The book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand starts off with a twelve year old boy who’s name is Louise Zamperini who lives in Torrance, California. It is 1929 and he is awoken in the night by a loud sound. He rushes to his back yard and sees a Graf Zeppelin a German dirigible plane. Louie as any child would was amazed by the Graf Zeppelin astounded Louie was not the best child, he was known as a thief. If anything went missing in anyone’s house in Torrance they knew whose door to knock on.…
Jurgis Rudkus is a young and strong Lithuanian working man with a bright outlook on life who never felt the need to drink. One day at a horse fair he find the love of his life, Ona. Ona’s father dies and leaves behind a family of nine. Jurgis is to marry Ona and emigrate to the United States of America in hopes of becoming rich in the stockyards of Chicago. Jurgis, his father Antanas, Ona, her stepmother Teta Elzbieta and her six children, Teta’s brother Jonas, and Ona’s cousin Marija Berczynskas all tag along for the journey.…
“The sum total of all thoughts and intuitions, myths and beliefs, ideas and inspirations brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness” is best defined as ethnosphere by Wade Davis, in his introduction to Wayfinders (2). He establishes the direction of this travel log with the introduction of culture: a dynamic and complex system that characterizes societies and from it flows people’s identity. As Davis immerses the reader into a series of indigenous people groups around the world, we are exposed to the DNA of these societies. Despite the diversity of lifestyles and languages, an evident ebb and flow threads these varying people groups together, creating the overarching themes of the book. Through a society’s culture, power, decomposition, and rebirth prevail, growing off one another and unveiling the cyclical undercurrent of humanity.…
In “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael Beah wrote about the extraordinary events and struggles that happened in Sierra Leone. These events are similar to the events in Burundi, because in Burundi children are living on the streets and are being abused (Jessica H., pg.1). In the book “A Long Way Gone” Ishmael’s city of living gets attacked by rebels and tons of people died, while he tried running away from the war it was in almost every city he went to. In the middle of the book, Ishmael’s brother, mother, and father all died from the attacks. The majority of Ishmael’s friends survived the war.…
To further analyze American history, and eliminate the truths from the myths, Loewen takes us through a journey of revealing the mindless optimism, blind patriotism, lies and misinformation that cloud most history books. He analyzes the information contained in 12 high school history books and s analyzes this information, providing what he believes is the truth, and separating it from the lies. Loewen provides an honest evaluation of the history of the United States, giving life and value into a history that had become very boring and monotonous. Introduction…
Ender's game is written by Orson Scott Card. This book is a story about a little boy named Ender. He lives with parents and have two older siblings, peter and valentine. His siblings are highly intelligent, but the international military picked Ender as a leader and forces him to save the world from the buggers, an alien race looking to invade Earth. Ender needed to enter the Battle School to be trained.…
In 1949 Joseph Campbell published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. His book explains what he called the hero’s journey or monomyth. The hero’s journey is the pattern of archetypal stories of heros in all genres. It tells the tale of a hero who goes through certain steps and accomplishes great feats to become who they are.…
Old Yeller There is a yellow dog named Old Yeller. The character known as Papa, farms, and his family only makes a little bit of money. They need some more money so Papa left for Kanas and left this his son, Travis, in charge. Travis is 14 years old and has to take care of the house until Papa comes back in the fall. Before Papa left Travis talked to him about getting a horse but Papa suggested a dog, but Travis wanted a horse.…
The monomyth, also known as the hero’s journey, has been portrayed throughout a widespread of works of literature both alike and different. However, the techniques of the portrayal of the hero’s journey had always been different throughout works of literature that include this archetype such as A Long Way Gone and The Hobbit. A Long Way Gone is the true story of Ishmael Beah’s traumatizing childhood of being an unwilling boy soldier in Sierra Leone and how he was able to turn his life around.…
Purpose, a concept of life that everyone strives for, is developed through experiences and changes. Grendel by John Gardner follows Grendel in his own search for purpose in a world where he is alone. His search is similar to a flowing river, always changing, diverting paths, and eventually drying up--ending. In chapter eleven, Grendel’s search is starting to come to an end with the arrival of foreigners and an eerie feeling that starts. He reflects on his life and the purpose that others have told and shown him and finally comes up with his own take on his life.…
The Klondike Gold Rush My book is about a story called white fang. The book is about a boy named Scott and a hybrid wolf dog named, White Fang. The story takes place in the 1890’s in Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush. The start of the book shows how hard life in Alaska was during this time.…
In most stories that include heroes and adventures, there’s a hero’s journey involved. There are many important stages to show a change in lifestyle, create suspense, and introduce and grow attachment to other characters. Among these stages, there are some that more significantly impact the overall story. In The Hobbit, the most important part of the hero’s journey is stage 6; when the hero encounters tests and allies. This is because the tests and allies resulted in Bilbo becoming more respected, clever, and brave.…
A hero is someone that puts everything important to them behind what’s important for everyone else. Ender fits this description with just his existence alone, his whole purpose is to become the savior of the human race. There is no real choice for him and despite his selflessness, he is not rewarded. His is given challenge after challenge to prove his worth. Then, to defeat the buggers.…
Grete, Gregor’s sister, took care of Gregor, but she too began to lose interest in Gregor and his well being. Not only was he not allowed out of his room, but his father would not come to take care of him or even consider him apart of the family anymore. Even before Gregor became a bug, there was not much interaction between Gregor and his father; Gregor was only useful to Mr. Samsa to help pay him pay off his debts. The way he was being treated contributed to the decrease of his human mind and the increase of his bug state. Soon, his father’s abuse grows into an even more aggressive physical…
The love that was thought to be there began to show. This was a immature love, which had no meaning. His sister made a cruel decision that the rest of the family, excluding Gregor, acted upon. They decided to exterminate Gregor. Apples were thrown at Gregor by his father.…