The Host- Reading Skills

Predictions-
      On page 148, I can predict that Jodi is someone who was once important to Kyle because Jeb says, ""If somebody found your Jodi on a raid and brought here, would you want me or Doc or a vote deciding what we did with her?"
"Jodi is dead," Kyle hissed."
I do not know who Jodi is, but using context clues I can figure out that Jodi was very important to Kyle.
     On page 98, the text says, "This is crazy, you know, I told her, throwing the car into park and twisting the keys out of the ignition. The whole thing. There can't really be anyone out here We won't find anything. And we're going to get hopelessly lost trying." This paragraph is mostly foreshadowing and irony used at the same time. I can predict that there will be someone in the desert, because throughout the book, whenever Wanderer says something will not happen, it ends up happening.

 Questions-
 Page 14- Whose point of view is this from?
Page 25- Why does this Host want to start as an adult? Did something happen?
Page 90- Why is Wanderer giving in?
Page 136- Is Jared still in love with Melanie?
Page 151- Why is Jared protecting Wanderer?

Connections-
     Text to Text-
"I ripped into the bread." (Page 140)
In the book, "The Immortal Rules" Allison Sekemoto does the same thing, when she had not eaten for weeks. This made me compare of how there is a different plot and situation, but both authors described the hunger when they explained how they "ripped" into the bread.

     Text to Self-
"You're afraid to fly?" The Seeker's voice was full of disbelief edging toward mockery. "You've traveled through deep space eight times and you're afraid to take a shuttle to Tucson, Arizona?" (Page 68)
I really appreciate the way that Stephanie Meyer wrote this. Wanderer made up a fear of flying because she is going to help Melanie find Jared, who is located in the desert. If Wanderer flew, she would of had to actually see her Comforter, and would of not been able to go see Jared. This is actually something I would of done. I like to figure out loop holes through things, just like Wanderer did here.


     Text to World-
""Jared,"she cried; through my damaged throat the sound was just a croak.
     She jerked me forward, much the same way as she had in the desert, assuming control of my frozen body. The only difference was that this time, it was by force." (Page 131)
      Melanie (and Wanderer) is in love with Jared. Melanie is forcing Wanderer to run over to Jared, because she loves him. Melanie has made Wanderer come across the country to try to find Jared, which has over time made Wanderer also fall in love with him. As love plays a big role in this book, many people in our world can also identify with love, and how they would probably trek across the world for their loved one.

The Host- Theme & Summary

The overall theme of The Host by Stephanie Meyer is "Fear of losing a loved one, especially in a violent situation, is the kind of fear that gives people the will power to keep seaching, even after they have lost." This theme is present because the main character, Melanie Stryder, lives in a world where these aliens have taken over, and she is one of the few humans left. She has been invaded by an alien race of people.who have planted another spirit living inside of her, who can access her memories and thoughts, and everything else about her. The spirits name is Wanderer. Wanderers main goal is to find out where the other humans are hiding. The problem is that Melanie is still alive and is trying to take back her body.
    Drowned in memories, Wanderer soon falls in love with Melanie's human boyfriend, Jared, and they both go across the desert in search of looking for him and her little bother, Jamie. Wanderer than makes an agreement with Melanie that if Wanderer does not tell anyone, they will go find Jared and Jamie. The theme becomes present at this part of the book becuase it shows how Melanie (and Wanderer) are doing whatever it takes to become reunited with who they love, even if it will cost them their lives. This theme was the most interesting to me because I saw it ironic on how Wanderer will go to drastic lengths to find Jared, even when Wanderer is supposed to find him and turn him and his friends/family in, not fall in love.

The Eternity Cure-Character

     Alison Sekemoto is a vampire in the book, The Eternity Cure, which is written by Julie Kagawa. Alison is having a self vs self conflict. She lives in a world where vampires rule and control the humans as blood cattle. As Alison is a vampire herself, she refuses to become the souless that she believes vampires are. She is on the search for her sire, named Kanin, who is being held captive by a psychotic vampire who has a vendetta to make sure Kanin is dead. Alison then meets her vampire brother who promises to help Alison find Kanin as long as she helps him find a cure to rabidism (closest thing possible to zombies). Alison starts out believing she can control herself, but as the book progresses, it becomes more and more evident that Alison is struggling to stay attached to her the mundane side of herself.
     She has changed as a person over the course of the book because she has learned that not every vampire is a soulless demon that kills for pleasure. Her major conflict is that she fights the natural vampire of herself to try and constantly do the right thing. Alison tries her very best to always do what she feels in right, even when she knows she is risking her life to save others. This shows that Alison actually is good and not evil. She is one of the few vampires that wants others to be saved more than herself. Selfless, you could say.

