Stories of monsters, myths, and heroes told by Rick Riordan come to life in a incredible way thanks to Riordan’s writing style. Riordan is an American author who has written many stories focused around Greek, Roman, Egyptian and even Norse mythology. In his novel The Red Pyramid siblings Sadie and Carter Kane find that their ancestry goes far back, to the time of Ancient Egypt and that they must work with the Egyptian Gods, who are very real and alive, in order to save the world. Rick Riordan has a unique writing style that brings places and people alive in a unique way accomplishable by no other author.
First, by putting the heroes of the story in dire situations, Riordan adds to the mood of the story. In The Red Pyramid, the two siblings are in constant danger and Riordan successfully expresses that fact in a way that keeps the readers
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engaged the entire way through. On top of that, our heroes are always short on time or out of it. This quote is an example of the dire situations Riordan put the heroes in, “I did not say it would be easy. You’ll need two ingredients for the spell to work, a Feather of Truth, and a verbal ingredient, Set’s secret name.” –Thoth page 260. To save the world and defeat Set the siblings need to get those two items, which are near impossible to obtain. To get a Feather of Truth one must travel to the underworld a feat difficult in its own right. In addition, to actually be given it your heart must be pure. Only Set and the one he loves most can speak Set’s evil name. Set would not have given the children his only true weakness, so the only other option would be the one who loves him the most, his wife. However she was the only of the five sibling gods whose whereabouts were not known. By giving the siblings near impossible feats, and giving them limited time to do so, Riordan builds suspense that keeps readers engaged with the story. Second, by having the narration being shared between Carter and Sadie, Riordan keeps the story fresh and innovative. Throughout the story the siblings take turns narrating the events that unfold. This is something not many authors do, or can do well for that matter, but Riordan finds the perfect blend between the two narrators. By switching off the perspective, Riordan gives two different sides of the story and two different ways the story is told. Carter is calmer most of the time; his narration and telling of the more Mythological events and monsters are more insightful, as he is more educated on the stories told by the Egyptians. His sister Sadie however is brasher; she is not as serious as Carter. She is not as educated on the myths as Carter is which sometimes leads to her being less tense than Carter because she doesn’t fully understand the danger the two are in. In either case, the story continues to interest readers, no matter which sibling is telling the story. Lastly, Riordan creates characters that represent us to expertly keep us engaged.
Riordan’s characters represent the readers, just an ordinary student in an ordinary school who ends up conquering their fears and foes to reach their truest potential. A quote from The Red Pyramid reads, “I am Carter Kane. Blood of the Pharaohs, Eye of Horus. And now, Set, brother, uncle, traitor-I’m going to crush you like a gnat” pg 457. This is the climax of the story, were Carter has become one with the god Horus and reached the peak of his power. After his long journey of monsters, trials, and more he has become much stronger and has grown as a person. We all start small only to climb our way up to greatness; Carter’s journey is meant to represent that. He starts as a son of an Egyptologist with no real say in his life, just as people do. Eventually he is forced to fend for himself and make his own decisions. Finally after all his hard work and struggle he obtains something valuable, self worth just as all people do. In brief by making characters the readers can relate to, Riordan connects his stories to the readers in a unique
way. In conclusion, Rick Riordan uses dire situations, differences in narration, and characters to make stories that come to life in a way no other author can do.
This paper examines the argument and theory proposed by Richard H. Tyre of the six basic movements of a plot in a hero story. Although Tyre’s theory does seem too narrow focused, fixed and direct to fit with the plot structure of all hero stories, he makes a great point and provides adequate evidence to support his statement.
David Malter was part of the Jewish sect that took on a more modern approach. He is very understanding, and he cares very deeply for his son Reuven. Reuven and his father's relationship would be considered healthy by most people. They love each other very much, and they have a very open communication with each other.
The author uses many way of telling the story buy enhancing the reader understanding in rregrades to the point of view of the story line. The author, Jon Krakauer expresses and explains this stroy in many unique ways throughout the entire book using other authors quotes to tie in with his story, the constant change in the setting, and references the creates a unique structure to the book.
Primo Levi once said, " Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features.." The memory of a human being is a fascinating matter, but it is not something that stays with us forever. Memories will often change or multiply with unnecessary information, but they are what define you as you.
Hundreds of thousands of books have been written throughout the Course of human history, each very different from another. It may seem that there are an infinite number of stories that can be told, most can all boil down to twelve simple points. These twelve points were outlined by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. These steps are: the ordinary world; call to adventure; refusal of the call; meeting with the mentor; crossing the threshold; tests, allies, and enemies; approach; the ordeal; reward; road back; resurrection; and return with elixir. The hero’s journey always begins and ends in a comfortable and familiar place, the ordinary world. During the course of their journey, the hero travels to a strange new place, or the special world. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is no exception to these rules, as the character Arthur Dimmesdale follows nearly all the steps of a true hero.
