When earth’s existence comes under threat from evil forces on a parallel earth, a meek teenager must enter this parallel world to save a spirit that can break a drought on earth.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
PETE, father of JAMES, tells his teenage son the family secret: the men of the family are the protectors of the Tree of Life and her daughter, Star Child, who are responsible for life on earth.
When an evil Wizard, We-Neg, captures Star Child, who causes rain on earth, this threatens the existence of humans with a terrible drought. James must take his father’s place and try to rescue Star Child.
Reluctant at first, James becomes the protector and saves Star Child, and he comes to peace with himself and his family.
STORY COMMENTS
Using a vivid
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In the first ten pages James has a clear goal: save Star Child, which will break the devastating drought on earth. The goal has merit. The stakes are high.
Moreover, he also has the internal goal of growing into a man by finding his path in life, reconciling with his father, and recovering from his mom’s death.
Showing the difficulty of becoming a man is a solid concept that has been used often to tell a tale of fantasy, notably the Harry Potter series and the Transformer movie. Overcoming the many blocks to becoming a man, James is relatable.
The first act competently shows the negatives of James’ world where he’s bullied, insecure, and grieving over his mom’s passing. Now the earth is drying up, creating a serious and strong storyline.
Building up his insecurities early on helps highlight his transformation from weak boy to strong man. Having Ray bully James at school creates sympathy for James. Even better, Pete says that James’ mom Jane: “would be here if it wasn’t for you.”
Making James nerdier at school might help build this image so the contrast to a man would stand out even more. These weaknesses motivate him to show his dad that he’s not a meek boy, but rather one with courage and
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If understanding correctly, the wizard wants the protector to open the box and the necklace has the power to bring the wizard’s wife back.
In the first act, it’s unclear how the wizard has the ability to contact Pete. It doesn’t feel believable and it makes the structure feel fragmented. Consider cutting this.
Later, Pete has an accident, yet the Tree of Life and James engage in a conversation while Pete is suffering. This doesn’t feel believable and should be re-worked.
As the story progresses, James does open the box, and the wizard’s wife appears, although she’s not the woman he remembered or in the same form. What’s not clear is what motivates the wizard to keep Star Child, if James has done what he asked.
Although the characters are colorful and inventive, making clear what their powers are helps one follow the action. In Transformers, the machines have molecular DNA that can change into another object that it sees. When so many actors can do so many things it can dilute the effect of the power.
Some characters powers are less clear, especially the bad guys’ abilities and the power of the ring itself. The ring can do something with water and sends
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The movie starts out with a spectacular space battle that showcases James’ father’s valor as he sacrifices himself to save the crew of his condemned starship. In doing so he saves 800 lives, including those of his wife and newborn son. After the opening scene the movie cuts twenty-five years into the future depicting James as a young troublemaker. “Challenged by a Captain Christopher Pike to realize his potential in Starfleet, he enlists to annoy instructors like young Commander Spock” (Chrisholm). When a distress signal is received from Vulcan (an allied planet) the newly commissioned USS Enterprise is filled with young cadets who will soon find out that Vulcan is under a surprise attack. Together, James and his fellow cadets must pursue and stop an enemy...
The newchild climbed up to Jonas, and grabbed his ears with his chubby hands. The girl picked him up and Gabe squealed and began to play with her hair. As Jonas closed his eyes, he saw ghostly figures. With his abilities, he saw Rosemary, the twin, Larissa, Caleb, and much more. Then the scene changed. He saw the community. Green grass, blue skies, he knew that the memories had
Now Billy's life has been quite stressful, losing his father at such a young age and in the middle of a war. Then after this father's death Billy actually had to go off to war. And his wife, I mean she was no Marilyn Monroe and it wasn't like he was in love with her. Billy only marri...
Each has their own way of showing the readers how powerful they are. Even though at first, Iphy and Oly does not show so much power in them, as time goes on, they grow older and things change in their life, they show some power and that they can get control of the situation.
