Reading Response 4.1

Corey Ryan

Reading Response 4.1

Period 1567

March 23, 2016

Summary

I am on page 109 of 438 of Don’t Worry Baby by Benjamin Hale.  Miles and Odelia were part of the Obscure Record Collective’s plot to firebomb the New York Stock Exchange and had to flee the country or go to jail forever. They had been staying in Tangiers but are now ready to move to Mexico City.  Where I am in the book right now they have landed in Miami, the last connecting flight before Mexico.

The Prompt

Everything in a book, in a film is there for a reason.  Pick out two objects that seem to be important in the book you are reading. Explain why these objects are important, when they appear and what they might symbolize.

           

            Breastfeeding, and therefore breast milk is important in the story I am reading.  Breast milk is what calms the baby, Abraxas, down on the long flight from Paris to Miami.  It is also, obviously, nourishment.  But it is also the reason the main conflict comes into play.  Miles, Odelia’s husband, gives her a candy bar that contains some sort of psychedelic drug.  As Odelia begins hallucinating, Abraxas continues to feed.  The drug passes from the mother’s milk to the baby, causing the baby to also hallucinate. “Miles pries open one of Abraxas’ eyes with a thumb and forefinger and the baby recoils and howls louder”(32).  The breast milk in this situation symbolizes innocence.  The baby, innocent about all life’s dangers, loses her innocence from the mistakes of her mother.  We never find out what the repercussions are for Abraxas later in life, but we can assume they could be horrific. 

            Another object that appears and reappears in the story is the airplane.  It is important for the simple reason that it gives the main characters freedom.  Without the airplane, they would not have been able to leave Tangier.  But it is also a sort of prison.  There is nowhere to go once the plane is in the air.  The plane is loud and increases the paranoia brought on by the drugs.  Therefore, this airplane symbolizes not freedom, but the lack of it.  Once the plane lands, Odelia gives herself up to the police in order to receive help for the baby. “I am a wanted criminal. My child is sick. I am turning myself in”(39).  This will surely cause Odelia to be separated from her baby, separated from her husband and eventually separated from the free world. 

My Thinking

Phew, I have read a lot of stories where drug use takes place, but I wasn’t expecting this!  I suppose beign a father to a daughter who still breast feeds really caused me to connect with the mother and feel for the baby.  That must be so horrible.  Almost like a date rape drug or eating something that you did not expect to contain some mind altering substance.  Crazy.