The Dead and the Gone Book Review Final

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
                     In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the setting is in New York, and a nation-wide blackout has just started. Everyone goes into panic, and the main character Alex, along with his little sisters, Bri and Julie, must all survive with little food, water, and supplies until it ends.Thus, they must all stick together and ration themselves on food, but even then there is only so many resources they have to live. The only way they can get out of the mess is by leaving New York, but they would need passes for that, which is only for VIPs in New York. They can only rely on hope. There is not only a sense of hope that gives Alex, Bri and Julie have the will to keep on trying to live, but there is also a style that Pfeffer uses that makes the reader think they will all get the usual happy ending in many books. However, just as the reader and Alex think that it will happen, something prevents it and they are in a much worse situation than before.
                       This is shown when Alex sends Bri off to a kind of summer camp that trains her to become a nun. At first, this is for the benefit of all of them, so there will be more food to spare among each of them, but Bri is forced to come back and is in a bad condition.

"Alex recognized it as an inhaler. But Bri wasn't asthmatic.

'The doctor said I have adult on-set asthma,' said Bri. 'I have to stay indoors and not exert myself or get too excited.'"(p.178-179)

       Bri came back with asthma, so now she can't go outside to get her own food, or walk to school and get food, so Alex and Julie have to split their's with Bri, and they don't even get much. After about a month, Bri is running out of cartidges for her inhaler and needs more soon, or else she could die. Alex is then given an offer by a man named Harvey, who trades food for other valuables, to get two passes out of New York, but he wants Julie as payment. For a split second, it seems as though things look better, until Harvey says want he wants, so Alex declines. Then, a few weeks later, Alex is given three passes by a friend of his to go to South Carolina, and Alex, along with Bri and Julie, to the bus that is supposed to pick them up. But the bus has been canceled, and is rescheduled for another two weeks. He can't go with his sisters, since he turns 18, and they don't accept legal adults, and Bri and Julie feel the need to stay since Alex has caught the flu. More events happen, and in the end there is a "happy ending", but it comes at a great price.
          Another example is in the beginning of the story when the blackout has just begun and everyone (except Mami, Papi and Carlos) are home. For days, Alex, Brianna and Julie don't get any word from their mother or father. Their mother could be at the hospital still looking after patients and the blackout wouldn't let her call, or she could have died along with many others in a subway accident. Their father also could have died in a tsunami that hit some of Puerto Rico, or just had a flight delayed and the blackout wouldn't let him call. (They are sure Carlos is safe though because he sent a postcard and called.) However, they receive a call and everyone is sure that it is their father, but Pfeffer doesn't make it certain that he even called.
"'The phone rang when you were gone. I think it was Papi but I can't be sure...I'm sure it was Papi's voice...he said something about Puerto Rico', said Briana". (p14)
Though at first Brianna says she isn't sure, she speaks in a way that implies certainty that it was her father calling, but it could have been someone else trying to tell the family something about Papi, if something happened to him.All they can do however is hope that their family is okay, but they all know it would take a miracle.

The Dead and the Gone Book Review Final Draft

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
                     In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the main characters are Alex, along with his little sisters, Bri and Julie, are all put in a situation where there is a massive, nation wide blackout and there is a fight for food and survival in New York. Thus, Alex and his sisters have to stick together and ration themselves on food, but even then there is only so many resources they have to live. The only way they can get out of the mess is by leaving New York, but they would need passes for that, which is only for VIPs in New York. They can only rely on hope. There is not only a sense of hope that gives Alex, Bri and Julie have the will to keep on trying to live, but there is also a style that Pfeffer uses that makes the reader think they will all get the usual happy ending in many books. However, just as the reader and Alex think that it will happen, something prevents it and they are in a much worse situation than before. This is shown when Alex sends Bri off to a kind of summer camp that trains her to become a nun. At first, this is for the benefit of all of them, so there will be more food to spare among each of them, but Bri is forced to come back and is in a bad condition.

"Alex recognized it as an inhaler. But Bri wasn't asthmatic.

'The doctor said I have adult on-set asthma,' said Bri. 'I have to stay indoors and not exert myself or get too excited.'"(p.178-179)

       Bri came back with asthma, so now she can't go outside to get her own food, or walk to school and get food, so Alex and Julie have to split their's with Bri, and they don't even get much. After about a month, Bri is running out of cartidges for her inhaler and needs more soon, or else she could die. Alex is then given an offer by a man named Harvey, who trades food for other valuables, to get two passes out of New York, but he wants Julie as payment. For a split second, it seems as though things look better, until Harvey says want he wants, so Alex declines. Then, a few weeks later, Alex is given three passes by a friend of his to go to South Carolina, and Alex, along with Bri and Julie, to the bus that is supposed to pick them up. But the bus has been canceled, and is rescheduled for another two weeks. He can't go with his sisters, since he turns 18, and they don't accept legal adults, and Bri and Julie feel the need to stay since Alex has caught the flu. More events happen, and in the end there is a "happy ending", but it comes at a great price.

Book Review for The Dead and the Gone

            In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, there is a sense of hope being the only thing that keeps all the main characters going. In the beginning, the family is separated from each other when the nationwide blackout hits New York: the mom is at a hospital in Queens, the dad in Puerto Rico, the oldest brother Carlos serving the Marines in California, and the remaining characters, Alex (whose is 18), and his sisters Brianna (16) and Julie (12) to stay at home and look after themselves. For days, Alex, Brianna and Julie don't get any word from their mother or father. Their mother could be at the hospital still looking after patients and the blackout wouldn't let her call, or she could have died along with many others in a subway accident. Their father also could have died in a tsunami that hit some of Puerto Rico, or just had a flight delayed and the blackout wouldn't let him call. (They are sure Carlos is safe though because he sent a postcard and called.) However, they receive a call and everyone is sure that it is their father, but Pfeffer doesn't make it certain that he even called.
"'The phone rang when you were gone. I think it was Papi but I can't be sure...I'm sure it was Papi's voice...he said something about Puerto Rico', said Briana". (p14)
Though at first Brianna says she isn't sure, she speaks in a way that implies certainty that it was her father calling, but it could have been someone else trying to tell the family something about Papi, if something happened to him.All they can do however is hope that their family is okay, but they all know it would take a miracle.

Response to Vignettes

I was looking at my fellow classmates vignettes, and I saw quite a few that interested me and I thought had a very good style of writing. One of them was on Cristian's blog.

I leave to you this thought of sadness and depression; of my mom so
terribly sick. She could catch a cold and die, and my brother could have
a seizure and go into a coma and die. We have been manipulated by life,
and now it is our turn to manipulate life, and live our own happy life.
We all have our stories to tell, and we all have our memories. We use
these memories as tools to discover ourselves and to define ourselves as
well. We use the past to shape our future and the hope for the future
to shape our present.

I think the way Cristian ended the story by saying how we define who we are by using our past, present and future was an excellent way to cap it all off. Though it was very sad indeed throughout the whole set of vignettes, the way the last few sentences are put it kind of makes it seem like there was kind of moral to the story, like whatever happens life goes on and the events that do happen will shape who we are and that is the key to finding out. It's like even though this is a very dreaded future, it would still make you find out more about yourself and make you a better person in some weird way.