“C’mon, Jake! We’re going to be late!” I yelled at my far behind brother. “As fast as I can, sis.” The thing is, we’re heading on our first trip to Paris! Jake is going to leave for a few months to go back to the army for his shift as a Special Forces candidate. “Flight 54 to Toulouse, France now boarding! Plane doors close in eight minutes!” The loud woman’s voice echoed through the gigantic, busy building. As soon as we made it to the luggage scanner, I grinned with joy. “I can see it now, Jake! Bright lights, amazing food, the big beautiful towers!” He had a concerned and worried look on his face, but just covered it with a grim, stone look plastered across his face. “Are you OK, J? I asked, grabbing his rough, patchy hands. “Huh? No, I’m fine Behlen.” Anguish spread my face as we made our way to the plane doors. Why does he have to lie to me?
As we boarded the large plane, Jake lifted the luggage in the little blue cubby and sat down next to me. I started to munch on some crackers when I fell asleep… I’ve anticipated this moment since I was just twelve years old. Well, I’m ...
“Straining his eyes, he saw the lean figure of General Zaroff. Then... everything went dark. Maggie woke up in her bed. “Finally woke up from that nightmare. Man… I miss my brother. Who was that person that my brother wanted to kill?” she looks at the clock and its 9:15am “Crap I’m late for work!” Maggie got in her car and drove to the hospital for work.
In this particular case, the plot is satisfying particularly due to the presentation and buildup of suspense throughout the book and also due to the usage of foreshadowing of future events. In detail, Anthony Horowitz’s use a particular presentation of suspense in the manner of building up one’s urge to read more and then releasing the demand in a series of decisive events. In other words, Anthony Horowitz builds up such urgency in the reader by first presenting events that do not reveal many details other than the environment and the character actions, which leads to the reader wanting more action. In an example, such style is used when Alex first meets the Aussies at the barbecue. The Australians, who are SAS recruits, invite Alex to an afternoon barbecue at a beach after Alex meets up with ASIS. The men, however, act strangely during the gathering and command Alex to perform bizarre acts that one would simply not think of. Furthermore, the crew landed on a restricted military operation zone, which is off limits for non-military personnel. Secondly, the same style is brought about when Alex explores the cargo ship of Scorpia entirely by himself with only his thoughts and statements. And lastly, such suspense is built up when Alex is formulating a plan to escape the snakehead hospital alone and with no M16 assistance. Evidently, by describing the character's thoughts and environment, Horowitz creates a sense of urgency and vagueness within the reader that wants the full truth of the situation. Correspondingly, Horowitz releases the urgency that is built up within the reader by disposing of the vagueness in a series of petrifying events. In this situation, Horowitz releases the suspense that is built up within the barbecue scene by allowing the area
The airport travelers were a group of people trying to escape the rebels, hoping that the airport would be able to give them a flight to America. Sophie, on the scooter given to her, was just minding her own business trying to pass them without drawing too much attention to herself. However that did not work. The travelers wanted her scooter and little Otto. She gladly gave the scooter away, but there was no way she would give up Otto. But the men of the group took him away. Sophie was terrified. In her time of panic, a woman with little girls stepped up to help her. She convinced the men to give up Otto. In return Sophie graciously gave her belongings for survival, to her and her family. The challenge in this situation is the fact that Otto would have been stolen and taken away. Sophie became stronger by remaining calm and learning some skills for
...h narrators see more horror than they could imagine was possible. Each day is quite likely to be their last and they are under no illusions what sort of horrific death could be lurking over the top of the next attack.
Kelly had us watching this man for the past month, what time he leaves his house, to what time he gets to his house. We had to know what time he went to bed to what time he was mostly alone in his mansion. His name was Charles Urschel, wealthy tycoon and businessman but to us he was just a way to get money. James Connor and I accompanied Kelly when he plotted to raid the wealthy man’s home and kidnap him for ransom money. It was a very still calm night, light breeze. It was as if I could sense the nervousness on my partners face but for Kelly I saw nothing. Just the cold, hard, terrifying look that was always on Kelly’s face unless he was with his wife. We waited...
Published in 2005, Jonathan Foer's fiction novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close takes it's readers on an intriguing journey into the life of a boy named Oskar Schell. The novel follows the nine-year old as he travels around all of New York City in search of secrets behind a mysterious key and the connection it has to his father, Thomas Schell, who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. On his journey, Oskar accumulates many friends who aid Oskar’s grief as he aids them with theirs. As Oskar’s story blossoms, so do those of his Grandfather and Grandmother, who co-narrate the story with their grandson. These three narrations come together to introduce and develop a theme of grief. All characters within the novel grieve over something. They grieve of the loss of a father, a son, a sister; they are grieving over a marriage that lacks love; they are grieving for solutions that can never be resolved. Foer uses an assortment of characters to acknowledge a theme of grief that is slowly eliminated by Oskar’s uplifting spirit.
