833 Reading Responses discussion
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11/30: Focus Question
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In the non-fiction memoir, A Child Called It, by David Pelzer, David is motivated to survive and escape Mother beating and abusing him by getting food. Throughout the book, David is abused by Mother because Mother enjoys it. David is also starved while forced to do chores and clean with his bare hands. On page 127, it states, "I had nothing left. Mother had gotten rid of all the food, chores were getting worse, and I was getting more bruises and burns by the second." This moment is significant because David is no longer able to survive without food. Even though all hope is lost, David remains optimistic and continues to fight for survival. David knows what's at stake. What he doesn't know is that there are other ways to escape Mother as well.
What is a moment that reveals something important about your protagonist?In the non-fiction memior, A Child Called "It", by Dave Pelzer, David is a smart child but he refers to his mother as "the bitch" because she tortures him by making him do chores with bare hands and she constantly thinks of new ways to torture him so he can suffer, like starving him just because she enjoys it. On page 41, it says "mother then ordered me to climb up onto the stove and lie on the flames so she could watch me burn...suddenly i realize the longer i could keep myself off the top of the stove, the better my chances were for staying alive. i knew my brother Ron would be soon be coming home from his scout meeting, and i knew mother never acted this bizzare when anyone else was in the house." This shows that David is really smart and he uses his brain to stall time so he doesn't have to lay on top of the open flames to save his life.
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.
Focus Question: What patterns do you notice about your character? What do they reveal.In the book "Steve Jobs The Man Who Thought Different" by Karen Blumenthal, the author shows the claim that to never give up. In the book, Karen writes about Steve Jobs life. Throughout his life Steve jobs faces many challenges and he never gives up. At one point he got fired from his own company Apple (Which I'm sure all of you know). But he still pursued what he want and he got back to his company. Also, when Steve Jobs join back to the company, the company was almost in bankruptcy but he worked 10 hours + a day and he manage to create products to for people to buy. He also was adopted which is a hard thing for him to deal with when he was small. Overall, Steve Jobs was a man that worked hard to pursue his dreams.
What patterns did the author include? What was the pattern's purpose?In the novel "The Drowned Cities" by Paolo Bacigalupi, the purpose of the repetition of the words "lucky", and "Fate's Eye" was to emphasize the people's belief in luck or fate of their culture. In the book, war is all around and nothing can stop the warlords. No one knows when the war will stop and it gets worse everyday. Those poor soldiers will pay good money to get something so they can live, and something from their culture. On page 74, "Good luck, right? Better than a Fate's Eye or one of those necklaces the Army of God thinks makes bullets bounce off." The people are so invested in their own culture that they even believe they can survive, while others prefer to stay hidden and take their chances. The soldiers are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the possibility of having some luck and getting protected by the fates of their beliefs.
What is the purpose of the secondary character?In the second book of the Micheal Vey series, The rise of the Elgen, the "secondary" characters, the Electro clan helps Micheal try to destroy and free his mother because Micheal freed them from the Elgen. Therefore, the purpose of these "secondary" characters is to assist Micheal in stopping the Elgen and saving his mom. Overall, the secondary characters weren't really that useful in this book.
Focus Question: What patterns did the author reveal? What was the pattern's purpose?In the memoir "A Man Named Dave" by Dave Pelzer, the patterns the author reveal about the book was David's determination, his way of doing his best leads him to achieve his goals later on in his life. In the book, David Pelzer, was telling Martha all about his past, how he was an abused child by his mother, and his mistakes on his marriage and son, he felt guilty and thought he doesn't deserve anything. However, Martha questioned him that if he give everything he got on doing things in life, on page 296, David said, "'I did my best! I try. I try and give everything my all. I never quit.'" This is a pattern that the author includes about how David repeatedly shows he never give up and keeps trying no matter what obstacles he had to face. David did the best he can and he knew that if he loses his determination and give up, he would have nothing left and have a meaningless life.
How does the secondary character impact the text?In the novel " THe Boy At top of the Mountain" by John Boyue, the secondary effects the text by making periot deal with many challenges like when periot going to the orfanage and also having to go to Germany because he already lived in France and he was Jewish and when you where Jewish at the time he was treated badly. Through saying that " he punched me Katrina leaped for the ground but I was already out" (98) . This shows that when he went to the orfanage he struggled with bulling and that changed the text by making him more experienced later on in the book.
