Andrew McTigue
Professor Young
English Writing 1101
8/31/16
How is Friendswood described? What quotes from the text can you use to support your answer?
In the first several chapters of the 2014 novel Friendswood, Rene Steinke establishes a
broken narrative to show the scope of the town’s surrender to unwanted
repetition. From Lee’s perspective, we see the “fallen branches and the toppled
road signs” from a major hurricane intertwined with a man “at the pole,
stringing up the flag again,” (Steinke, 3). The citizens have learned to balance trauma with
tradition, as many of the citizens continue to share lighthearted humor as “Don’t
you see what he’s doing? I’m not a marriage counselor, buddy,” Steinke, 13). The values seem
to repeat itself as well, as evident by the stereotypical Friendswood resident “flipping
through the pages of a Bible without looking down,” (Steinke, 4). Therefore, the citizens of Friendswood,
Texas act in acceptance of their sentence to the pattern of perdition.
Who are the main characters thus far? How do you know? What quotes from the text can you use to show how they're described?
Lee serves as Steinke’s representation of the
Friendswood citizens’ refusal to become independent from their memories. In the
texts, the mother of two admits remorse that her children are no longer able to
recreate their “fluorescent-colored" memories in the open fields of Rosemont.
She knows she should be grateful, but she feels as if she failed her own
promise that the “sporadic, shameful poverty” of her youth would not be forced
to ruin other generations (Steinke, 9, 16). Willa, daughter of Lee’s “good friend,” has a more
overbearing issue regarding acceptance of repetition (Steinke, 23). Once her father “didn’t have time anymore” to
go “running on the old golf course in the early morning” with her, she begins
to feel the impacts of immediate withdrawal from escapism without notice (Steinke, 22). Her
memory recreates her secluded emotional conflicts through the form of abstract
visions, such as the “plate of sugar-dusted cookies” to represent the
temptation to recreate nostalgia. (Steinke, 22). Lee and Wilma seem to be the only primary characters
in the novel; unlike Hal, who understands that he needs to “remain optimistic
because that was how you made sales,” the two female characters have areas in
their personalities that are bound to evolve overtime (Steinke, 13). Satan, however, will
likely serve as a secondary character for the novel, as many characters in the
novel, most notably Willa’s father, admit to fear that life’s struggles will
repeat if they are found “fooling around with Satan, " (Steinke, 23).
