Full Book Summary
Theo starts a journal about his life on the day that the last child born on Earth dies. For the first 5 chapters Theo remembers about his trips to Woolcombe, when his father was dying and when he killed his child. When Theo goes to church one day, he meets Julian who invites him to come and see her group that Sunday. When he goes to see the group, Theo finds out that they are trying to undermine the Council of England. The group wants Theo to talk to his cousin Xan, The Warden of England. Theo isn’t sure if he should but agrees to go to the Quietus they want him to see then he would decide. At the Quietus, Theo sees the mass suicide but one of the guards at the event knocks him out and leaves him in an alleyway. Theo then goes to see Xan but they think that everything is fine in England and they won’t change their mind. After this, Theo warns Julian and her group to stop but they don’t agree to this and send out a message to the civilians. After seeing his ex-wife he goes and travels around Europe for the summer. When he gets back, Miriam comes and tells him that Julian is pregnant and they want him to come. The group starts to travel to Whales but they get stopped by the painted faces. Luke sacrifices himself to the painted faces so that Julian can escape. Rolf then finds out that Luke was the father and the Rolf leaves the group going to tell Xan. When the baby is coming the trio finds a small hut in the woods and then the baby is delivered. When Miriam goes to find supplies, Theo finds her garroted and he runs back to the hut. Theo then faces down Xan and kills him after Xan misses his shot. In the end Theo christens the baby.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Book Review
The Children of Men
PD James
Genre-Science Fiction
In this book Theo is bored with life and starts to journal his life. The human race is becoming extinct as males can no longer produce sperm to reproduce. Theo talks about his life from childhood to when he divorces his wife for running over his child. One day well going to church he is introduced to Julian. The next weekend he meets the rest of the group and is told to go witness a Quietus and then to speak with Xan. After speaking with Xan and seeing his ex-wife he chooses to go and travel around Europe for the summer. Once he returns he gets swept up in to a long and dangerous adventure that follows.
The main character in ‘The Children of Men’ is Theo. Theo is only described in this book as being fifty years old and having graying hair. He is depressed at the fact that the human race is dying but doesn’t want to commit suicide to end his life. Theo is a semi realistic character as he does what most people would do under the pressure for the first half of the book but then becomes unrealistic as he holds a stick-up and kills people. I would not like to be friends with Theo as he is very depressed and always follows a routine. Theo is portrayed as a stereotype for the first half of the book but becomes a stock character in the second half when his actions change dramatically. Theo’s importance in the story is that he is the main character and he joins a rebellion against Xan and the Council of England. A second main character is Xan. Xan is the Warden of England. Xan is not described in the book. He is known to have a lot of charm. It is said in the book that “He had charm, of course; he still has” (13). Xan is received differently by all of the characters as some want to kill him whereas others believe that what he is doing is best for the people of England. Xan is power-hungry and by not calling an election is retaining this power. Xan is a realistic character as he is someone who has power but doesn’t want anyone else to have it. I would not like to be friends with Xan as he is power-hungry and someone wanting his position would use his friends to get at him. Xan is a stereotype character as he is a power-hungry leader. Xan is important as he is Theo’s cousin and the Warden of England. The final main character in the book is Julian. Julian is the wife of the leader of the group rebelling against the Warden of England. Julian has short, rich brown hair with flecks of gold. She is very light-skinned with a pre-Raphaelite face. She is a realistic character as she is leading a small rebellion to fight for her rights. I would not like to be her friend as she is getting into a lot of danger rebelling against the Council of England. Julian is a stereotypical character as she is the woman who leads the rebellion against the evil leader. Julian is important in the book as if she wasn’t there then Theo would have never seen the Quietus, talked to Xan or done any of the other events that led to the end of the novel. In the start of the novel Xan and Theo are friends but as the novel continues their friendship deteriorates and Theo becomes a good friend of Julian’s.
There are many issues that are addressed in this book. One issue discussed in the Children of Men is the ending of the human race. This is a large issue as this is what the book is about and the main theme. It is shown by the fact that for 26 years humans have been infertile. A second theme is the change of thinking in a human when the end is near. This is shown through the book as many Omega’s have gone mad and became painted faces who rip people apart when they come across the painted faces. A final theme in The Children of Men is the fear of dying alone. This is shown through the book with the Quietus. This is as most people are scared to die alone so they have mass suicides in which people have weights attached to their legs and they jump into the ocean. They do this as they think that this way they will die with someone else.
