Xia are warriors of the Shadows, the martial underworld, living below the radar and above the law. Each warrior chooses to walk either the Glory Road, that of duty, honor and victory, or the Wayward Way, that of freedom and personal gain.
The Shadow clans each practice their own form of combat skills. Some, like the Two Dragon Family and the Death Dealer, practice extraordinary chi disciplines such as the Swift Step and the Silent Speech. Others, like the Beggar Clan, depend on military-like strategy and superior weapons. All seek to gain supremacy over the other clans.
From birth, Paul Lau was raised to walk the Glory Road. On the death of his father, he became the Dragon Son, head of the Two Dragon Family, the embodiment of their unity and prosperity, and the channel through which they communicate with the long-dead Ancestor Dragon. But Paul is sick of the internal politics and external violence of the Shadows, and tired of his cousin, Tony, trying to make him over in his own image. A congenital heart disease makes him reluctant to have another close encounter with Ancestor Dragon since the first one almost killed him. He rejects the Two Dragon Family’s claim on him. Instead, he opens an art gallery and becomes involved with Rhian Nolan.
Rhian is an Irish Traveller with ties to the Beggar Clan. After a childhood spent walking the Wayward Way with her gypsy parents, she moves to America with her mother and stepfather. Rhian’s repentant mother keeps her children away from the Shadows, hoping they’ll lead normal lives. Rhian dutifully steers clear until her job as a designer places her in Paul's office to build a web site for his gallery. She falls hard for the handsome, secretive artist and is thrilled when he returns her fe...
... middle of paper ...
...oesn’t blame him. He blames Auntie and his parents for their deception and for keeping him and Paul at odds with each other for so many years. They renew their pledge of brotherhood.
A decision by the Elders is reached. Because Ancestor Dragon is no more, there is no need for the Dragon Son to be his direct descendant. Tony will be allowed to participate in a competition to decide the next Dragon Son. Before he can do so, he must prevail over the Beggar Clan. Paul is banished from the Two Dragon Family. Tony protests but Paul stops him, not wanting to jeopardize he chance at becoming the next Dragon Son. Still, Tony swears to find a way to revoke his banishment. Paul swears that when he can, he will return to San Francisco and help Tony regain his birthright.
Paul and Rhian are reunited. They get married and leave city to begin their journey on the Wayward Way.
The concept of loss and renewal is well depictive in Paul D’s life in Alfred Georgia. Paul D goes through many losses in his transition into reality. However, he receives the ultimate reward, his survival. Paul D encountered many people and objects that could have killed him and the other 46 men. The irony is that the things that should have killed him helped him survive. Morrison’s use of irony, symbolism, and imagery all showed the journey of the 46
...onas which cause him to overlap his personas making him overlap his names with his different personas. Paul who has now lost control feels powerless and obediently listens to Ousia about going to the police serving his time and then coming out of prison to live a happy life with her and Flan.
plot of the novell itself. He offen does this by describing the death of Paul's
When her parents die when she is still very young, innocent Ruth Hilton is sent to the city by the guardian she does not know. In the city she is to learn the trade very common for young girls during this time, that of the seamstress (Ugoretz), but events take a drastic turn when she becomes noble Mr Bellingham's mistress. Only 16 years old, Ruth is thrown into the for her unknown adult world and in this world, she cannot separate right from wrong and is thus considered to be a sinner. However, life is never simple and straightforward and in this essay, I discuss the moral aspects of the novel to decide if Ruth really is a bad person.
strong parental figure in his life. Dorian was raised by his rich uncle who left Dorian to live his life the
to normal. In the middle of the book, Paul goes home on leave, only to
One topic Paul finds out the truth is about his eyesight. Paul is considered a blind kid . But he can actually see. Having this issue Paul has lots of problems. Like on the first soccer team he was on he got kicked off of it because his eye IEP.He also is living a lie that he was looking into an eclipse and that how he got blind. But what really happened was that his brothers friend that does all his dirty work sprays him in the eye with white spray paint. Knowing the truth of what happened
that they were fighting on different sides. Paul then starts to feel he killed himself and wishes no more of a part in the war.
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
This book explores the lifestyle of Randy Love, the last child of his household, as a reckless and ambitious character constantly trying at every opportunity to get better jobs that increase his prestige. His recklessness stems from his behaviours such as chronic alcoholism, sleeping around with various women and his lack of common sense. However, his irresponsibility and reckless gives his father fears that he may not complete his college education, hence his promise to his father. It also discusses his ordeals amidst various forms of seduction at different levels, some of which he didn’t have adequate control of himself. He is a character that sees people as stupid without common sense and a lot of women as objects of mere satisfaction :cry2: . He also has a selfish attitude. However, as things later dawned on him, he started to change ways towards the end of the book.
As the novel goes on, Paul develops and stands up to Erik and Arthur. On pages 263 and 264 of Tangerine,
Then, a scene of horror occurred for the nine-year-old Diana Spencer. Her father decided to send her to a boarding school. Diana was so shy, so vulnerable that it took her a long time before she could finally feel at ease in her new enviro...
With the support of three other swordsmen, the “nameless” swordsman comes with a strategy on how to assassinate the Qin emperor, to avenge his parents’ deaths and to stop the emperor’s endless ambition in uniting the entire mainland at the cost of a substantial number of lives from the fallen nations.
In the beginning of the story, Paul seems to be a typical teenage boy: in trouble for causing problems in the classroom. As the story progresses, the reader can infer that Paul is rather withdrawn. He would rather live in his fantasy world than face reality. Paul dreaded returning home after the Carnegie Hall performances. He loathed his "ugly sleeping chamber with the yellow walls," but most of all, he feared his father. This is the first sign that he has a troubled homelife. Next, the reader learns that Paul has no mother, and that his father holds a neighbor boy up to Paul as "a model" . The lack of affection that Paul received at home caused him to look elsewhere for the attention that he craved.
The conflict of this story is shown with Paul trying to deal with his father’s death in the Portrait of an Invisible Man, and his divorce in The Book of Memory. As Paul received the sudden news of his father’s death, he was taken back by the fact he actually passed away. Paul then made the trip with his wife to clear out his father’s possessions from the house, so they could pu...