Madeleine's Coming Of Age Blog

       While doing the reading and discussing Sag Harbor, I decided to do some digging about Colson Whitehead’s BB Gun experiences in real life. This book seems partly autobiographical, partly anthropological, and partly reflective. I wondered if this was a real incident because it seemed cool but I assumed that when I got my answer it would be simple yes or no with something else on the end about how he was a silly young kid, more about the incident, or about how he came up with the idea if it wasn’t real.        However, in proper Colsen Whitehead fashion, his answer was pensive, reflective, and thoughtful. When asked by the New Yorker about the BB Gun Incident and weather or not he had the bullet in his eye he replied “Don’t We All?” I found it really interesting that he responded like this and also indicative of the rest of the book. The BB Gun Incident, while small, isn’t super important to who he is at least from the surface. Howeve...

       One part of Black Swan Green that I found particularly moving was Jason’s journey as a stammerer. Like Jason, I am someone who stammers. I had never really seen representation of stammering in the media before and in general there is a lot of misinformation about stammering in the world. David Mitchell’s depictions of stuttering are so incredibly realistic to me because they mirror my own experiences with stammering. The way that Jason copes with his stutter is also so similar to me. I was really blown away by the way that Jason’s stammer was so accurately depicted and knew that David Mitchell must also have a stammer. I read into it more and although I couldn’t find much I was able to learn that David Mitchell is a person who stammers .        There are so many types of stammer and everyone is affected differently but one major type of stammer that both Jason and I experience is called a silent block. This is when you can’t get a certain...