In the story East Wind, main character Vernon who recently divorced his wife, meets Andrea. Their relationship is disconnected from the start, due to a language barrier. Rushing into the relationship, Vernon hopes this relationship will mend the broken heart. Barnes writes, "Because he was beginning to fall in love with her, or because he didn't really want to? Or he wanted to, but was afraid?" (Barnes 11). Vernon tries to force a relationship, doomed to fail. Forcing him to love someone he barely knows is the heart of disconnection.
In Love, etc. there is a disconnection between Stuart and Gillian. Stuart has "always loved Gill, always have and always will" (Barnes 226) whereas Gillian has completely moved on from her past with Stuart. There is a disconnect in terms of the levels of love between the two characters. The broken heart resembles the true disconnect of truth and love between each character in both novels.
Recipe:
3 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Shortening
3 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Dust your rolling pin, dough and cookie cutter with flour to keep the cookie from sticking to the rolling pin or surface you are working on. Roll out the dough and cut out your shapes with a cookie cutter of your choice. Grease cooking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 5-6 minutes. Do Not over bake.
Frosting Recipe:
1 lb powdered sugar
1/2 Cup of Crisco
4 Tablespoons of warm water
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
food coloring
Mix ingredients together until smooth.
Hi Megs! These cookie were delicious and how fun is it to eat broken hearts? So fun. I totally understand this connection as it relates to your presentation and the title of your blog. The broken heart really proves the disconnect that was visible in your books and the story about the love triangle. The heart is unable to function without its other half, sometimes just like people.
ReplyDeleteI think you could have furthered this connection by addressing how sweet the cookies are. Sometimes love appears truthful and sweet, just as Vernon tries to force a relationship, wanting to believe in love. However, the disconnect comes with the jagged edges. You wouldn't suspect something so sweet and pink to betray you with it's jagged edges. You did allow us to take both halves of the cookie though, symbolizing how sometimes, the heart can be mended.
I thought that your extra-curricular assignment was really creative in how you incorporated it into your presentation. Of course, the cookies were quite excellently made, but they also presented the kind of complexity you talked about when you spoke about Barnes’s writing. You addressed the idea of love being a central theme in your two novels, and in the earlier novel that you read for your summer reading project, so a heart-shaped cookie made sense as a food connection, especially in the context of the Valentine’s Day celebration that the Queen of Hearts Assignment is supposed to coordinate with.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you presented additional complexity by breaking each of the hearts in a jagged fashion to correspond with the more subtle themes of your book was the masterstroke of your food connection. The jagged cutting of the cookies to represent the disconnection that takes place in both novels was innovative and the quotes that you pulled to support your idea did a good job of explaining your point. It was also really cool how you connected your jagged cookies to the split heart at the beginning of your presentation. The fact that you carried this symbol of a literal broken heart throughout your presentation added a lot to the integration of the entire thing.