(1)
Writing Prompt:
In a topic-driven, well-developed, and tightly
focused paragraph, offer a brief explanation of the title of Part I:
Confluence. Why did House title the first part of the novel confluence? Be specific. Use evidence
from the text to support your claim.
NOTE: After posting on the blog, open up the CANVAS assignment (by the same name) and DO copy and paste the URL address into the CANVAS "WEB URL" text box so that I have record of your submission on Canvas. Thanks.
Kelsey Wheatle
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGGL 3353
11 September 2015
Part 1: Confluence
Part one of "A Parchment of Leaves" gives the reader knowledge about the marriage of Vine, a Cherokee girl, and Saul, a white man, and how their union brought together two different groups of people. Confluence is the process of merging. Saul and Vine merged together to become a part of each other's family and culture, and also to conceive a child together. It also seems that while Saul and Vine are merging together that Aaron and Vine also seem to be converging, and creating a close relationship that seems to be unhealthy. Evidence of this is at the party that Saul and Vine put together to thank their friends for helping them build their house. While dancing with Aaron, Vine states, "I caught his eye and for a minute it felt like he was looking deeper into me than Saul ever had. I felt like he could read my mind. I felt naked"(46). From this quote, House seems to be foretelling the unhealthy relationship that Saul Aaron and Vine will have in the near future. From the above quote, Vine seems to also have some secret hidden feelings for Aaron that she is trying to deny. It is as if the two are coming together like merging water, and that the rift of their current will be violent enough to create chaos between the two families.
Sadie Wyant
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGL 3353
10 September 2015
Confluence
Part one of Silas House’s A Parchment of Leaves focuses on confluence, which can mean either a junction of two rivers or the act or process of merging. This section of the novel is very appropriately named because Vine and Saul must merge their lives together. Saul, though he comes from a background of lively, happy people, is quiet and fairly introverted. Vine, who grew up in a large, loud family, must learn to adapt to Saul’s lifestyle. She comments, “And somehow, I even loved his silence. I loved him for that, but this did not dull my loneliness, either. So I sometimes hated him for the same reasons I adored him” (Ch. 5). Vine has to adapt to life without the normal patterns of her family.
Just FYI, my Kindle version of this book does not have page numbers (at all, I checked multiple times)... So, since I was not sure how to properly cite it, I just put what chapter my quote came from...
DeleteMikkaela Bailey
ReplyDeleteProf. Kirk
ENGL 3353
11 September 2015
Confluence
In Part I of his novel, A Parchment of Leaves, Silas House describes the joining of two people’s lives in marriage and the new path they will share. Vine and Saul choose to marry though it will mean great sacrifice, especially for Vine (19). She spends her time attempting to adjust to her new life as a part of his life, but she incorporates her own as well. “When Saul started to build the chimney on our little house, it come to me that some of the rocks out to come from Redbud Creek” (33). Things seem to be coming together peacefully for the couple, even concerning their families and friends (39). Though things are calm, new circumstances will come to light in the thaw of spring when the creek begins to flow again.
Ashton Dickerson
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGL 3353
11 September 2015
Confluence
Part I of A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House is called 'Confluence' and rightly so because it is about Vine and Saul merging their two lives together, just like two rivers merge together. However, unlike two rivers flowing together, it is not so easy to intertwine their lives. Vine has to make a huge sacrifice for her husband and we don't really see him give up anything for her in return which could potentially cause problems down the road. Vine's own mother worries that something bad will happen (34). The currents of Vine and Saul's lives are much too strong to blend together so easily. Just in this first part they are already realizing how difficult it can be to blend together two completely different cultures and coexist.
Callie Brothers
ReplyDeleteProf. Kirk
ENGL 3353
11 September 2015
Confluence Critique
PART 1: In A Parchment of Leaves we see the title being named 'Confluence', which is quiet significant. Confluence stands for 'a merge' or 'merging'. As Saul and Vine to 'merge' their lives and cultures. Vine is being pulled into one direction and Saul into the other. Vine makes sacrifices, Saul is content where he is. As they start a family, they begin to realize this isn't an easy task, this thing they call marriage. To truly understand their reasoning of being together, we may never know. In chapter 5 Vine describes her love for Saul and his silence yet in her words there is a sense of boredom, a sense of misery. But isn't there always a calm just before a storm??
Amanda McMahon
ReplyDeleteProf. Kirk
ENGL 3353
11 September 2015
In part one of Silas House's A Parchment of Leaves, Vine, an independent Cherokee girl, and Saul, a quiet, second-generation Irish immigrant, get married and join two equal individuals into one. Saul and Vine do not know each other very well when they get married; Vine remarks that she learns something new about Saul every day. In particular, she notes "I seen that I had married a very quiet man, the opposite of myself, of own daddy, of my own people" (53). In this statement, Vine makes it obvious that she and Saul are very different people. This section is entitled "Confluence" because Saul and Vine are equal forces that are merged together marriage. Saul is represented by God's Creek and Vine is represented by Redbud Creek. As these two join together, House makes the internal tension between Saul and Vine obvious. There is also external pressure coming from Aaron, who is in love with Vine.