Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Response to Molly Kirkpatrick's "Blood"


“Blood” is a story about Scarlett, (love the name by the way) who has found herself temporarily in the mental ward of a hospital and as we learn the details of her sad past, Scarlett tells her psychiatrist about how important blood meant to her and how much her own blood is precious because of the lessons her father taught her growing up.

            First off, I think Scarlett is one of the most interesting characters we’ve read about this semester. She has such a casual down to earth attitude but at times sounds philosophical and realistic, it was a pleasure to see things from her perspective and think the voice of this story is its strongest feature.

            The main point I want to understand is the motivation for why she cut her wrists. There are plenty of ways to prove to oneself that you’re still alive so why did she take a road that could have killed her if her wish was the exact opposite? That part just didn’t make sense to me. Is there supposed to be a connection or tendency to lean towards a psychotic break because of the mother’s OCD? I felt like that was a key part in the story that was left unexplored. 

            Also I wasn’t sure if I felt a definite change occur within the story. At the end it’s revealed that she has been confident all along that she wasn’t crazy, and that it was all just to prove to herself that she was still alive, all we get is a revelation exposed to the audience that was there all along. One suggestion that I think would be interesting, if you wanted, you could have her think she’s perfectly fine, but the psychiatrist discovers that she formed a split personality after the accident to cope. I’m not sure if that is too much of a cliché, but with your characterization, I feel like that could be a really good twist.  

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