Blog Post #3

Words to describe the character in my novel:

     1. Brave- To have courage or courageous endurance

     2. Caring/kind- a person who has a good heart and looks after the well being of others

     3. Intelligent- Someone who has a high mental capacity

Synonyms:

1. -Bold -Confident

2. -Affectionate -Gracious

3.  -Brainy -Knowledgeable

Antonyms: 

1. -Afraid -Cautious

2. -Bitter -Cruel 

3.  -Foolish -Idiotic

My character Norman Bethune has all of these qualities:

Brave-

 "We walked, slightly hunched, down the stairs and along a cramped passageway for twenty or thirty paces before another explosive thud shook us. We journeyed deeper under the city. I struck match after match and walked slowly so as not to extinguish the flame." (Bock 22)

This is indirect because it makes you think about it. It takes confidence to go underground in a tunnel while there is bombs being dropped above you.

Caring/Kind-

"I saw that little girl in the blue who had so caught my attention our first morning out. Today she wasn't feeding the gulls but standing alone at the railing, beside a life raft watching the sea below. It seemed unsafe to me, a child alone at the precipice. The woman I'd taken to be her mother sat reading on a nearby bench, dressed in a red overcoat and white glasses. I stopped and watched nervously as out from under her bonnet the girl's strawberry-blond hair spilled and danced about the circle of her face. She place a foot on the bottom rung of the rail and lifted her other foot.
"'Wait there,"' I called" (Bock 112)

This is also indirect because you have to clarify what you think is being said. I think that he's caring/kind because in this direct quote he's looking after the well being of other people, in this case the little girl who was about to step on the bottom rung of a ship she is on.

Intelligent-

"Why am I writing? I'm so very busy, and I ask myself this question night after night. I ask it now. I know it is not to spout political slogans for you or to claim idealistic affiliations. None of those may make any sense to you by the time you read this. They're just words, after all, and I'm aware that words change or lose their meaning. What do you think, for example when I write the words "justice" and "society" and "democracy"? They are often used these days, and so they should be. But will they mean anything to you twenty or forty years on? Probably not, and maybe that's for the better. Maybe there will no longer be any need of them. Maybe we have accomplished what we set out to do. When my dear old mother raised me we had no such words. She said only, Do unto him, Norman, as you would have him do unto you. You see how complicated this has become?" (Bock 48-49)

This direct quote from my book's also indirect. He's intelligent because his knowledge is extending and thinking beyond. He's very knowledgable and brainy.

Blog Post #2- Elements of a Story

Bock, Dennis. The Communist's Daughter. Canada: HarperCollins, 2006. Print

    

5 elements of a story that are included in my book are conflict, suspense, trap or obstacle, crises, and that it's plausible.

Importance:

1. Plausible

2. Suspense

3. Conflict

4. Trap or Obstacle

5. Crises

     The most important one I picked was that the story is plausible. I think this one is the most important because it further helps the story be more real. If the story made absolutely no sense with no plausibility I personally wouldn't enjoy it at all. I personally enjoy books that are slightly based on real life events with a touch of Fiction added in.

"I listened to Robert's moans. In the new dark I saw him roll his head toward me, and his eyes opened. They were small white things. I crawled toward him carrying a canteen, an aid kit and my sidearm. 'Robert,' I said, 'it's me, Beth. Stop your groaning they'll hear you.' I examined him and found a large piece of wood piercing his left thigh. His cheek was hanging open like a second set of lips. He was missing his left ear. He was a terrible sight. I told him to shut his mouth. 'I'll get you back,' I said, 'you can survive this. But you have to shut up. They're not far off, and they can shoot with their ears as well as their eyes.'"  (The Communist's Daughter- Dennis Bock pg. 86)

     This part of the book I picked was very plausible since it is based about the life of a medic in the war this is the kind of things they would go through sometimes on daily bases. There's also lots of suspense in this section of the book, making you're heart race with thoughts of the things going to happen next? Will they live? Die? What could be running through the mind of the other character who isn't expressing what he thinks or feels like the main character. There's also conflict going on, they're faced with a trap or obstacle, and there is also crises happening as well. This paragraph from my book explains the top 5 elements of a story perfectly!