Reply to comment

Since I started the book from the beginning and have continued to read past the assigned chapters, I feel as though I have a more complete sense of Una's character.  My initial reaction to the book was of confusion since it is told out of order starting from Una's miscarriage of her first child with Ahab.  I felt that the writing was choppy and hard to decipher at times, I also felt that it was especially slow in the beginning.  Although after reading past our assigned chapters I began to grow more interested in Una's life and how she comes to meet Ahab and her life with him. 

I admire Una's free spirit and strength throughout her story.  Normally I do not feel the need to personally connect with a character, but as long as I admire or dislike a portion of their qualities it will get me through the novel.  As I have continued to read this novel, I have gotten more and more attached to Una's story because I do not know how it will end so I keep reading because I am curious.

While there are many examples of choice throughout this novel, the first one that struck me and made me connect it back to the course was the part about cannibalism.  It interested me how Una, Kit and Giles all engaged in cannibalism and yet it was only Una that came out of it sane and accepted it as part of her past and essential for her survival at the time.  Una also chose to "not see" some of the whales because she did not feel it was necessary to slaughter another one when they had just finished a killing.  I thought this novel was a nice finale to this course about choice because it touches on so many aspects of choice such as whether or not we have a "free will" in this world, as well as choice of loyalties and choice of accepting new ideas.