The novel, Silent Alarm, by Jennifer Banash, takes an interesting perspective in an all-too-common tragedy that is sadly becoming more and more prevalent lately. This novel dives deep into the emotions of young violin prodigy Alys, whose brother decided to shoot and kill fifteen kids at their school one day, then proceed to shoot himself in the head. The book ventures through all of Alys’ emotions, from anger, to sadness, grief, and more. This book was particularly special because of it’s interesting viewpoint, and at first glance it sounded like an emotionally tolling and sophisticated book. It's surprising twist makes it definitely worth the read.
This thought-provoking novel entails the life of Alys and her family, opening the novel with
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Suddenly, Luke storms through the library doors and proceeds with shooting multiple students. Afterwards, he shoots himself in the head. In this prologue, he even looks directly at Alys and spares her, continuing on to shoot other students.
Alys, as a character, changes dramatically throughout the book, going through a lot of development. In the aftershock of the horrific event at her high school, Alys appears to be an emotional wreck. She fails to comprehend how her brother could act in such a way. Her and her family deal with reporters lined up in their driveway, and people distrusting their family, despite the fact that it was Alys’ brother who was at fault and not his family. For example, Alys’ boyfriend Ben had always been at her side no matter what. But after the tragedy and the fact that Luke had shot his little sister, Katie, Ben’s family even threatened Alys and her parents to stay away from them at all costs. Even Alys’ best friend, Delilah, had to sneak out of her house to go see Alys, due to their disapproval of her family. As these events unfold, Alys and her parents become pariahs, and they feel extremely outcasted. Even when the family has to go to Luke’s funeral, reporters surround them, not giving the family the respect that they deserve.
She sees her father old and suffering, his wife sent him out to get money through begging; and he rants on about how his daughters left him to basically rot and how they have not honored him nor do they show gratitude towards him for all that he has done for them (Chapter 21). She gives into her feelings of shame at leaving him to become the withered old man that he is and she takes him in believing that she must take care of him because no one else would; because it is his spirit and willpower burning inside of her. But soon she understands her mistake in letting her father back into he life. "[She] suddenly realized that [she] had come back to where [she] had started twenty years ago when [she] began [her] fight for freedom. But in [her] rebellious youth, [she] thought [she] could escape by running away. And now [she] realized that the shadow of the burden was always following [her], and [there she] stood face to face with it again (Chapter 21)." Though the many years apart had changed her, made her better, her father was still the same man. He still had the same thoughts and ways and that was not going to change even on his death bed; she had let herself back into contact with the tyrant that had ruled over her as a child, her life had made a complete
In the beginning of the novel, Princess Alyss is characterized as mischievous, endearing, and naive. Alyss loves to play pranks such as “dropping jelly jellies from an open window and watching them splat on the guards below (Beddor 11). Instead of behaving like
Throughout the book Alyce proves to be a very empathetic and caring young girl. One of the times Alyce shows her empathy, the Midwife was trying to help a woman give birth, but the lady was having some trouble and Jane tried so much that in the end she just gave up to go help someone else she knew would pay her more, deciding to abandon the woman who was in need of help. Alyce decided that it wasn’t fair, and that a lady shouldn’t be left like that when she needed help, “The memory of the proud, frightened, Joan of a moment ago kept her there. And she asked herself, What would the midwife so if she were here? … Alyce took a deep breath and returned to Joan’s side” (59), so she decided to help Joan even though the midwife was too selfish to do so. Alyce also respects the people who don’t respect her, so when the village boys that had recently stopped teasing her were doing something that would have definitely gotten them in trouble if the midwife had seen them, she knew they’d have been in trouble so she went up to the midwife and talked to her to hold her off so the boys could get away. Alyce likes helping people that need help when no one else will help them, for example when she’s found a job at an inn after she’s given up her career as a midwife’s apprentice and a few people ride to the inn asking for help because they claim the lord’s wife is being eaten by a stomach worm but Alyce immediately realizes the lady is pregnant and decides to help her even though she’s a bit uncertain at first because of her recent failure.
