Part 1: Pages 3-134 Katie Knight

Gerda is confused about her relationship with Abek. All she wants to be is friends, and I don't understand why she cant just love him like he loves her? It's always awkward between them, because she doesn't want to say the wrong things to make Abek love her more than he already did. The book states, "I still saw Abek daily, although for a while our meetings consisted chiefly of awkward silences. Then gradually, I was able to laugh and joke with him once again, even though always aware that he wanted to marry me..."(Gerda, 65). This reminds me of a time in my life where a boy was madly in love with me and I just couldn't see myself with him. When we were together it was always awkward and I couldn't stand the silence. I never wanted to say anything that might make him think that I loved him back. So I told him that I couldn't ever see myself with him. He was very upset at first, but we managed to stay friends. I would like to ask Gerda why she had such mixed feelings for Abek? He gave her everything that she could ever want and he was always sweet to her no matter what the circumstances were. If a man treated me like that, I would certainly love him back.