Weeks 12-13: Talking with Ahab's Wife

After discussing this book in our last class of the semester, it finally made sense how it fit into the course. Giles' Theory of the Impossibility of Impossibility was interesting, as was the struggle over accepting the act of cannibalism, but  I think this book was good as a point of discussion, a book club book, not something I would necessarily read on my own. Maybe next year the class could read all of the book?

I thought it was interesting in class how those of us who liked Prodigal Summer didn't care for Ahab's Wife and vice versa.  I prefer Ahab's Wife.  I'm more drawn to the writing style - the showing rather than telling - and also like the dramatic adventure that Una chooses more than the externally described internal navigations of a more stable life described in Prodigal Summer.  I also like the way the book deals matter-of-factly with horrifying situations (the cannibalism on the boat; the way Giles, Kit and Una band together against the others).  I identify with their survival choices, I think I might choose the same.  I also like the way that Una evaluates the people she encounters (the consideration of the crew she sees in Harry's lumpy pototatos, the goodness she appreciates in Captain Fry, the wildness she admires in Ahab, the imagination and intellect of Giles).  She appreciates the ways in which these qualities enrich and sustain her own experience.

My relation to the book is one of self-examination - I see a lot of myself in Una, though I don't know whether or not she and I would be friends. I might be suspicious of her, careful with her - she seems like someone who serves her own interests and I both respect that and recognize the tension that creates between her interests and others (possibly mine).

The book seems on point for our discussions of choice, particularly ethical choices.  Is it the individual's responsibility to promote the well-being of all or the well-being of themselves (and their own genes)? While Una chooses her adventure, she does not choose the course that leads to cannibalism (though she chooses to live rather than starve when faced with that predicament), nor does she choose Giles' death.  It leads back to the idea that we have limited control over external factors and great control over our personal response to same.

 

Initially, I reacted positively to Ahab’s wife.  As I began to read, I was allured by a life of exploration and of seafaring to distant places.  Una’s decision to disguise herself as a man was a risk that was also particularly appealing to me. At this point, I also held an idealistic and optimistic view of the journey ahead. I could identify with her risk-taking.  As a fan of whales, I stopped relating to Una when the whaling began. In terms of our course and the connection, the sequence of Una’s choices impact and forever change the course of her life.  Kit, Giles, and Una survive together from their cannibalistic experience, but they face the harsh moral implications of these decisions.  Una may have supported her decision to live, but I wonder just as Giles did whether this scarring of their consciences (especially Kit's) really made it worthwhile.

My initial reaction to the novel is very different from my opinion now. In the beginning I felt like Ahab's wife was a flowery written Danielle Steal novel, with little to offer intellectually. Now, however, I am whistling a different tune. While the basis of novel is still, in my opinion, a fluffy fantasy about seagoing women. The pros have wrapped my attention, and I find myself continuing to go back to the novel, even though I had dismissed it. Our discussion in class about The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, ruined any chance of me enjoying Una's character, because she will never live up to the prepubescent girl, who captured my imagination over and over again. Una's character is less imaginative. Her stunning wit and beauty seems like a cop out, major characters need flaws. But I can easily make a connection from this book to the finale of our class. It is clear that choices Una makes directly affect her and the one's she loves. But her choices are so drastic, that they make for intriguing discussion.

Because our first selection of reading began on page 142 of Ahab's Wife, I was initially confused with the story.  My confusion, mostly, kept me intrigued and pushed me to keep reading to see if I could piece together Una's past.  Although we've all encountered stories with fed up women who drastically change lifestyles, Ahab's Wife is, to me, less of a cliche, perhaps because of the time period.  The rich writing style doesn't hurt, either.  I do feel that I can relate to Una in her desire for something more than she has, something more freeing, and an identity where she can express herself in ways she couldn't before.  This novel is an apt choice (har har, choice) to conclude our semester because of the enormous decision Una makes and its consequences, not to mention her resorting to cannibalism as the omnivore's ultimate dilemma.

