Chapter 5: White Oleander

Summary:
In this chapter it talks about the first foster family that Astrid goes to live with. The mother is Starr and she has two children of her own, as well as two other foster children. While her case worker and Starr are discussing everything out, Astrid goes outside and meets the boys that also live there, although we only really hear about Davey. She is Starr's real mom and although she is she treats Davey like he is just another foster kid. Starr takes Astrid shopping and buys her some underwear, a bra, a new pink dress and pink shoes to match. As she is getting dressed Starr makes a comment how she is only 13 and Astrid drops everything. Between her mother's trial, all the sessions and questions, medication and case workers she had turned 13. She couldn't believe it.That Sunday, Astrid woke up to Carolee already dressed and that was because she didn't want to go to church so she snuck out the window like she always does at night to go out with friends and leaves. Astrid realizes she doesn't want to go to church either and fakes being sick. After Starr leaves for church Astrid has some time to just sit and talk to "Uncle Ray". CONNECTION: As Ray is talking about that he hasn't seen his real life in 3 years Astrid realizes that she may never get to see her mom again and someone may ask Ingrid in the future about her and she may act exactly like Ray( not care) and say she hasn't seen her in 3 years. It talks about how she finished grade 8 and she never really made any friends, she would just sit with Davey and study eachother on things. After awhile the case worker finally said she was ablt to visit her mom and Astrid was afraid she wouldn't want to see her. When she finally got to see her mother she was relieved that she she had missed her. She told Astrid she wanted them to keep in touch and not go through the case worker or she wouold never get her letters. After that they just sat and talked and Ingrid asked her how she was. She thought this was weird because her mom never used to want to know about her until now.

NOTES:
-only 13 when she is seperated from her mom and put in her first home.
-Starr takes in foster children because her own children were in foster care at one time due to her addictions.

New Characters Introduced:
Starr- former stripper, drug addict and alcoholic., mother of all the children.
Ray- still married, smokes weed in front of the kids, works as a carpenter making new house, just dating and living with Starr
Davey- loves outdoors, likes catching lizards, keeping them and studying them.
-Freckled boy, Starr's own child.
Carolee- smokes, a rebel, doesn't listen to her mom, keeps to herseld.
-has a boyfriend she is always gone with.
-HATES church.
-Starr's own child.

Chapter 4: White Oleander

Chapter 4 Summary:
This chapter is fairly short and all it talks about is a dream that Astrid has about being underground. She is seperated from her mother and in it she talks about a daughter who is lost, a nobody. She goes on to talk about the day of her arrest and how she can remember it perfectly. Astrid had wanted to stay with Michael but she knew she couldn't as Michael could barely make a living for himself let alone her as well. She also remembered the day that CAS came to get her. They only gave her10 minutes to get everything she wanted and she only took a few books by her mom and a few other things that she knew she would want as a memory.

NOTES:
-Astrid feels more alone then she ever has. She has lost her mom, her best friend and the person she used to do everything with. She now has nothing itfeels like and she is upset for that.

