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Girl Waits with Gun


An enthralling novel based on the forgotten true adventures of one of the nation...
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Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Created: 05/12/16

Replies: 16

Posted May. 12, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

After Henry Kaufman's first visit to their farm, Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" (p. 52). What does she mean? What is the world that no longer exists? Why is it gone, and what has replaced it?


Posted May. 16, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
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bestmartin

Join Date: 02/20/13

Posts: 103

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I loved that line and I thought it described all of them. They were not fully formed people who were just stuck in survival mode. I think it was the world of civility and women's place in society. They weren't really living they way they were expected to yet they lived isolated and hidden.


Posted May. 16, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
caroleb

Join Date: 05/16/16

Posts: 3

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

The sisters are a metaphor for the situation of women at that time. Norma is the keeper of the status quo. She is fearful of change, but she has a fearless loyalty to her sister and her niece. Fluerette is the future. She is just beginning the journey through a period in Feminism which will bring world shaking changes to the status of women. Constance is the pragmatist...the present. She must push the gender boundries to insure the survival of her sister and daughter, literally and figuratively. She sees the need to stay within the roles prescribed, but she has a deeper understanding of the constraints and how they cripple the personal and cultural personhood of women.


Posted May. 16, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
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bestmartin

Join Date: 02/20/13

Posts: 103

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Caroleb I loved what you said. I didn't look at them like a metaphor but it such an interesting point to consider. I'm not sure whether that was the author's intent (I'd love to know!) but it makes complete sense to see them that way and it adds a richness to the story. Thanks for bring it up!!!


Posted May. 16, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Lois Irene

Join Date: 01/20/16

Posts: 76

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Both sisters were portrayed as rather extreme types. I think the idea of seeing them from afar - as in a fuzzy photograph is a fabulous description of their estrangement from the world and to some degree from each other. Their isolation and detachment were part of the chosen lifestyle.


Posted May. 17, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
barbm

Join Date: 02/04/16

Posts: 77

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Constance saw her sisters as not fully formed.... Fluerette may always be a teenager, blind to the ills of the world and oblivious to her place in it. Norma never grew to potential or accepted the changing world around her. Once she did her part to find Constance, she was done! They were, from my perspective, a shadow of the past and the future living with outdated paradigms.


Posted May. 17, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
katherinep

Join Date: 07/16/14

Posts: 374

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I agree with barbm--they a shadow of the past living with outdated paradigms and the line describing Constance's view shows that she at last saw that in them all, too. The world was a changed place and having been isolated for so long they had not changed with it.


Posted May. 17, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
joyces

Join Date: 06/16/11

Posts: 410

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

The buggy accident and the resultant complications were a turning point for Constance. Being the oldest was a responsibility that then weighed on her and she knew she was the only one of them that could take them back to living in the real world and that they could no longer just sort of hide out. I think the fuzzy figures in a picture thought was a way of saying "that is the way things were but not the way things can be anymore". She knows she and they need to become part of life and to not allow themselves to be victims.


Posted May. 18, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
tillieh

Join Date: 04/28/11

Posts: 71

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I think the accident jarred Constance out of the sheltered life they were leading and jolted her into the real world. At that point, she felt that her sisters would continue to try to live in that sheltered environment and she needed to pull them into the real world and move forward into the future.


Posted May. 18, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
katherinep

Join Date: 07/16/14

Posts: 374

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Agree with Joyces and Tillieh--both of whom are basically saying the same thing, but it is interesting how we express ourselves in our writing.


Posted May. 18, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
JLPen77

Join Date: 02/05/16

Posts: 362

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I think those lines were a foreshadowing, for Constance and for the reader, that the "way they were" was about to change, in fact had changed-- forever. They would no longer remain isolated and set in their routine. Events were overtaking them, and they would have to respond.

This is a great example of the writer's style, which is so lively, fast-paced and compact, that it' easy to overlook how in subtle ways she conveys a great deal more than she says directly about their relationships and character development.


Posted May. 19, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
barb23703

Join Date: 10/04/15

Posts: 102

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I believe being confronted by the modern world as a part of their accident - automobiles, drunk businessmen/bullies, being a part of a new story rather than just having it read to her - she gained a self-awareness that their isolation had kept them from seeing the modern influences going on outside their small world. This awareness allowed her to see herself and her sisters as people who were misplaced in time.


Posted May. 23, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
laurelleaf

Join Date: 05/23/16

Posts: 4

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Since we didn't live in that era, all we have are those old postcards, there might be a dangling modifier or some ambiguity, but she refers to the postcard in any case...the protagonist is definitely top notch with likenesses and comparisons, she has had a moment of revelation...sometimes we are too self-involved to notice or contemplate others we know through obligation or habit,


Posted May. 24, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
edie

Join Date: 04/05/12

Posts: 50

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I really like JLPEN77's comments about this as an example of the author's subtle, but multi-layered style, that is so delightful. When Constance, still trembling from her confrontation with Kaufmen and his band of bullies, sees her sisters framed in the oprn door of the farmhouse, the blurry image of a postcard showing them trapped in a time that no longer exists perfectly portrays her realization of the forces they are up against and the naïveté of their world view. Not Norma's staunch faith in the sanctuary of their farmhouse land their mother's belief that they could live isolated from harmful influences, Fleurette's romantic notions of rescue and happy ending, or even her own practical stance that the righteous demands of innocent victims can ensure an equitable resolution. It is her realization that they are ill-prepared to do battle with the cruelty and I just world fraught with very real danger. Again, JLPEN77's comment is perceptive in seizing in this image a foreshadowing of immanent change.


Posted May. 30, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Marcia S

Join Date: 02/08/16

Posts: 505

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

Postcard photos are frozen in time. Some do have blurry images. Fleurette seems the precious, innocent young woman. Norma the cautious woman hiding and protecting herself in her isolation. Constance is seeing the world in a new way so sees the other two as a snapshot, frozen in time. Will their images change and sharpen as time moves on and they encounter new events?


Posted Jun. 01, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kathleenb

Join Date: 09/14/12

Posts: 111

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

She is thinking the frozen in place postcard people are how they are living there life. It scares her to know they are so frozen and behind the times. She realizes that they have to join the living. There run in with Kaufman has broadened there horizons even if it is in a dangerous distasteful way it has woken them up.


Posted Jun. 23, 2016 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Peggy H

Join Date: 06/13/11

Posts: 272

RE: Constance views her sisters from afar and thinks, "They looked like those fuzzy figures in a picture postcard, frozen in place, staring out from some world that no longer existed" What does she mean?

I looked at them as more of a picture of the changing role of women. This also occurs when the reader meets Mrs Garfinkel and the various secretaries in the book. They were somewhat typical of the world for women at the time, some of whom did not wart things to change, compared to Constance who wanted a bigger role. Constance understood this and realized that it could not be changed at this time.


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