Isobelle Carmody does make use of some traditional fantasy elements in The Gathering but the departure from rigid archetypes is what enables her to achieve a sophisticated exploration of the oft-stereotyped concept of evil. She is able to effectively do this not just by the traditional good vs evil but by the dark side of human nature and mankind. To achieve this she uses Mr Karl the deputy principle at Three North in Cheshunt where this novel is based. However she hasn’t just gone and changed how traditional fantasy operate. She has used a good balance of both traditional and modern ways of getting messages out to the readers.
The novel ‘The gathering’ by Isobelle Carmody doesn’t just explore good vs evil like most fantasy novels but also the evil of human nature and how it can be used against us. Cheshunt where this novel is based within is not only a place of harboured evil but a choosing to be evil and the consequences of this for mankind. Within this novel it seems like evil has a way of repeating itself, “These witches were supposed to have stolen people’s pets and sacrificed them to the devil” (p.9). The readers were told about these witches so briefly as a part of the evil history of Cheshunt. Towards the end of the novel the same thing happens to Nathanial “I cuddled his limp, gruesome body to my chest, rocking backwards and forwards.” However it wasn’t the witches at this time but ordinary kids doing evils work, using something Nathanial loved and cared so deeply about and taking it so gruesomely away to make him fall into place in society.
Mr Karl is the main antagonist and main evil within this novel. He is the Deputy Principal of Three North in Cheshunt, giving him some control and power over people and students. Un...
... middle of paper ...
... to find your symbol” (p.49). This is very simular to the traditional novels where they have to go on a quest to find certain objects or defeat certain enemies, the only difference is who we are reading it from and the struggles to achieve this even if it takes a long time to prepare for the evil. With the balance of traditional and modern she was able to create a more deceptive antagonist who we all could relate to and communicate with at least one point in our lifetime.
Isobelle Carmody not only uses of both traditional and modern ways of expressing evil and the preparation time before to defeat this evil but also the use of the dark side of human nature. She also effectively created the main antagonist upon this. By making Mr Karl someone we can all relate to in past, present and future she has been able to combine traditional and modern ways of expressing evil.
In the book, Apostles of Disunion, author Charles B. Dew opens the first chapter with a question the Immigration and Naturalization service has on an exam they administer to prospective new American citizens: “The Civil War was fought over what important issue”(4). Dew respond by noting that “according to the INS, you are correct if you offer either of the following answers: ‘slavery or states’ rights’” (4). Although this book provides more evidence and documentation that slavery was the cause of the Civil War, there are a few places where states’ rights are specifically noted. In presenting the findings of his extensive research, Dew provides compelling documentation that would allow the reader to conclude that slavery was indeed the cause for both secession and the Civil War.
Gordon Grice, author of “Caught in the Widow’s Web” tells a compelling tale about black widow spiders and their dangers. Grice reaches out to readers through the use of modes, literary devices, and diction. In his essay Grice references the eternal question: Why is there evil in the world?
throughout this book is very visible. It has to do with her search for a name,
David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is the story of an African boy, Kek, who loses his father and a brother and flees, leaving his mother to secure his safety. Kek, now in Minnesota, is faced with difficulties of adapting to a new life and of finding his lost mother. He believes that his mother still lives and would soon join him in the new found family. Kek is taken from the airport by a caregiver who takes him to live with his aunt. It is here that Kek meets all that amazed him compared to his home in Sudan, Africa. Home of the brave shows conflicts that Kek faces. He is caught between two worlds, Africa and America. He feels guilty leaving behind his people to live in a distant land especially his mother, who he left in the midst of an attack.
