Assignment 1
The book is Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher.
1) 1: Our Quester: Our quester is a boy named Tavi, around the age of 13 who helps his uncle herd sheep.
2) 2: A Place to Go: He had to go out into the woods with his uncle.
3) 3: A stated reason to go there: The reason he must go out there is because he neglected to herd the sheep back in the night before to gain a girls favor.
4) 4: Challenges and Trials: Upon finding the sheep they encounter a large bird of prey known has Herdbane, for obvious reasons, who’s only habitat is to be found in the isolated plains west of Alera.
5) 5:The Real Reason: After his uncle is injured by the Herdbane, Tavi leads it away from his uncle while he gets back to the holdfast. During this time, Tavi gains some understanding of himself. He selflessly threw himself in harm’s way to help his uncle get away. You must also take into consideration how Tavi is without the ability to command furies, which is the manifestation of the elements.
Assignment 2
Assignment 2
Intertextuality: the ongoing interaction between poems or stories.
I like to use roots and cognates when I read new words. With a word like “intertextuality” you got “inter” which means, or at least for me, in or connected. You also have “text” which is the actual words, and the “uality” is a way to make it an adjective. When I read the word, I thought, “hmm, something about words in stories, maybe the same thing in multiple stories, maybe interwoven themes, etc.” Dissecting words is a great way to get a basic meaning without having to get a dictionary.
A play I read my freshmen year, A Raisin in the Sun, has a small theme in it that alludes to the Bible. If you notice Mama and Ruth, by the end of the book they share a strong bond, as well as a strong resemblance to the Bible story of Ruth and Naomi. I read A Raisin in the Sun first a few years ago, and read the story of Ruth and Naomi one day in a youth group I was attending last year in Tonganoxie. When you put this assignment I was worried for a bit, because I don’t have a large background knowledge in the Bible. But then I remembered this story, and I thought of all the strong bonds between mother and step-daughter I could think of. Knowing that Hansberry threw this little allusion in the text deepens the story; it’s another symbol in this already symbol heavy play. It impacted me in a small way when I thought of it, when you read A Raisin in the Sun you already have some many different symbols, like Mama’s plant, the new house, how Walter thinks Ruth is holding him back by telling him to “Eat your eggs,” the list goes on. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all of it. But in the end, I enjoyed the bit of Biblical connection, it helped round the story.
Assignment 3
For this, I will do something different, using the same event, but from different points in the novel. The book is A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Caitlyn’s son, Bran, is pushed off a tower he was climbing because he saw something that he shouldn’t have. After the fall, Caitlyn just thought he fell, and was overcome with grief, sitting by his bed day and night without repose. But after someone tried to come into Bran’s room and kill him, Caitlyn wanted to know why. After putting thing together, like the coded message her sister sent her, she was driven to a state of purpose. When Caitlyn thought it was just an act of chance, the effect was one of destitute, while when she found reason to believe someone pushed her son, she had a purpose, there was a need to right the wrong. All because there was a wrong to be righted, if it was just a fall, then there would be less action, and less plot. While one gives Caitlyn an overwhelming sense of doubt, the other invigorates her with the need for retribution. This is because when it was just a fall, Caitlyn couldn’t do anything about it, but when she learned he was pushed, she had someone to target her efforts on.
Assignment 4
There was a book series that I read twice, so I feel like I studied it thoroughly. It was “The Sword of Truth” by Terry Goodkind. Now, this series is 11 books long, it has a wonderful start and the first book could be a very good stand-alone novel. However, as the overall story progressed, Goodkind had a way of focusing the main plot of the story around his slightly capitalistic nature. Don’t get me wrong, I read the books twice so it’s not that I didn’t like them. By about the 4th or 5th book the main character, who is an arbiter of justice who preaches the values of self achievement, has this untimely encounter with a horde from a continent that his world didn’t know about, till he broke the barrier between them of course, who all followed an emperor who was a notorious Communist. I think it was the 8th book that the main character is actually captured and is forced to live in one of the major cities of the emperor. This is a very productive experience for him, he is surrounded by people who have given up, who expect to get things from other “more capable” men. The main character, however, works and gets money on his own merit, working day and night to beat the corrupt system, making the house he lives in nicer, and even bring the landlords thug kid and his friends around to help him. What I’m trying to say, is that Terry Goodkind worked his “Sword of Truth” series to broadcast his political views and even show how personal merit and personal pride can work out better than the perpetual negative of Communism.
