Writing: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This book reminds me of the movie we played in class “Coraline“. They both have a young character. A determined kid.  And their life changed after they find a fantasy world. In Coraline, the little girl finds a copy of her parent and her house by passing through a small door. In the “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”, The boy’s story starts with the birthday party. Compared to some fantasy story, I feel a little heavy and scary in this story and Coraline.

I feel some elements reminds me the urban fantasy and the Heroic Journey. They both have an adventure in a magical world. They will meet amazing characters, strange creatures and face the evil villain. Some of the characters they meet may not really evil but people may feel cruel or cold because of their motivation. They may be not human but act more like an animal. The things they do is normal to an animal but is cruel or a human, like eating people.

I also find the similar concept statement in these two stories. Be careful what you wish for. In Coraline, the little girl is not really happy with her parent. And her life changed because she finds the new parents. And the Ocean at the End of the Lane is about the character Ursula. The different is, In Coraline, the witch is evil and tried to use Coraline’s wish to trap her. But Ursula is not really evil but just doesn’t know how to help people properly.

Writing: Frankenstein

The story Frankenstein is about a crazy scientist who wants to make his crazy idea comes true. The scientist, Victor, plans to build a perfect human. He digs the graveyard and collects dead body. He realizes he build a monster and try to fix it after he made  Frankenstein.

During the story,

I never read Frankenstein before, I know this character before class is based on the movie or animation. After I read  Frankenstein, I feel those “gothic novel “ are happened in the similar place. They usually happened in the dark place and always has a castle. In this story, I didn’t feel a lot of scary feeling but feel a little sad for Frankenstein. Victor is the one who causes all of this problem even he aide the price, he still made Frankenstein this sad character. The scary looking is not Frankenstein’s fault. But the fear from people increase the conflict and after Frankenstein found he was abandoned by victor, the tragedy happened.

Writing:Interview with a Vampire

There are several relationships between these character Interview with the Vampire. In this story, it has several main characters. Lestat, who always want to dominate over others. He is one who starts most of the relationship between the character. He is one who turns Louis into a vampire. And he also bites Claudia. Louis is the one who conscious of human nature. He hunts animal while Lestat hunts human. Lestat creates the third character, Claudia, to keep Louis stay with him. He is the one who made these complicate relationships. In this story, these three main characters depend on each other. They connect to each other. The first relationship is between Lestat and Louis. Lestat is the one who made Louis become a vampire. He seems the most powerful and tries to control everything in the story. He looks more like a vampire than Louis. He usually hunts people and bites before thinking. Compare to Lestat, Louis still keeps his human nature. Lestat wants to Louis to get rid of his human nature and Louis wants to change Lestat. They keep different opinion about human nature. And Lestat tries to use a little girl to keep Louis stay with him. This cause the second relationship. Claudia is a little girl who will never grow up. She hates Lestat makes her be a kid forever. She tries to kill Lestat and bring Louis away. But she ends up dying under the sun. The third relationship includes another character, Armand. He is the oldest vampire and the leader of the group of the vampire. These vampires are looking for their companion. Lestat let Louis stay with him. Claudia tries to keep finding an adult to take care of her. In this book. I feel the theme is about different kinds of love and discover themselves. They are between the desire of blood and human nature. It is really interesting to figure out this relationship. The identity of these vampires makes their relationship more complicated because they are not only meet each other but actually created (turned into a vampire) by someone.

Writing: The Hobbit

After I read The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, I feel this book has most of the elements of the classic journey of the hero. The main character starts a journey one day because of something he wants and he learns a lesson or gets something else after their journey. Bilbo joins the trip because he wants to have an adventure. He learns and changes after he backs home. He also meets the new friend, faces the problem and almost lost everything during the trip.

The thing I feel is a little different from the classic journey is the journey's goal is not Bilbo's goal. The journey's goal is getting dwarf's home back. The journey is not for Bilbo and it does not start by Bilbo even he is the main character. He may try to back to his home, like the movie “Finding Nemo” and “Rio”. He may try to find someone, like the movie “Coco”. But in “The Hobbit”, I feel like the story is more about the dwarfs and Thorin. They are the one who will really get something after the journey. Their background story is the main theme of “The Hobbit”. And Thorin learns a lesson at the end. Even the story named “The Hobbit”, I feel that the main character is Thorin. 

But there is another thing that reflects the classic journey is the main character usually start the journey because something they thought they need it. But they realize what they really want during or at the end of the journey. Bilbo thought he needs an adventure so he starts a trip with those dwarfs. But he realizes what he really wants is back to Hobbiton and relaxes in his home. And he also changes after the journey.

Reading Tolkien’s novel is kind of a new experience. In his book like The Lord of the ring, he puts a lot of lyric or poem. He may use several pages to let the character sing the song. This is really interesting to use this way present character and story.