Summary Of Thompson's Blanket

Smart discusses the telling of how family secrets is tied into the workings of family memories and that the stories people tell has a lot to do with how the family narrates its story. It explores contradictions and provides us with a view of how that can shape a person’s view of an important figure in their life. In "Blankets," Thompson portrays his childhood, initial love, and adulthood in a Christian family, which has many different scenes where we see Craig grow and we see him doing a lot of self-contemplation. Blankets have recurring themes, and serve as a symbol for issues such as family connections, security, warmth, and as a signifier of childhood innocence. A couple of symbols that were used were the blanket that Riana used as a young …show more content…
I barely know you” (Page 369). In this scene Craig doesn’t really care about what the future looks like between Raina and him. He thinks they have their whole lives to figure it out, but Raina is very frustrated because she knows that she can't waste her time waiting around due to the many responsibilities she has. Also her family is going through a lot of things, one of the main things is the divorce and it is taking a huge toll on her because she has to keep all of the family members together while still trying to graduate from high school. The theme of family narratives is also disrupted here as well, because after Raina and Craig have this talk that kind of makes them estranged from one another, at which point Craig does a lot of self-reflection. This is definitely seen when he goes back home and people constantly ask him what he wants to do with his life. When asked the question by his friend, “What about the ACTs?” (Page 501) Craig answers simply answers "why?" as if to elude to what's the point. This shows that Craig has not thought about himself as an individual, but as the story continues he ultimately realizes that Raina was a distraction from what he needed to be doing with his …show more content…
As previously stated, for "Blankets" the main points of the text detail a conceivable memoir where the author Thompson is giving us a glimpse into his past without specifically having an ulterior objective. With "Families, Secrets, and Memories," Smart takes a different approach. He seemingly inserts himself into the story as a protagonist. I think the trait that both texts share is that their narratives are about disrupting what's already there and showing how disruption can be a catalyst for change, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad, and sometimes without