The Ending

As we come to a closing to the book Just the Three of Us by Julia Blackburn, she remembers of when her her parents passed away, her father died of a cerebral haemorrhage.  She has learned to accept that even if she did not have a normal upbringing and that it was based on broken relationships that they were still her parents and that they loved her, they had there odd ways of showing it but they still did. Her parents alcoholism and affairs with other women, and then her mother and her sexual tendencies. But by the end of the book, Julia has learned to forgive her parents for there bad parenting and has learned from them so she can apply this knowledge to her own parenting skills. 

Just the Three of us #5

In the novel Just the Three of Us by Julia Blackburn, where I am at in the novel the reader has already picked up on relationship issues as stated in previous blogs but that was when she was young. Julia also talks of the present and her relationship with her mother but not to the reader but to these "faxes to Herman". Herman was a boyfriend and when they broke up and is now her best friend. In a way the reader can sense that she still misses Herman for his guidance, she says;" "one part of me longs for my mothers forgiveness, the other part is hungry for retribution. What happened, happened. But Herman, you know that, you were there! Are you there now? Are you reading this fax as it grumbles its way through the machine on your table? can you tell me what to do?"(31). Here Julia Expresses her feelings about her mom to Herman and mentions "you were there! are you there now?" suggesting that he was there for her when they were a couple but was he there now for her that they were only friends? That she wants him but Julia also need him in a way. In her faxes to this mysterious man the reader can't help but wonder what had gone on between them that had caused there separation but still allow them to be so close as friends. could this perhaps be the work of her mother yet again?

Just the Three of us #4

In this memoir by Julia Blackburn the reader continues to see Julia's problems and where they came from. From the start of the book I remember thinking that it was her dad, her dad was mostly the main reason she had so many issues. Now that I am significantly farther in the book, I can see now that her mother is definitely the main reason. Her mother had problems herself and didn't try to hide them from her daughter. 

Right now in the book, Julia (as a adult) remembers back to the time when she was about to give birth herself to her first child, that her mom gave her a notebook that she had kept during her pregnancy with julia and throughout her childhood. Ones first though is; oh thats nice of her mother to do, give her a little heads up for what's to come right? No, in this book are accounts of her dreams, "In another dream she drowned the baby in the bathtub and then went to a party where she had a lot of fun"(44). This quote from her mothers notebook is not only creepy but also sad that she could think of her own baby that she created like that, but then it is no surprise because the reader can infer that the only reason why Julia's mother wanted a baby so bad(which she had) was to keep her marriage together, or to possibly make her husband love her more and keep him from being unfaithful. In the notebook that Julia is given, her mother writes just after Julia's 1st birthday about how she is really gonna take motherhood on she states, "Must quickly learn to master the problems of motherhood in the minimum of time, because I am not one of those silly women who make babies a full time job. I am an artist first and a mother second--only to fulfill myself as an artist" (45). Here this shows her mother's priorities as a mother and her work and is a clearly a unfit mother. what this must of felt for Julia to read was hard, not that she probably already had an idea that this is how she thought but to have the proof before her and that her mothers feelings had been this way since birth. Her mother didn't even get a chance to know her or give her the chance to be bad. 

Just the Three of Us. #3

In this memoir by Julia Blackburn, one picks up on the suttle differences Julia and her mother have in the beginning but the reader doesn't actually start to come into the actual problems of their relatioship. Where I am in the book, Julia has opened up and has really started to talk about her mother and all of the lodgers that come to stay with them, and also how much they mean to her mother and what it means for her when she is at home.

Julia reads from her diary and remembers all of the different lodgers that's had stayed with them, she remembers that her mom considered her to be compition when there were men in the house when she was only 15 or younger and these men were in there 40s. Her mother put the blame on her 13 year old daughter for having a man walk out on her, Julia states "she said it was my fault and I was trying to be her rival by flirting with him. Its true I liked him, he was very nice to me, but I don't think I flirted in anywayu I was thirteen" (27). Then Julia goes on to tell more of what her mom has told her in the past about the constant stream of men that enter there lives. She says "I can't help seeing him of course, but I am forbidden to even talk to him and sometimesmy mother tells me I must leave the room if he comes in" (28). Here I think that her mom is the person with the real mental issues and is forcing them onto her daughter and will cause them to have a broken relationship with her daughter.