Its a good story, but I find myself constantly confused due to not having enough background on the characters. Una is a rebellious teenage girl, trying to escape the control of her parents. I think that most girls, myself included, had their rebellious stage in their teens, arounf the same age as Una. Therefore, I identify with her need for freedom. I think the novel is a good way to wrap up the class because she makes very different choices from those that are normally offered to females in her time.

Upon reading Ahab’s Wife and starting in the middle of the story, I was confused. Una is a complex character whose persona is highly dependent on both the person she was in the past and on the person she will be. I found it frustrating to read only certain snippets of her life and desired to know her whole story. I wanted to know why she was following Giles and Kit onto a boat and why she felt the need to play dress up. I wanted to know the dark details of her past that were hinted at so subtly in our chose passage. Lastly, I wanted to know about her future; her life with Ahab and beyond. So I’ve started to read the novel from the beginning and will continue to the end.

Despite my interest in the novel, I cannot relate to Una at all. Other than the fact that we are both teenage women, we have nothing in common. But perhaps it is this fact that so draws me to Naslund’s character. I’ve simply never encountered such a woman and I am highly fascinated by each move she makes. She seems both more rational than any man thus far mentioned, yet intensely mad and reckless (as her determination to up and leave her family and her increased desire for food and Kit’s company show). At the moment, she is an enigma that I want to learn more about.

Superficially, this novel relates to the course in that it mentions cannibalism and a certain bit of the omnivore’s dilemma (as her family does not eat the animals they own unless they die of natural causes). Perhaps more profoundly, the novel touches upon the subject of choice. Una seems to be choosing her own destiny. She leaves her Aunt and Uncle’s to follow two men, dresses as a boy, works on a ship, eats human flesh, marries Kit, survives, survives, survives. She does not let the ethics of her cannibalism tear her mind apart, though she could have easily succumbed to the madness within as did Kit and Giles. These are choices, and our course veered onto this topic and never quite abandoned it. However, I think I shall need to read a bit further into Naslund’s novel in order to complete my thoughts. Perhaps Una isn’t choosing her own destiny. Perhaps she was always going to be with Ahab? Is this fate?

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.

Initially, I didn't like Ahab's wife.  I didn't feel that I connected to Una or her situation and that only increased my distaste for the novel (I also think that if I read the novel from beginning to end I might have had a better connection with the main character).  I knew that Una made the choice to go aboard the Sussex possed as a boy, but I didn't really understand her reasoning behind her choice.  Through our discussion in class I felt I better understood why Una made the decision to leave her family and venture out on her own.  As I came to understand her need to escape what she thought to be the predestined future for a woman in Kentucky (a life of solitude and continued sorrow) I was better able to relate to the choices she made.  I saw her decision to leave her family as a step toward her own personal freedom.  She wanted to get out into the world and experience life in a way she could only dream of if she had stayed in Kentucky.  I found that I related more to Una in the sense that I too would go to drastic measures to live the life I wanted to live rather than settle for a life a didn't want, but as we read more into the novel I felt that I connected less and less with her character (especially following their rescue from the small whale boat) .  I didn't like how Una was so quick to agree to marry Kit and how she just kind of let things happen.  It seemed to go agaisnt her earlier "take charge" attitude.  So in the end my opinion about the novel remained the same.

Overall, I think this novel was a pretty good finale because it was all about how the choices Una made affected her life.  I feel that this novel as Lee says depicts choice to the extreme, but I feel that it does a good job of portraying the importance of even small scale choices that we make on a daily basis and how the choices we make can change the way we live our lives.

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. 

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.  

