Shari’s Comments (group member since Oct 27, 2016)

Shari’s comments from the 833 Reading Responses group.

Question: How has the character’s background impacted him/her?
Focus: Analysis
In Sarah Beth Pfeffer’s science fiction novel, The Dead and the Gone, the main character, Alex’s background of religion impacted him by making him question his own judgement. Alex lives in New York in an apartment, everything was still mundane for an average teenager. Suddenly the moon was knocked towards Earth and everything humans took for granted became scarce and gone. Life has changed drastically since then. Having the ability to access food, may mean a lot to each survivor and can extend their life. Alex states “Was it stealing? Was it sin? Alex thought it might be both. But Christ couldn’t want them to starve when there was food available”, (112). As a result, compared to the thoughts before the moon was pushed towards Earth, it has changed drastically. Rather than questioning sin only, when life was still normal, now, it would involve stealing as well because they need to do whatever they can to continue living. The cause of the catastrophe had a great impact towards humans drawing out their abilities to survive. However, in order to survive, people need to do things that they never would have done before.

Focus Question: What is an important moment that reveals something important about your protagonist?


In the fantasy novel,”Shadow” by Jenny Moss, an important moment that reveals something about Shadow and her affection towards Sir Kenway. The moment is when Sir Kenway is in bed after being wounded badly and pretends to be asleep. “He reached for me, putting his hand behind my neck, and pulling me towards him. There was a question in his eyes. At that moment we were not Shadow and Knight or Knight and Queen.We were the same, and joined together ,joined in the space between , and that space stretched before us. I put my hand on his cheek and leaned in for our most perfect kiss yet (pg 375)”. Unlike how they acted towards each other in the beginning of the book, they ended up liking each other and kissing. This quote is really getting at the fact that she doesn’t only love Sir Kenway because of their ranking in society but as an equal.

What is an important choice or action your character made?
In Danielle Paige’s fantasy sequel, to Dorothy must die , The Wicked Will Rise, an important choice Amy decided to do was to not answer Ozma’s question leading her to questioning herself mentally. Amy came to Oz the way Dorothy did, from a tornado but this time Dorothy is evil and Amy has to go to the Rainbow Citadel to ask for help. While walking through the fog of doubt with Ozma, she hears her friend’s voices in her head. “ ‘who are you?’ Ozma had asked before we’d entered the fog. I had ignored the question, but now i knew she had been trying to help me. It didn't matter what Nox thought of me,or didn’t think of me. All that mattered was that i knew who i was.” page 163. Ignoring the question caused Amy to doubt herself because rather than ignoring the question, if she actually answered the question, she would not have that many doubts about herself even though they were going through the fog of doubt which was bound to bring along doubt but less. What this quote is really getting at is that Amy relies on her friend’s opinions way too much and that she needs to have self confidence in herself.