There are many characters in the Selection series, but these five characters are the most important in The One. America, the narrator of the story, is a feisty, red haired girl with blue eyes who speaks up for what is right and often gets in trouble for it. She grew up caste as a five in the province of Carolina and the middle child of five children. America is thin from not receiving as much food as she should, five feet seven inches tall, and extremely beautiful. America never wanted to be part of the selection, she just wanted to be a musician, singing and playing instruments at the parties of richer citizens until she had enough money to marry her boyfriend Aspen. It was Aspen’s idea to enter the selection in the first place, and …show more content…
out of thousands, America was one of the thirty-five girls chosen to compete for the prince’s hand. She was chosen as a throw away choice by Maxon’s father to mimic caste diversity, but Maxon has other plans. The caste system is a way of classifying people into groups that limits their career options. You are born into your cast and cannot your status it unless you marry out of it. A one is royalty, an eight is extreme poverty. America Singer is a five, so that means she must be an artist and cannot seek a career besides one in the arts, also, a five doesn’t make very much money. Prince Maxon, son of King Clarkson and Queen Amberly, is the prince of Illea.
He loves photography, and if he wasn’t the prince of the country, he would want to be a photographer, a five. Maxon has clean cut honey blond hair and brown eyes, compared to chocolate by America. He has a muscular build and many scars rippling down his back, one for each time he misbehaves. Maxon is slightly oblivious to what is going on in the lower castes until America arrives and he is shocked to find out that she has gone without food before. Maxon is extremely good at hiding his feelings because of the stress of his job and always remains calm in difficult …show more content…
situations. The elite that are left in The One are Kriss, Celeste, and Elise. Kriss a slim brunette with brown eyes who is always showing everyone up in the fashion department. She is the sweetheart of the competition. Celeste is manipulative and easy to hate in the first book, but sweet in the last. She is strikingly beautiful, tall, and wears a lot of makeup since she was a model before the competition, and she is also very arrogant and confident. Elise has jet black hair and an exotic slant to her eyes, which may come from her Asian blood. She has strong connections to powerful people in New Asia and that is what America suspects is keeping her in the competition because she isn’t particularly stunning in any way. The One takes place in Illea, the futuristic remnants of the former America, Mexico, and Canada under a new name. The palace is located in Angels, the capital of Illea, and the King and Queen rule from here. Angeles is always sunny and warm and it is located around where California used to be. Rebels are a huge problem in Illea and Angeles because they don’t like the monarchy King Clarkson has created. The dystopian setting of this book influenced the plot because it added the conflict of the rebels and a country slightly out of the hands of their king. In the book, there are two groups of rebels, the peaceful northern rebels who want to abolish the caste system, and the dangerous southern rebels who want to take down Illea. America and the others in the palace encounter many of both types of rebels when they attack or break into the palace. The setting didn’t change the characters’ actions because competitions for the hand of a prince or princess can happen anywhere. This book really could have taken place anywhere there were people rebelling against government, which is pretty much everywhere. The author did a good job of describing the dirty streets and the weather, but there were no scientific advances, infact, there were no computers at all. If the story took place on a different planet, I plot would obviously change, but anywhere on earth as long as it was far enough in the future for a few wars to take place wouldn’t change the plot at all. The One starts with only four girls remaining from the original thirty-five, America, Kriss, Celeste, and Elise, and a minor rebel attack. When America returns to her room after the attack, she finds a letter from her younger sister May announcing the birth of baby Astra, her older sister Kenna’s daughter. shortly after, America and Maxon secretly make an alliance with two northern rebels while King Clarkson is traveling. When the king returns, he announces that the rebels are now attacking by caste, the castes of the elites. America urges people to fight with whatever they have and to not be afraid. On a rooftop date between Maxon and America, she realizes that she loves him and Aspen will not be an option for her ever again, but she doesn’t tell either boy. Later, America finds Celest crying in the library because of America’s growing popularity and the two of them, surprisingly, become friends. Maxon and America escape the palace to meet August and Georgia, and are apprehended by southern rebels. Everyone escapes alive beside the August and Georgia’s son, but America is shot in the shoulder and needs secret surgery to cover everything up. When she has to invite two friends to a tea party, she invites the Italian Princes, Nicoletta, and Georgia to form alliances between the two of them and convinces Nicoletta to fund weapons for the northern rebels, who want peace. As a part of a loyalty ceremony, Maxon gives all of the girls beautiful jewelry, and America used hers to free a hungry man from jail, so King Clarkson orders her out of the palace. Maxon and the Italian Princess convince King Clarkson t let her stay because she is so popular. America then receives an urgent message, her father is dead, and rushes off to Carolina for the funeral. When she returns, she is whisked away to an engagement party, there are two girls left, America and Kriss, one of them is getting married, but America can’t deal with the loud party and heads towards her room. Maxon joins her and announces that he wants to marry America, but when he finds out about Aspen, he flips out and runs away to Kriss. Before he can publicly announce his engagement to Krissssss, the southern rebels attack and Maxon confesses that he only ever loved America. The two of them get married in the epilogue after the rebel attack and everyone lives happily ever after. I would rate the book a three point five out of five stars because it was obvious what was going to happen and a little stereotypical, but still fun to read.