Analysis- Clockwork Angel

http://stpeter.im/writings/fire/horace4_7.html 

"The Snows Have Fled" (Diffrugere Nives)

(Horace, Odes IV.7)

translated by Peter Saint-Andre

"The snows have fled, already
The grass returns to the fields
And leaves return to the trees.
Earth is turning her changes,
The rivers flow less strongly.
Grace along with her Nymphs and
Twin sisters ventures naked
To lead her bands of dancers.
"Hope for immortality
Not", warn the year and the hour
That steal the nourishing day.
The Zephyr lessens the cold,
The Summer tramples the Spring
Only to be overturned
As soon as fruit-bearing Fall
Has poured forth its crops, and soon
Dead winter returns again.
Swift moons heal the heavenly
Damage — but we, when we have
Gone down where good Aeneas,
Where rich Tullus and Arcus
Have gone — we are dust and shade.
Who knows if the gods will add
Tomorrow's time to our sum?
The only thing that escapes
Your heir's grasping hands will be
What you've added to your soul.
When once you've died and Minos
Has given his distinguished
Judgment, nothing, Torquatus —
Not birth nor eloquence nor
Goodness — will restore your life.
For Diana can't release
Good Hippolytus from the
Darkness, nor has Theseus
The power to burst the chains
Of his dear Perithoös."

     In the book, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, there is a quote said by a main character named Will. He says "Pulvis Et Umbra Sumas", which means "We are dust and shadows". I decided to look in deeper to the meaning, which made me find out that the quote is from Odes VII, which was originally written in Latin by Horace. I found this very interesting.
     Clockwork Angel is about a girl named Tessa Gray who moves to London after her aunt dies. When Tessa is kidnapped, she discovers that she is a shapeshifter, and that she is not mortal. Soon after Tessa discovers this, she is rescued by a strange boy who turns out to be a Shadowhunter- someone who fights demons. His name is Will Harondale, who says the quote, ""Pulvis et umbra sums. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows' Appropriate, don't you think?" Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body- dust to dust, in a literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all." (Page 90 of the Clockwork Angel)
     I can infer that Cassandra Clare used this quote because it describes the truth behind the Shadowhunters.   Shadows spend their whole life fighting to save lives, but when they die, they become as though they have never existed at all. Shadowhunters turn to dust, then disappear into the shadows. The poem as a whole relates to Clockwork Angel because it shows how even though they may have fought their whole lives to protect others, there will always be darkness. In the book, the word darkness is used more as a being then a normal noun. It is used to show that there will always be terrors in the world, but the Shadowhunters just try to keep it from being overbearing. The poem, "The Snows Have Fled" perfectly describes the book "The Clockwork Angel". 

The Immortal Rules Book Recomendation

The Immortal Rules is a book that I would reccomend. The main character is Alison Sekemoto, who lives in the outermost part of a city that is ruled by vampires. She is trapped inside there, either forced to give her blood to the vampires in exchange for food, or to find food and not give blood. Alison is Unregistered, which means she doesn't give blood and she basically does not exist. When she goes out of the city wall with a gang of Unregistereds to find food, she gets attacked by a group of people who are known as rabids (pretty much zombies) who almost kill her. A vampire then finds her out in the middle of the night alone, where he gives her a choice to either become a vampire or die completely. Ali chooses to die and become a vampire, and she soon learns about the nature and habits of being this kind of creature. When Ali is separated from her Sire, and soon must learn how to disguise as a human as her a her new human friends take an adventure across the country.

This book is a fast, easy read, and is really enjoyable for anyone who loves fantasy books. It receives 8 or 10 stars.

The Eternity Cure Characters

The character I chose was Zeke Crosse from The Eternity Cure. Zeke develops over the course of the novel because at the beginning he was a strong hatred for vampires. Once he falls in love with Alison Sekemoto, the other main character who is a vampire, he realizes that there are some exceptions, as not all vampires are soulless killing machines. Zeke interacts with Alison by following her half way across the United States, and leaves behind his family for her. Alison interacts with other characters by spending her time with them, traveling or fighting them. Because Alison is a vampire, she is a really good fighter, which allows her to win battles against humans, and even other vampires. This develops the plot and the theme because it allows for these characters to interact both positively and negatively. It allows for a common theme to be shown throughout the book because of how these characters interact and their dialogue.