I recently finished the book History of Love by Nicolle
Krauss , even though it was mind boggling with the switch of
characters at a unsteady rate it was a nice book that contrasted the difference
between adulthood and childhood. Alma, one of the characters found ways on how
to fix issues that bothered her, I think this made her gain a snippet of
adulthood. Leopold, another character in the book found out things that
he didn't expect and when he did find something out he, he found out
later. Litvinoff tried to impress others around him and gain attention while
Bird wanted to be accepted by people around him. All of the issues these
characters faced are like pieces of the coming of age experience, each
piece makes up what we call adulthood.
Leopold's "piece" of coming of age really relates
to growing up because we find out things that we don't want to but its only for
the good. When we were younger we may have believed and had a strong thought
that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy were real. The moment we found
that they weren't real we were surprised and in disbelief because we
believed in them so much and we looked for something in them. As little
children we were also zoned out and in the world of freedom ; we felt young ,
wild and free, nothing could stop us from getting what we wanted except, time
outs in the corner of course.
"There are two types of people in the world: those who
prefer to be sad among others, and those who prefer to be sad alone." This
was a quote that stood out to me and I thought it really related to the coming
of age experience. I say it is relatable because when your younger you are
more dependent for certain things and as you grow older you seek more
independence. Also when your sad you sometimes want people to comfort you and
be sad with you but if the situation is serious and you want to be alone you
choose that. It's all what makes you feel good in the long run.
The characters in the book searched for many things and
their is a quote similar to the characters , "And then I
realized that I'd been searching for the wrong person." When the characters finally found what
they were searching for they werent as pleased as they thought they would be.
After they found what they wanted they maybe felt it was a waste of time since
the anticipation they had for it was lost. Even when not getting what they
wanted they learned from it and in the long run it was good.
The coming of Age experience is one where we
mature and see things in different standpoints. Each of us are different and we
all have parts of us that are mature but at the same time we are still young on
the inside. Even when we get older we still have traits from when we were 2 or
3 with us inside of us. That part of us that wants to cry is when we're 1 and
facing the world for the first time. The part of us that feels hurt
and surprised is when we were 4-7 and found out Santa is fake.
What is a secret? What lies behind a secret? How do we find out about these secrets? is what I think when I read GHOST IN THE FOG - By Samantha Seiple since it has so much hidden details of World War II that is unheard of. The secrets in this book mainly are described as things the government or specifically the world around us doesn't know but the author does and I wonder how does she know more because shes a woman.
To start off I wanted to know why did the author want us to know these secrets? Maybe they could be interesting but, their had to be a more sophisticated reason because why now? Why should we hear about the secrets now instead of years ago after the war had finished. Hearing about the secrets now hasn't only made me wonder more about The United States secrecy but it has also made me develop a theory that maybe it was to avoid panic of other countries being overpowered by Japan since they had such a big expanding empire.
Another thing I thought about was how come the author isn't a man? I'm not being stereotypical but from research it said most women played roles as nurses and if women didn't get much exposure to fighting in war how could the author know so much, mainly since the secrets couldn't be mentioned? This being said instead of the author maybe being a nurse I thought maybe she was a spy or journalist that developed stories to keep people and countries updated on news. The news she personally developed into stories were probably her secrets.
The secrets maybe werent of the US or Japan they could probably just be her own opinion on what secrets of World War II were and she made them seem like facts. This way of writing is a mixture of nonfiction and maybe memoir so it seems new and fresh , its also quite interesting which makes my book solitary and original. Everyone has their own story and in this case, this is her story being told.