Assignment 5
In Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, there is a scene that tells the origins of Smeagol, and, by association, Gollum. Smeagol and his friend are fishing in a pond and Smeagol's friend, Deagol, was pulled into the water by a big fish, changing both their lives forever. Deagol found the “One Ring” at the bed of the pond, and as he came back up Smeagol demanded it for his birthday present, as they were fishing because it was his birthday. After Deagol refused Smeagol, a once loving and gentle hobbit, strangled Deagol to death, stealing the ring in the process. The “baptism” works in a weird way here, it ended up Deagol going into the water and Smeagol changing the most. The “One Ring” corrupted Smeagol, changing him into a hideous creature that was banished by his kin. Gollum is Smeagol's alternate personality he developed in his 500 years of seclusion in the Misty Mountains' various caves. These two personalities have a love/hate relationship of Smeagol being the weaker personalty and Gollum being a strict and strong willed counter part. The Ring also changed how he looked, from a hobbit, which looks like a stocky man, to a hunchbacked, gray, dirty, goblin like creature. All of this because of a big fish, Smeagol is key to the story line of The Lord of the Rings.
Assignment 6
Archetypes, to me, are like loose formats for stories that lack details but have the blunt image. The basic journey, but without the 5 reasons from the beginning of How to read like a Literary Professor. One major archetype is that of “The Hero” which normally has a quest involved and as the journey to fulfill the quest they change in a positive way, coming back changed for the better. An example of this larger than life hero is King Arthur. In my opinion, these kind of archetypes are the best. The book I read that has a character similar to King Arthur is called the Wheel of Time, where a village boy (a little cliché, I know) who leaves their small, secluded village and becomes something great, a king, and most importantly a Hero.
In the same series, the main character, Rand Al'Thor, lost his left hand. At the time in the course of the story, he made his will like iron, not bending to anything, like emotions, thinking it was what he needed for the job set to him. Being maimed was just as insignificant, it set him apart from others, but being devoid of emotion he doesn’t invest much into. Him losing his hand helps articulate that indifference, and tells the reader that such indifference is a bad thing, yay foreshadowing.
Assignment 7
1: I feel like Mansfield is trying to tell us how life isn't about fancy garden parties, its not about wealth. I feel as though her story is about how to find peace and beauty where we wouldn't think to look, in a way, the clash between classes. Even when those you know, you peers, your family, look at you as though you were crazy, she tries to tell us how even with the aura of perfection there is something better, something that will bring out new things, things that we didn't would be positive.
2: The aura of perfection is brought about by the well off family and their garden party, by the perfect day, by the cream puffs and flagged sandwiches, by Laura's hat, by the light hitting the tea pot. While surrounded by perfection, Laura notices how much nicer the workmen are, how she is caught off guard by it. These workmen, who don't have fancy garden parties, who smell lavender, with their kind smiles and easy laughs, make an impression upon Laura. Laura's sense of humanity towards the dead man is out of place at her home, while her family is more concerned about the garden party. As Laura walks to the dead man's house, she feels out of place, scared by the dissonance she brings to the humble street. She's frightened by what she might see when she reaches the house. But as Laura say his corpse, she was taken to tears by the sense of beauty and peace. He seemed so marvelous in his remote slumber, never to be awakened. Laura found something she had been looking for, but didn't know it, in that dead man.
3: I think I did pretty well in my analysis of the story. I see how Laura relates to Persephone, it adds a totally new depth to my understanding of the story, a different angle. Greek myth is always a welcome sight in a story, and this one especially so.
