Thursday, October 3, 2013
English IV- Due 10/8!
Often times, the protagonists (or minor characters) of a story demonstrate characteristics of the classic hero and quests that we have discussed in class. How does your protagonist or plot resemble the hero and quest, which hero/quest characteristics (extraordinary birth, goal/ quest, journey, friend or guide, danger, darkness, success, qualities, tragic flaw) does the book include? How is your protagonist different from the heroes we have read about in class? Use specific examples from your book to support your opinions.
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There isn't really one protagonists in my book, Uncle Tom's Cabin. There are several main characters so far and major ones have yet to be singled out. One of the character's, Eliza, is a slave whose child is about to be sold to a slave trader, so she packs up in the middle of the night and runs off with her son. Eliza was born a slave and her "quest" could be her search for freedom, especially now that she has run away. The danger would be the slave trader, Mr. Haley, who has just bought her son and is trying to track him down. Eliza has several friends or guides. Her master's wife doesn't want Eliza's son sold to this slave trader so she has the other slaves make it difficult for Mr. Haley to catch her by letting the horses get loose and "not being able" to catch them and stalling to start the search. Eliza differs from the classic hero in that she isn't really anything special. She is well-liked on the plantation and is pretty smart, but she doesn't have any truly great or unique qualities. She also isn't overly proud, she is rather humble.
In my book Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult there are many main characters. One of the main characters in my book is Jack. Jack just got out of jail for rapping someone and is now working at a dinner. But before he ever went to jail he was a professor and is very smart. I think Jacks quest could be to become a better person and to forget the past so he can have a great future. In jail Jack main guide to get him through that time period was a guy named Aldo LeGrande because he helped protect him of the bad people in jail and tried to give him wisdom of who he should not get involved with or talk to . I think the main danger so far to Jack when he was in jail was a guy named Mountain who is was a very bad person. When he is out of jail the main danger for him is his past and what he went through and did. Jack however is more of classic hero because he has no special talents. The people in his jail like him because they bet on him when ever Jeopardy is on that he will get all the question right.
There are multiple main characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but I wouldn’t say there is one character that is most important. One of the main characters is Eliza, who is a slave whose child is about to be taken away. Eliza’s son, Harry, was sold to Mr. Haley, a slave trader. Instead of letting Mr. Haley take Harry, Eliza packed up their belongings and fled in hopes of reaching Canada. Eliza’s quest is to keep Harry from being sold and making it to Canada and to freedom. Eliza has many friends helping her out, including the wife of her slave master, Mrs. Shelby. Eliza and Harry must be careful because having Mr. Haley find them would be painful for the both of them. Eliza is very different from the heroes we have read about. She is very humble and is going on this quest to help someone other than herself, while the heroes we have read about are very conceited and are more focused on themselves than others. Another main character is Tom, another slave belonging to the Shelby’s. Tom was also sold to Mr. Haley. Eliza requested that he accompany them to Canada, but Tom said no. He decided it would be better for the other slaves if he stayed, and he could take whatever Mr. Haley threw at him. I haven’t read far enough into the book to see what his quest is, but I’m sure it is something along the lines of becoming free. Tom also is more fixated on others around him than himself, making him different from the heroes we have read about in class. The last main character at this time is George. George is the husband of Eliza. George worked in a factory and was the best worker there. He had a lot going for him until his former master brought him back to his plantation. There George was worked hard, and he made the decision that he was to flee to Canada. George’s quest was to make it to Canada and become a free black man. Again, I am not too far into this book so I haven’t experienced George’s quest too much, but there will be a lot of danger most likely resulting from his master trying to hunt him down and find him. George is a very driven person who knows right from wrong and will do what is needed to accomplish that. He is alike the heroes in that way, but he differs from them because they are normally seeking out a material possession or a crown, while he wants something worth more than any object to him.
There are two main characters in my book right now. One is the eighteen year old who just recently had a child who was found dead in the families barn. The other character is a lawyer and investigator of cases like this. I would have to say that he best one of these characters to fit the description would be Katie Fisher, the eighteen year old girl. This young lady was born into an Amish family. The book has not talked much about her life other than short snippets of memories she remembers as a small child. She seemed so happy. Her whole family has always been there and Samuel a friend have been always been there for her. nobody knew that she was pregnant or going to have a baby but they had always been there before and they were there now. Katie was not the kind of person who seemed to have much darkness and danger in her life but when she gave birth the baby it became a dark and dangerous time. After the police came to the house; they took Katie to the hospital to have her checked to see if it was actually her who had the child. AFter inspecting they knew it was her and had to put her on medicine because she was very lucky to even have survived for the pregnancy was dangerous and she could have died. "The doctor thinks the Katie had the baby. She needed medicine to help stop the bleeding . They took her up to operate" pg 28. One of Katie major tragic flaws would be becoming pregnant in the first place because she was not married and this was against their religion and not telling anybody about the baby because it could have in the end cost Katie her life. Katie is different from the characters that we talked about in class because it does not seem that she had really done anything heroic and she was born to average people not to a god.
