I enjoyed reading my father’s sketchbook. I loved how she was able to see her fathers’ drawings, lists, and even his thoughts at times. It was in a sense his journal and his work all in a small book. She loved to go into his office and flip through his work. She said that she felt bad at times for reading his secret sketchbook but to be honest I think that it was not necessarily hidden so it was not off limits. When she read about her father being down in the dumps I thought about my own dad. He never lets people know when he is having a bad day. Even though I know he has them from time to time I never hear about it or help him through it. I feel like he is doing what he must to keep the rest of us from feeling depressed just like her father, but sometimes the children need to know about those sort of things so that when they are in the parents position they don't think they are alone. I think that her father needed to talk with his daughter about things that were going on in his life, instead of just writing them down where she may never see them. If she hadn’t been snooping around she may have never really known who her father really was. I hope that when I am a father I will not make the same mistakes as he did.
I really liked "My Father's Sketchbook." Is there anything you appreciated about her writing or that you thought could be told differently? Your blog is looking good! I'd love to know why you chose the image you did. Did you take the picture yourself?
ReplyDeleteWooHoo! My comment posted! I just wanted to comment about my comment. Let's see if it can work for anyone else. I was on Mozilla Firefox when I finally got in.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Alaska we had a moose in our living room one day. When we finally got it out it ran into our backyard. It was a mama moose who was looking for her calf. The picture on my blog is of the baby calf in my backyard. I took the picture from my back deck only twenty feet away.
ReplyDeleteI also liked my father's sketchbook. I feel like you are being a little too hard on the dad. He was just trying to help out his family and not try to make them sad by telling them that he was sad. Sometimes you just have to fake happiness to make other people happy. I do believe he could have communicated a little better, but he shouldn't tell his young daughter that he feels sad because it would just freak her out. He could talk to his wife and maybe sort something out. There are some things that are better if not everyone knows about it. He could have just been writing in his notebook to let off some steam. Maybe he didn’t even mean it. If it were really such a big problem he would have tried to sort it out somehow.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed My Father’s Sketchbook also! I definitely do not think the sketchbook was considered to be hidden or private so I did not see it a problem that she went “snooping” through his work and small journal entries. I have to agree with you in that my father also does not let me or any of my other siblings know when he is down or is having a bad day; however, it is not realistic to say that you never know when your father is sad. Maybe the daughter should have been paying more attention to her father’s emotions or even have asked him about his journal entry. I too would like my dad to talk to me if he were ever sad or having a bad day so I completely agree with you. The daughter should not have dwelled and wondered about the sadness of her father. It made me feel almost as sad as she did when she was reminiscing on all the memories of her father when she thought he was happy, but really was not. She should have been straightforward and confronted her father about the note she found in his sketchbook.
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