The Compound is about a boy Eli and his family, and their life inside of a fallout shelter also known as The Compound. Eli first entered the compound when he was nine before a nuclear attack plunged the world into another age of darkness. Eli has now been in the compound for six years. In that time, his mother Clea had three children, and is pregnant with a fourth, known by the family as “the supplements”, the supplements are Eli’s father’s, Rex, plan for food incase their meat supply runs low. Eli doesn't like seeing them because he doesn't want to grow attached to them. Eventually Rex shows Eli his laboratory where Eli discovers his dad is attempting to clone humans to maintain a continuous food source in the oncoming years and this disgusts Eli. Clea eventually talks Eli into meeting the children where he develops a deep bond with them. Eli then finds out that there is working internet around his father's laboratory. Eli accesses the internet to find out that his twin brother Eddy, who we are told didn't make it to the compound in time, is still alive, and that there was no nuclear attack. Eddy warns Eli about their father having a history of being insane and warns him of the dangers to come. Eddy promises to find Eli. Learning this Eli confronts his father to find that the lies are indeed true. Eli socks his dad in the jaw and knocks him out cold. Before his father is taken to the infirmary he reveals how to unlock the hatch at the top of the compound. Eli and his sisters discover the code on a piece of paper written in invisible ink …show more content…
but before Eli and his family can escape; Rex is revived and threatens to kill one of the supplements if Eli doesnt hand the paper over. Eli gives Rex the combination back and him and his sisters begin to solve the code for themselves. Eventually they crack the code and Eli escapes but as soon as he exits the hatch, Rex comes behind him and relocks the door. Then a helicopter lands in a field next to the compound carrying Rex’s accountant Phil who tells Eli that Rex is planning to move the family to another compound. Eli sees Rex emerge from the hatch and hand a black box to Phil which contains to controls to explosives rigged throughout the compound as a part of a contingency plan. Eli tackles Phil and the box drops to the ground and alarms within the compound begin to blare. Eli rushes in to grab the rest of the family and lead them to escape. As they escape Rex runs past them in an attempt to preserve his research. As the family flees, the compound explodes and Phil’s helicopter is seen flying away. Eli is left with the question if his dad made it out or not. In the end, Eli and Eddy reunite, Clea inherits all of Rex’s money, and the whole family goes on vacation where Eli is left feeling hopeful for the future. Methodology: For this criticism I’m using a Fantasy-Themed criticism.
Fantasy-Theme criticism is a method of rhetorical criticism that investigates why a group of people think or feel the way they do (Kidd). Critics and researchers who use a Fantasy-Theme analysis look to understand how a group of individuals collectively came to an understanding of an event or scenario and what the impacts of that understanding may be.
Analysis: We start with the setting of The Compound. Like its name suggests almost all the book takes place within the compound that Rex built for his family. The compound is described throughout the book as being state of the art, containing all the newest technology and everything needed for a modern lifestyle (Bodeen). The compound contains a rec room, game room, state of art kitchen, living room, garden, and even an indoor pasture for cattle. Though state of the art, it is apparent throughout the book that the family have grown tired and accustomed to all the compound has to offer since the six years they’ve been there. The setting itself is the main driver of the plot. The compound is represented as more of a prison than a place of safety from the outside as Rex would have his wife and children believe. Eli and the rest of the family become more and more strained from living there and it's obvious that the book focuses on their breaking point. Eli’s thoughts from the beginning all tie back to Eli leaving the compound and its this dream that sets the tone for the entire book. S. A. Bodeen writes the book in such a way where the setting itself becomes an antagonist alongside Rex, leaving us forever wondering what's outside the compounds walls until it is revealed to us late in the story. Eli and Rex are the two opposing forces throughout this book. The plot is focused on their own interaction more than anyone else in the book. All the other characters fill a supporting cast role with much of their dialogue and actions being somewhat forgettable. Rex is the looming manipulator throughout the plot, always watching, or studying the rest of his family while everyone else reacts to the forces he lets loose on them. To Rex the whole experience is like watching ants in an ant farm. He reveals to Eli in the book that he is the reason for