Spoilers for "Lord of the Flies"
Well, in lord of the flies, the main character's goal on the island is to get off(goal/quest), his main means of doing so being keeping a signal fire lit. Helping Ralph keep the peace is his friend Piggy, a smart, but unpopular child(Friend/guide). However, as time goes on, some children grow discontent with Ralph, and some turn on him (Danger) out of fear for a mysterious beast called the lord of the flies (darkness, title drop. The children who split off grow more tribal, giving into basic instincts, and kill several others (more darkness/Tragic Flaw). The protagonist, being a weak kid, is very different from the heroes in greek mythos, who are strong, brave, and wise in the ways of the world.
This book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is one giant quest. Dave, the main character, didn't have an extraordinary birth. His quest or journey, as detailed in this book, is for understanding. Of himself, of others, of how the world works, of why bad things happen. His friend or guide along the way is his little brother, Toph. The danger on Dave's quest is losing track of something. He's trying so desperately to keep everything even and orderly and he obviously fears missing out on something good. He wants to have a social life, even a girlfriend, but he also always wants to be there for Toph. He wants to have a good job and make money, but he doesn't want his talents and creativity to be wasted. The darkness in Dave and Toph's lives is easily the deaths of their parents, 5 weeks apart, both from cancer. I have seen several small successes so far in this book, but I am waiting for a big one in the end. Dave's most prominent quality is his love for his brother. "I get our book from the floor. We read every night, sometimes for a while but usually for just fifteen minutes or so, the longest I can do it before falling asleep myself, but long enough to provide Toph with a degree of comfort, stability, of peace and well-being before drifting off to his child's slumberland--" Eggers 113.
My character resembles a lot of classic heroes because one thing they all had in common was courage. All of the heroes were courageous throughout their journey. My character throughout his life is courageous because he steps up and becomes the leader in a bad situation. No one wants to be the leader into a bad situation so I would say my character is very brave and courageous just like all of the heroes. My character also had a mission like all of the heroes. His mission was to escape from a group of people and do it without dying. They all had a mission and their goal was to complete it without dying just as my character. The danger in the book is death. My character must escape from a ship full of "pirates", I guess you would call them, without dying. My character is different than the heroes because he was born just a regular person and lived a regular life up until he got into this situation. He did not have a quest to go on until the quest was forced upon him by him getting captured. He had no plan of going on a journey or quest but once he was captured, he realized his quest was to get out alive. The only thing my character has to look forward to is not dying. He is not on a quest to find something, he is on a quest to stay alive.
In Moby Dick, the protagonist is Ishamel, but he doesn't really do anything that is that great. He kind of just tells the story and is on the quest that is going on, but he doesn't really lead the quest or anything. The quest is that the ship is trying to find Moby Dick so that the captain can get revenge on it or taking his leg off. The book is really kind of boring, and not much has happened yet. Ishamel is different from heroes we have read about in class because he isn't really a hero at all.
In my book, Life as We Knew It, I'd say if I had to pick the protagonist would be miranda the main character. She just writes about how her life changes and how she handles the situations and all the things that were unexpected. She handles the changes in a nice and elegant manner. And I think the fact that she didn't go on a quest and didn't expect her life to change like it has sets her apart from many of the other heros we've read about in class. She's just trying to find a way to deal with everything.
So far, it's not much of a rising action- the events so far have been documenting Billy Pilgrim's stay in Dresden, in the "Slaughterhouse," and his documenting of it. It's gotten a bit into the actual history telling from his perspective, as in a first person narrative of his stay in Dresden, but most of it was his persuading his old war buddy to help him write the book. I suppose him and his friend are both the heroes and emulate each other.
Travis Hopkins
Department 19:
My book Department 19 is about this town and everyone in it ends up getting involved in some bad situations and they end up sending someone to go and get Professor Van Helsing.Professor Van Helsing was brought to their town so that he could find out what is going on and how to make it stop.Then one day Victor Frankenstein shows up and he ends up targeting one boy named Jamie because of the last time they met was when Jamie’s father died. So Victor ended up taking jamie’s mother and Jamie really was not to happy about this. So, Jamie ended up running to the door that was locked and tried to open it to free his mom, but little did he know that Victor killed his mom until Victor Yelled at Jamie until he could comprehend that his mother was gone and there was nothing he could do to bring her back.So when he was trying to leave this building he was in he saw the monster that Victor Called Frankenstein and Jamie freaked out and couldn’t move until Victor said stop to his monster and then Jamie was basically forced to go with Victor and his monster.That is how far i have made it to in my book.
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