Reading Log Questions #1

Kayla Chang

Professor Young

ENGW 1101

30 January 2017

Reading Log Questions 1

1.     Willa Lambert is one of the central characters in Friendswood. She is not like any normal teenager; Willa has hallucinations and sees things that are not real. She has diagnosed herself with schizophrenia and psychosis, but does not want to tell her parents for she fears what they might do. Her parents seem very religious, and Willa said that if her father were to find out what was happening to her, he would most likely “send her to Pastor Sparks” and “say a demon had manifested from the from the television or internet… [and] to her heart” (22).  There is a lot of talk about pollution and the environment of Friendswood, so there could be a correlation between Willa’s visions and the pollution occurring in her town.

2.     Dex is another boy who goes to the same school as Willa. It is suggested that he has a crush on her, but never acted on it once she started to act weird, probably from her hallucinations. His relationship with his mother seems to be pretty normal; he tells us that his father abandoned him and his mother and sister to live a “richer” life while they live in a trailer. Dex’s friends loved his mother, she “ran a private joke with each of them” (38). His relationship with his sister seems like the typical big brother, little sister relationship. He looks out for her at school. He does not like some of the football players, but he is the trainer for the team. Based on the text, he seems like the odd man out. He is dorky and a little awkward which the boys can easily pick up on.

3.     Hal is Cully’s father. He works as a real estate agent and tries to sell homes to potential customers. His career seems to be at a downfall, throughout the text he is described as not be able to sell homes. He describes, “people just recklessly relied on the Internet rather than, God forbid, pay a live person, and so his luck had turned” (13). The buyers market’s attitude has changed and it is negatively affecting his job. When he reflects on his son, Cully, he seems to be trying to live vicariously through him and his football career. He wants him to be better than Hal ever was. Hal says, “[He] felt closest to his son when he sat in the stands, watching a game” (15). We find out that Hal cheated on his wife Darlene with a woman named Dawn. He appears to be a very religious guy, and thinks that he can just pray the bad thoughts away.

4.     Lee is one of the first characters we are introduced to at the beginning of the novel. Her daughter Jess died from a sickness caused by the air pollution occurring in their town. Even though the EPA claimed, “it’s such a small concentration of stuff, it can’t hurt anything” (28). The novel goes back and forth of Lee collecting soil samples from dumping sights around Friendswood. The cancerous carcinogens are the cause of her daughter’s death, and she is determined to check the soil levels to make sure a death like Jess’ will not occur again.  The community perceives Lee as crazy. They do not see a grieving mother but rather a loony environmentalist.

5.     We find out that there are carcinogens being dumped in the town of Friendswood. It’s the effect of run off from an oil refinery. Sludge began turning up in people’s yards and it began to affect the animals in the town. Lee describes coming home one day and finding what appears to be a copperhead, coiled up in sludge next to the house. She looked closer and saw that there was no head, and it “smelled rank and vaguely of petroleum” (27). She also said, “People who touched it got rashes or sores on their skin” (28). The cause of all of the chemical dumping is from an oil company, but the EPA does not seem to take the situation too harshly. They claimed that they tested the soil and presumed it safe.

6.     The chemical dumping in Friendswood is similar to the situation happening at Standing Rock in North and South Dakota. An oil company wants to run pipes through the grounds of Standing Rock, an Indian reservation, and through their water. This is all part of a big plan of producing more oil and to boost the US’ economy. There is no alternative route for these pipes but the company insists there will be no little to no runoff onto the land and water supply. This is similar to the situation in Friendswood because a big oil company told the community that the run off is safe and non harmful.

Works Cited

Steinke, Rene. Friendswood. NY, NY: Riverhead , an Imprint of Penguin Random House, 2015. Print.