Helen

Hugely important segment, and I have the luck of being the first post. This piece is basically a mission statement of the entire book, and it is the final step of Jess' growing up process. Each chapter, in some odd way, seems to advance not chronologically from time's perspective, but chronologically from the perspective of Jess growing up. At the beginning chapters, Jess is certainly smaller and more vulnerable than he is in this final segment. Each chapter grows him up a little more, from the beginning Jess who has no idea what to do to the world, but in this piece, he has finally gotten to the final stage, I think, of the process- he has found a woman. I think he recognizes her because he knows of her physical existence, he recognizes the fact that she actually exists, but he hasn't met her yet. And, finally, the hugely important last line-- the mission statement of the book and the final tie-in with the title. He has become one of them and he's never going back. (Huff)
 * The Big Questions: How does this chapter fit the novel as a whole / Why is it important / What should a good reader take away from this chapter?**

This final chapter is the final stage of Jess' growing process. At the beginning of the book, the stories appeared to be in chronological order, but once you got near the middle of it the stories appeared to be in no order whatsoever. When you finally reach the last book, Helen, you realize that the order of the stories come in the order of Jess growing up. Like Graham said, during the first story Jess appeared to know nothing and appeared separarated from all the adults. In the story //The Posse//, Jess has a vision of him being old and a boy comes up to him and asks what the world is about. Jess then replies that nobody ever told him anything. I believe that as their are more stories, Jess becomes more and more mature, and learns more and more about life. Every relative that came to their farm taught Jess something more, helping to make him become a man. In Helen, Jess has a vision of a woman named Helen. I had no idea who or what Helen was until Mr. Meyer told me that Helen should be refered to all women and beauty. It mentions that neither his father, Johnson, or Uncle Luden would talk to Jess about women, and I believe that learning about women was the last step to becoming a man for him. Lastly, the last line of the book was Johnson asking Jess, //"Well, Jess, are you one of us or not?",// is the question to the title, //I Am One of You Forever.// The whole book has been the answer to the final line in the book. (Miller)
 * Jess has gone through a roller coaster ride throughout this book. All of the chapters show Jess maturing in one way or another, and the influences who got him there. In the beginning of the novel Jess went along with Johnson and his dad during their lives, buy when Johnson left he went through a change of doing things on his own sometimes. A main point in the book that intertwines with this chapter is when Jess wonders why Johnson would even bother with a girl. He can't understand why Johnson would pass up the "manly" opportunity for a women. It just didn't make since to Jess at the time. Like Hami said, Helen is related to love, women, and beauty. Jess has matured by witnessing an adult who parties and drinks, he has seen the doors of Hell and Death itself. Jess became his own person who thought on his own and faced his own problem (the letter) and dealt with it own his own. All of the mini stories have grown Jess up to this point, but his final step to becoming a man, is the desire for women. It seems that the book has left you hanging on whether or not Jess is "one of them", but the title sums it all up saying "I Am One of You Forever." (Davis)

**Important Quotes (and commentary)** > This was a strange chapter/part of the book to me because it tied up a couple of lose ends in a weird way and wasn't even a chapter. What this chapter is actually talking about is still not to clear to me and a couple things that are said push me in the wrong direction. The one thing that is said that was dangeled out there because it was the last line and it was kind of misterious because it isn't explained. So Johnson says it to Jess and when I read this I was like what is going on? The reason I thought this is because I was caught up in what happened in all the other chapters reality wise. Some of the chapters made perfect sence and even thought the characters were strange it seemed to be all in the book. Other chapters made no sence or not a lot of sence because what they were saying didn't seem real but there wern't any senarios that could explain the writting. If you have an opinion of what this quote is trying to say to the reader then respond to this because I would like to know everyones thoughts. (Macadam)
 * "'Well, Jess, are you one of us or not?"'
 * The most important line in the book, explained above. (Huff)
 * "'Well, Jess, are you one of us or not?"

**Moments of astonishingly good writing**
 * "No secret seemed to obtain among them. They were as open and careless as ever before. Even so, I felt myself at a distance from them, left out, and I felt too a small gray sense of shame, as if I'd gone through their pockets while they slept. But nothing passed among them that I could detect."
 * A perfect description of the fact that Jess hasn't quite gotten there yet. (Huff)
 * "He spoke again, thickly but comprehensibly in the reddened dark: "Helen." Then he said nothing more, but now there was true silence in the cabin, no one turning or half-snoring, and I realized I was holding my breath. I let it out carefully."
 * As I read this I pictured myself in that situation perfectly because i have been there before, suddenly realizing I have been holding my breath and then letting out slowly. (McCutchen)