ROAR Blog #5:Rattlebone

Courtney Patterson
ROAR Blog #5
December 16, 2009

ROAR Blog #5
Summary: In the book Rattlebone by Maxine Clair, Irene feels that she is not growing up compared to her friend Wanda. She never had a boyfriend and she continues to write her whole life in her diary, which isn’t very much to her. Wanda is two years older than Irene and Irene loves to read Wanda’s diary because she has experienced more in her 16 years, than Irene has in her 14 years of living. Irene has experienced her mother cheating on her father and her father leaving because loves someone else, but Irene chooses not to tell Wanda. In Wanda’s life her brother Puddin has been put into jail, because he got into trouble one day when he wandered away from home. Wanda was upset when she found out that Puddin was in jail, but she thought that it was for the best because she felt that her mother was trying to hurt him.
In school Irene begins to enjoy some of her new classmates, two of them are white and one is a Quander. She began to get close to Folami Quander, who family is a little different from the normal family. Her father has many wives and at first Irene couldn’t understand why, but Folami explained a little about her culture. Irene also became close to Folami’s brother, Obadele and he became her first boyfriend. Irene’s mom didn’t like that fact that her daughter was hanging out with the Quanders, because they had a bad reputation in the town. Later in the book, Irene noticed that Folami wasn’t coming to school anymore. Wanda told Irene that Folami was pregnant by Irene’s boyfriend, Obadele. Obadele was going to be a king in his town and Folami was going to have his first baby.
In the next chapter, the whole city is damaged because a plane had crashed near Irene’s high school. A few people were killed and after this even the town is never the same. Irene’s friend, Cece had told her to fill out an application for a black sorority, but Irene found out that Miss October Brown was a part of the sorority. Irene didn’t fill out an application, but after a few weeks she filled it out because she felt better about things in her life. Her parents were starting to get along and building their own business. Everything is going well for Irene and she was able to graduate from high school.
* Summarized pages: 127-213


Quote: “From my perspective, opportunity flaunted itself everyday” (Clair 205).


Reaction: My reaction to this quote is that in Irene’s life she was able to have opportunities to better herself if she just allowed herself to do so. Although the book, there were many opportunities to experience something new like puppy love with Nick when she was younger and then as she matured she experienced real love with Obadele. Irene had different opportunities to learn about different cultures than her own. This opened her mind to new thoughts and new people all at the same time. Maxine Clair has showed through Rattlebone that she is a strong writer and she keeps her readers turning pages, while teaching lessons.