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.
4 comments:
Your post was very interesting but I didn't really see much of an introduction. You jumped right into the main point of the post, being the questions, and barely took the time to explain the genre, what the book was about etc. However, I liked how you had your question on the top of your post so that the reader knew what to look forward too. Although it would have been better if you just incorporated the question into your paper, what you did was still good. Overall, you did good, it is just your introduction that can use some work :)
You need to add an introduction to your post because you sort of just jumped in to the post and I was not prepared to read the post. I liked the way that you introduced each question at the top. That really helped me understand what question was being answered.
I liked how you added great detail about how the author writes the book in a way that gives readers hope of a happy ending but later turns them down. As I read your review it made me want to read the book however I don't think I could take so much stress and depression. You made your review very persuasive. I actually thought you had somewhat of and introduction, however you should separate it from the rest of the first paragraph so it is more clear. Also try to sum up what you are trying to point out with a concluding paragraph. Good work Jesse.
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