{"id":22,"date":"2026-03-07T00:07:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T07:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/?p=22"},"modified":"2026-03-07T00:07:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T07:07:36","slug":"duras-im-sorry-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/2026\/03\/07\/duras-im-sorry-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Duras &#8211; I\u2019m Sorry What?!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be honest, I think this is one of the books so far that I actually did not particularly enjoy reading. I just could not get over the fact that the age gap between the two characters was 12 years. There was a lingering discomfort and I really could not get myself to immerse myself into the plot as much as other books have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Something I found ironic is how the text describes \u201cshe\u2019s become just something you write without difficulty, cursive writing\u201d (29). While cursive may be easier once learned, I genuinely think it is more difficult than standard letters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another potentially significant theme I noticed was photographs and beauty. This is supported by \u201cI don\u2019t know who took the photo with the despair\u201d (31). We can also refer to page 95 for more references to photos. Additionally, on page 33, I thought that \u201cshe asks him what he is\u201d was such a peculiar, strange, and even inappropriate way to ask someone\u2019s ethnicity?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cShe says, I\u2019d rather you didn\u2019t love me. But if you do, I\u2019d like you to do as you usually do with women\u201d (37). This part of the book made me wonder if she does not want to be treated differently just because she is younger. Perhaps, his hesitancy is also because of their age gap?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furthermore, they have different races, social class, and age. \u201cChinese is a language that\u2019s shouted the way I always imagine desert languages are, it\u2019s a language that\u2019s incredibly foreign\u201d (41). This emphasizes how different the two really are. In a way, I guess their relationship is considered unacceptable in the society they live in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The difference is also emphasized by \u201che says he went to study at a business school in Paris, he tells the truth at last, says he didn\u2019t do any work and his father stopped his allowance, sent him his return ticket, and he had to leave\u201d (49-50). It seems like his family has the means to send their kid abroad. This reminded me of sending the eldest son to study accounting and inherit the family business-type trope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to leave off with two quotes that stood out to me:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNever a hello, a good evening, a happy New Year. Never a thank you. Never any talk. Never any need to talk. Everything always silent, distant\u201d (54).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think I\u2019m beginning to see my life. I think I can already say, I have a vague desire to die\u201d (103).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Question:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> What importance does the man\u2019s wealth have in their relationship? Is this why the girl is staying interested? After all, \u201cshe listened, watching for anything to do with his wealth, for indications as to how many millions he had\u201d (34).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To be honest, I think this is one of the books so far that I actually did not particularly enjoy reading. I just could not get over the fact that the age gap between the two characters was 12 years. There was a lingering discomfort and I really could not get myself to immerse myself [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107536,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[16,11,10,14,12],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duras","tag-class","tag-family","tag-memory","tag-money","tag-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/rmstjennifer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}