I think it is never a good idea to read only a section of a novel; it is hard to appreciate and really understand the tone and plotline when I jump in halfway through.  In addition, the whole girl-dressing-up-like-a-boy-to-get-on-a-ship is such a cliche to me.  As soon as the novel turned to canabalism, I became more intrigued.  I appreciated the effect that the chapter with only two or three lines had when Una tried to block out, but couldn't, that she was sucking on blood.  That entire section did a good job of showing complete desperation.  I liked the dramatic ticks in the wood for the days going by without food.  I was upset that once Una was on the Alba Albatross, she was discovered as a woman and addressed as a woman.  It was never mentioned how this changed her entire plan.  I argue that this shows that Una is not completely free.  She can't choose her own life partly because she can't change her biological gender.  She is bound to it and therefore restricted on completely living a free life, especailly as a sailor.  In this way, the novel was a good finale to the class.  It incorporated canabalism and that aspect of choice (the desperate, raw side of choice) and incorporated free will (or lack there of).

While reading the selection, I felt completely distant from Una.  I didn't naturally connect myself to her.  Even now sitting here, I can't even force myself to see obvious connections to her person.  I guess I can relate to wanting to create her own life seperate from those that she knows.  She wants to break the gender expectation, but I argue that she does it in an ineffective way.  She breaks her gender expectations by hiding her gender.  Her choice for her own life is to lie.  I want to live my own life seperate from that that I was forseen to take as well, but I am doing that through pursuing higher education and celebrating my feminimity.

I don't completely dislike the book and I understand why it was our last book, but I possibly would have enjoyed it more if I read the whole thing.

My initial reaction to the book was actually "oh god, not another girl dressing up as a boy." it was quite boring to read. especially everything about the ship life---stop talking about the mast and running into kit and giles.

her life is not hard. she has no fears, and no ambitions. i thought that by climbing the mast, she'd get scared. but no. and then she sees the captain of the other ship and flashes forward in voice about how she was going to marry him. please. if this book were trying to make a point about women being able to sail, then it wouldn't bring up this awful boss-secretary-like relationship. ugg.

after reading about the whale that broke the ship and the acts of cannibalism, i started to appreciate the book. it did a good job of covering the starvation and cannibalism. it reminded me of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner in imagery. 

As of now, im not sure how the book fits into our finale of the course. 

When we previously read a few chapters, I
feel connected to Una. The novel was a mystery that kept unfolding to me
because we started to read a few chapters in the middle and not the beginning. When
I read the most recent reading assignment, my feelings of the novel changed
drastically. The mystery of Una’s life seemed to become strange and stranger,
and I wasn't sure if I should have naturally trusted Una as I did in the first
reading assignment. I felt as if my trust in her changed because of her cannibalism
and her marriage to Kit. When I discovered that they were on an abandoned ship,
everything I had felt about the story changed. I felt as if the old tale that
Una had been trying to prove wrong (women on board are bad luck) had come true.
I felt as if Una had not been a blessing on the ship like I had envisioned she
would be, instead she had been a burden. The most striking change in my
reaction to the novel were the images of the cannibalism. The images that
were flashed through the novel of her sucking on a finger and drinking blood,
and Giles having a saber and forcing the shipmen to wait their turn to die made
my stomach turn inside out. I felt as if the cannibalism had gone beyond
survival of the fittest, it was torturous and brutal. I felt as if I was
watching the mystery of Una's life unfold, and I wasn't happy with the outcome.
I wouldn't say the book filled me with disgust; it just made me sad. It made me
very sad to read how the captain took his life for his son, and by trying to
stun his son he had killed him. I felt as if the outcome of the story was
twisting into a very morbid story. While this reading assignment did not keep
me guessing about her life, the ending did. When she met Ahab, and had Ahab marry
her to Kit, everything seemed to get interesting again. I felt that the author
had made us feel that the book had taken a morbid turn so that we could
understand what the characters were feeling. I felt as if the meeting of Ahab
showed promise for the future for Una, but not for Kit. I feel as if Kit will
soon be out of the picture, and Una will try to create a new life for herself. Since
the change from happiness in the first reading assignment, to a melancholic
feeling in the most recent reading assignment was so drastic, it at first turned
me off to the novel. Now realizing that the change was essential to
understanding the characters, I once again feel connected to them because I
have no idea what I would do in a situation like that of the abandoned ship.
All in all, I really love the book and I connected with the characters that I
did not expect given the circumstances of the cannibalism.