Bravery can be showed by having strength, being willing to sacrifice, and standing up for yourself and others. Life will not be very fun if you do not try to make it fun. One has to be brave to make life fun. If one is not strong it would make it hard to be brave. If Holling was not strong then he would not have been able to play Ariel in the Shakespeare play. All of his friends showed up when he was was wearing yellow tights and feathers on his butt. He stayed strong and finished the play. “Still ringing in the hands of Danny Humfer, Meryl Lee and Mai Ti who were standing in the very front row.” (Schmidt 86) That moment was when Holling first saw all of his classmates watching him in the play. At first he only saw Danny’s parents, but then
A true war story blurs the line between fact and fiction, where it is neither true nor false at the same time. What is true and what is not depends on how much you believe it to be. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” from the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author provides various definitions to how the validity of a war story can be judged. The entire chapter is a collection of definitions that describe the various truths to what a true war story is. Unlike O’Brien, who is a novelist and storyteller, David Finkel, the author of “The Good Soldiers”, is a journalist whose job is to report the facts. Yet in the selection that we read, chapter nine, Finkel uses the convention of storytelling, which relies heavily on the stories the combat troops tell each other or him personally. Finkel attempts to give an unbiased view of the Iraq war through the stories of the soldiers but in doing so, Finkel forfeits the use of his own experiences and his own opinions. From O’Brien’s views on what a true war story is combined with my own definitions, I believe that Finkel provides a certain truth to his war stories but not the entire truth.
Topic/ Thesis Statement: Don’t judge a book by its cover, some people are not who they claim to be, or looks can be deceiving.
Symbolism “acts as webbing between theme and story. Themes alone can sound preachy, and stories alone can sound shallow. Symbolism weaves the two together” (Hall). Symbolism uses the story to convey the theme. Darkness is used in the novel to show the secrecy and lies that the story has. The whole story involves secrecy among two women and a man. Without symbolism the story would just have a very dark house and two very mysterious and disturbed women. Instead there is a feel of secrecy right from the beginning. Symbolism gives the story excitement, while also providing the reader with a good read. The author can read the first few pages and determine the story is not a happy
Lauren Olamina, the protagonist in Parable of the Sower. She lives in the walled town of Robledo, near Southern California in 2024, which is a devastated world caused by the environmental degradation and economic, governmental corruption. Lauren’s father was a Baptist minister, who emphasize Bible based religion and also raising her under an intensely religious belief. Though Lauren admires her father she
The Salem Witch Trials were an event where Americans were at their lowest. Whenever someone could be accused of being a witch and was guilty until they were proven innocent. The Crucible is a play written about this time frame where it really shows the mob mentality that everybody can have. The accusation of “witchcraft” spreads through this village putting peoples’ lives at stake just to cover up what some girls are afraid to confess to. Because of the fear through the village of witchcraft, it is believed to be true and people begin to be put on trials. The way the mob can affect a community can be overwhelming to the people in the town and could even tear it apart. Just because of one group of people, it can become chaos. Groups of people are unpredictable and can turn into mobs because people act differently in crowds, one person can affect everybody, and with more people, more things are going to happen.
In the book “The Crucible” , Arthur Miller explains this conflict between goodness and evil between society and it's people. The setting takes place in the late 1600's and the early 1700's in a little town in Salem, Massachusetts. The people in this town were settling in this new land, and they had been going on for about a few years settling in quietly. But things started to arouse, as people heard of this new magic called witchcraft, in which it has said that witchcraft is used by witches, who use this power to abuse others, and cause chaos to the world, and it is only given to witches by none other than the Devil himself. Now, most of the people in Salem didn't believe in this witchcraft, and went on with their daily lives. But when a group of young girls, along with a black slave-woman, committed a ritual to get in contact with the Devil in some way, the ritual apparently was interrupted and was deemed incomplete, due to one of the people in Salem finding out that a ritual to conjure to dead was commencing. Soon, more and more people hear about the use of witchcraft, and started to blame others in the town, because they had very bad relations with each other. In the end, the town eventually dwindled down to the point where hundreds of people were accused and ...
Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.
The deterioration of Salem's social structure precipitated the murders of many innocent people. Arthur Miller's depiction of the Salem witch trials, The Crucible, deals with a community that starts out looking like it is tightly knit and church loving. It turns out that once Tituba starts pointing her finger at the witches, the community starts pointing their fingers at each other. Hysteria and hidden agendas break down the social structure and then everyone must protect themselves from the people that they thought were their friends. The togetherness of the community, the church and legal system died so that the children could protect their families' social status.
The antagonist in the story is Abner Snobes. Abner Snobes is a very angry and inconsiderate man who has hate and detestation for almost anybody who is not “blood-kin”, and he portrays that hatred and contempt throughout the story (qtd. In Volpe 163).