What's 811 Reading? discussion

We read that Arnold's sister, Mary, has motivated Arnold to take more action in his life.

Tonight, write about who or what has motivated your protagonist to act or behave in a certain way?

For a “4”: Did I….
• Write a topic sentence that provided the title, author, and genre of my text?
• Provide context of what is happening in the text, so my reader understands what I’m talking about?
• Find a direct quote from the text that proves my idea?
• Thoroughly explain the significance of my quote/how it proves my idea?
• Check for correct punctuation and spelling

In Suzanne Collins' dystopian novel, MockingJay, Katniss is motivated to kill President Snow because he destroyed District 12 and killed her family. Katniss is 17 years old, who has already spent much of her life as an unwilling celebrity that dislikes being made up, and paraded around for the cameras. Feeling responsible for many civilian deaths, she wants to fight in the arenas and avenge her people by killing President Snow. When Katniss reflects, "I feel the sickening impact of the skull against my shoe. The scent of blood and roses stings my nose" (38), this shows that Katniss is motivated to kill President Snow because he destroyed her hometown which is District 12 and killed/murdered her people. President Snow destroyed District 12 because he threatens to kill the people she loves unless she proves to all of Panem that what she did was driven by love, not by rebellion, in order to stop the uprising in the districts. He killed Katniss' sister Prim Everdeen. As the Mockingjay, Katniss is given the opportunity to execute Snow. Snow laughs and grins at the irony and the thought of Prim's death: he and Katniss were being used as pawns. Katniss is supposed to shoot him with an arrow through his heart, she instead assassinates President Coin because she thinks Coin is just as bad as President Snow; she was the one who came up with the idea for another Hunger Games where the Capitols' children would have to compete and was part of the cause of Prim's death. Therefore, Katniss wants to kill President Snow because he killed/murdered her people and her family.

In Cassandra Clares fantasy book City of Glass, a person who influenced the protagonist Clary was Luke. When everything looked down he was there to comfort her. She comforts him and cares for him as well."If you don't go after Luke," Clary said, enunciating very clearly, "I, personally, will kill you." Even though he is her step father he treats her like his own. He helped her in her time of need. This quote shows how Clary and Luke have bonded and care about on another. Clary and Luke watch each others back. Therefore Clary Luke loves Clary and she loves him also, they will both help one another in time of need

In Catherine Jinks fiction novel Genius Squad, Cadel is motivated to get in to the Genius squad, because that's a place where he feels like he belongs. Everyone there is super smart. Once he joins he realizes that they are a bunch of computer hackers, who do crimes. "We are an organized group of teens, who do computer hacks but we do try our best to not break the law so much." This quote shows that the people of the genius squad are computer hackers who do online crimes to steal a lot of money. They do it little by little so it can go unnoticed.

In Rick Riordan's fantasy novel, the Mark of Athena, Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Jason, Piper, Nico, and Hazel's motivation are helping friends. From time after time all these kids do is just help on another. In every single book in this series, they all help each other. There is not one quest where it has to do something about a friends and family. This quest is a quest to also help Nico. Percy says, " Piper, Nico is dying. We've got to find him"(478). This quote shows how they aren't just trying to save Rome, but also to save a friend. This just shows how much these protagonist care about each other an their friends. In all of the books I have read about this series, All of them all have something to do with a friend, family, or some one famous in danger. Therefore these protagonists' motivation is to help a friend, family, someone important.

In Jeff Kinney`s realistic fiction novel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, what makes Greg motivated is two people. One is his mother and Rowley. His mother keeps him motivated by making him write this diary. The whole meaning of this diary is that when he grows up and becomes famous, he wont need to wast his time talking to others about his life, he will just give them the diary. In the book that shows this is on page 2, where it says, "I figure later on when I`m rich and famous, I`ll have better things to do than answer people`s stupid questions all day long" (2). That right there was when he was taking about his mother with the diary. Now Rowdy keeps him motivated all book long so. What Greg does is that he controls Rowley but what makes him out of control is Rowlys parents. In conclusion, both Rowley and his mother motivate Greg.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

In Rick Riordan's fanatasy novel, The Sea of Monsters, the protagonist, Percy Jackson, was motivated to fight and kill Lord Kronos. Percy is a 14 year-old half-blood that lives in Camp Half Blood. After a few years of training in Camp and journey to quests, Percy has proven to be a leader and the chosen one to protect the Camp and the immortals. Now, Percy has to rescue Mount Olympus by battling Kronos. Percy once stated, "Since being the chosen one, I must stand by and take the risk of fighting Lord Kronos, even if it were meant to be "death"." This quote shows Percy was motivated to kill Lord Kronos because he was sickening the Gods and Goddesses and their half blood childrens. Also, Percy was the chosen one, so he would be the only person to be counted on, so he need to do it for ones who he respect. Therefore, this is why Percy was motivated to destroy Kronos.

In David Almond's horror fiction novel, Clay, Davie was motivated by Clay's personality. When he first laid eyes on Clay he was scared of him, but every time he hears him speaking he wasn't that bad. But when he sees Stephen making Clay doing horrible things and that Clay was sad inside, he knows what to do, he must help Clay and himself to be set free. He thought to himself "I can feel Clays sadness in him, his fear is building up inside of him"(212). This quote shows that Davie was motivated because, he can feel the pain in Clay and have made up his mind. He was going to try and take control of Clay and try to help him set free of himself, and would make sure that Clay would never be misused ever again.