As a boy, James questions his unique family and color through his confusion of race issues. Later in his life, as an adolescent, his racial perplexity results in James hiding from his emotions, relying only on the anger he felt against the world. It is only when James uncovers the past of his mother does he begin to understand the complexity of himself and form his own identity. As James matures, issues of race in his life become too apparent to ignore. His multiracial family provides no clear explanations on prejudices and racism, and when "[James] asked [Ruth] if she was white, she'd say, No. I'm light skinned and change the subject.
As a boy in rural Illinois, James became recognized as an outstanding marksman with the pistol. His parents, Abner and Eunice Hickok, were very religious people. They would make James wear a stiff, uncomfortable suit to church on Sundays. This caused a huge fight every week at the Hickok home. James was not close with his parents. His father believed him to be a dreamer with unreachable dreams. Nevertheless, James did his choirs so to keep the family happy.
By the end of the story, although tortured by his choices, he achieves moral independence from his father.
finally realizes that his son loves him and in a way holds him as number one,
The audience is introduced to the main characters in the first scene. Andrew is playing the drum when his soon to be teacher, Fletcher, comes in and watches him play. This introduces the characters’ personalities as well. Andrew was eager to please and Fletcher acted like it wasn’t worth his time to watch him play. By this first scene, we can already tell that
Fathers are men who help to shape and mold children, youth, and young adults into the adults they become. Some fathers are biological, but many are men that are introduced through daily interactions and occurrences. The father figure may have a positive or negative impact on the child. This is true with the character Jim Hawkins from Treasure Island. Many characters guide his growth throughout the book with good and bad traits. He looks for a father because his own father is not a factor in his life. He dies when Jim is a young child and does not seem to have a significant effect on Jim’s life. Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey, and John Silver provide Jim with examples and characteristics he incorporates into the person he becomes. Jim, like many others, find father figures to identify with and pattern their own lives after whether it is a blood relative or a person they choose from their surroundings.
It causes a drift into their family and it influenced James from then on out. A few months after he died, everything changed. James writes, “She sent us off to school and tried to maintain her crazy house as usual, ranting about this and that, but the fire was gone. In the evening, she often sat at the kitchen table completely lost in thought” (137). When Ruth becomes lost in her own world, her behavior influences James. They both grieved for his death in different ways yet, his mothers grieve influenced him the most. Seeing her slowly fall apart was too much for James. He started skipping school, shoplifting, hanging with the wrong crowd, and he eventually became addicted to smoking reefer or drinking alcohol. Slowly, James is sinking into a hole he can't climb out of with all of his bad decisions. On an afternoon, after James nearly dies, he talks with chicken man, “Everybody on the corner is smart. You ain't no smarter than anybody here. If you so smart, why got to come on this corner every summer? ‘Cause you flunking school! You think if you drop out of school somebody's gonna beg you to g back? Hell no. They won't beg your black ass to go back. What makes you so special that they'll beg you! Who are you? You ain't nobody! If you want to drop out of school and shoot people ad hang on this corner all your life, go ahead, it's your life” (150). After James spoke with Chicken
reach into the ideas and themes of the play so we will have a good
...r but Octavia tells him "You not a bum," she says. "You a man."(p.404) This is significant because it shows he is not seen as a young boy by his mother anymore, he is now seen as a man. We see the influence and change in James by all of the life lessons his mother instills in him, she tells him he needs to not cry, to be strong, and be able to stand alone symbolizes that he must be independent, he must also put others before himself and do things he may not like to do but must do as a necessity to live, such as killing the cardinal birds for supper. Helena also shows James that everything in life you must work for, that is why she tells him to take out the trash cans.
James was an authoritarian parent. He was controlling, in-charge and no one questioned him. He would play the role of the doting father. When his children made mistakes, he made a point to criticize them. He often compared them to other kids that he felt were “more perfect.” When his often unspoken expectations were not met he would yell and scream striking fear into his entire family. “He’s not a warm, fuzzy kind of guy, and he’s not going to inspire feelings of intimacy. But when his system works, he can boast about one thing: His recruits tend to obey” (Dewar).