Reply to comment

In Ahab's Wife, Una's choice to leave her limited life as a woman and pose as a cabin boy on the ship came from her bravery, need for freedom and rejection of the societal norms in Kentucky at the time. Her choice is a radical and risky one and involves a large amount of trickery and lies. Una is willing to sacrifice her honesty and her identity as a woman to obtain freedom. Essentially, she is yurning for a freedom of choice. As a privlidged American living in the 21st century, it is hard to relate to her lack of choices because we have so many choices-too many infact! Nevertheless, Naslund's writing is compelling and therefore I was able to relate to Una's internal struggles and aspirations. Understanding the choices that we make is in a sense a form of self-control because if we understand the reasoning behind the choice we can revaluate our reasoning and perhaps change our choice. We make choices every minute of eveyday but it is the important/big choices that require reflection and revaluation.
Like many said I would have liked to start the book earlier in the semester and hava read all of it.