What motivates your character?In Cassandra Clare’s fantasy novel City of Heavenly fire, what motivates the Seelie Queen is having power. While, the shadowhunters are trying to stop Sebastian, they make alliances with downworlders such as vampires and werewolves. They believe that they have a good bond with the faeries, but the Seelie Queen and the faeries are with Sebastian, for he is on the winning side. Sebastian says, “You were a fool to trust her, little sister. She likes to be on the winning side of things, the Seelie Queen. And that side will be ours, Clary. Ours” (344). What this quote is getting at is that unlike those who side with the “good guys,” the Seelie Queen doesn’t care about that. She wants to have power and she wants to torture humans and let the faeries rule the world instead of humans, which don’t know anything of the shadowworld.
Focus Question: What were some important choices or decisions that your protagonist makes?In Darren Shan’s first book of the “Demonata “series, Grubbs makes some really important decisions. After Grubbs finds out that his parents were brutally murdered by demons, Grubbs is then transferred to a mental facility, were they try to help him get back his mentality. Instead of willingly accepting their help, he refuses it because the nurses and doctors don’t believe that demons are real. And because of his actions, he’s only allowed to live in the mental facility. Until his uncle, Deverish Grady, pays him a visit. He knows the two demons and their master, Lord Loss. He says that if Grubbs decides to act to his doctor’s likings’ he can live with him and he’ll tell Grubbs more about demons and their master. Grubbs chooses to listen to him and soon he’s off to live with Deverish. Grubbs makes a huge decision in this chapter. He listens to his nurses and in return they helped him. But he didn’t have to do this; he could have stayed in the facility for all his life. But he didn’t, he made a decision and it was for the better. “Deverish was right. Now that I was working with them, they are able help me.”(46) In conclusion Grubbs made a decision that might have been bad but fortunately turned out to be a good choice.
Focus Question: What is the purpose of the secondary character?In Dave Pelzer’s memoir “A Man Named Dave”, the purpose of the secondary character is to help the main character get through tough times, a very important character in this book is his son Stephen because whenever Dave returns home from work the first person he wants to see is Stephen. When Stephen was born Dave told him “What I do, I do for you. As god is my witness, I’ll make things right for you.” page 203. Stephen’s purpose as a secondary character is to help his father through his tough times and give his father hope because he father told him that everything his father did was for him.
Focus Question: How does the setting impact the plot or characters?In the fantasy novel “Demon Thief” of The Demonata series by Darren Shan, the places the main character Kernel Fleck has been have impacted his life. From the start of his life, he was viewed as crazy or unordinary kid so he never had friends and he constantly had to face his loneness although his parents were very supportive of him. But one day changed his life forever, he discovered his baby brother was actually a demon and he has great powers that can open these “windows” where he can travel between universes or worlds. Later on, he met and joined the “Disciples”, a group of people with magical abilities who swear to defend humanity against demons. On page 57, it says “You’ve followed us into a different universe – the home of the Demonata. It’s a hellhole.” This shows how being in Demonata can put Kernel in a life or death situation and can affect the rest of the plot, since he doesn’t have the power to kill all of the dangerous demons. The new setting can also make him meet new characters and discover new secrets that can be the solution to the problem in the story or contribute to the sequel.
What is the purpose of the secondary character?In the fiction novel Slated by Terri Terry, the secondary characters are present in the story in the book to add suspense as they are odd and suspicious. Ever since Kyla came back from the hospital, she hasn’t gotten any freedom with the never ending Levo. There are many more Slateds, but they aren’t as different as Kyla, or at least treated as different. Amy, her sister, seems nice enough as she was also Slated, but everyone admits that Amy and Kyla were nothing alike. Their mom is hard to understand which is why she’s called “dragon”, her dad never really present at home even on his day offs, and even the cat Sebastian is suspicious himself. He was affectionate most towards Kyla. There is a teacher who follows Kyla around at school to check up on her as she needed “special treatment”. Kyla’s thoughts about this were “Why is it that the hospital was more comforting than home? Ms. Ali won’t even leave me, Ms. Penny always avoids my questions, Doctor Lysander in general is creepy, Mom seems to hate me and the only thing I have left is Sebastian,” (94). As result of all the character’s odd ways, the main character starts to doubt herself wondering if she wasn’t normal. Being Slated is probably the cause of this, but most Slateds are treated normally, as it went by the laws.
