Ch. 15&16

This section ended up being only about 6 pages so not much happened. The first part was a man swimming across a river. The name was not mentioned, but his red nail polish was, which means that it was Velutha. I don't really know why this was happening. It seemed kind of random, but it will probably have significance later. I knew that the red nails meant something. I think they are symbolic of him being blatantly identified as an untouchable. It shows how obvious it is and that they are defining him. People used what they know about untouchables to define them without really getting to know them because they think they are better. This is just like the nails. He is labeled with something that people would find weird on a man and without knowing why they judge him just on that simple shallow fact.

Next, it is night and the children are crossing the river. I don't know if it was the same night as Velutha or not. They were going to the History House, which is an abandoned old home that is said to be haunted. They have done this many times before. All three of the children are their Rahel, Estha, and Sophie. I knew when I read this that it was finally going to happen. It was the event of the book that I had been anticipating, but I was kind of let down by the outcome. Since it was dark, the children couldn't see where they were rowing so they hit a log capsizing the boat. Rahel and Estha swam to shore, but when the got there, they realized that Sophie was not with them. They didn't try to look for her. I guess that they just left. I thought this was weird. First of all, I was expecting a storm or something a little more dangerous than just hitting a log. Second, why didn't the other children try to find her? I mean I know that they were young, but they didn't even stay and scream her name for a while or anything. They said it two or three times, and I guess they just left. They had to have cared, but it was just so odd that they didn't try to find her. They could have even tried to find help, but they didn't. I don't think that it was because they didn't want to get in trouble. If it was that is absolutely horrible. Maybe there was no place to go for help, but then again Velutha lives across the river. I don't know. I hope they aren't that selfish.

As far as the writing of this novel, I said before that it was interesting, but it is getting harder to understand. They time periods switch so often that it is hard to keep track of when things happen. At first I thought that it made you pay attention more, but now I think that it is just distracting from the storyline because I am always figuring out when things happen.