Book Review Of The Book 'Changes And Ceremonies'

In chapter five, “Changes and Ceremonies”, the school holds their annual operetta. It was ironic that this year they would be preforming The Pied Piper. It is a story about town children that are lured away from their homes by a magician. During the rehearsals for the play, the students are "freed by the operetta from the routine of our lives, remembering the classroom where Mr. McKenna kept busy with spelling bees and mental arithmetic those not chosen, as someplace sad and dim, left behind, we were all Miss Farris' allies now" (Munro, 124). I could really relate to this part because each day for me is a routine. I drive to school, walk the same halls, sit in a classroom with the same four walls, see the same people, and go home. On weekends is the only time where I am freed from the routine. Throughout this chapter, we see a different side of Del. Del grows a crush on a boy in her class and this is the first time in the book that Del has had sexual feelings towards someone. At the end of the chapter, four or five years later, Miss Farris, the director of the play, commits suicide by drowning herself in a river. The reader may recall Miss Farris' stressful yell at the operetta rehearsal: "I might as well leap off the Town Hall! I might as well leap now! Are you are prepared to take the responsibility?" (Munro, 127). I thought it was ironic how Miss Farris said that during the play, and ends up committing suicide at the end of the chapter.

In chapter six, “Lives of Girls and Women”, Del and her friend, Naomi, have daily conversations about sex. They are both virgins at this point in the book. However, Del meets Chamberlain, a news anchor at the local radio station, and on an envelope he writes, “Del is a bad girl”. Abandoning hers...

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...th a conversation between Del and Bobby Sherriff. Bobby wishes Del luck in life and smiles.

Now that I have finished reading Lives of Girls and Women, I realize that the book is written around a series of crises, chapter after chapter, in which Del must find herself. As you continue to read the book and Del continues to grow up, each problem Del faces get more serious and become harder to solve. That is just like real life. When you are a baby, you have no problems. As you grow, your hardest decision becomes what color of crayon to use. Continuing to get older, the decision becomes what job to do for the rest of your life. Ending life in high school and beginning your journey as an adult, your problems become heartbreaks, taxes, bosses, employees, and money. Our lives are like the chapters in this book. As each chapter ends, the problems only get harder to solve.