Chapter 3: White Oleander

Summary:
At the beginning Ingrid wouldn't leave her apartment at all unless she was going down to the pool to go swimming. After a few days passed of her just sitting in her dark room all day, something changed and she called her head boss (Marlene) and asked for her job back. It was shipping week and she knew they would need her desperately so he agreed to let her come back to work. She dropped Astrid off at school that morning to start grade 8 but Astrid didn't want to go. She was afraid that when she came home from school her mom wouldn't be there and she would be all alone.)
Astrid thought everything was over and everything was going to go back to normal but it didn't as her mom (Ingrid) began to follow Barry. Ingrid would shop at Barry's favourite market, browse at his favourite music store or go to book signings that were for his friends. Astrid thought it was all getting out of control but she didn't want to say anything to her mom. One night Ingrid finally found Barry at a party for Gracie Kelleher(one of his friends) and Barry grabbed her arm and asked if she was following him. He was furious at this point and told her to leave him alone.
That saturday Astrid and Ingrid sat in their car a block from Barry's house waiting for him to leave. He finally decided to go out and as he drove away she got out of the car and walked up to his house. She didn't want to break in but on the other hand she didn't want to stay in the car by herself either so she followed her mom up to his house. She knew where he kept his spare key so she found it and unlocked the door. Astrid went straight to his computer, turned it on and erased everything he had on the computer. She then took out a magnet and took it to all his back-up discs so they would be ruined too. Before Astrid left she went to his closet and took out his favourite brown shirt and ripped it to pieces with the pocket knife she had. In the buttonhole she put a white oleander.
That night Barry came to her house and Astrid seemed happy. With every angry thing he said to her she seemed to get happier and Astrid did not know why. Barry threatened to kill her and when she wouldn't open the door he went around to the window and broke it. After alittle bit of hesitation he stuck his hand in and began to unlatch the latch. That is when Ingrid ran at him and stabbed him in the hand with her pocket knife. Barry said that she will never get away with this and she opened the door and told her that he didn't know what she was capable of. After that night. Ingrid couldn't find him anywhere and he changed the locks on his doors.
She went to his house again that weekend and broke in again and this time through the window using a metal ruler. This time Astrid put a sprig of olenader in his milk, another in his oyster sauce, in his cottage cheese, in his toothbrush and she made an arrangement of white oleanders in a handblown vase on his coffee table and splattered them on his bed. (Note: Oleanders are poisonous flowers which means is she trying to kill him?) Astrid knew he had to be punished but she now knew her mom had crossed the line. All she saw in her mom now was darkness.
That night a police officer came to the door and my mom lied to him and pretended that she didn't do anything earlier that morning. She said that Barry was crazy as he was madly in love with her and she broke up with him a week ago and he had been stalking her ever since. She also said that her neighbours called the cops the other day when Barry broke her window(which they did) and that he was lying. The police officer believed her and after that he left. It was more like the other way around. It was the exact opposite as her story as SHE was Barry. The next time she saw Barry was at the market. He saw her and started to walk the other way but something must have changed his mind and he turned back and walked up to Ingrid. Barry asked if they could move on to the next step and just be friends. Ingrid agreed, they said there goodbyes and walked away.
The next day they drove down to Tijuana. She didn''t buy any food like they usually did and finally she came to what she had been looking for, a pharmacy. She said something in Spanish and the man behind the counter asked if she had arthritis. She said yes and asked if he had any DMSO. She got the biggest bottle they had (size of a vinegar bottle) and it cost her $80.00. Astrid tried to talk her out of it as that was 2 weeks worth of food, or 2 months worth of gas she was wasting. She couldn't talk her mom out of it though and she bought it. That night she began cooking strange food and the smell was horrible. I didn't say much to her as she looked like she was in her own world.
Astrid went down to Michael's that night to hang out with him and she asked him what DMSO was. He said that it was that people used it who had arthritis and that it was completely harmless. It is used to help absorb drugs through your skin(thats how the nicotine patch works.)
That night Astrid looked all over the apartment for the bottle of DMSO. Their apartment wasn't that big so she should have been able to find it but she didn't She asked her mom where it was when she got home and she just kept smiling, but her eyes told me everything. She wanted to kill Barry.
All night Astrid thought about what would happen and when she woke up the next morning she dialed Barry's number. A girl answered the phone and that is when Astrid realized that he had it coming and he deserved it. Also she didn' t know what she would tell him and she didn't want to hurt her mother. She didn't say a thing and he hung up the phone.
That night they sat on the roof together and watched the moon and that was the last time they would be together.
NOTES:
-Astrid vowed she would never fall in love as she didn't want to get hurt like her mom did.
-Ingrid is going insane, and may be mentally unstable.--needs help.

Chapter 2 -- White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Things I looked up:
White Oleander: A poisonous Eurasian evergreen shrub (Nerium oleander) having fragrant white, rose, or purple flowers, whorled leaves, and long follicles containing numerous compose seeds. Also called rosebay.
Site: http://www.answers.com/topic/oleander

Haiku: A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.
Site: http://www.answers.com/topic/haiku


Characters so far in the book:

Ingrid: Beauty is everything to her and she says that without it you are nothing.
-Once she meets Barry she seems to be a lot happier and is writing poems a lot more.

Astrid: In chapter 2, it talks about how she hungered for Barry because he could be the one who feed them and holed them and made them feel real.
-Lived in Amsterdam when she was 7.

Barry: He is the writer of personal essays. In chapter 2 you meet Barry and you can tell right away he is rich as he owns a Lincoln. He also says that he can get whatever he wants and soon starts to follow Ingrid around. He also travels a lot as in the book he talks about when he traveled to the Orient, his trip to Bali and Bangkok, and when he went to the temples of Anghor Wat in the Cambodian jungle accompanied by Thai opium smugglers.

Describing Barry: Barry's physical goatishness, his need for dental work, his flabby physique, his squalid taste in clothes, the wretchedness of his English or his shameless cliches

Michael: He lives next door to Astrid and Ingrid.

Kit: Ingrid's boss at the art room.

Chapter 2 Summary: Ingrid comes home at 2 in the morning after the bars had closed. Right when she gets home she doesn't even talk to Astrid and just goes to bed. The next day when she is working at the magazine place Barry comes in and brings them an envelope for her and Astrid. He bought them tickets to go to Gamelan concert at the art museum. When they get to the concert there is 20 slim men playing a bunch of different instruments. After the concert, Barry asked if they both want to get something to eat but Ingrid says no and goes home with Astrid. Finally Ingrid gives in and decides to go on a date with Barry. Astrid, Ingrid and Barry go to the races and Barry tells Ingrid to pick a horse so she chooses 7. In the end her horse ended up winning and the $20.00 he bet on the horse turned into $100.00 and he gave that money to Ingrid. After the race they all go out for dinner and everyone eats except Ingrid who only gets a glass of wine. After this he invites both of them over for supper the next day ad Ingrid accepts. Astrid waited until the very last minute and then told her mom she wasn't feeling good but told her mom still to go. After Astrid made herself some supper she went over to Micheal's. He was watching a Lana Turner movie that she didn't like so she picked up the Chekhov book(her mom told her he was a horrible writer) and started to read it. Once Micheal had passed out she went down to the pool and swam in the pool hoping her mom would fall in love. All that week her mom did not mention one thing about her date with Barry or how it went.