Kiera Cass used good word choice and described parts of her book in great detail, her dialog was very good as well. The plot of the book was easy to follow and predictable, but the book would have not been as good if she got second place and it would be difficult for the author to write a sequel series. Cass did include some creative twists on the usual love story including a knee to the thigh, book stealing rebels, and creative tasks the girls had to pass to move on in the competition. Kiera Cass could have developed her setting and characters much better over the course of the three book series because I felt like I still couldn’t fully picture the characters in my mind. A few more descriptive paragraphs on each character and the setting would have made the book much more enjoyable. The book was a fast read because there wasn’t a whole lot of detail. The book was really fun to read and a refreshing change from the usual books I read, but because of the missing detail, I have to give this book three point five out of five stars. Although there were obvious mistakes, I would recommend this book because I loved this book and have already read it
twice.
A character that was admirable in the novel “we all fall down” is John. John is the father of Will who is the main character, they spend nearly the entire story together looking for a way out of the world trade center during the 9/11 attacks. During the story you learn that John is very smart, brave, and respected. These are all characteristics which play a crucial role in saving lives such as his co-workers and a random lady they find on the way named ting, but mainly in the ending John and Will successfully escape.
This book has great balances of love interests, actions, and internal conflict with characters. It has an interesting story so far with new pieces coming up every few chapters that are very important. Like Al attacking Tris, Eric talking about Divergents and how the rebels must be eliminated. Tris and Four are developing feelings for each other, which I find weird because he is basically her teacher. They are only two years apart, so the relationship is not that awkward. In this journal I will be predicting, evaluating, and questioning.
The book had a few characters that I liked, but a lot of characters that I disliked. For example Yasmine was a character that I disliked. I didn’t like her because she brought pain to Paige’s life. Yasmine and Paige were best friends for months in Sixth grade. They were constantly doing fun activities together, like having sleepovers or planning each other’s birthday parties, but all that was ruined by a mistake Yasmine made. Paige and Yasmine were at a school dance, when
American Character by Colin Woodard, is a book about America’s history and the upcoming of how the United States has become. Woodard starts off first explaining what it was like when America was colonized by the New England colonists and goes onward to present-day America. A book like this should be deemed great for a political history class because of the vast amount of information it has. Although, this book is exceptionally very small for a book of such kind, Woodard loves jumping around from era to era and can leave his readers at a disarray. Claiming so, a strong and prior knowledge of the American history and its government is strongly encouraged. Historical and economic terms are also used immensely in this book, so a thesaurus and dictionary would be of great use. If those two resources aren’t of much help, a recommendation of facts found upon the Internet regarding an era of which Woodard is explaining would be helpful.
I found several events interesting one being that many captives were captured more than once, talk about karma. Another being how attached the Indians where to their captives “the Indians would rather cut out their hearts than part with their adoptive captives.” And the last thing is how old Eunice and Stephen live to be. I found this story to be good. It wasn’t captivating. Over all I give this book 6 out of 10, due to the difficulty of understanding of the authors’ theme. and the lack of consistency throughout the book.
