Crafting Readers

Items

• Matchbox Crops / "Burn Our Bodies Down"
  My crafted object is a matchbox that I painted to show the night sky over Margot’s grandmother’s crops. I drew two matches on opposite sides of the matchbox to represent Margot and her family on opposing sides but left the rest of the sides unpainted. I also included the quotation “Keep a fire burning, a fire is what saves you” because it is repeated continuously throughout the novel. I used acrylic paint to paint the background; paint pens for the corn, moon, stars, lettering and grass; and then felt markers to outline. This process made me think about the physicality and symbolism of fire in Burn Our Bodies Down. Furthermore, I wanted to combine the symbols of fire (by using the quotation) and growth (by depicting the corn crops) to show how, as the novel suggests, destruction can be necessary to starting over. FERN HILL ON WHAT THIS CRAFTED OBJECT TEACHES US: For my final project, I painted a matchbox, using acrylic paint, markers, and paint pens to create a cornfield at night. On the two ends of the matchbox, I put a quotation that is repeated throughout the novel: “Keep a fire burning; a fire is what saves you” (Power 7). At first, I struggled to decide which crafting techniques I should use because there were so many different ones we tried in class, and I was unsure if I wanted to try something entirely different or bridge off one of our class techniques. Originally, I had thought about doing something with collage because it is a technique I often do for fun, but instead I decided to try painting, which is outside my comfort zone. I decided to experiment with a variety of acrylic paint, paint pens, and markers. I first painted the background, which I struggled a bit with because the matchbox logo kept showing through the acrylic paint. Next, I used paint pens to do details such the lettering, corn, moon, grass, and stars. Finally, I waited for the paint to dry and then used a marker to outline small details and add a small drawn match on parallel sides of the matchbox. In my crafting, I wanted to capture the eeriness of an empty cornfield at night because much of Burn Our Bodies Down takes place at night as Margot sneaks around to avoid being caught by her grandmother (Vera). Similarly, I wanted to show the uneasiness of having to sneak around in an unknown place in the dark where you do not know what is waiting in the shadows. Likewise, I drew two matches facing opposite sides of the matchbox to represent how Margot and her mother (Josephine) are genetically clones but have grown into separate beings from each other. Josephine and Margot are biologically the same, so they should be completely the same in character as well; however, they have become increasingly different individuals because of how they were raised. Though both women carry many of the same traits, such as being stubborn, Margot was able to break out of the cycle Vera started, but Josephine couldn’t. Some parts of the matchbox I chose to leave unpainted because I wanted them to speak for themselves. Specifically, I wanted the side that read “keep out of reach of children” to be visible because it felt relevant to how Josephine kept family secrets from Margot until she was a teenager and went looking for answers herself. Additionally, I left the matchbox empty inside to represent how Margot is looking to find her identity in her family history. Throughout the crafting process, I found myself thinking about Margot and how she explores the complexities in her family relationships. I wanted to depict a physical nod to Margot’s relationship with Josephine in my crafting, as in the parallel matches that I drew, because their mother-daughter relationship is what prompts Margot to find out what happened to the rest of her family without Josephine’s help. Burn Our Bodies Down was well received by readers and critics who were fans of Power’s first novel, Wilder Girls, and said her second novel was “full of twists and turns” (Schulz). Power is known for the eerie horror fiction she creates through her dynamic characters, intense personal relationships, and backdrops that make you feel as though you’re a part of the novel. Her rich world building “engulfs you,” which makes Power’s stories incredibly compelling and impossible to put down (Schulz). If you’re like me, you might even finish the entirety of Burn Our Bodies Down in about 2 days. Moreover, Burn Our Bodies Down was originally published in July 2020, right after the initial COVID-19 lockdown. The pandemic-induced lockdown is significant because it made many people have their workplaces shifted online and work from home. Due to people being in their homes and unable to socialize like they used to, countless people had time to return to new or old hobbies such as reading. This return to reading saw the increasing popularity of people sharing book recommendations on platforms such as TikTok and creating entire reading communities under hashtags like #BookTok. Power was one of the authors who benefited from reading’s increased popularity during the pandemic because her first novel, Wilder Girls, had been published in July 2019. Readers became hooked on her writing and ended up reading her new novel, Burn Our Bodies Down. Burn Our Bodies Down focuses on “taking something familiar and twisting it just enough to tell you something is wrong,” which made me think of how matchboxes are everyday objects that have the potential to be dangerous if the user decides to make them so (source ). I believe the matchbox and matches emphasize how a fire can bring warmth and cook food for you to eat and survive on but can also bring immense destruction and death. Likewise, Margot learns the truth about why Josephine hid Vera from her but at the cost of losing her relationship with both of them. Margot learns about where she comes from, makes a best friend for the first time, and discovers how strong she is on her own. However, Margot also goes through immense turmoil as she discovers that Vera is manipulative and cruel, her best friend is murdered, and she is forced to burn down Vera’s farm to break the cycle of cloning and abuse in her family. Comparably, Margot’s journey is related to how a match can start a fire and help you survive. For Margot, fire is what “saves” her but at the cost of using its destruction to start anew (Power 7). Margot using fire to put an end to her suffering is a crucial full-circle moment in the novel because it is what caused Margot and Josephine to have one of their most vicious fights in the past when she accidentally let a candle burn out yet fire is also what saves her from Vera and Josephine’s manipulation. Last, this project taught me a lot about the connection between crafting and literary analysis. Through taking the time to sit with Burn Our Bodies Down over the course of a semester and making my matchbox, I gained a deeper connection to my text. If I had not done the Crafting Literacies course, I wouldn’t have noticed the multiple ways in which fire is a continuous symbol throughout the novel. Before doing this crafting project, I read and enjoyed Burn Our Bodies Down; however , I finished reading it in a very short amount of time. Since I finished reading the novel so quickly, I didn’t absorb the symbolism nearly as much. By doing this project, I re-read my novel and picked up on foreshadowing, the repeated symbolism of fire, and many details about Josephine and Vera that I hadn’t noticed the first time around. Furthermore, I believe this project has given me a new way to analyze literary texts that will continue to expand my knowledge in the future.