Walking Across Egypt

I thought at first that this was going to be a simple and funny story. Then when I got into the book the quote "what a long strange trip this has been" popped into my head. This older woman that seemed to have lived a relatively quiet and routine life has now gotten involved with some real characters. I don't know if Mattie likes to stay busy or she does not want people to say she is old and lazy. When she got stuck in the chair she has the dog catcher do her dishes so that nobody else knows that she did not immediately wash her dishes. That tells me she cares a lot about what other people think about her. She herself says that she is slowing down and I think she says that is because she does not want other people to say it. If it is going to come out it will come from her. Mattie reminds me of my own Grandma because she as well has to tell you all of the things that she has done that day or how busy she will be. I think it might be that because they did not work outside of the home that they want to tell you they contribute and they can be busy as well.

The home cooking all the time I am not sure if that is because of the way she was raised or she still does it because that is a way for people to stay a while and she will not be alone. They don't get good homemade food at home so they will be more likely stay. Making all her meals from scratch also takes up more time so she can say she has a lot to do.She lives alone and she could make simpler food or pick up something already made.

I think that the church is another thing that makes Mattie feel wanted. She does a good job with the committee she heads and so the church can make good use of her talents. The church is very important to her, but not her family which upsets her a great deal. Her kids do not go to church regularly and so she worries that they won't be good people or they will be steered wrong by life. Another smaller point is that it is part of her schedule. She does things at a certain time each day and Sunday has always been church and she is prepared ahead of time for her class.

The big divide between the generations are language, dress, and manners. I think this has always been the case between the people of different ages. Mattie is driven crazy because Lamar does not take his hat off when he comes into the house. She ends up grabbing it off of his head. She also reprimands the younger men when they use swear words. This is the way with the older generations in my family as well. My Mom would be driven crazy by the slang when I was younger and I am sure that she thought my torn jeans were ugly and just ruining a good pair of pants. I may get away with more with my Grandparents than my Mom and Dad did, but I still act differently around them than I would around my friends or people closer to my age.

The ending did bother me because I thought she had all of a sudden had a medical problem. She had thought through most of the book that she would just feed Wesley and take him to church and that would be all. When she suddenly changes her mind about Wesley and the dog I thought it might already be late for her to do anything. She had good health all of her life so she may have not realized something was wrong right away and so said she would marry Wesley. She had a reason to marry him and it made sense to her.