That Young Joseph

Hello Guys! I’m back for a sharing session. I know that you are waiting for me again right? Hahaha I’m just joking you guys will never miss me (Please say that I’m wrong).

     Okay, let’s talk about our favourite novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. To be more specific, let’s talk about Joseph when he is still young, yeay!  Most of us are really love him right. Okay, for today we are going to study about his character traits.

     First, he is an intelligent person. To prove that I’m right, let’s turn to the chapter 3 when Rose and Joseph are waiting for the bus to school.

     Here is the text from the novel:

     See next to it? He said.

     I squinted. What?

     That tiny dot, to the right? He said.

     Jupiter, he said.

     The big guy? I asked, and for a second, his forehead cleared.

     What’s it doing?

     Just visiting, he said. For today.

    

       

     See? He is an intelligent person because he knew that Jupiter is visiting Earth on that day. The method of characterization used is words.

     Then, he is also is a precise person. This is shown through action and direct comment from narrator. He is drawing a beautiful arc but end up crumpled the paper. So, turns to chapter 6.

     “…He placed the steel point of the compass on the graph paper, strapped in the pencil and started to draw, with his careful hands, a beautiful arc. Every action so assured, like he knew exactly what mystery of the universe he was about to puncture.”

     “Joseph crumpled up his perfect arc and pulled out a fresh piece of graph paper.”

    

     The third characteristic traits is irritable or someone who is easily annoyed, especially towards his sister Rose. This trait is shown by comments by others characters. Their relationship is not that good and they are rarely talked to each other. This is crystal clear in chapter 3 when:

     “I keep my distance because I was mostly an irritation to Joseph, a kind of sister rash…”

     To make it faster, let’s move on to the fourth trait of Joe. Guess what is it?

     3…..2…..1…. You’re quite late to answer it. Okay, let me tell you. He is an unfriendly person. What do you have in mind when we talk about unfriendly people? He is introvert? Or he is gloomy?

     The reasons why I say that he is an unfriendly person is he never smiled to anyone. This characterization is shown by using comments by other characters, which is Rose. You can refer to this evidence in chapter 7.

     “….Since Joseph smiled at no one…”

     The situation is getting worse when Mom always took him during the class, said that he has an appointment with the doctor. When the time flies, he becomes more introvert and having less friends because he didn’t attach to anybody, even his classmates. End up just telling to his family about ‘they’ and ‘them’ instead of telling his friends name, because he had nobody.

     We almost have done with our investigation. Okay, here come the last characteristic traits of Joseph. Most of the characteristic that I told you guys seems negative right, but do you know that he is a caring person? Yes, he is, especially towards his mother. So, get your novel and open chapter 11. This trait is shown by comments by narrator.

     “… after dinner, Joseph sat close to Mom on the sofa, and with care, he dipped the tweezers in a shallow bowl of warm water and patiently used his long fingers, his shared dexterity, to clear her hands. Once he removed a splinter, he wiped it on a paper towel…”

     Other than that, his Mom also always asked for an advice from him although he is still young compared to his mother. They always talked about complicated things such as the importance of rains. Her mom loves him so much as she described him as a desert.

     In my opinion, Mom describes him as a desert because he is intelligent. Mom said to Rose that a desert needs less input, exactly same as him because he has a heart of an explorer. Others doesn’t need to give him much as he know where to find what he want, what he loves to do, and what he needs.  He loves to discover new things. When other children at his age are struggling to calculate simple things, he already shows interest in Physics. Mom loves him more and she takes him out from school during class, didn’t hesitate to tell a lie, because she wants him to discover his own interest by himself. Not from the teacher. He has that ability; she doesn’t want him to end up like her when she can’t decide what to do in college. It would be a waste for him if he ends up like that. That’s why Mom sees him more valuable than Rose, because only several people can foresees his ability in future.

     That is all from me. Hope that everything is clear as I’m trying to provide the best evidence for reference to you guys. Okay, see you later!