Jane) until he helps her figure out who her husband is. And while he is off on his first day of work as a police officer, she begins to unpack for him, in the hopes that he will feel more at home in a strange place. But what she doesn't realize about him is that he's never felt at home. It freaks him out, and his heritage is not something he wants to hold on to. He wants change, a new town, a new life, a new start. Not some reflection of the past.
And she, just beginning to remember some small things about her life suddenly realizes (from reconstructing their chicken bones from dinner) that she was and is an anthropologist. Excited for something familiar, she enthusiastically searches through the library for modern archeology and anthropology and remembers finding a hand that was pictured in one of the recent books.
The next day, her husband, Alex Rivers, the famous movie star, comes searching for her at the police station. And as he takes her into his arms, she feels slightly anxious, but glad to have someone who knows her.
Will, on the other hand, is silently distraught that the one thing that made him feel safe and comfortable in Beverly Hills is leaving him. He hopes that she will keep in touch but doubts that he will ever be someone important in her life ever again.
The depth that Picoult goes into to explain the emotions and thoughts of the characters make it all the more real to the reader. I begin to understand and hurt for Will as he looses the one thing that meant the most to him in this new life. And I worry that Cassie will just cycle through the same situation again and again as her husband continues to abuse her. But we don't know that yet, do we? All I know is that she woke up in a graveyard with no recollection of herself, and her husband was off filming in Scottland. So what happened? How did she come to be in such a state? And will she begin to remember her true feelings for her husband before she's in danger again?
Either way, this book is diving into some of the most complex situations in modern society. Abuse, marriage, racism, and love. But in order to find out more, I need to keep reading. And so do you, if you want to discover the truth about Cassie Barrett.
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