Blog 13

The gap I choose to fill for my reader’s choice is dragons. I feel like dragons a really big part of fantasy. Dragons were in fairytales since I was younger and I still see them till this day. Dragon’s appearances have evolved and are very different now. There’s fire, water, and many different kinds of dragons that exist now. Have you ever wondered how were dragons created? My presentation has the answer. The novel I read was Eragon, which was way different than the movie, but isn’t every movie that’s a novel? This book had adventure, mystery, mythical creatures, and war in battle all in one.  I also liked how the book had its own world called Alagaesia. Eragon fights with the elves and learns many things through the process. He starts off, as a poor farm boy who seems like nothing exciting will ever happen in his life. Until he finds a blue stone, which did, turned out to be a dragon egg. Now be in mind that the evil king kills all of the dragon riders just so he could be the only one. He wants all the power for himself so everyone could obey him. I am currently half way through the second book and so far my experience is amazing. My presentation will start off with the history of dragons and move on to themes that I saw.  Many people might have different opinions on the themes because like always in science fiction, there are always different views. It’s all about perspective and how the story affected you. I will also talk about if dragons are good or evil? Nowadays dragons could actually be either or. Isn’t that crazy? A dragon that was known to be a killing creature could now be good.  I promise you won’t regret reading this book.

Blog Set 12

           The Premature Burial

The narrator begins by mentioning several horrific events in history including, the Passage of Beresina, the Earthquake of Lisbon, the Black Hole at Calcutta, the Plague of London, and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He starts talking about the disease that makes you seem dead but you really aren’t. Since everyone thinks they’re dead they get buried alive. As one thing leads to the other, the person wakes up and is already in a coffin where it is extremely dark. He talks about real life situations where people were actually buried alive. We then find out that he himself has catalepsy. His sickness ends up getting worse and worse and he ends up being in a trance situations for weeks. We tend to see that the narrator’s biggest fear is to be buried alive himself.  He avoids sleep because his fear to him is that serious. He is even afraid to leave his house because what if he ends up being paralyzed and people think he is dead. He would rather stay home and wake up on his own. He renovates his family’s tomb by putting food, water, a bell, and a vent to someone could breathe. This fear is literally killing him inside but at least he is prepared for the worse. Then he witnesses his worst nightmare but it turns out to fake. This changes his view on life. I feel like life is too short to live in fear this deep like the narrators. The human mind could be very dark and could actually make you insane. People should live their lives to the fullest until there is no more life in them.

                                                                                                   The Monkey's Paw

Off the back this story starts off with a storm, that’s exactly how we know were about to read a scary story for sure. Mr. and Mrs. White are enjoying a fire with their son Herbert. Sergeant Morris arrives with this monkey paw that is supposed to grant 3 wishes. It reminds me of a genie but this actually comes with a curse. Morris try’s to warn Mr. White about the curse but he still buys it. Most people would take that as a sign and run the other direction. There’s also that saying that says everything comes with a price. Nothing is ever that easily handed to you because it would be too good to be true. Of course is first wish is about money. Herbert goes to work like he would on a normal day. Some stranger comes to their house and he is actually from the place Herbert works at. He tells them that Herbert dies and he will be giving him money for his loss. Guess how much? That’s right the same amount he wished for in the first place. Now they want to use their last two wishes to bring Herbert back. Mr. White thinks it’s a bad idea but does it for his wife. After a couple of days they heart knocking on the door and Mrs. White runs down stairs to open it for her son. This seems supernatural to me because someone or something is banging on the door like crazy. Mr. White makes a wish, and all the knocking stops. There is no one at the door when they open it. I wonder what he wished for. Why wasn’t he as excited as his wife? 

Update:Now thinking about it, in premature burial he feared was not only feeling trapped but to also not being able to do anything about it.  To be honest just to be safe I would probably get all prepared also. Around this time period, a lot of people were buried alive due lack of medical knowledge and technology. People also grave robbed around this time period. Some stole bodies so that people could experiment on them. Now I think that is hundred percent wrong but then again, how else would our knowledge grow? We have to experiment to find out what’s going on in the human body. But then again it is still wrong to steal bodies and use them for a class. Some coffins even had bells on top of them just in case to show that they were still alive. It was literally a big concern around that time and I didn’t know that. Many people found scratch marks on the coffin. Others found the bones faced down as if someone was trying to push up with their back to escape. Basically they saw many signs of someone struggling. So did these robberies make up the whole zombie thing? It seems like it did because people probably thought they escaped and walked away. I honestly couldn’t even imagine living in this time period or even being buried alive.