How does the secondary character impact the text?In the fiction novel The sky is everywhere by Jandy Nelson, the secondary charrecters impact others views. they try and give a positive view of others which also impacted the readers views.
Lennie states, "... Paige Walker never bore any blame for leaving her children? I think about how,unbeknownst to us, Gram culled that blame for herself"(244). Gram influenced how Paige's daughters viewed her, they could have easily known the truth and think no more of her. But she wanted them to think she was still traveling and not have a negative view of someone who could possibly come back into her life. But as well as she didn't want blame to be placed on her because if she told them the full story when they were younger, because they might not forgive they're main caregiver. Even though Bailey didn't know the whole story before she died, it gave her hope of finding her mother and even though gram would've had to explain full truth to her I don't think it would influence they're relationship. But her goal of forming a relationship that wouldn't have worked with her mother.
What can you learn about the protagonists through his/her actions through secondary characters?In the book Butter by Erin Jade, the protagonist Butter is an overweight high school student who doesn’t have many friends. Typically always ignored and shown pity at school. Throughout the book Butter has mild interactions through secondary characters because of his suicide plan on New Years. “Busy at school… With a lady?” Doc bean is Butter’s dietician and when he jokes about Butter’s case, Butter feels as if his case is less important then it actually is. While most dieticians will just talk about the patient’s case, Doc bean talks about girls with Butter. This also results in Butter’s dad and mom to not take attention towards their son. All this brings out how Butter feels about his dietician and his problems. Butter feels that he is hopeless and no one cares about his problems.
Question: What is a moment that reveals something important about your protagonist?In the memoir The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, an important moment that reveals that the protagonist is a mature and independent girl is when her and her siblings started earning their own money and fending for themselves. The Walls family had always moved around from state to state to avoid bill collectors and called these trips “a new adventure.” Their father, Rex, has a drinking/smoking problem and becomes dishonest and destructive when he gets drunk. But when he was sober, he told them stories and taught physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. Their mother, Mary, abandons her responsibility as a mother and hates the family life. She wants to be a free-spirit without her children’s complaints about her behavior. As the Walls children grew older, they protected one another and worked hard to find a life outside of Welch, without their parents constantly dragging them down. Jeannette stated, “Eventually, even Mom acknowledged that I’d done all right. ‘No one expected you to amount to much,’ she told me. ‘Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard”(270). This moment shows that Jeannette is independent and mature because… Unlike her parents, she struggled through discrimination based on her poverty and intelligence and cared about what other people thought about her. She hated her life in Welch and worked hard just like her siblings. She wanted to find a new life in New York City, where they won’t have to deal with leaky roofs, toilet that doesn’t flush, hunger, and poverty. And finally in spite of what all her teachers say, she was able to leave the gloomy, poor Welch behind and live the life she wanted independently, without her parent’s interference.
Focus Question:How does the secondary character(s) impact the text?In David Lubar's realistic fiction novel "Sleeping Freshman Never Lie", the secondary characters impact the text by letting the main character have no time for himself. The main character Scott Hudson joins the newspaper club because of a girl he likes. The newspaper club piles on a lot of work, "' I'll put you down for both. That's a relief. I thought you might want to try other stuff, but this will work out perfectly."'(141) Mandy is giving Scott extra working and is not giving him an opportunity to try new stuff. So Scott still has to do the things he dislikes and even more of it.
Focus Question: What is a moment that reveals something important about your protagonist?In Kristin Cast's House of Night fiction novel Betrayed, a moment that reveals something important about my protagonist, is her help for others. In a fragment of the novel, Zoey Redbird, the protagonist, wants to warn all the people who plan to drive the freeway, to not drive the freeway because her friend, Aphrodite, predicted a crack on the bridge. She wants to make sure everyone knows about the crack and so no one would get hurt when driving. Zoey figures out a way to get the word around by calling the local news station and warning people about a fake bombing so no one would be in danger. Zoey states, "This was actually part of my idea. I figured if I called a local news station, we would have a better chance of having the threat reported quickly on the local news, and then we could keep an eye on the bridge to see if it had been successful" (128). This shows that Zoey has a kind act of care for others because she wants to make sure no one gets injured on the cracked bridge. By doing something like this, this proves that Zoey is a kind warming person and is caring this an important moment that reveals something important about my protagonist.
