Reply to comment

When I started reading the selected chapters in "Ahab's Wife", I was a bit confused about what was going on because I felt as if I was missing an important chunk of Una's life that was mentioned in the beginning of the book. Una starts off saying that she didn't want to sit and chat with her sisters because she was not like the typical girl. I sensed that Una did not have a strong relationship with her family and that she was more of an "outsider" from her family. That is why I think it was important for us to read from the beginning of the book to understand the psychology of Una's decision to leave her family. 

This book operates as a finale for this course about choice because Una faces many opportunities where she has to make important choices. Not only does she decide to lie to her mom about her destination, but she makes a choice of becoming a cabin boy. Even the idea of admitting to her true gender to Kit when he confronts her about it was Una's choice to do so. Una had the option of not revealing her identity to Kit but she believed that it would be okay to trust Kit. Trust itself is a big choice for someone to make.

Overall, I think this book is a great novel that pertains to our course, but for future reference, it may be better to start from the beginning of the book so that students can enjoy the whole story rather than reading select chapters especially towards the end of the course.