Critique of Winter Moon
In Winter Moon by Dean Koontz a cloudy Los Angeles, California day is shattered when a hot Hollywood director turns a city street into a fiery abyss. A heroic police officer, Jack McGarvey, is badly wounded in the inferno and will not be able to walk for months. Little does Jack know that a series of events will lead him and his family to a ranch in Montana. On that isolated ranch they discover their destiny in a horrific encounter with a ruthless and puzzling enemy from which neither the living nor dead are safe.
	Koontz’s novels seem to have one thing in common. Their themes are about how the human mind and spirit relate to things in life. He doesn’t stray from that commonality in Winter Moon. Koontz’s purpose in writing the book was to show that the power of the mind is yet an unmatched force. Both my mother and I agree that he accomplished this very well.
	His use of characters also fits a pattern that has developed in his writing. Koontz uses the same two characters in many of his novels: the heroic, faithful male and the strong female. Koontz’s employment of indirect characterization is impeccable, and makes the reader feel as though they really know the characters. At the beginning, the book can seem confusing, whereas Koontz jumps back and forth from character to character. I feel that after the reader has become accustomed to it, the switching between characters creates good stopping points. However, my mom found it annoying and didn’t like the switching.
	Koontz explodes into action during the first chapter, which grips the reader and holds their attention throughout the rest of the book. The novel starts out as two separate stories: a police officer’s family living in L.A. and an old retired man living in Montana. As the book progresses the two stories become more connected, and finally intertwined. The book can seem confusing at the start. However, the confusion of the reader is used by Koontz to make the ending more intense. Koontz certainly unleashes his vivid imagination in this novel, whereas some of the details and occurrences can leave a weak stomached reader feeling nauseous. My mom said that she couldn’t sleep after reading one of the more disturbing sequences of events.
	The setting of Winter Moon occurs in two different places. Two places that are complete opposites: Los Angeles, California and a ranch in Montana.
In “The Coldest Winter Ever” by Sister Souljah, her overall purpose in writing this book. Was to show the reader the real “ghetto” life and answer questions many of her loyal readers had. But to also represent the honest truth about living in the ghetto. This type of literature is an urban fiction novel, and the main point
To me, the challenging part of the book was reading a book on a topic that I do not know much about. I am starting to become familiar with the legal system, however I am nowhere near that of a lawyer. This is why I stumbled at times on some of the legal lingo that the book contained. In addition to that, I did find myself with a better understanding of our legal system. I felt like I was along for the ride on the whole legal process. Also, I would like to note that I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on the autopsy because I thought it was very interesting how they performed those procedures in that time period. I loved the detail that the author went into when describing how it all took place.
...eeps through the pages as Odd relays his thoughts for the book. This gives us a glimpse at Odd and the influences in his life. While not all of them are listed here, the ones that are, play a pivotal role in his life; something he seems to become more and more aware as this story goes on. It’s as if Koontz is trying to tell us a little about ourselves, that while we have known influences like our family, there are many more out there that help shape us into the beings that we are. Humans are a product of influences, but since no one human is influenced by exactly the same things then how are we to know what others want, need or feel. This story is a beautiful adaptation of that very concept with a little bit of mystical tossed in to keep it and the story interesting.
His style empowers an emotional and literal bridge with the audience that gradually builds up as each chapter passes. He manipulates diction and syntax to create symbolism and allegories within the text. The symbolism was then used to embark on a helpless and solemn tone to represent his cry for help. Later, Trumbo uses imagery to paint an illustration in the reader’s mind to exhibit the consequences of war. Finally, he finishes it off with a full circle ending that completes the story by providing both a cause for why this has happened and a resolution where he finally accepts his fate. Throughout all of this, the reader is guided and taken throughout the depths of Joe’s mind where they could directly react to the tragic events that fell upon him. All in all, Trumbo’s style accomplished the impossible and defied society’s standard in an absolutely brilliant way. His use of these literary techniques may not be traditional or formal, but nevertheless he executed his theme
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
Co. and the dead moon," reinforces the description of winter once again, because there is no life during winter as opposed to a harvest moon in fall when it is warm, life is good, and food is plenty. "The filaments of cold light bulbs tremble," gives a very cold image and it is like music, but he can not listen to it.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of this novella has written it very cleverly, with certain techniques used that have a greater impact on the reader and ones that make it more than just any thriller/shocker. Every novella has a purpose to it and so does this story, the purpose of this novella has been made to narrative the reader and it is quite clearly reflecting the genre of the thriller/shocker. As well as this the novella has been made as a shilling shocker which depends on sensationalism and represents an immoral lifestyle that may include violence in extremity.
The novel is organized in an unusual manner that can make it seem unclear to the reader. Krakauer does not introduce the work as a whole, yet he pieces together the story through different chapters. McCandless’s journey is described out of chronological order, requiring the audience to pay careful attention in order to understand the events that unfold.
If there is one thing on which critics agree when discussing this book, it is that Kotlowitz is a brilliant narrator. He has a keen eye for the daily particulars of this dangerous neighborhood. Adding to this strength is the fact that he spent years in one particular Chicago project, earning the trust of his informants. What ensues is a story that is told masterfully.
A normal novel has smooth transition. Vonnegut wrote this book without any smooth transition. This novel is very complicated. The topics that are mention are hard to understand. The book was a bit difficult to follow. Slaughter House-Five's character's needs more depth. More description is necessary. There was too much jumping around in time in Billy’s life. I thought that this book was going to be better than it actually was.
Winter Dreams There are many ways in which “Winter Dreams” is like and unlike a fairytale. “Winter Dreams” had the potential to have a fairy tale ending. Beginning the story, F. Scott Fitzgerald made the story seem predictable. The reader would have predicted a happy ending, like a fairytale. An ending where the ambitious young man gets the beautiful girl of his dreams.
Marge, Hicks, and Converse are the book's three main characters, and as the plot follows first Converse's activities and then moves back and forth between Hicks and Converse, these two main characters develop into very complicated people. Marge's character isn't delved into as much, but it didn't seem to be that she was usually thinking about much besides the next time she could get high. Some of the things Converse and Hicks did or said still baffle me, just like the characters that are a part of my real life. Because all of the characters are so weak and hurt each other with such frequency and carelessness, I found it hard to like them, but I liked the fact that not many stories center on people of such violent natures.
Chapter 1 is full of questions and strange issues, not only does this make the reader wants to read on to find out the answers but builds up the tension.
...s were so long. I was just about sick of cod after I was only half way through the chapter. I feel like Greenberg could have done a better job of separating the book and make it more readable. While I really enjoyed Greenberg’s opening personal story, I did not see its purpose by the end of the book since he did not tell any more in-depth personal stories. For me personally, I did not really enjoy this book. I would not read it again.
...it up to each reader to draw their own conclusions and search their own feelings. At the false climax, the reader was surprised to learn that the quite, well-liked, polite, little convent girl was colored. Now the reader had to evaluate how the forces within their society might have driven such an innocent to commit suicide.