Who Am I Without Him Themes

The three books I read were Who Am I Without Him, The Brides of Rollrock Island, and The Big Crunch. Each book had a similar theme that connected to each other, and that was love and relationships. In Who Am I Without Him it was a compilation of love stories and people in relationships. In The Brides of Rollrock Island, it was about relationships and in some cases the lack of love. The Big Crunch was all about one relationship and how these two kids worked on how they loved each other. Even though each of these books had a central theme to each other, they couldn’t have been more different. In The Brides of Rollrock Island, there was the use of magic, which would classify it as not only a romantic book but also fantasy. The short story novel

For example, in the book the witch named Misskaella had a horrid origin, it shows a little innocent Misskaella, and it takes a dark turn when her dying relative comments on her “miscast” (pg. 14) appearance and Misskaella thinks “Her face was all dismay, looking at me. My hand came up to touch my nose and mouth, but they were only the same nose and mouth I had always had; there was nothing new or monstrous about them.”(pg.15). The author of The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan, uses sophisticated language and has an artistic use of emotion and atmosphere. Since the story is around seven narrators, it shifts perspective and time feel abrupt and incomplete but it all ties together, in the end, completing a full circle. In Who Am I Without Him there are twelve short stories with different protagonists. The themes vary from things that can be trivial like looks or to extreme circumstances like abject poverty and murder. The stories moved away from surface moralizing arguments to profound and engaging ideas. For example, In the short story “Jacob’s Rules”, a young man in a class called boy stuff and they discuss things like “sex, gangs, money, drugs, living, dying, and yeah, girls” (pg. 55). Another example of how serious the themes can be in this book is the first short story called “So I Ain’t No Good Girl,” it is about a toxic relationship with young women and her boyfriend. He slaps his girlfriend for talking back. She late goes through doubtful thoughts like “ain’t nor beauty prize” (pg. 9). She has a lack of respect for herself and is trapped in this unhealthy