Question: What motivates your character?In the horror-fiction book, “Demon Apocalypse”, by Darren Shan, Grubbs is motivated by the future of the world. Grubbs, a teenager living in a world where demons are real and they kill humans every so often. However, there are ways to stop these demons and that’s where magicians, mages, and the Disciples play their role. These people dedicate their life to protect the world from demons, and it just so happens that Grubbs is a magician, and magicians are rare and powerful. At the moment the world is susceptible to being overrun by demons due to an open “window” connecting the demon world and the earth, and Grubbs is willing to sacrifice his life for the millions of people worldwide. Grubbs says “If I don’t let him kill me, it would mean fighting to survive in a world overrun by demons,” (105). This supports my answer because Grubbs doesn’t want everyone to suffer from the pain demons cause. Grubbs knows that the human race will become extinct if he doesn’t sacrifice himself. The fact that Grubbs is willing to sacrifice his life is surprising, but it’s just one life gone rather than the millions of people dead.
Question: What is the purpose of the secondary characters?In Judy Blume's romance novel, "Forever," the purpose of the secondary characters is to provide the main character with courage and support. In the novel, there are 2 people, Michael and Katherine and they are in love. They each want to express their love to each other thoughtfully and so they need advice from other characters. "The best thing about Erica ---- you never have to worry about her getting along with anyone." This is shown on page 31. Erica is a great demonstration to Michael and Katherine to help them gain the courage to love each other. Erica in this quote symbolizes hope and courage between Michael and Katherine's relationship.
Focus Question: How does the setting impact the plot or characters?In the novel All Fall Down by Ally Carter, the setting impacts the characters and plot by setting specific rules for the book. The main character's mother was murdered in Embassy Row and ever since then, Grace had been in another country but now she has returned to Embassy Row to live with her grandfather. She's determined to find her mother's murderer and she's sure she's found him but there are rules set in Embassy Row that set limits to confronting the murderer. "We can't just traipse into Iran anytime we feel like it" (52). Grace was busted for snooping around on foreign grounds which sets her back on confronting the killer because she saw him go inside Iran and that was her chance on confronting and finding out who he really is. But the rules of Embassy Row are that you can only stay in your own country so Grace needs to wait for another chance now.
In the dystopian fiction novel, The Crown, by Kiera Cass, the character Eadlyn is juggling so many things at her age and isn’t suppose to be. Her mom is sick causing her dad to want to take care of her which means she has to take her dad’s spot and be a leader. Her brother just got married after a few days and hasn’t been calling her or anything like that. First day on the job of being the replacement of the king, the meeting was about war which she knew her dad didn’t like. One of the men were giving her a tough time causing her to fire him. She showed them who was leader and really said it to them. She said, “‘I have two younger brothers to keep calm in the wake of all this, a country to run, and six boys downstairs waiting for me to offer one of them my hand.’ Coddly swallowed, and I felt only the tiniest bit of guilt for the satisfaction it brought me.” Then she said, “Good. You’re all dismissed. And I suggest you all remember who’s in charge here before we meet again.” She was being very commanding and as a young adult she is doing so many things that others aren’t.
Q: What is a moment that reveals something important about your protagonist?In the the realistic fiction novel, "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson, the character Melinda is surrounded by hate by strangers, and even her friends. Her freshman year was off to a horrible start. She ended her summer party by calling the cops, but no one knew the truth so everyone hated her. Until she finally speaks the truth, and everything changed. Even her best friend hated her because of the party. Melinda says, "The kids behind me laugh so loud I know they're laughing about me. I can't help myself. I turn around It's rachel, my ex best friend who understood me more than anything, and never make fun of my bedroom. Her eyes meet mine for a second. "I hate you" she mouths silently" (87) Melinda's best friend didn't even like her at all, but hated her because of what she did. If she told the truth, everything would've changed
Write your response as a SINGLE PARAGRAPH that contains:
• Claim statement: Provides the claim, the topic of the question, and important text information, such as the title, author, and genre of my text?
• Context: Provide background of what is happening in the text so my reader understands what I’m talking about? Did I say what was happening at the time of the quote/evidence?
• Textual Evidence: Find the most relevant piece of evidence that proves my claim and include the page number.
• Analysis: Explain how your quote supports your claim (consider including strategies such as contrast, cause and effect (explaining the importance of effect, "What is this quote really getting at?", etc).