In the Art Room the next day(where Ingrid works) she was working on some work when Barry called her work. The secretary said Barry was on the phone and her co-boss Kit thought the phone was for her. She was shocked when she heard that he had called for Ingrid but all she said to tell him was that she no longer worked there. Later that night Barry came knocking on the door saying he was in the neighborhood. Astrid was surprised when her mom let him come in. When he looked into the room he asked if they had just moved in because there was no furniture and they didn't say a thing. That was because they had lived there for over a year now. I think that this shows that they don't have a lot of money to spend as there apartment that they rent hardly has any furniture in it because they cannot afford it. In the morning when Astrid wakes up she finds that Barry had stayed the night.(Ingrid is breaking her rules.) After that night Astrid noticed that a lot of things changed. On Sunday Barry, Astrid and Ingrid all went to the Farmers market together and her mom who would only eat a carton of yogurt or a can of sardines and soda crackers as a meal was buying so much food. On the way home her and Barry held hands and sang to each other.

So many things Astrid never would have imagines happened. She started writing little "haiku" and slipped them in Barry's pockets. Her mom started to have passion. Ingrid and Barry would go out and once she would come back she would tell Astrid all about it. Gone were the references to Barry's physical goatishness, his need for dental work, his flabby physique, his squalid taste in clothes, the wretchedness of his English or his shameless cliches.

Astrid would sit in her bed and think about how she never told her mom she wanted a father. She had only questioned her once when she was in Kindergarten. This was because school had just started and her teacher had asked them about their fathers. So many people had dads that worked as lawyers, or drummers and few had died and when it came to Astrid she said she didn't know who her dad was. When she asked where her dad was her mom said she had no father. After that the subject was never brought up again.

Barry took them to a Dodger's game and bought them hats. They ate hot dogs as Barry tried to explain the rules of the game to us. It felt like we were a family and I just sat there and tried to pretend we were. The next week he took them to Catalina. Astrid got sick on the ferry but Barry was there the whole time holding a wet cloth to her head.

All of a sudden something happened. Barry said he would come at nine and never showed up, he went out of town on assignments for different magazines, canceled their dates. Astrid couldn't see how this could happen. They could go from taking them out on a lot of trips, how he could hold that cloth to her head, and talk about taking them to Bali and then forget their address completely.

Once afternoon, they stopped by his house unannounced. Ingrid went in by herself and Astrid stayed in the car and half an hour later she came back crying. She said that he had made love with her and then said he had a date. Astrid now understood why you should never break the rules. She understood now why her mom had held to them so hard because once you broke one of them they all began to break. Before they drove away a blond girl half Barry's age drove up, and she became his new love.
The next day at work Kit came up to Ingrid i the production room and smiled. She said she saw Barry last night at the "Virgins" with some cheap blond half his age. At lunchtime, her mother told Astrid to take everything she wanted from art supplies to stationary. That was because they were leaving and not coming back.

Chapter 1 of White Oleander (pg 1-18)

I had originally planned on reading Diary of a Street Kid as my first book choice but after reviewing the books and learning more about them I became a lot more interested in White Oleander instead. In White Oleander by Janet Fitch it talks about a life of a mother and daughter. I got through the first chapter and in this is introduces me to Ingrid(mother) and Astrid(daughter). It also tells me more about where they are living which is in California. In this chapter it mainly talked focused on both the mother and daughter and what they did on a daily basis. The mother works at a magazine company for 8 an hour and always brings Astrid along. At work it always said Ingrid would just turn her music on and not listen to the discussion that was going on and to me it seemed like she did not want to be there as she wasn't really interacting or participating at all. Near the end of this chapter you kind of see how Astrid feels about everything in general. She feels that it is her fault her mom has to have a job that she doesn't like because of Astrid. If she didn't have a daughter then she wouldn't have to worry about electric bills or having to buy Astrid new shoes as hers were two sizes too small. It makes Astrid seem like she is upset and guilty because she is forcing her mom not to be happy as she needs to be provided with food and a place to live. I look forward to reading the next chapter and seeing what will happen next.


Looked up: more about "santa anas" - in this book the santa anas come up a lot and I briefly knew what they were but I looked them up in more detail so I would know more about them. The site I went to was on:

http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~fovell/ASother/mm5/SantaAna/winds.html

ISP:

The books I have chosen to read for my independent study are Diary of a Street Kid and White Oleander.