To fully appreciate the significance of the plot one must fully understand the heroic journey. Joseph Campbell identified the stages of the heroic journey and explains how the movie adheres meticulously to these steps. For example, the first stage of the hero’s journey is the ordinary world (Campbell). At the beginning, the structure dictates that the author should portray the protagonist in their ordinary world, surrounded by ordinary things and doing ordinary tasks so that the author might introduce the reasons that the hero needs the journey in order to develop his or her character or improve his or her life (Vogler 35). The point of this portrayal is to show the audience what the protagonist’s life is currently like and to show what areas of his or her life are conflicted or incomplete. When the call to adventure occurs, the protagonist is swept away into another world, one that is full of adventure, danger, and opportunities to learn what needs to be learned. T...
As for his character, it reveals that he can find beauty in the smallest things in life, meaning in the smallest revelation, but that he is a down-to-earth man (at the time he relates the story) who canget his point across, but not romanticize things. He expresses things as he sees them, but he sees them in a unique and detailed way. He mak...
PTSD, also known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, can cause change and bring about pain and stress in many different forms to the families of the victims of PTSD. These changes can be immense and sometimes unbearable. PTSD relates to the characters relationship as a whole after Henry returns from the army and it caused Henry and Lyman’s relationship to crumble. The Red Convertible that was bought in the story is a symbol of their brotherhood. The color red has many different meanings within the story that relates to their relationship.
Diamant has Dinah effectively tell her story from three different narrative perspectives. The bulk of the novel is related by Dinah in first person, providing a private look at growing up and personal tragedy: "It seemed that I was the last person alive in the world" (Diamant 203). Dinah tells the story that she says was mangled in the bible.
Writer Ayn Rand once said that, “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.” This happiness is not what a person feels when common pleasures occur in their lives, such as the purchase of a new car, or a promotion at work and an increase in salary. The feeling of genuine inner well-being and peace is a completely separate state of being that can be witnessed in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. The two key characters to the story, Amir and Hassan, share a very unique relationship. They achieve the deepest longing of humanity to achieve happiness through the different choices they make and experiences they have. Hassan proves to be on the proper path to happiness early on with a strong moral conscience in his life, sense of purpose to serve others, and the self-confidence to be independent. On the other hand, Amir struggles to achieve these same qualities as Hassan; to do the right thing, to think of others, and to carry his own weight with confidence.
What can I say about "Empire of the Sun" other than it is a brilliant book, "Empire of the Sun" is not about the end; it's all about the journey. Knowing that's going to happen is irrelevant, it's how things happen that's important and how people react to the events.
Since the beginning of the semester, the main idea of the class has been to demonstrate how “life imitates art more than art imitates life” (Wilde 10). To shaping this idea, the first work read in class was the play, The Shape of Things, by Neil LaBute. From reading this play, the class was able to dive into the rest of our literary works having a clear understanding of how art can change us. From the idea presented, each student was able to come to a conclusion about how influential art was to our lives. Personally, before starting the class I did not believe art could influence life more than life could influence art, but after starting the class and almost completing it, I now have a different viewpoint on how influential art is to our daily lives. When deciding upon which two primary sources to use, I wanted to demonstrate how powerful art was in shaping who we could become. The Shape of Things and My Fair Lady seemed to be able to demonstrate my point the clearest. In both works, the main character changes identities due to the events that take place. While the outcomes can be established as either being positive or negative, the transformation of the characters is clear: both characters are largely impacted by the artful events happening surrounding them.
“I think Lowe’s journey was about authenticity, how to get to someplace in himself that was truer than what he’d been living. I think he was tired of pretending. I think, at a certain point, he had lost himself in the many stories he was living—his father’s story, Cecil’s story, Miss Sylvie’s story, the villagers’ stories.”
In movies, novels, and life, people are named as heroes. The heroes we establish and the heroes we recognize, however, may not meet the criteria for a mythic hero. A mythic hero ventures forth on his journey, and comes forth from the hero’s path to greatness. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied many of the great human myths and religious tales, realized, in studying these myths and tales, that there were certain steps that every hero went through. Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey”; it is based on Carl Jung's idea that all human beings have an archetype. After Campbell studied a lot of the great myths and realized this pattern, he published his findings in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Ever since then, authors have used “The Hero’s Journey” as an outline to tell their stories. “It is important to note that not all of these individual steps are present in every hero’s tale, nor is it important that they be in this exact order” (Vogler 20). The Hero with a Thousand Faces gives a sense of significance as it looks into the inner mind and soul. The author, Joseph Campbell, performs two extraordinary accomplishments: compelling his readers that myth and dream, those are the most effective and everlasting forces in life and a unification of mythology and psychoanalysis with a gripping narrative. One well-known example of “The Hero’s Journey” from popular culture is the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling. In the novel, Harry Potter, the main character, is the chosen one and “The Hero’s Journey” applies to his life from the moment he is attacked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as a baby.
...ass levels, interactions between characters and stronger meaning behind the plot. His subtle use of references to the performing arts allows the reader to leave interpretation to those scenes and what each character could possibly represent in that situation.