Wednesday April 9, 2008- A Northern Light

The farther I read into “A Northern Light,” I am amazed at how much pressure the main character, Mattie, is under. I am at the part where Mattie is stuck plowing the fields, which should be a man’s job. She can’t seem to catch a break at all. Once things go bad her father just throws all the responsibilities at her and expects her to finish them. The book switches from one scene to another. The first one will start out with her at home and doing chores or at school reading. Later on it switches to her working at the Glenmore and trying to decide whether she should burn the letters and how she’s going to retrieve them without anyone noticing her. I think the author is leading the reader more and more into the story. Making it more intense, but leaving the reader with something to think about. I stopped at the part where Mattie receives a letter from New York, from her teacher, about her acceptance to the college there. Even though this is good news to her she still has to decide whether to listen to her father or do what her mother told her to do.