A Gesture Life theme

Hey girls!

Interesting topics on journals this week! Laurie, I totally agree with you on the fact that, based on your descriptions, the Chancellor really wanted to avoid the question. It’s ridiculous! I can’t believe that he threatened to leave the meeting and tried to use women’s basketball as an excuse. How can a game be more important than discussing about the multicultural center. He did not act respectful at all. I liked how you relate this back to A Gesture Life. By coming to the meeting, he was only making a gesture and had no resolution to solve the problem. It’s ok Laurie! Never give up trying right?
So let’s talk about A Gesture Life. I’ll admit. After I read this book, I didn’t quite understand the theme or the importance. I finally got a better glimpse of the book after I’ve looked over the book again and discussed it with my group mates. After we started talking, ideas seemed to flow through me. I got to discover themes, ideas, and concepts of the book that I never even thought about before. By the end of our discussion, I enjoyed the book much more. So in class, there was a classmate that asked about the theme of the whole book.
In class, I told her that the theme is probably Doc. Hata’s sense of duty to everyone: his parents, Kkutaeh, Sunny, Mary Burns, and the Hickeys. To his adopted parents, he felt that he had this sense of duty or responsibility to carry out the noble name. To Kkutaeh, instead of true love, his feelings towards her were probably more of sympathy and responsibility. He wanted to save her more than love her. When he couldn’t save her, he transferred all these feelings to his adopted daughter, Sunny. He wanted to give her things that he wasn’t able to give to Kkutaeh. But he thought these materialistic things would replace the love that Sunny actually needed and wanted. This is one of the reasons why his relationship with Sunny didn’t work out. He couldn’t see that what she needed was love from her father and not a grand house or a great neighborhood. For Mary Burns, what she wanted was not his sworn love for her. She does not want him to see her as a responsibility. But because Hata lives a life of gestures, he couldn’t see that or didn’t understand why that was bad. Even with the Hickeys, which have no real “relationship” with him, he still feels a sense of duty towards them. Even though he sold them the shop, he feels the need to help them out. Throughout his life, he’s been living a life of gestures.
Besides this theme, there’s also many other subthemes. Another one is the theme of “never failing if never trying”. I think Hata is afraid of failure and would rather not try than taking a chance of failing. What do you guys think? This book, I admit, takes a longer time to digest. I hoped you guys liked the presentation though. I hope we helped in further understanding the book. Good luck with the essays!!

Jennifer