Gone With The Wind Quote

The most important line of Chapter 6, and of the whole book in my opinion is, "'Sir,' she said, 'you are no gentleman!' 'An apt observation,' he answered airily. 'And you, Miss, are no lady.'

This quote is very important because it personifies both Scarlett and Rhett's personalities perfectly and sets the tone of their realationship for the rest of the book. I also find this quote amusing and can picture both of them saying this in my head. This dialog shows characterization because Scarlett and Rhett are not your typical southern gentleman and lady. It also shows character vs character conflict between the two of them disagreeing and also shows a little bit of setting because the way they are talking is very authentic to the 1860s when the story is set. The diction is very important because the word choices such as 'airily' are elevated diction and make this book challenging. The sytax is very important to making the time period seem real. The sentences seem to flow very well together and they are very formal becasue everyone is addressed as 'Miss' or 'Sir'.

Do you believe this line from the text can be used to make future predictions about the story?

Suspense: Nicholas Sparks Style

   In The Last Song Nicholas Sparks builds suspense by foreshadowing events to come. He will put in a sentence or two that will be a little out of place in the story line and make me wonder why the sentence is relevant to what is going on in the chapter. For example, at the end of one of the chapters he talks about how Blaze had to make fireballs for Marcus. Blaze and Marcus are dating and to make a living, Marcus rolls t-shirts into balls and then lights them on fire. During a performance, he will juggle the balls, kick them, and throw them without burning his hands or catching anything else on fire. Blaze and Marcus are ring leaders of a rough crowd, barley surviving and making extra money by stealing. Marcus has always been fascinated by fire and the way it rips through things with so much power and energy.  The last sentence in that chapter said that Blaze didn't realize she was dripping lighter fluid onto the shirt she would wear for the performance later that night. I was wondering why that detail would be put in and inferred that there was a good chance Blaze would catch on fire during the performance.

   Another way Nicholas Sparks builds suspense is by having different people narrate different chapters. Most of the chapters end at a dramatic point in the story, but instead of continuing on in the very next chapter, a different character narrates the next chapter and you have to read two or three more chapters until you pick up the where the previous chapter left off. Ronnie's, the main character, and Will's, her love interest, stories intertwine pretty easily. When Ronnie's dad tells the story his chapters may be every fifth chapter, so you are left waiting to see where his story picks up. This left me trying to guess what was going to happen at the end of each chapter, and made me almost have to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen.

   Both ways of building suspense are cliff hangers and make this book very desirable to read. I read the book in one day because I couldn't put it down. If a book doesn't have any suspense in it, it will not be exciting and no one will read it. Suspense is what makes a book catch you on the edge of your seat and keeps you living in the story. It helps you connect with the characters and creates plot twists. There is no story with out suspense. What other kinds of suspense have you seen in your books?

Gone with the Wind Vocabulary

    The vocabulary in Gone with the Wind is very different from vocabulary we use today. The book was written in 1936, but its characters are based off of people from the 1860s. An example of vocabulary from the book is, "Their leisured world had been turned topsy-turvy, and their pleadings, prayers and advice availed nothing against the powerful forces sweeping them along"(Mitchell 131). When vocabulary like this is used in the book, it makes the theme and context of the story make more sense. The setting of the book is in the South during the Civil War. Because the characters are from the South, they already have a different accent and a different way of speaking, but the time period also plays a role in the sentence structure and vocabulary used. The vocabulary has helped me picture the setting and the characters, specifically Scarlett O'Hara, better. If the vocabulary was easy and the characters spoke like it were modern day, it would ruin the setting and this book wouldn't be a classic. Do you think vocabulary is important in a book? If so, what part of the story does it impact the most?

Breaking Night

  Growing up, Liz lived in a run down apartment with drug addict parents. Her parents cared about her, but drugs consumed their life. At the age of 15, Liz became homeless, her mother died, her father was also homeless, and she was on her own. She didn'
t go to school and had no direction in life. Yet she rose above her circumstances, and made something out of herself. She didn't let her background and past stop her from achieving success and is and inspiration everywhere for telling her story.

 The central theme of Breaking Night is determination to perservere during hard times. This theme emerges when Liz is living out on the streets alone. She decides that she will not be like her parents and will make something of herself. She becomes determined to finish high school and get into a good college. Liz changes what she is determined to do throughout the story depending on what situation she is in. At the beginning of her becoming homeless, she is just determined to survive on the streets. The longer she is homeless though, the more she realizes what a bad direction her life is headed and how lucky she is to even be alive. She starts to become determined to not only survive, but thrive during her hard times. She starts to have a different perspective on life. This quote from the book summarizes her renewed determination and outlook on life, " Instead, what I was beginning to understand was that however things unfold from here on, whatever the next chapter was, my life could never be the sum of one circumstance. It would be determined, as it had always been, by my willingness to put one foot in front of the other, moving forward, come what may" (Murray 321). This quote shows Liz realizing that her life will be as good as she is determined to make it. It is up to her to put her life back together and make a difference, and the best way to do that is to keep pushing foward in a positive direction, no matter what happens.

  My article is a book review of Breaking Night by the New York Times. It reviews the book and gives a quick summary of the story line. "Breaking Night Article"