Have you had a time when you thought things couldn't get any worse than it is, and then something worse happens to you? In the novel BACKTRACKED by Pedro de Alcantara gives this scenario a step up when a teenage boy named Tommy Latrella is recovering from his brother death on 9/11, not doing well in school, and his family is in a low point in New York. When Tommy thinks that running away from his problems can fix them, but it only made them worse by time traveling back in time. After reading this novel it has excellent detail and a great plot, but some of the text seems to get confusing as well it has too many loose ends and receives a three out of a five. The great detail gives the reader to be in the same world as the characters sharing the …show more content…
There are many characters that were introduced that play a significant role in the plot, but they seem too rushed and we only have a basic understanding of these characters. "I went to meet the Shadow at the appointed time and place: the Van Cortlandt Park station at 242nd street, the last stop on line one." (Alcantara 24). The character Shadow seems to play an important part in the plot when you read the novel, but then the author never seems to develop the character fully and only saw that same character one time. Another character that is not fully developed an seems to play a very important role in the plot is Giuseppe Pantano. Shadow and Pantano are not flat characters in this novel because they have multiple personality traits that seem important and a connection to the main character and seems to be cut off. Another part of this feeling of unfinished is "the portal," the main part of the plot that is never explained. The portal is what the main character thinks what is making him go through time. The character makes multiple references to the portal, " I ran out of the cafe and rushed to Times Square. The search of the portal couldn't wait no longer." (Alcantara 89). Then when the main character goes to find answers about the portal it seems the character is drawn away by the author. Then after reading the novel the main character still hasn't found out why he time traveled. With many more loose ends and the feeling of unfinished with no sequel is the reason the book receives a three
A Ticket out of the Past By (Teresa) Yung-Ching Chuang. Life is like an ascent, the more you climb, the higher you will get. J. C. Burke skilfully undertakes this philosophy as a source of inspiration for ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’. It is not another crazy adventurous tale with a heroic storyline that seems unrealistic; the novel is about individual representation as Burke insightfully illustrates the long and slow journey of Tom Brennan, navigating through his road of self-discovery that eventually leads to his destination and achieves his “ticket out of the past” (Burke, pg 182). The catalyst of the novel is a traumatic car accident causing two instant deaths and one paralysis.
We are given these details so that we know some backstory about each and can possibly relate to them better. It helps to know the names of the people in the movie you are watching and some details can foreshadow things to come, such as Ernesto suffering from multiple asthma attacks on the trip and also helping us understand why they stopped at the leper colony. These details provide exposition, which is necessary for the audience to get to know the characters and understand thing...
The way in which the author describes the scene with heavy detail allows for the reader to become more involved in the story mentally. As shown when they were “In a forest mixed growth somewhere on the
There were really no very interesting characters in this book. I was never one to be interested in history. There were some interesting parts though, for instance, the chapter about the railroad man was pretty good, and it was kind of cool that he got promoted to vice-president of the railroad he work on within a year after he started the job. Some of the wars he was in were ok as well. It sometimes amazes me that there were so many unnamed heroes.
It appears to be with every character introduced comes with a problem, leaving the reader to wonder what they will do to resolve their issue and how they will fit in the story line. For example, Magdelena’s issue was the company contaminating the water and inhumane acts of the factories in Mexico. As Magdelena tries to bring a solution to the problem she is attacked and ends up in a stranger’s house in America making the situation harder for her to fix. Armando’s problem was the casa de mujer, trying to figure out where his wife has gone and what happened to their child. He goes on a quest of his own to bring “justice” to the death of his child but really it is for him to feel like he has a purpose in the world. Most of the characters in the novel have important roles but some just live longer than the others. Some comes from are usually people who experience ego-death and come back to have a purpose in the world like Fahey, a meth addict who lives on a worm farm with a trouble past. Neither a future nor motive to improve his current life style until Magdelena makes an appearance in his life. A person who wasn’t going anywhere in life suddenly has a purpose. Giving a person who had no value, value in the book gives the reader a deeper connection with the character. Nunn knows how to capture peoples’ attention with all sorts of different techniques, but most of them surround the idea
The excessive use of detail is a primary way that Salinger keeps his reader interested in his stories (Kazin 296). At all times in the story Salinger describes something. A prime example of the excessive use of detail is the following:
Most of the book is the narrative from Billy Pilgrim a unique character who has the ability to become “unstuck in time”, which means that he can uncontrollably drift from one part of his life to another “and the trips aren’t nessicarilly fun”. The whole books is organized in the same way Billy moves in time. In consists of numerous sections and paragraphs strung together in no chronological order, seemingly at random. The whole narration is written in the past tense, so that the reader cannot identify where the author’s starting point is. This aspect of the book is almost identical with the Tralfamadorian type of book:
objects in the story with visual descriptions to give focus to the reader's imagination. In the story,
Because this novel follows the "Who Done It" theme, there are the few obvious characters. 1) The inspector, always trying to get an accusation across as to who the murderer is(of course never correct). 2) The doctor, Devon Island's answer to the question nobody ever asked. 3) The old married couple (Mr. + Mrs. Rogers), always passionate to others, until a guest discovers an eerie secret.
11/22/63 by Stephen King is interesting because of its back-in-time setting, unexpected plot twists, and unique story unlike other novels by Stephen King. Although the story takes place in modern day 2011, a time travel portal takes the setting back to 1958. “I turned and walked slowly into the pantry, moving like a man trying to locate the top of a staircase with the lights out. On my third step, I found it” (123). The pantry inside of a restaurant takes people back to 1958 which is something unique about this story. The characters are able to transition between time periods and maintain their personalities. This interesting aspect adds a twist to the story. Speaking of twists, the unexpected plot twists also make this novel interesting to read.
Creating detailed and believable characters is usually a key factor in a book's success. If a story contains rich, fleshed-out characters, readers will be able to understand and empathise with them, so becoming more enveloped by the narrative and, consequently, more enjoying the book. There are, of course, exceptions; in some cases characters are left deliberately vague so as to increase the atmosphere surrounding them, for example.
-I copied specific frames from the novel as examples of how the artwork truly does inform the reader without saying a word.
...ality. Given that he is a part of both the main and sub plot, he merges the different scenes in the play, guiding the audience is able to analyze the different characters and their oblivious personalities. He also helps the characters themselves by having them understand how foolish some of their behaviour truly is. He awakens Olivia from her ridiculous and unrealistic mourning over her brother’s death, make’s Orsino realize truly how foolish he is for being love-sick for a woman who does not love him in return, and makes Malvolio look like a mad fool.
At this point there seems to be one main character (setting the scene, and the past scene as this is important to the story) but she mentions others as well, which will be involved later on, the first chapter seems to represent the foundation to what is going to happen later on.