Summer Part 1

So far, I think this book is pretty good. I like the main character a lot and I'm excited to see what happens with her and that Harney guy..they seem so cute together.
There were two passages about flowers that stood out to me, only because in the beginning of this class we discussed how women are compared to flowers a lot. The first one is when Charity is in her room and they author compares her face to a rose. The other one is on page 84 when the author is describing Harney's feelings for Charity. It says,
"It seemed to be enough for him to breath her nearness like a flower's.."
This was talking about how he doesn't need physical contact with her to enjoy her, sort of like a flower. In this class, we sort of talked about comparing women to flowers in literature as a cliche, negative thing. But in this situation it's interesting because he compares her to a flower in the sense that he just enjoys her company; he doesn't need to touch her to appreciate her. This makes comparing her to a flower actually seem like a positive thing, and not the typical sexist comparison.

The second passage that stood out to me was on page 23 when Charity's power over Mr.Royall is described. It says,
"He had never spoken a word of excuse or extenuation; the incident was as if it had never been. Yet its consequences were latent in every word that he and she exchanged, in every glance they instinctively turned from each other. Nothing now would ever shake her rule in the red house"
This passage stood out to me because I keep thinking and Mr.Royall is going to be more controlling. His reputation in the town of being above everyone else and very powerful does not match his relationship with Charity. He does pretty much whatever she wants, when in reality he probably could force her to marry him or just be more aggressive with her in general. I think this says a lot about what a strong woman Charity is, and I think that's one of the big reasons I like her.