the food shortages plaguing the family along with other circumstances the family has to deal with. Rex is treats his family like lab rats, and its evident he considers them disposable. Eli on the other hand is skeptical, curious, and hard headed. Throughout the book his greatest quality, enduring, is very apparent when compared to the rest of his traits. Eli wants what's best for his family, and he is determined to have the best for his family no matter what. Its this quality that leads him to do the actions he does throughout the book. This relationship with his family is best seen in interactions with his mother. He worries about her and the strain she's going through carrying her now eighth child and him fearing her imminent death if they don't leave the compound is a large part of his motivation to escape. In the beginning of the book we are lead to believe that the outside world is a long forgotten thing of the past. This fantasy is realized by all except Rex who knows the truth. A lot of the actions carried about by Rex in the beginning seem sort of clumsy or harmless as if he’s playing dumb but soon his actions take a more ominous tone which climaxes with Rex threatening to kill one of the supplements. We learn that Rex’s actions are entirely the reason that everyone in the family believes the world has ended. When Rex first initiated his plan to experiment on his family he set their house on fire to help stimulate the apocalypse. Along with feeding them all false information along the way, they all fall for a fantasy of nuclear fallout which simply does not exist. Conclusion: The Compound is a story of deception and how far can one lie go. S. A. Bodeen constructs a fascinating scenario in which a wealthy family is plunged underground for what they’re told might be forever, and how they react to this fantasy. The books primary tone is one of verticality to explain it best. The characters are all trying to rise from dread to happiness much like how the compound is designed. This book really capitalizes on the resilience of the human spirit and the desperation for us as beings to be at our most happy no matter what bonds are broken in the process.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based on an author’s opinion on a subject. The theme of innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a conflict that connects to the theme that innocence should be protected is the death of Tom Robinson.
Wait Till Next Year is a book written by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Wait Till Next Year is a book written in Goodwin’s point of view set in Rockville Center, New York. The book begins with Goodwin’s father teaching her the scorekeeping rules of baseball in the summer of 1949. After her father taught her how to properly record a baseball game she would sit in front of the radio and listen to the game every day and would record everything each player did during that game. Then when her father would arrive home from work she would relay to him all that had happened during the game of that day. As Goodwin looks back on this in her book she begins to think that it is because of these times with her father that she has a love for history and for storytelling.
A movie, “The Other Sister,” is about two mentally challenged people name Carla Tate and Daniel. Carla Tate, a 24-year old woman, return to San Francisco from a sheltered boarding school after long years. After rejoining with her overprotective mother Elizabeth, a gentle and thoughtful father Radley, and two young and older sisters, Carla announces that she wants to attend a local school called Bay Area Polytech, a normal vocational school. Nevertheless of her mother Elizabeth’s disapproval, Radley supports her to pursue her dream. On the first day, Carla meets a boy named Danny and helps him when someone calls him “retarded.” They both get close to each other and fall in love quickly. Carla envied Danny for living on his own, so
One example of the theme occurs when the author first introduces the story. “But the summer I was 9 years old, the town I had always loved morphed into a beautifully heartbreaking and complicated place.” (pg. 1). The author is saying that the year she turned nine, she found out something about her town that broke her heart and changed the way she saw it. This quote is important because it supports the theme. It shows that now she is older she has learned something about her town that made her wiser than when she was younger. She is now more informed because the new information changed her and caused her to begin to mature.
Theme is the subject of talk, a topic, or morals that the author is trying to get readers to comprehend. When reading an excerpt, the theme is not directly stated in the text, so you must dig deeper into the context to understand the matter trying to be portrayed. In both Angela's Ashes and The Street, we can distinguish a like theme of struggling through life’s complications. After reading the two different stories, we could select the theme from using character, events, and the setting.