Just the Three of Us: 2

In my outside reading book, i have gotten to know Julia(main character) quite a bit by now. She has relationship issues with her parents and is ver confused by them and one can see that through her memories when she looks through her past diary. Now that i am a bit farther into the book, the reader sees now that Julia has some self-esteem problems in addition to her relationship issues, "I look in the mirror above the sink. I don't see a face, just the details of a face--I smile at the mouth and it smiles back. But not in a very trusting way" (13-15). Here Julia looks at herself and sees herself but she just sees herself as a whole, or just a random person not the individual that she is. Julia doesnt see herself as anyone special. As i read through my book her mother came up, and we start to look into her mom and thats where her self-esteem problems may have developed.

As I read, Julia started to talk about how after her mother and her father slit her mom started to lodge people, specificly men. Her mother starts to have relationships with these men, 

"There was Bob the architect, he was the first and my  mother was sure he wanted to marry her; then Richard, the American painter with a withered leg; Ian, David, another Richard, Ken the conman and of course great-uncle Guy for a while..."(16).

seeing these relationships come and go and seeing her mom heartbroken and then happy again can make a girl confused and not know what to do. Through all of this (even though this really isnt that much) one can see that this is and will create problems for Julia and one can predict that it will only get worse for Julia and maybe even cause something to happen between Julia  and her mother. 

Just the Three of Us: 1

 Just the Three of Us by Julia Blackburn is a memoir about a herself, her drunken father and her relationship with her mother when her father left. From the very start of the book Julia states that "He (her father) was disastrous in so many ways, yet I never felt threatened by him. I could be frightened of the madness and the drunken rages, but I never doubted the honesty of his relationship with me and that was what really mattered"(3). She doesn't really know what to feel about her father and that he is a kind man and has love in his heart yet he has those "drunken rages" that scare her. 

This book reflects on her good and bad memories of her parents, then speaks her mind about the situations. Also the reader see's Julia's father and his problems and her mothers bad decisions and the reader will begin to not only see what went on in Julia's life but the reader is able grow with the character. 

The Epilogue?

Not many auto-biographies end with a Epilogue but Obama ends "The Audacity of Hope" talking about his days up to giving the keynote address at the 2004 democratic convention. Obama also talks about how he had to get used to being spotted out in public, his new found fame and how he wondered how all of this really came about. By the end of this chapter he thinks of his old friends advice that had really helped him along the way:

"It's not that compromise is inherently wrong. I just did'nt find it satisfying. And the one thing I've discovered as I get older is that you have to do what is satisfying to you. In Fact that's one of the advantages of old age, I suppose, that you've finally learned what matters to you. It's hard to know that at twenty-six. And the problem is that nobody else can answer that question for you. you can only fingure it out on your own".

This auto-biography was a interesting read. I expected a different feel to it. I thought it would be more of Obama recalling memories and his life growing with his mother and his dad being gone and then eventually his grandmother, but it was'nt it was him recalling his life in politics and how it changed his life and how it forever will. 

Family

              Family is the 9th chapter in "The Audacity of Hope" this chapter, Obama talks about his own family life and the common challenges that he and many Americans has faced. Obama also talks about how both he and Michelle were working parents that needed to balance there home and family commitments with there business commitments like many families in society. Saying this in chaper 9 he goes on to challenge republicans saying that having the "traditional" family lifestyle is not big idea anymore, he goes on to say "traditional family is under assault from hollywood movies and gay pride parades--with tales of women consigned to permanent singlehood, me unwilling to make lasting commitment, and teens engaged in endless sexual escapades"(381). Obama makes a good point, the "traditional family" barely exists anymore just because of all those things he previously listed and because many people know what they want and what they dont't want, with technology being as advanced as it is, people have the opportunity for those things. Theres no denying that American's lifestyles have changed in the past 50 or so years and they always will.