Loyalty, Trust, and Love
The book, Midnight Thief by Liva Blackburne is a captivating story about a seventeen-year-old girl named Kyra in Britain during the middle ages. Kyra is a thief in the night, who steals from the rich so she has money to take care of herself and help her friend’s sick sister. One day, she is hired by James, the leader of the infamous Assassins Guild, and is forced to join them so she can afford medicine for her friend. Two red shield soldiers ,Jack and Tristam, are about to become knights when they encounter a clan of barbarian, feline demons known as the Demon Riders. The Demon Riders are notorious for thievery, and raiding farms and carverns. Jack and Tristam try to stop them when they sees the Demon Riders raiding
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He is torn about what to do, because he has two choices, each with their own rewards. He can both obey the council and leave Kyra to die, or he could disobey them and save her, in which would resolve in him losing his job and/or getting killed. “’When I took my [knightly] vows, I pledged to obey the council and protect Forge’s citizens. I never thought those two vows would clash’” (Blackburne 276). Even though Kyra has done many things Tristam is against, he cannot help to be drawn to her. But at the same time, Tristam has duties and must obey the council as he pledged. He ends up saving her with some help from a new friend, only to realize Kyra turns out to be half demon! The same kind of demon that killed Jack, and his new friend too! Which leads to another conflict, the issue between the Knight Tristam and Kyra. As Tristam, himself, admitted, he had issues with Kyra from the beginning, because of all the things she’d done. “’I’ve harbored doubts about you, Kyra. First you were in the Guild, and then I thought you’d betrayed me to the Demon Riders. And each time I was wrong. I’m not making the same mistake again… I like you, Kyra’” (Blackburne 347). His devotion to her is strong, and he manages to overcome his hatred for demons and fear of disobeying the council. As it turns out Tristam’s only punishment for going against orders is being stripped of his knight-hood for a year.
“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is narrated by death and begins when Liesel’s brother dies on a train with her and her mother. At her brother’s burial, she steals her first book, “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” and soon after is separated from her mother and sent to live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in Molching, where the majority of the book takes place. At school, Liesel is teased because she can’t read so Hans teaches her to read when she wakes up from her frequent nightmares about her brother’s death. Hans is a painter and an accordion player and also plays the accordion for her after her nightmares. Liesel grows very close with Hans and also becomes close friends with her neighbor Rudy Steiner who constantly asks her to
knight, yet he still allows him to become one because he knows how important it is to
Mark of the Thief is a book written by Jennifer A. Nielsen. This book is the first in the “Mark of the Thief” trilogy and is set in ancient Rome around the year 400 CE. The story itself takes place primarily in the city of Rome and the mines south of Rome where the story begins.
Throughout life many people face difficulties. Depending on the person’s strength some will get through tough times, but some will fail to overcome them. Two books where characters have to face many challenges include: Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Book Thief. These two stories deal with people overcoming the difficulties faced throughout everyday life. Some difficulties include racism, religious discrimination, and dealing with others’ cruelness or kindness. Examples from these books prove that the characters have challenges throughout the stories to overcome. In the face of adversity what causes some individuals to fail while others prevail?
In Guy de Maupassant’s “The Terror” a man, who remains unnamed, attempts to persuade the reader that he is not completely insane by explaining the situation that has driven him to this He first says that he is marrying a woman whom he has seen only four or five times because he is afraid of being alone. He tells the reader not to judge him until he explains himself. He continues to explain by setting up a scenario that he has lived through. He came home one night, walked into his room, which he had always left locked, and found it unlocked. He meanders in and sees a man in his armchair by the fire. He is not alarmed by the man, thinking that he is a friend come to visit. He goes over to the man, and reaches to wake him where he has fallen asleep. Suddenly the man is not there, vanished into thin air.
At any rate, sometimes things may seem right when in reality they could be wrong. Usually, when someone makes a bad choice it’s because they have faith in something else. For Elie’s family they didn’t want to believe that things could get worse even after getting warned, like on pg. 10 when Moshie gives them their last warning. Despite the fact that the Germans were already invading their land. Later in the story people are faced with more do or die stitutions, which could lead you to doing something horribly wrong. A prime example is the dentist who we learn from Elie was, “dealing in the prisoner's gold teeth for his own benefit.” Of course,this may sound like the right idea in the long run, but not only is it wrong to sell other people's
Muckrakers were normal people who made a big difference in American society. During the progressive era of history, investigative journalists and authors called muckrakers brought facts that corporations didn’t want the public to know to light. A few of these were Ida Tarbell, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Ray Stannard Baker and Lincoln Steffans.
