The+First+Sentence

"So of course," wrote Betty [|Flanders], pressing her heels rather deeper in the sand, "there was [|nothing for it but] to leave."

What can you expect about the character of Betty Flanders from this first sentence? ````-

I am going to have to be honest, I do not believe that this first line really says a whole lot of Betty Flanders. The only thing we can gather from this statement is that she is writing down this phrase while sitting on the sand. Perhaps we can look at what she wrote, "of course, there was nothing for it but to leave." What is it? What has no other choice but to leave. That's another way to say it right? "there was no other choice for it but to leave."? I cannot really find anything in this statement that can help us determine her character. What can we expect from Betty Flanders? Perhaps she's a writer. Perhaps there is more writing in the future. 1199825313

I see this line as connecting back to the theme of loss discussed in the other forum. I should not be so quick as to determine that Betty Flanders is an unhappy woman, but I do think that there is something missing in her life. Even from this initial statement, she talks about "leaving," perhaps leaving something or someone dear behind. After all, she talks about crying and writing, maybe to let out her emotions, perhaps for someone who is not with her at the time. She seems to care about her children, but I cannot help but think that she is missing something.1199834774

I think that this sentence does tell us something about Betty Flanders. I think we can say that something terrible probably happened to her and that is why she must leave or this is a sarcastic statement and she is giving up and just leaving. Because of the discussion of the theme of loss, I am leaning towards the idea that Betty has lost something in her life and wants to get away to try to forget about it. I picture her sitting on the beach feeling terrible about what happened, possibly even depressed and wanting nothing more than to get out and end this suffering.1199882412

When I read the first sentence, there were some conclusions that I drew without really knowing it. First of all, we know where she is--at the beach. Her feet are in the sand, and it seems to be a popular place to reflect and reminisce, which we get a sense that she's doing because not only is she writing, but she's writing in the past tense. I also immediately got the feeling that she was feeling distressed and tense. I wondered what had given me this insight, so I reread the sentence a few times. Woolf describes Betty Flanders "pressing her heels rather deeper in the sand." Not only has she been sitting there a while, but she's obviously kind of stressed out or feeling despair and possibly frustrated. Like many of you said we also know that she's lost something based on the line that she wrote, and she's pretty hopeless about it. Br. Tom also mentioned that we should research the name Flanders as well. I clicked on the link that he provided and read the wikipedia article about it. It's just support for the hunch that something terrible has traumatized her. It refers to the most popular poem about the war "In Flanders Fields." This was a poem about the place where all of the dead soldiers lie and the blood red poppies grow in between the epitaphs. She obviously lost someone in the war, but I'm not sure if she's referring to Jacob just yet or a husband she lost at sea or someone else.

Any thoughts? user:kco-c

Reading this first sentence drew me in to the book in a way; it reminds me of the beginning of A Room of Own's One which begins with the word, "But..." This seems like an illogical way to begin a novel and maybe that is why Woolf used it; it doesn't follow normal writing standards and Woolf first saw herself in her writing when she wrote this book so maybe that is what she was going for... something unique. I don't believe there's a lot you can pull from this sentence to describe Betty Flanders in total; maybe small details. It seems that since she is on the sand she must live near a coast. Also, I feel that since she is digging in her heels further, it seems she feels that what she is writing may receive some resistance and she is bracing herself so that she can stand her ground if questioned. The way she adresses the situation, it sounds as if she is justifying her action, like I really had no choice but to do what I did and you can't change it now. It seems like she feels somewhat guilty, but she knows that she did what she needed to do in the end. Other than that, I don't believe that this single passage creates an image of Betty Flanders that can be applied to the rest of the book--Woolf hasn't painted enough of a picture yet to suggest who Flanders will be throughout the book.

1199934476

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