When she enters London, she changes into her own person who makes her own decisions. Alyss says, “Yes, it was a solution: Give up her so-called ridiculous, fantastical delusions and enter wholeheartedly into the world around her. Become just like everyone else.” (Beddor 89) Alyss was first being thought of as a crazy person with a story that no one believed. Then, she finally gave in to the people around her and agrees with them. She thinks that being like “everyone else” is the solution to her problem. When Alyss sees Dodge for the first time in 13 years, she thinks, “It couldn’t have been him. The man with the scars. It couldn’t have. He didn’t exist.” (Beddor 116) Since Alyss had become free from her fantasy world, she was overwhelmed when she first saw Dodge. Even though she had forgotten her past life, the memory of Dodge was still there. Her mixed emotions and memories of Dodge caused internal conflict within Alyss: “And as she torpedoed up toward the surface, having worked impossibly hard to convince herself that the place about to be seen by her disbelieving eyes didn’t exist, she said the man’s name- Dodge Anders- and water filled her lungs.” (Beddor 120) Alyss tried convincing herself Wonderland did not exist, as she went through the Pool of Tears, but she knew it was real. The only reason she let go of Wonderland is because she wanted to fit in with her other world.
In the beginning of the novel, Alyss is characterized as dependent, loving, and imaginative. Throughout the story these traits mature and Alyss becomes more adult like but still is a little childish in certain scenes. One can say that the maturity that Alyss goes through affects herself later on in the story. During the story the
To prove that she is loyal to White imagination here is a quote from the book. “But she had caught it; the crystal cube was safe.” This quote represents Alyss saving the looking glass maze cube from hitting the ground and cracking. If it cracked it would be broken forever, never allowing the queens that come after Alyss to go through the maze. Another example of Alyss’ loyalty would be when she went into the maze to become the warrior queen that she had to become to save the queendom. “Do i kill or...but what’s to be done with her if I don’t? She’ll pose a threat as long as she lives.” In this quote Alyss struggles with how to handle her aunt. She shows loyalty to the queendom by thinking about getting rid of her aunt for the better of the land. She said that she would pose a threat as long as she lives. What that means is that it would be threatening the queendom if she does not kill her. This shows she is pretty loyal to white imagination/queendom.
In The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, the story of alice in wonderland is modified and changed to where Alyss is the Princess of Wonderland, who is forced to leave wonderland when her evil Aunt Redd takes over and kills alyss’ parents. When hatter madigan and alyss are separated in the pool of tears, Alyss ends up alone in England. Eventually returning to take back her throne. When changing the story he developed new themes like how Dodge, Jack of Diamonds, and Alyss can not stay children forever.
Alymer is a sinner because he tries to be god by trying to improve on God's creation. He is successful in improving georgiana, but is not successful in improving God's creation, because Georgiana can no longer live as a mortal, and she then dies - thus Alymer is unsuccessful.
When Alyss was a young girl in the novel she was characterized as maturing, rebellious, and mischievous because of the things she liked to do. She was described as maturing because of something that happened to her when she came to this dimension. By being in the real world she matured by learning the “...struggle against hardship, unfairness, corruption, abuse, and adversity in all it’s guise.”(Beddor 102) By living as a homeless orphan with a small group of kids. Along with learning that she would soon learn that “...even to survive-let alone survive with dignity-is heroic.”(Beddor 102) She will learn this by giving into peer pressure because people were
First and foremost, the novel Hush by Jacqueline Woodson deals with a lot of issues, but if we really look closely at Toswiah/Evie’s internal journey we really understand that the book revolves around Evie/Toswiah and how she needs to about figure out who she is. Toswiah/Evie asks herself questions within the novel about her identity. So, if I were to judge: I believe the uprising theme of Hush is to never forget who you are. I say this because her character keeps reminiscing about how her life was in Denver how she had what she believes is “the perfect life” she had a roof over her head, food on the table, and a best friend who meant to world to her. In the novel Toswiah/Evie begins to question her external circumstances. For instance, being placed in the Witness Protection Program, and being
In the beginning of the novel, Alyss is characterized as bratty, imaginative, and a little too playful. She said to Bibwit Harte, “I won’t need any lessons” (Beddor 25). She thinks she is too smart for Bibwit and already knows everything. Alyss
The critics who perceived this book's central theme to be teen-age angst miss the deep underlying theme of grief and bereavement. Ambrosio asks the question, "Is silence for a writer tantamount to suicide? Why does the wr...
basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and
One of the first social interactions we see from Amory in the story
He thought his counity would eventually forget him and be outcasted, his friends eventually came to accept him the way he was. His family and friends decided to overlook his flaws and accept that their Alfie was still in there. Alfie's dreams of directing are satisfied in the end because even though he thought everyone would leave him and thathe would eventually leave the town, but they accept him and he goes back to directing. Alfie's sister, Lilly's dreams, are not met. In fact, durring the play, when she finds out that Alfie is a homosexual, she reveals that she will never get to see Alfie walk down the aisle or attend his wedding.