-"So our perfect outing was ruined – because of what the stunt, as my father called it, had inspired in everyone except us. 'We knew things were bad,' my father told the friends he immediately sat down to phone when we got home, 'but not like this. You had to be there to see what it looked like. They live a dream, and we live a nightmare" (Roth 281).
The cellphone rings breaking the tranquil morning at an apartment in New York City, half asleep, Robert picks up the phone only to hear, “Honey we are hit”. The line disconnected jolting him out of his sleep. He looked at his phone which displayed that the call was from his wife, tried to call back with no success, ‘What’s it all about’, he tried to sober up, having just returned home from the barracks he was just taking a long deserved rest. Another call broke his chain of thoughts, he picked up the call only to hear his sister sobbing on the other end urging him to watch the television. He switched the TV on just in time to see the clip of the collapse of the world trade center. He stood
Tragedy is a part of life regardless of who the individual is. How people cope with these tragedies varies from person to person. One thing we all have in common is the commonly used phrase “Never Forget.” Tragedy tends to define people and the memory of those people and their stories live on. The way people never forget these tragedies is through communication and telling their stories. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, explores the many ways that different people live with tragedy in their own lives and the way they tell their stories to other people. The book follows three main characters: Oskar Schell who is a funny nine year old boy who lost his father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks; his Grandmother who lost her family in the firebombings in Germany and her son in the 9/11 attacks; and his Grandfather, Thomas Schell, Sr., who lost the woman he loved during her pregnancy. Throughout the story Oskar meets many people who are also coping and as they communicate and connect, Oskar is able to cope with his own loss. Foer touches base on many ways to cope with tragedy but really dives into how the stories live on through other people as the stories spread. This novel really explains the importance of communication to keep memories alive to help the characters cope. No matter how people copes with their tragedies, there is always a story to tell.
It was a freezing winter afternoon. The snow had sprinkled the rooftops, pavements and awnings of the shops. Rene was walking home from school, sneezing, and shivering in his overcoat. He was waddling at a snail’s pace with his long-lazy limbs and felt as confused as a rabbit in a snare. Rene was svelte, sharp-featured and handsome, though his nose was kind of big, you could hang a swing from it. He was fourteen years old and lived in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky, a town shaped like a monkey’s eyebrow. He was always bubbling with energy and no task was too difficult for him. He had once built a sky scraper with Legos that was so tall that it had to be hinged to let the moon pass by each night. He could overcome any challenge, but today was a different story. Rene had been working on a complex calculus problem full of twists and turns, and every time he thought he was out of the labyrinth, he had bumped into another wall.
It was my brother’s 12th birthday so my family decided to celebrate after school by going bowling. My brother, Nico, kept bragging about how good he was at bowling. I told him that I would beat him, because I’m a lot better at bowling than him. He kept denying it, so when we got there we really wanted to find out who was better at bowling.
It felt so dragged out because all I wanted was to see him and tell him the news. Our connection felt different, phone calls were made shorter and they weren’t as frequent. I missed him. Two nights had gone by without a phone call or even a message. This wasn’t typical of Luke. I was becoming increasingly worried. I tried to distract myself from the situation and went to Atlanta to visit my parent’s for the weekend. This provided a distraction from my despair. When I arrived home, the flat fell silent. I sat aimlessly on the sofa, starring at the telephone, hoping that maybe it would ring. I tried turning my television on but I was oblivious to anything around me. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I knew something was wrong. Fifty-five minutes passed, as I stared at the phone. That was when I heard it
So there I was, thundering (or carefully maneuvering) my way up Route 9. After a quick stop at the local police station to re-orient myself (as I missed a left turn), I pulled into the small parking lot of the small, two-story, stucco-and-shingled building with an enormous satellite dish on it. I double-checked my questions, made sure my recorder was working, and headed in. I sat in the small waiting area as the secretary went to fetch Simon. Palms sweaty, I rubbed them on my jeans to calm myself and let out a little nervous energy.
Every day John travels into London but today was going to be a very different day he was flying to New York on a business trip to a meeting with all the top doctors in the world. The alarm did not go off and he overslept, he missed his train to the airport and had to get a later flight. As he settled into his seat on the Jumbo, the airhostess offered him a large black coffee. He read the papers and then closed his eyes. This afternoon was going to be the first meeting and he didn’t want to be tired.
I could not believe what I had heard that evening. It never passed through my head that I was going to be listening to such a story. I did not think at all it was going to be as strong as it appeared to be. At beginning of it, the story did not even seem to be a story. I thought I was just going to be an advice for life. At the end of that night I, just as William in, “Flight Patterns” by Sherman Alexie, did not have the most minimum idea of what Fr. Andreas and Fekadu had gone through. I was only paying attention to my own problems. I had shot down others reality and had not even pay attention to other people’s