In Walter Mosley's historical novel,47, 47 is motivated by Tall John actions. 47 is a boy who skin color is black. He is a slave at the Corinthian Plantation. His mother is blamed on for their owner's wife death. His mother died when she gave birth to 47. After a slave died, She ran away and she meet Tall John. "Dont say anything about what we are going to do, 47 eyes lid up"This quote means that John is going to do something good that only 47 knows and he wants him to not tell everyone. He wants to keep a secret with him. Therefore, 47 is motivated by John's actions

In Markus Zusak's historical fiction novel The Book Thief Lisel the protagnist is movatived to not take the book the mayor's wife gave her, because of her foster mother's firing.Lisel is a girl living in Germany on himmel street in the year 1941.She lives with her foster mother and foster father. Her mother irons for the the mayor and his wife and when Lisel delivers the laundry or goes to pick it up she sits their with the mayor's wife and reads books in the mayor's libary.when the mayor wife inist in her take the book called The whistler and gives lisel and envolope saying that they can no longer get thier clothing ironed and washed.When Lisel reads the note she goes back up to the mayor's house to say "you give me this saumensch of a book and think it'll make everyhting good when I go tell my mama that we've just lost our last one ? While you sit here in your manison?" This shows that she cared about her mothers job so much that even though she wanted accept the book she did not. She instead gave it back to the mayor's wife to make her feel guilty for her mother losing her job. Therfor what movatied her to accept the book was her mothers lost of job.

In the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, the protagonist's father is motivated to kill the person who murdered her daughter who is the protagonist and her name is Susie. The narrator is Susie, a 14 year old girl who was murdered by a man named Mr.Harvey who is their neighbor. Susie's father is convinced that Mr.Harvey murdered her daughter but there is no evidence so the police won't arrest him. Her father knows Mr.Harvey,everybody thinks he's weird but her dad know that he is lonely and he killed people's pets. Once Susie's dad saw Mr.Harvey take a girl and shoved her in his car and did took her things. He planned to murder Mr.Harvey back by using a baseball bat to beat him up. At the time, Susie's dad was thinking "His heart was pumping, but he could not feel anything but the knowledge in his brain. George Harvey had killed his last little girl" (137). The was what Susie's dad was feeling when he was at the cornfield where Susie was murdered and where he saw Mr.Harvey that late night. Therefore, Susie's dad was determined to get revenge on Mr.Harvey and killl him.

In Laurie Halse Anderson's realistic fiction novel, Speak, the thing that motivated Melinda to speak was when it was just her and Rachel in the bathroom. Melinda and Rachel used to be friends but now the barely speak to each other. "I'm going to be completely, totally cool, like nothing has happened" (20). This quote shows that Melinda was motivated to speak to Rachel even though they aren't friends anymore.

In the fantasy novel Eragaon by Christopher Paolini, the protagonist Eragon is motivated to not give up. In the novel, Eragon is running away from the Empire because creatures called the "Ra'zac" are sent by king Galbotorix to catch Eragon, so he must run away. He decides to join the Varden, a group of people who are against Galbotorix. But to get there, Eragon must cross a huge desert and mountains. Eragon's friend, Murtagh, tries to tell him that it's to far away, but Eragon doesn't give up. He states, "We can't give up. Not after how far we have traveled"(646). This shows that Eragon won't give up, because he told his friend that he wouldn't give up. It also shows he won't give up because I don't think Eragon would want to go back where they were because they would have to go through the desert again, which would take an even longer time and they would be in more danger of being found.

In Ian O'Connor's biography, The Journey of Derek Jeter, Derek Jeter is motivated by his parents to work hard and play his best for the New York Yankees. Jeter had just been drafted to the New York Yankees and is both excited but nervous at the same time. He's nervous because he was doing so well back in Michigan but began to struggle and received a lot of criticism from his teammates for the way he played. It wasn't easy for him to make the transition to the big leagues from Michigan. He made plenty of errors and had started to regret his decision of not staying in Michigan. At that time his parents were the only people he could talk to about his issues. His parents stated, "The phone would go off at 4 in the morning and we instantly knew it was Derek not sure what to do, crying in his room." This quote shows that even through the toughest times his parents supported/motivated him so that he could become the leader he is today. His parents would always answer the phone and assure Jeter that he just had to do his best. Therefore Jeter was motivated by his parents when he was playing for the Yankees.

In the book i'm reading "heartbeat" By Sharon Creech is a twelve year old Annie she is motivated by running she just runs runs runs she could be barefooted and still run her Grandpa was a champion racer he won regionals when he was only nine state championship when he was 12."we always run barefoot Max and I because we like to feel of the ground beneath us" this quote shows how she is motivated by running that she will run barefoot with her friend Max. Therefore Annie is motivated by running because she enjoys is that she will run barefoot.

In Jeff Kinney's Realistic fiction Diary of a wimpy kid: Rodrick's Rules. What keeps Greg (protagonist) motivated is Rodrick (older brother) is to be like Rodrick to get more respect.
"This girl laughed at me, I feel like an idiot!" Said Greg.
"So do something bad like set off a stink bomb in the bathroom, girls like bad boys," Said Rodrick.
This shows that Greg will always take advice from his brother.

In the short novel, Sticks and Stones by Beth Gooble, the protagonist, Jujube's motivation to fight against bullying was her own experiences and the help from Carlos her Boyfriend. " What do you think, Scott--a seven? Scott looked me up and down. Maybe on a good day." This quote shows the judgmental force one of the students in her school used towards based on false information, which leaned towards Jujube being sick and tired of the bullying and wanted to do something about it. As well as her boyfriend, Carlos helping her and trying to make her feel better when Students like this would say things like this it pulled her more into being more motivated. The more she got bullied the stronger she became at the end result.