This week we are discussing Blankets by Craig Thompson, Ch. 5-6.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for Blankets by Craig Thompson.
Trigger/Content Warning!!! This book has scenes and discussion of such themes as: domestic abuse, sexual assault, divorce, nudity, bullying/harassment, childhood traumas, and religious trauma.
Discussion:
Jacilyn: Hello friends! This week we’re picking back up with chapters five and six of Blankets by Craig Thompson. I wanted to give a heads up that along with the trigger warnings we’ve included for the other discussions of this book, this week’s reading included some depictions of nudity, as well as illustrated depictions of implied child sexual abuse. Be sure to take care when reading today’s discussion and this week’s section.
We learned a lot about Raina’s family dynamic in these chapters. At first I thought Dave was maybe her mom’s new boyfriend, but that confused me. It didn’t seem like that kind of thing was on her mom’s mind at the moment, so when Raina told Craig that Dave was Julie’s husband I was like ohhhhhhhhhhh that makes sense. I feel confident in saying I don’t particularly care for either of them, purely because of how they treated not only their own child (only referring to Sarah as “the baby”), but also the way they treat Raina. Were they concerned about her wellbeing when she was late? Of course not!? They just wanted to drop their child off and split. I honestly kept forgetting that Raina wasn’t the oldest child, since she’s the responsible one.
Michaela: I am definitely not a fan of Dave or Julie. They both seem pretty self-centered and it feels like ‘the baby’ was one of those ‘it’s expected of us to have a child’ kind of things. Which really really sucks for Sarah and for Raina, who feels like she wants to raise Sarah on her own. Raina is not only expected to care for her siblings and do things for her parents because they aren’t successfully working together, but she apparently also is expected to care for Sarah often enough that she has a routine down. Babysitting is one thing, but the language used by Raina implies this probably happens a lot. Raina clearly has to take on way too many familial responsibilities. No character has really asked how Raina is doing either. Her family will ask if she had fun or what she did, but never ‘how are you?’ or actually asking if she will do something before assuming she will. Julie technically “asked” Raina to watch Sarah but she was already waiting with the baby in Raina’s room, already had the formula in the fridge and the diapers in the living room.
Jacilyn: I see why Raina said she had “no time” to have a rebellious phase. I felt that in my soul. I liked what Raina said about how her parents felt guilty for Laura’s development, “In some cases, overprotective parents can be just as harmful as negligent ones." It makes me wonder if Ben was treated any differently than Laura, not because of the differences in their development, but because Laura was the only one that Raina addressed in regards to her parents.
It’s also pretty clear why Ben feels distrustful of Craig. I’m sure he feels like Craig may be taking Raina’s attention away, and honestly, he kind of is. Craig became very infatuated with Raina very quickly, and even though he spends almost all day every day with her, he started to feel jealous of her attention. It makes me really sad that Craig sees the photos of Raina and Ben, and thinks he was too weak to protect his brother when Raina was fierce in protecting Ben. That hit me really hard. The guilt that Craig feels about his childhood with Phil always hits home for me.
Michaela: By the time Raina could have had that rebellious phase she was already in a parental role in her family. I think Laura probably experienced the overprotectiveness more not because of her development but simply because she was a girl but also because Ben was 7 years older than Laura when they adopted them so he was already more independent. I’m sure Laura being abused by her previous family also affected how Raina’s parents interacted with her and would influence them to be overprotective. There’s a lot of factors that could be possible and understandable while also being unhealthy. Good intentioned parenting can be just as harmful just like Raina said. So far I have gotten the impression that Raina’s parents are really nice and not necessarily ‘bad’ or ‘good’ parents but they’re going through a hard time and therefore Raina becomes the person to catch all of the emotional and responsibility downfall, which I can really relate to. It’s not fun to be that person.
Ben is for sure not ready to trust Craig, I can get that. I often immediately distrust anyone my sister or my friends date just on principle. I got the impression from the Ben/Raina flashback that Ben might be distrustful of other boys in general because he was bullied by other boys when he was young. But it feels very “older brother protective” to me which is very sweet; Ben is also really going through a bad time with coming to terms with his parents divorce which I’m sure is affecting his feelings towards Craig’s presence as well.
Craig and Raina are very sweet together on one hand but also very intense and obsessive on the other. From both sides. Like I’m glad they’re getting this time together but both of their pasts and religious traumas are really affecting them and they don’t quite know how to communicate about it yet. It almost feels like Craig sees Raina in that “manic-pixie-dream-girl”, just his version of that idea which is not healthy and could really hinder their relationship later on.
Jacilyn: It seems like they’re both experiencing each other in a super intense way right now. Spending so much time together for an extended amount of time like this, and Craig is being dropped right inside the family dynamic, which I’m sure makes it easier and more necessary for Raina to discuss all of this incredibly personal stuff with Craig. I’m sure it leaves Raina feeling very vulnerable, and I think that has a lot to do with her putting some walls up when they’re “above water.” I also think it’s clear that Raina doesn’t believe in God the way that Craig does, and even though he’s saying this beautiful prayer praising Raina, the shame he’s feeling is underneath it all. And that shame runs really, really deep. It seems like every significant event in Craig’s life has led to more shame, and that’s such a heavy weight for anyone to bear, much less a child.
Michaela: I think they had a lot of time to create this romanticized image of one another while they were just writing letters and occasionally talking on the phone. They’ve done that young love thing of projecting their dreams and insecurities on their crush. I still think it’s good that they have each other but it feels like it's going to go downhill soon. Especially with Raina saying “why even start?”, meaning why even start a relationship if it’ll just end anyways. It’s a very negative view and when she’s experiencing this divorce with her parents I’m not surprised that’s her perspective on it right now. Craig is consumed by shame brought on by his religion and Raina is consumed by responsibilities and the desire to escape. My romantic side wants all this to end happily ever after but my logical side is expecting a sad breakup or a sad transition into adulthood and these characters growing apart.
Well friends, we’ll just have to keep reading to find out. This is a pretty heavy read so let’s make sure we take breaks when we need them, talk it out when we need to, and remind ourselves that processing things can be hard and that’s okay!
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