During the process of reading this compilation of works, Portrait of America, many different point of views were aired. The opinion or attitude on the subject was too tainted. The authors were very biased to their perception of the "story". This book could have been much more beneficial if the facts would have stayed to the straight and narrow. Only the detrimental facts needed to be applied to these chapters. For a history class, as broad as this, this book opened too many doors that could not be explained in as much detail as would be liked. Many of the authors enjoyed mentioning the most scandalous moments of the people's lives then dropped the fact without much support or follow through as to what happened to cause or end these events. Brief summaries only tease the mind, and with the course load of most students, there is hardly extra time to investigate the matter further in detail. For a class such as History 152, biographies and/or documentary style books are more worth the while of the student. For instance make a list of a selection of novels that could be read for the class, so that every student can then explore in depth what that student thinks is interesting. Although the book was teasing in nature the chapters did flow well and were easy to read. The procession of the chapters had wonderful transition as to not loose the student. While proceeding through this book there were several different reoccurring topics that appeared. This paper will discuss these two reoccurring topics: the civil rights movement and former presidents.
My overall opinion of this book is good I really liked it and recommend it to anyone. It is a good book to read and it keep you interested throughout the whole book.
Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Americans: The Colonial Experience was a broad history of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century in the American Colonies. Within this broad history, Boorstin focused on specific aspects of society as well as specific colonies. Boorstin was very detailed in some aspects of his research while other areas are left more or less to the reader’s imagination. Other reviewers viewed the book as having missed an opportunity to speak of American political and economic ingenuity.
I really enjoyed this book because it was not a story about the middle of the Second World War. Instead it was right before, when things were not as bad, but they were bad enough. It helped me understand how people lived before the hatred grew and how families were torn apart right from the beginning. Likewise, it gave me hope to see that not everything was destroyed and that some people were able to escape. I would recommend this book more for boys but for girls as well, between the ages of 13-15. Even though Karl’s age throughout the book is 14-17, the novel was written more for my age group. Once again this was an amazing book that I could not put down, and I am sure many others were not able to either.
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
*All in all I would say that this novel is definitely a good read. I found my self at times relating my own thoughts and experiences to that of the characters in the book. This is the very reason I would recommend that you give your class next semester the option of reading either this book or another. From my point of view, I think that most men can not relate to certain situations that occur, which lessens the overall significance of her writing.
American Romantic Hero portrays a character who is drawn to nature and has an insight of how society works, but he rejects the rules of society. He is faced with strife, but he eventually overcomes the opposition of the sophisticated and civilized world. The Last of the Mohicans introduces the setting of the movie in 1757 as the American Colonies begins their third year of the war between England and France for the possession of the continent. Only three men, the last of the vanishing people, are on the frontier west of the Hudson River. Natty Bumppo, also known as Hawkeye, is shown as the American Romantic Hero. As the protagonist of the story, Hawkeye demonstrates different characteristics who possesses young or youthful qualities, possesses a sense of honor based not on society’s rule but on some higher principle, and possesses love for nature and avoids towns.
Love is powerful and could change a person’s personality. In “The Book of Unknown Americans”, the author Christina Hernriquez tells us the definition of love. It is a book combined with different stories but each story is connected to others. It talks about the immigrants that moved to America with lots of hope, but didn’t end up with a happy ending. The story is about love, hope and guilt and different kinds of emotional feeling. In the book, Mayor has an internal change because of Maribel, and the power of love. He wants to be a strong man who can protect Maribel. He used to be someone who couldn’t defend himself and he changed because of Maribel.
There are more than 200 million people in the U.S.A, and every one of them lives an individual life. When people see that their life is starting to be too redundant, they try and make a liberating change that will help others and themselves recognize their identity. In “The Vanishing American” by Charles Beaumont, Mr. Mitchell and his interactions with the “King Richard” lion statue reflect the theme of people’s lives being so redundant that they disappear out of the existence of everyday life, unless they step off of their regular road of life and perform more liberating actions.
In chapter one of the book, America Ways, Gary Althen (2011) enlighten people about the concepts of value and assumption in U.S. American culture. the author's clarification of values and assumptions is related to cover a certain criteria customarily to U.S. American culture. However, the author admitted that every culture has a different view in categorizing values and assumption.