Knife Edge
Daisha Flowers
Mr. Quimby
3rd Period British Literature
January 31, 2014
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman is a fictional book filled with love, mystery, misfortune, and death. In this book, blacks (known as Crosses) are the majority and whites (known as Naughts) are the minority. The main characters, Jude and Sephy, are intertwined through Callum which is Jude’s brother and also the father of Sephy’s child Callie Rose. As the story continues other characters such as Meggie (Jude and Callum’s mother), Minerva (Sephy’s sister), and Jasmine (Sephy’s mother) are added into the story.
The story is about the lives of those most close to Callum and Callie Rose after Callum’s death. It follows them and in some chapters portrays their deepest thoughts and feelings. Filled with twist and turns, the story begins with Jude ready to kill Sephy but then realizes that she wants to die. Although this is a major flaw in his plan, he finds a new way to get revenge on his brother’s murder- the child. Jude promises to use the child as his apprentice when he gets his revenge on her and her fam...
Many people in today’s society face challenges within themselves. Some challenges deal with adults paying their bills, while others involve kids and their self-esteem. In the novel Cut, by Patricia McCormick, a young teenage girl experiences just this, self-esteem trouble. According to Angela Kennedy in the article “Self-Injury on Rise,” a shocking 25 percent of people who self-injure said they started by sixth grade or younger; 60 percent by seventh or eighth grade and 12 percent in ninth grade. Inside the book, the reader views Callie’s thoughts from a first person point of view. At first, everything seems normal as Callie runs in her cross-country meet. Things escalate quickly as she runs off the track to her house where she turns to self-mutilation.
Hatchet is a book about Brian Robeson, who recently has been going through a lot of trouble.
Anti-Semitism is the hatred and discrimination of those with a Jewish heritage. It is generally connected to the Holocaust, but the book by Helmut Walser Smith, The Butcher’s Tale shows the rise of anti-Semitism from a grassroots effect. Smith uses newspapers, court orders, and written accounts to write the history and growth of anti-Semitism in a small German town. The book focuses on how anti-Semitism was spread by fear mongering, the conflict between classes, and also the role of the government.
Baby narrates her story through her naïve, innocent child voice. She serves as a filter for all the events happening in her life, what the narrator does not know or does not comprehend cannot be explained to the readers. However, readers have reason not to trust what she is telling them because of her unreliability. Throughout the beginning of the novel we see Baby’s harsh exposure to drugs and hurt. Jules raised her in an unstable environment because of his constant drug abuse. However, the narrator uses flowery language to downplay the cruel reality of her Montreal street life. “… for a kid, I knew a lot of things about what it felt like to use heroin” (10). We immediately see as we continue reading that Baby thinks the way she has been living her life is completely normal, however, we as readers understand that her life is in fact worse then she narrates. Baby knows about the impermanent nature of her domestic security, however, she repeatedly attempts to create a sense of home each time her and Jules move to another apartm...
“A Rose for Emily” begins with the foreshadowing of Emilys funeral. The story then takes the reader to explain what had occurred over the years leading to Emily’s death. Emily Grierson had become the last member of an aristocratic southern family who had been raisd by her widowed father. Growing up< Emilys
basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and
1. Jude wants to hurry up and graduate from high school so he can assume his place in the family business and be able marry the girl next door. He has never really considered any other girl, and he says he is "lucky" he has never had to worry about what career he would choose!
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
Gladwell refers ‘thin slicing’ as the ability to make a fast conclusion using very little information. This is an activity that almost everybody does on a daily basis when faced with different issues. In his book, Gladwell focuses on how mental process work rapidly for one to make the best and accurate judgements. He provides several examples where quick and accurate decisions are made and they are; gambling, advertising, wars and sales. Thin slicing proves that sudden decisions are right compared to those that are planned and calculated. However, thin slicing can limit individuals’ understanding of the surrounding because of inadequate data.
Many people think that reading more can help them to think and develop before writing something. Others might think that they don’t need to read and or write that it can really help them to brainstorm things a lot quicker and to develop their own ideas immediately (right away). The author’s purpose of Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, is to understand the concepts, strategies and understandings of how to always read first and then start something. The importance of this essay is to understand and comprehend our reading and writing skills by brainstorming our ideas and thoughts a lot quicker. In other words, we must always try to read first before we can brainstorm some ideas and to think before we write something. There are many reasons why I chose Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, by many ways that reading can help you to comprehend, writing, can help you to evaluate and summarize things after reading a passage, if you read, it can help you to write things better and as you read, it can help you to think and evaluate of what to write about.
Manipulation serves the purpose of helping the manipulator have the upperhand and although it may come in a variety of forms, it is found in all human societies. The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness, is a science fiction book following a 12 year old boy named Todd Hewitt living in r Prentisstown until one day he finds a girl and he has to leave because his life is now in danger. The insight I gained as I was reading was how man manipulates in order to gain more power and control.
Certain words or images can trigger an emotional connection or a memory and in the poem, Knife by Mary Oliver, I personally had some of those connections. “Whatever goes flashing by”, I envision my childhood, specifically the days where I would station myself right in front of the television during the weekends at my grandparents. I was typically with my older brother and sister for the most part since were all two years apart and we would binge watch the shows from channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. In the background I can imagine the sound of a rocking chair that my grandma would sit on. “When I sit like this, quiet”, this relates to a personal experience of mine. This quote would take me back to high school where I would begin
This book is an Internal Conflict. Based on important decisions Jessy has to make. As Mum keeps surprising her with all that she knows she wants to keep going along with it. To see if she has created what she hopes.
Likewise in Ballad of Birmingham, Randall portrays a mother – child relationship. The use of dialogue between the child and the mother and colloquial language in their communication shows the deep affection they have for one another. The repetition of ‘No, baby, no’ reflects the mother’s desperateness for her child to be safe. Both mothers lose their innocent child due to hardships that they are facing. “Bits of glass and brick” implies that not only was the bond between mother and daughter broken, but daughter’s innocence as well. The “glass” conveys a fragile image for the girl, which shows how innocence can be lost so easily and quickly.
‘Noughts and Crosses” by Malorie Blackman is a novel which follows the lives and experiences of two characters, Callum and Sephy. Throughout the book Blackman deals with a number of issues including relationships, alcohol abuse, power abuse, depression and violence. However, the key issues of the book are racism and prejudice. These issues of racism and prejudice are conveyed through the narrative techniques of characterization, point of view, language, structure and setting.