Little Book of Days response

I took a series of notes about the whole book discussing the authors craft techniques and themes

- Right at the beginning, in the prologue about artic squirrells the narrators tone is established,
its contemplative, slightly somber, noted that the prologue is a metaphor

- The author ties in small observations with large abstract ideas. she describes physical objects and situations that she observes but then discusses the importants and definitions of ideas like "dispair" and "trauma"

- I noticed that there is a fairly big distinction between the characters. Friends and close relationships are represented by letters (maybe this reflects the insignificance of labels when paired with the importance of the characters and their roles in her life?) People she observes, but doesn't know directly are called by their names (ex Andrew and Richard) and then the people she knows nothing about remain ambiguous and only provide for description (people walking by, cars driving by)

- She tells us her emotions day to day without outrightly telling us she is "sad" or "happy. " She does this by creating metaphors ( like her bed is a grave) or descriptions of her environment or state of mind

- Color seems to be a huge part of this book. She is constantly referring to the color of objects that she is seeing. This helps the reader notice things in the picture that they otherwise wouldn't consider (like a RED coffee table stands out much more than just a coffee table). It gives importance to certain objects. Much of the description relies on sense description, often sight- using color- but she also describes scent quite often.

- Some of the entries have capitalized "titles" some dont- significance?
- She uses fragmented sentences, lines and words in order to create a stream-of-consciousness for the reader to follow. Simultaneous thought processes

- The last thing i noticed was how the story, and mostly the character, changed throughout the book. About halfway through the dreariness seems to disappear and the entries start to become more about the outside world, more fiction-like, as opposed to an emotional journal. We can see the the narrator develops without it being obvious