Skip to main content

From The Italics Are Mine

From “The Italics Are Mine” by Nina Berberova

“Never in the whole course of my life have I been able to free myself of this, and even now I think that an anthill is better than a nest, that there those near you warm you less…”

Word Count: 253

Throughout this chapter, I was intrigued by how Nina put life into perspective. At the begging of the chapter, she talked about how when she was ten years old, she thought it was necessary for her to choose a profession quickly. I think this is interesting because when I was ten, that wasn’t something I was thinking about. Her life story was really inspiring in how she grew up very poor but was still inspired to become a poet. Everything she has gone through must have made her think in terms of the quote. She talks about how she sympathizes with those who leave their nest even if they flee to somewhere much more crowded, they can be more aware of the world and themselves. In my opinion, since she strived to be alone that’s where she got most of her ideas for writing and was able to inspire people with her wisdom from the hardships of her life. It’s interesting that the simple pleasures a lot of people enjoyed in life like Christmas trees, candles, and crackers were things that she found to be very unpleasant because it was a symbol of the “nest” to her. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

From "Totto-Chan"

From “Totto-Chan” by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi  “The headmaster laughed, and so did Ryo-chan. All the children laughed, too, even Totto-chan herself” (475).  Word Count: 278 This excerpt has been very different from the many we have read so far in comparison to the other authors childhoods. In this school the children seemed to be very disciplined and the whole chapter all of them seemed to get a long very well. The children took joy in their time where they got to write music notes with chalk on the wooden floor, learned the importance of cleaning up afterwards, and not to draw anywhere else with it. In the section where they had the tea party to say goodbye to the janitor, Ryo-chan, they all came together to tell him all the things they were grateful for that he did and to say goodbye. Even though they were most likely feeling sadness on the inside they were enjoying their last moments with him, laughing together, before he had to go. It was interesting in the last sentence of this...