“Geronimo: an American legend” is a story of an apache warrior who fought against the United States in order to preserve his peoples culture. The film starts off, ironically, with the first surrender of Geronimo. His people are sent to a reservation called turkey creek. On this reservation they were expected to become farmers that would produce mostly corn. However the apache where not harvesting enough to sustain their community and had to rely on government checks.
Characterization is a good example of how this theme can be represented. The main character seems to be very dedicated to the building of the field and doing what the voice asks of him. There are few things he does that shoes how dedicated to the success of the field he is.
A theme is a unifying or dominant idea in a literary work. Steinbeck described the competition of good versus evil as the story of mankind itself. He believes that every generation to come since Adam and Eve will now be immersed with the struggle of good and evil due to Eve’s curiosity that led to sin, eventually banning both her and Adam from the Garden of Eden. In East of Eden, Steinbeck makes the contest of good versus evil apparent through his contrasting description of the setting, the characters’ opposing personalities, and society’s changing morals.
An idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art of literature can be referred to as a “Theme”. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and may be implied rather than stated explicitly. Theme is an important part of fictional stories. Several themes are presented in the novel to kill a mocking bird. One of the reoccurring themes in to kill a mockingbird is courage.
A traditional method assumes that the criticism involves both explication of what actually went on when the speaker engaged his or her audience, and an evaluation of how well the speaker performed the task of changing the audiences’ perspective of reality. It is also assumed that the traditional method will create a feeling of identification and sense of relatedness between the speaker or writer and the
Theme is the underlying power beneath a story; the “force” that makes the whole experience worthwhile. Theme is “an idea or message that the writer wishes to convey” (Holt 874). A theme can be either stated or implied. A stated theme is a theme “that the other expresses directly in his work (protic.net); an implied theme is a theme “that is not directly stated in the work” (protic.net). As mentioned before, both of these stories have an implied theme, which now is revealed to mean that the author of the story insinuated it. Themes exist in all stories (verbal or written) and can be long, short, true or false. “Earth people will beat out any other intelligent life-form in any and all competitions” is a theme, but “good always beats evil” is one too. “Once upon a time . . .” stories have themes too, except they are more one-dimensional. For example,...
According to Dictionary.com, theme is defined as a “main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work which may be stated directly or indirectly.” My idea of the meaning behind theme lies closely within this definition. To me, theme is the main memorandum or moral the reader will gained through reading and analyzing a story. The theme usually has a message or lesson behind it to provoke to the reader to question life. The theme could be very obvious or obscure, it just depends on how the author wants to communicate with his audience. After reading several pieces of literature in this class, the theme of “Gender Roles” really stood out to me. I especially found this theme pungent in The Yellow Wallpaper, A Doll’s House, and The Great Gatsby.
Why We Can't Wait is a book by Martin Luther King, Jr. about the nonviolent movement against racial segregation in the United States, and specifically the 1963 Birmingham campaign. The book describes 1963 as a landmark year in the Civil Rights Movement, and as the beginning of America's "Negro Revolution".
The story takes place at a train stop. There’s a couple An American, and the girl, Jig, waiting at a train station in the shade outside the building until another train come in forty minutes to take them to Madrid. While they are waiting they decided to order drinks. The American seems the only one who understands and knows how to speak Spanish. The girl notices some words painted on the bead curtains (Anis dil Toro) in which The American tells her it’s a drink, She asked him could they try it.
For an abundance of authors, the driving force that aids them in creation of a novel is the theme or number of themes implemented throughout the novel. Often times the author doesn’t consciously identify the theme they’re trying to present. Usually a theme is a concept, principle or belief that is significant to an author. Not only does the theme create the backbone of the story, but it also guides the author by controlling the events that happen in a story, what emotions are dispersed, what are the actions of characters, and what emotions are presented within each environment to engage the readers in many