Outline

I am doing my paper on the sub-story Help. This includes the story about the Red Fox/Hunter and Princess.I see risk in telling the sub-story to her lover, the idea of risking life in the chance that death may come. Also, the hunter risking everything he has for the love of the princess. He even risked his own life in hopes to make her realize her love and spare the fox (she didn’t in the end because of her own selfishness.) So that risk the hunter took failed just like many others in the book (the Everest climber and Paolo and Francesca) Also in the story the risk of love is the main theme and doing whatever you need to make the other happy and fulfilled.

Thesis: I argue that risk is important to my sub-story because the hunter had everything to lose and gain by sacrificing himself for the princess. If the princess chose to save him, then he would have gained her love, but what happened was that she chose to kill the fox and in doing so, sacrificed the hunter for her own personal benefit and the hunter lost his life.

Intertextuality with ELIC

This passage 71-74 mirrored ELIC in a couple of ways. On page 73 the author talks about finding stuff (like Atlantis) and this was a Major theme in ELIC. In ELIC Oskar spends most of the book trying to find the lock that matches his key and a person with the last name Black. This search was the major plot and motivation in the book and we are unsure of the plot and motivation of the PowerBook. In the PowerBook this passage is talking about buried treasure, buried things on the computer, and how we are all looking  for something in life and for answers.

I think that this is looking very deep into this passage and that even though I do not think this intertextuality was intended it was still effective and fun.

???Question???

So, we started reading The PowerBook this week and so far I am already extremely confused. I cannot keep up with the dialogue and I am having a hard time trying to figure out the characters and what they are doing. My main question for the blog will be

What is the purpose of the metaphor on page 49? The story reads, “I had been out on my own, looking for a particular shop where I could buy a snare. I didn’t realise it would be set for me.”

 Why was he shopping for a snare?

What is the trap that he is getting into and why? Is is unavoidable?

Randomness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So given the opportunity to write about whatever I want, I would much rather write about myself or my weekend, but I think that the prompt was meant to talk about the book…even more. I can not wait until we turn in this essay and be done with this book. We have talked about this book so much and done so much in class with the book I am about sick of it. So I decided to blog about my experience with 9/11 since the book is about how the terrorist attacks affected a young boy.

I was in 8th grade and sitting in first period history class, when the secretary of our school asked that all the teachers attend an emergency meeting in the band room. After minutes, my teacher Mr. Mescher came in and explained what was happening and then turned on the tv. I watched with horror as everything was happening. I did not understand anything that was going on and was really scared because my mother was suppose to go to New York in two weeks (she never went). That day was also my sisters birthday and nobody wanted to celebrate. My mothers best friend also had her baby boy, Gavin on this day so my mom was at the hospital all day with her. So my dad, my sister, and myself tried to go out to eat, but nothing was open and ended up eating at a local McDonalds. So this is what I remember about September 11, 2001 and how I experienced the day.

(Topic Sentences)

So, I have about four pages of body paragraphs and this will be my second time posting this blog, because for some reason it did not post the first time. I originally was planning on writing on images and phrases, but there were so many images and I became overwhelmed very quickly so I decided to just focus on the pictures for the text. I have a lot of stuff to choose from to write on, so I picked the major pictures and explained them. So here are the sentences!!!

I will begin with discussing the various images that are presented throughout the book. Images that have especially caught my eye include the one of the person falling out of the World Trade Center tower.

Later in the story this image is partially explained and why it would be so important to Oskar.

Other images that I felt were extremely significant were the pictures of the doors because they showed up in almost every chapter of the grandfather, Why I’m Not Where You Are.

The doors also represent the intense feeling of isolation that all the narrators, Oskar, Grandma, the grandfather/renter feel.

Another image that tends to catch the readers eye is the picture of Manhattan on pages sixty and sixty-one.

One theory about the pictures that are strung throughout the book is that it is part of the images that Oskar collects for his scrapbook.

Telephone

I chose the picture of a telephone because of what the messages from Oskar’s father that he left right before he died in the World Trade Center terrorist attack represents. Oskar is the only one who knew about it, until he met his grandfather (the renter.) Oskar felt that this was his burden to bear, just as he thinks searching for the lock is his task left to him by his father. He thinks that he is protecting his mother and grandmother from unnecessary grief. Also, I think he feels that because he is the only one who knows about the messages, he has a special connection to his Dad because he heard his last words to his family.

The messages are disturbing of the last moments inside the collapsing buildings. There are five messages in all, and they come at different times in the book. This makes them more dramatic and reflects the growing climax of the book. The messages are emotional and I could not imagine what it would be like to hear a message from your father right before he died. So, I chose the picture because of what it represents to Oskar and how it adds to the drama and emotion of the book.

Cyclone

As I was reading the chapter “Heavy Boots Heavier Boots” one reference really caught my eye and that was when Oskar mentioned riding the Cyclone coaster in Coney Island when he went to visit Abe Black. I did not really know what the Cyclone was and what it signified until I researched it. The site I used was http://history.amusement-parks.com/cyclonepage.htm written by Adam Sandy. He said that the Cyclone is a symbol of New York and has been since it opened June 26, 1927. He talked about the importance of the roller coaster and how timeless it is. At one point they were going to destroy it and build an aquarium, but people started a campain to save it, and they succeeded.

I thought this was important to the story because Abe and Oskar have a conversation where Abe says, “It would be a shame to die without riding the Cyclone.” This indicated to me that this coaster is a significant thing to many New Yorkers. I would not have known this (due to the fact I have never even been to New York.) I think the inclusion of this part is also important because the World Trade Center was another landmark that New York was associated with, as is this particular roller coaster.

 

I have picture of the roller coaster from the website. The picture shows a typical roller coaster and that it is still important even today. On the site they have a quote from Charles Lindbergh that says, “A ride on the Cyclone is greater than flying an airplane at top speed.” This again goes to explain the significance and why the author may have included it in the book, and even possibly to make a parallel with the Twin Towers.

Citation

Sandy, Adam. “Cyclone.” The Coney Island Cyclone. 2001. 13 Feb. 2008
     <http://history.amusement-parks.com/cyclonepage.htm>.