Book: After by Francine Prose
Do any incidents, ideas, or actions in this work remind you of your own life or something that happened to you? Explain.
The constant surveillance, mysterious disappearances, and robotic parents/management at the school reminded me immediately of the last programming job I had. The owner of the company was a security/surveillance expert and was keeping tabs on all the employees. This made every interaction with him and other management super unsettling, and eventually was one of the reasons I didn't fight it when I was essentially told to quit. I think the advantages and disadvantages of surveillance and security systems are a highly complicated issue, and I liked that this book posed the question.
What qualities of which character strikes you as a good characteristic to develop within yourself over the years? Why? How does the character demonstrate this quality?
I liked the main character of this book, Tom. He was always asking questions, never accepting things at face value, and saw what was really going on before anyone else. I try to be aware of what forces can be influencing me at any given time, but I'm always striving to understand them even better than I do. It sounds like victim blaming, but often we are responsible for our own ignorance when people take advantage of us. It has happened to me enough over time that I always hope I am wary enough to recognize it.
No comments:
Post a Comment