Saturday, February 27, 2016

Hobbit on an Adventure

In this novel, The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien it follows a hobbit named Bilbo on a Hero’s journey. Bilbo has a young kid, was adventurous and hyperactive. When he grew up that sense for adventure disappeared and he lived in a life of comfort and leisure. Until A call for adventure came literally knocking on his door. Gandalf came with a proposition for Bilbo. They needed him to help get back their land and treasure from a fearful dragon named Smaug. At first he refused, this wasn’t what hobbits do. But through a little persuasion from his mentor Gandalf he left in the morning with the dwarves to go on an adventure.
            On the journey proved many tests, allies, and enemies. His first test was stealing from the trolls. Every test reveals more about Bilbo and his abilities. It also shows how he will deal with Smaug when the time comes.  With the goblins he proves that he can capable of warning Gandalf of an approaching attack. With the golems we see his wits.  Spiders prove that he is a capable leader and warrior. Finally with the woodleves he learns about his patient nature and growing abilities of the ring. Allies are made through the eagles, woodleves, and the humans of laketown. Enemies are also made with the Goblins caves and the forest of Mirkwood. 

Bilbo rescues the dwarves from woodelves and attempt to get into Smaug’s cave.  The final plan includes hiding the dwarves in barrel that will float down to laketown.  They faced many almost deaths along the way. The major one would be them traveling down the river in the barrels. The rewards that Bilbo gets during his journey are not just physical like the ring and the sting, but also emotional reward. He gains confidence and experience in the world beyond the shire. After the Smaug is dead, Bilbo returns back home with Gandalf to be a true Baggins once again.

Jack

I often don’t read short stories; this would be my first in years. I am was not disappointed.  Jack, by CHINA MIÉVILLE a strange story about a remake named Jack half a prayer. The story doesn’t reveal the weird at first. It keeps you guessing. It took until the end of the story to really understand what the weird was. In this world the government punishes people by cutting off body parts and adding new ones from different creatures. This breaks the person. Makes them a freak. But not Jack, Jack was made through the remaking.

The one telling the story doesn’t reveal all that much about him as will. All we know is that he knew Jack.  Jack’s right hand was cut off and replaced with an oversized mantis claw. Which in ironic due to the fact that he used it to kill the militia that worked for the government. The people loved Jack. That is what we are told through the one telling us the story. That his name was toasted to, even when he was caught and hang out to die in the common nobody threw anything at him. They just stood in supporting silence. The narrative took revenge for jack. Took revenge on the guy who snitched on him.  He never called jack by his name, which was weird, since he explained that he worked with him before.  In the last two sentences of the short story, he finally tells us how he knew Jack. He made jack. He worked for the government. He called him prisoner and Jack called him Sir.

The Humanity within the Undead


In the novel by Ann Rice, Interview with a Vampire She manages to introduce the modern vampire that the world knows today. She gives the reader an opportunity inside the head of the great monsters of the past and present, Vampires. In the old times Vampires were creatures of the night, undead monsters that would prey on innocent women and consume their blood until they were dead. These things, that couldn’t understand human nature and their emotional turmoil.  Ann Rice introduced humanity to the vampire.
            All vampires have three important things in common. The need for blood, the gift of eternal life, and a creature of the night. How each vampire handles these are different. The author shows us how vampires are just like humans in terms of how different they are from one another. The main characters in the book are all vampires, but they are all extremely different from each other.
            Louis, a twenty-five year old man who was questioning his purpose in life until one fateful night, when he was forcefully transformed into a Vampire. Life as a vampire didn’t help with his purpose; they made him question it even more. Louis now questions his morality at every corner. He doesn’t want to kill to eat, but he must. He doesn’t want to live forever, but he can’t. Out of the three Louis has the most humanity, the one the readers can relate to the most even though he is undead.  The struggles of finding yourself and finding happiness, is something all young adults can relate too. Even vampires trapped in a five year olds body.
            Claudia was a very complex character since she was turned into one of the undead. Forever trapped in a young girls body. While her mind grow old. Her relationship with her “fathers” is also complicated to say the least. Louis in a low time in his life attacked her for food and left her for dead. Lestat needing Louis to stay, so he turned her into a vampire. Her conception was manipulation. As a character that is what she is was known for. She is consistently manipulating both of her father’s for her own benefit. Especially Louis.  She even gets him to help her kill Lestat three times.  For Lestat is the reason she can never grow up. Forever trapped, forever treated as a child.
            Lestat the reason the reader’s even get to be inside a vampire’s head.  He is the evil antagonist of the book, the cruelest of the three. This character doesn’t know what remorse is, turning people into the undead to live an eternal life of suffering. His reasons? He gets lonely. Though he appears cold and ruthless, he is just as needy. He can’t live a life by himself, even keeping people alive that he hates.  Ann Rice shows us the truth behind vampires, real vampires. Not the soulless monster we knew them to be. They are much more complicated then that. They feel. They suffer. They question as we do. They just do it for
eternity.

            

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Mary Shelly"s Frankenstein


Frankenstein and the Gothic Elements


            In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, the author presents many examples of classic gothic literature, to fully understand where the author came from while writing this novel we must know what was happening during this time period. When Shelly actually began to write Frankenstein it was during the year with no summer. It was called this because a volcano had erupted that year, leading to very dreary days and landscapes. The new atmosphere that came from the eruption gave Mary the feeling of the sublime. This feeling would be very inspirational to her when writing Frankenstein.
The extreme landscapes and weather in her novel are elements of the gothic novel.  Even from the start, she starts the book in the North Pole. A strange and mysterious place that is also creates this isolating feeling, “surrounded by ice, which closed in the ship on all sides” (P25). Throughout the novel she has sudden burst of wind and thunder to represent the monster in one-way or another. Shelly also uses a lot of dark settings, which is one of the most common traits in gothic literature, but these setting seem to always be connected to the monster that victor creates and reinforces the idea that the action he preformed was wrong and evil. When he describes the day he created the monster he says it took place, “on a dreary night of November.” (pg58). This foreshadows the evil and darkness that will come within the novel.
Not only was the landscape surrounding her an important inspiration, so was the current modern medicine of the time.  This inspiration of using lighting to reanimate the dead came from the scientist called Galvani. Galvani discovered that he could “reanimate” a dead frog’s leg using electricity. Shelly took this idea and used it within her novel to create the famous monster that still lives today. This science of creating life from death was also used as another element this novel, as Victor’s flaw. Another gothic element is the main character having a flaw that would ultimately be they’re downfall. Victor’s flaw would be his unrelenting thirst for knowledge and the unknown. This led him to create the monster that would destroy he life leaving him all alone in the world, like the creature he created.  Without his thirst nobody would have died, he had the chance to stop the monster, but never did.  Though without shelly giving him an undying thirst for knowledge, there wouldn’t be a story.