In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, beauty and brutality is seen in many of the characters. Rudy, Liesel, and Rosa display examples of beauty and brutality often without realizing what exactly they are doing, because it is a part of their human nature. Zusak not only uses his characters, but also the setting of the novel in Nazi Germany to allude to his theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature. The time in which the novel is set, during World War II, displays great examples of beauty and brutality, such as the mistreatment of the Jews. As a result of this time period, the characters have to go through troubling times, which reveals their beautiful and brutal nature in certain circumstances. Zusak uses his characters and their experiences to demonstrate the theme of the beauty and brutality of human nature in the novel.
When a person does not get important information, they hope for intimations, especially if they have to wait twenty years. In The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Celia and Marco are both surprised when they have to compete in a circus, and what surprises them more is that they are opponents. When the competition starts, Celia uses her magical powers in the guise of illusion, and Marco uses spells from his journals, so one of them can win the long waited competition. What I have read in the book so far allowed me to connect with Marco, question why the competition is in a circus, and evaluate why Hector is extremely strict towards Celia.
The book As Seen on TV by Karal Ann Marling, is a fascinating study into television and its influence it had on America in the 1950’s. There are many concepts, which are studied in detail proving the pull and push the TV “images” had on the entire U.S. culture.
Nightjohn is set in the South of the United States before the Civil War. The main characters in the book are John “Nightjohn”, Sarny, Mammy, and the plantation owner Waller. John was bought by Waller for $1000 dollars and was subject to cruel treatment from the start, having to pull Waller’s horse cart naked and barefoot. The book shows how being literate contributed to the escape of some slaves before the Civil War, and how slavery played a pivotal role in society back then. In 1860, there were almost 4 million slaves owned across the country, which was the majority of the black population. John meets Sarny after offering to teach her reading and writing in exchange for tobacco.
Nobody understands what really took place that night, the night that John Brown launched his raid on Harpers Ferry. Why it was done, what caused it and what the actual event itself caused was later discovered and well known by people centuries after it even took place. This raid, was one of the biggest reason a nation was left divided. The Southern part of America was its own “nation” where as the Northern part was thought of kind of as the same but opposite. “Midnight Rising” gives an in depth explanation and feel for the events leading to and the events caused by this raid. The book is based around the time period pre civil war ( circa 1859), In the first part of the book and overview and a little bit of background information is provided. Explaining where and when the raid was being planned and where it was going to be executed, and all of this being told through the perception of one of John Browns men .Prior to this event, Bleeding Kansas had happened and it caused an immense amount of outrage, blood shed, fear and frustration amongst almost every single person part of the U.S at the time. Nat Turners rebellion caused an uproar filled with fear, in the south and that was one of the things that had led up to the main event discussed in the book ( the raid on Harpers Ferry). During the time period the book took place, the southern part of America was pro slavery where as the North was not, and due to these discrepancies neither side could or would compromise and neither would be able to come to any sort of agreement on what to do with laws and rules and with the slaves either. Events such as Nat Turners Rebellion are what caused people in the south to become more fearful of slaves
This book tell about the life of Benjamin Franklin in a firsthand account. It tells of his early aspirations from childhood, his love of knowledge and drive to expand his mind. It was made so that he could tell people his story, record his life for future generations from his own perspective, and to tell the tale of how a poor young man with ambition became an icon for an entire country. The novel was written in a very short, almost staccato fashion where it is very easy to understand and interpret. The language is a little archaic to me, but that is to be expected with a book written in a foreign time period with a different dialect than I am accustomed to. I found the book to be very inspiring and an incredible story of a man with a dream and the knowledge of how to obtain it.
Death states that, “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491). This book shows us human doing things that weren’t even imaginable before this point. Many people give into ideas that were lies. But, we also watch a few people go out of their way and sacrifice everything for a man they barely even know. They do everything they can to keep him safe and alive. They work harder, the get another job, and they even steal. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, death examines the ugliness and the beauty of humans.
Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta 's film based on Salman Rushdie 's novel Midnight’s Children is a clear example of a post-colonial work. Midnight’s Children follows two children, both born at precisely midnight, on the exact day that India gained independence from Great Britain. Shiva is born to wealthy parents, while Saleem enters the world as the son of a beggar, but a nurse switches the two boys at birth. Throughout the film, the narrator, Saleem, explains both families’ histories, and in doing so, combines personal narratives with that of India itself. The birth of the “midnight children” represents the birth of a new, independent country. The film rejects the version of India created through British colonization and provides a view