Make connections with other texts or concepts or events

    As I finished up God Don't Like Ugly, I could not help but notice the similarities between this book and The Glass Castle. Both girls came from a broken family and a very difficult childhood, but they both made something of themselves. Both Annette and Jeanette, leave their home at a relatively young age, get a job, and try to live a normal life. "It was the personnel representative at the Erie Manufacturing Company, one of the two factories where I had applied. They had a job for me. 'When do I start," I yelled." (344). Annette now has a reliable job and a steady income so that she never has to live like she did as a child. Jeanette happens to go to New York and find herself a job there.
    
    Also, there is a definite turning point for each of the main characters in both books. For Annette it was, " 'You're right, Muh'Dear. I'll never be the same again' I said sadly. I promised myself that the old Annette Goode was dead. My rebirth had been a long time coming. I was leaving behind all the ugliness I had known for eighteen years," (320). Annette finally realizes that she deserves better and that she is going to do her best to obtain a better life. Jeanette's changing moment was when she decided that she was going to get to New York no matter what it took. 
   
    Although Annette never found a husband, like Jeanette, they both became much more comfortable with who they were and much stronger people, which became evident when Annette easily told Levi off after finding out what he had done to her. " 'You better get home to your wife and your son!' I barked, already attempting to close the door... 'The only way you'll ever get back into this apartment is if you break in!' " (386). I think that had Annette never left, she would never have been strong enough to let go of the person she had only ever had a serious relationship with. The same thing happened for Jeannette in that she became a much stronger person having dealt with her childhood.

Try arguig with the author.

       In the final stretch of God Don’t Like Ugly, by Mary Monroe, I was extremely disappointed on how a few events played out. I believe that the finale of every book should end on a good note. One of the first things I would change is Annette’s situation with her dad. How come she was never able to meet him? When Aunt Berneice told her about her father and her three half siblings trying to get in touch with her, Annette was ecstatic. “My daddy was still alive and has been trying to get in touch with me. I had siblings who wanted to meet me.” (P. 314). It just baffles me that the author didn’t have Annette contact her father immediately. If her father had been trying to search and contact Annette and her mother for all these years, why wouldn’t Annette finally contact him? Why didn’t she allow us to read and visualize the interaction with Annette and her father at the end of the story? I would have changed the story around, and instead of going back to Richland, I would have made Annette fly to Florida first to visit her daddy. Then after they bonded and such, I would have had her go back to Richland to let everyone know her and her father are on good terms.
       The second situation I would have changed was Annette’s friendship with Rhoda. What in the world happened to that? After Rhoda confided in her best friend, thinking she could officially tell Annette everything and put it in the past, Annette turns on her. What kind of friend would do that? After Rhoda had told Annette about the cop, her grandmother, and April that she had killed, along with Mr. Boatwright, apparently Annette decided she had enough. “Rhoda, how can I go on being friends with you now….. Do you realize what you’ve done to me? You’ve burdened me with information that could destroy me.” (P. 332). Obviously I understand that Annette doesn’t want to be friends with Rhoda, now knowing that she’s killed four people instead of just two, but strangely I feel bad for Rhoda. It’s almost as if Annette is abandoning her in this desperate time of need. All Rhoda was doing was being honest to her best friend. Yes, clearly it’s immoral to kill anyone, yet alone four people, but I just feel terrible how that’s the way Annette and Rhoda’s friendship had to end. It’s almost as if Annette considers her life just as good as Rhoda’s now, and no longer needs her as a friend. Their friendship ending was probably my biggest upset in the book, Rhoda was my favorite character.
       The third and foremost situation I would change is Annette’s and Peewee’s awkward relationship.  This two act as if they’re dating; they go on dates, hang out almost every night, and have had sex together. I don’t understand why Annette can’t just be happy in the end and finally get married. “Peewee and I even double dated with her and her husband-to-be.” (P. 337). Everyone around Annette was living a happy life and getting married, besides Rhoda, and Annette was yet to get engaged. When will her time come? Or will Annette just be stuck dating guys randomly here and there and just having sex with random people for the rest of her life? I just want to know why she never received a happy ending. Even her mother was able to marry Mr. King and go to the Bahamas! In conclusion, Annette’s lived a pretty tough life and even going back to the very beginning of the book, there would be a lot of events in her life I would have changed. Mary Monroe gave Annette one of the toughest lives, even right down to the end, but yet Annette managed to survive every second of it.   

Ask yourself a question about the text

 While reading this last section of God Don't Like Ugly, by Mary Monroe, I began to ask myself a few questions about the text. One being, after all that Annette has been through, how is she able to progress and be so smart as a person, so well? After having so many memories in her life time, from her father leaving her, moving from shacks, apartments, basements, and houses, to being sexually assaulted daily, it is crazy how much Annette can remember from such a young age. Being older then I, it amazes me how she can remember things at the age of three. She says, "I remember a lot that happened when I was three and four years old. All that walking to get to your work, my squirrel with the white paw, that old woman that hit you with her cane, that tornado, and most of all, those dreadful clodhoppers we found in the trash can that you made me wear... I remember my daddy. He left the morning after that tornado with a white woman in a green car"(256). Although some of the things Annette remembers are vague and small, it still amazes me that she can remember these things considering how young she was. It also saddens me knowing the fact that if she is able to remember these things, then further down the line, she will always remember the horrific events in detail that her life has consisted of. Rape, murder, and prostitution is recently all she has known, so the fact that she is able to remember a squirrel she had at the age of three, is somewhat sad considering other things she will remember later on in life. Another example of Annette showing her progressing smarts is when she has left for Viginia and is residing in a motel that she has been staying at for a couple of weeks. After being asked many times by other tenants in the motel to babysit their children, and refusing, Annette says, "As bad as I wanted and needed friends, I promised myself I would avoid anybody I thought was out to take advantage of me"(274). After saying this, it also surprises me at how much Annette is now sticking up for herself. It shows how she has gained self-respect and that she refuses to be taken advantage of any more

Another question I had about the text, was how can Annette mother go from acting as though she cares so much about Annette and wants her to stay home so badly, but never answers or returns the phone calls Annette makes to her. Whether it goes to the answering machine, or it is Mr. King answering, it  seems strange to me how distant Mrs. Goode has become since Annette has left. She explains, "Once again I called up Muh'Dear and just as I expected, she was out" (272). Although it was only one phone call of the many she has made, it confuses me to see Annette struggle in such a big city by herself, and her mother not be there just to talk to her on the phone once in a while. Being aware of the fact that Annette has struggled by herself her whole life, her mother's ignorance not only irritates me, it amazes me. In conclusion, after reading the last section of God Don't Like Ugly by Mary Monroe, I had many questions about the text but two specifically about Annette progressing as a smart individual, and another about Mrs. Goode's ignorance.