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Review Of Rachel Simon's Riding The Bus With My Sister

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Reading through Rachel Simon's Riding the Bus with My Sister, I consistently felt that Beth fit the mold of a secondary character rather than a primary one. I initially thought I had interpreted it this way considering I was expecting Beth to be the focal point of the text, what with the disability-based memoirs we have been reading, but my hesitation regarding such an assumption faded as I continued reading. As the text progresses, it becomes more and more clear that Beth’s presence is meant to bolster Rachel’s personal development. To my disappointment, Beth spends a great deal of time in the margins of the narrative, losing focus during long stories and fading away as Rachel gains various pieces of lifestyle advice. Granted, I am only a third into the memoir, but, as far as I can tell, this pattern doesn’t seem to be fading. I cannot speak for Rachel Simon’s intentions regarding this text, but, among the episodes she outlines, there are a number which may give away her priorities. I particularly honed in on the events leading up to Beth’s sterilization.

Prior to speaking with Beth directly, Rachel and her family discuss the potential of pregnancy, all the family members present deciding that its possibility …show more content…

It should be assumed that Beth was led through an in-depth explanation of what sterilization could possibly mean for her, but this isn’t included in the text. Had Beth been the focal point of the book, Rachel would have clarified what certainly could be perceived as an ethical and moral blunder. Up until this point in the text, though, even Rachel’s love life has received more attention to detail than Beth’s interactions with forms of birth control. Rachel doesn’t attend to events to Beth’s life in the way she attends to events in her own, and that is one of many reasons why I’m struggling to see Beth as anything but a secondary

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