I enjoyed the book as it became fast paced once Theo meets Julian’s group and it had a lot of intense moments after this point. I didn’t like the book for the reasons that the book was very slow for the first hundred pages. Also the ending came on too quickly and I didn’t find that the characters developed enough. The only thing that affected me in this book was how people change when they know that the end of the human race is near. I feel that I would act the same as Theo in this novel as he is very neutral and does anything he can to keep him and the others alive. I have learnt that people change their views completely when they know that they are going to die soon. I would rate this book a 3.1 out of 5 as there was a plot and it was well written but the start was really slow, they end came on very fast and left a cliff-hanger with no sequel and the characters barely developed.
PD James
Genre-Science Fiction
In this book Theo is bored with life and starts to journal his life. The human race is becoming extinct as males can no longer produce sperm to reproduce. Theo talks about his life from childhood to when he divorces his wife for running over his child. One day well going to church he is introduced to Julian. The next weekend he meets the rest of the group and is told to go witness a Quietus and then to speak with Xan. After speaking with Xan and seeing his ex-wife he chooses to go and travel around Europe for the summer. Once he returns he gets swept up in to a long and dangerous adventure that follows.
The main character in ‘The Children of Men’ is Theo. Theo is only described in this book as being fifty years old and having graying hair. He is depressed at the fact that the human race is dying but doesn’t want to commit suicide to end his life. Theo is a semi realistic character as he does what most people would do under the pressure for the first half of the book but then becomes unrealistic as he holds a stick-up and kills people. I would not like to be friends with Theo as he is very depressed and always follows a routine. Theo is portrayed as a stereotype for the first half of the book but becomes a stock character in the second half when his actions change dramatically. Theo’s importance in the story is that he is the main character and he joins a rebellion against Xan and the Council of England. A second main character is Xan. Xan is the Warden of England. Xan is not described in the book. He is known to have a lot of charm. It is said in the book that “He had charm, of course; he still has” (13). Xan is received differently by all of the characters as some want to kill him whereas others believe that what he is doing is best for the people of England. Xan is power-hungry and by not calling an election is retaining this power. Xan is a realistic character as he is someone who has power but doesn’t want anyone else to have it. I would not like to be friends with Xan as he is power-hungry and someone wanting his position would use his friends to get at him. Xan is a stereotype character as he is a power-hungry leader. Xan is important as he is Theo’s cousin and the Warden of England. The final main character in the book is Julian. Julian is the wife of the leader of the group rebelling against the Warden of England. Julian has short, rich brown hair with flecks of gold. She is very light-skinned with a pre-Raphaelite face. She is a realistic character as she is leading a small rebellion to fight for her rights. I would not like to be her friend as she is getting into a lot of danger rebelling against the Council of England. Julian is a stereotypical character as she is the woman who leads the rebellion against the evil leader. Julian is important in the book as if she wasn’t there then Theo would have never seen the Quietus, talked to Xan or done any of the other events that led to the end of the novel. In the start of the novel Xan and Theo are friends but as the novel continues their friendship deteriorates and Theo becomes a good friend of Julian’s.
There are many issues that are addressed in this book. One issue discussed in the Children of Men is the ending of the human race. This is a large issue as this is what the book is about and the main theme. It is shown by the fact that for 26 years humans have been infertile. A second theme is the change of thinking in a human when the end is near. This is shown through the book as many Omega’s have gone mad and became painted faces who rip people apart when they come across the painted faces. A final theme in The Children of Men is the fear of dying alone. This is shown through the book with the Quietus. This is as most people are scared to die alone so they have mass suicides in which people have weights attached to their legs and they jump into the ocean. They do this as they think that this way they will die with someone else.
I enjoyed the book as it became fast paced once Theo meets Julian’s group and it had a lot of intense moments after this point. I didn’t like the book for the reasons that the book was very slow for the first hundred pages. Also the ending came on too quickly and I didn’t find that the characters developed enough. The only thing that affected me in this book was how people change when they know that the end of the human race is near. I feel that I would act the same as Theo in this novel as he is very neutral and does anything he can to keep him and the others alive. I have learnt that people change their views completely when they know that they are going to die soon. I would rate this book a 3.1 out of 5 as there was a plot and it was well written but the start was really slow, they end came on very fast and left a cliff-hanger with no sequel and the characters barely developed.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Discussion 4
For my groups final discussion I am the vocabulary enhancer
Vocab. Enhancer
Delusion- (148) “It used, after all, to be a common delusion” a false belief or opinions
Confounded- (148) “He didn’t like having his judgment of a person so confounded” bewildered; confused; perplexed.
Cervix- (227) “But I’d estimate that the cervix is almost fully dilated” the neck, esp. the back part.
Garroted- (232) “She had been garroted and the body into a large wicker chair to the right of the fireplace” method of capital punishment of Spanish origin in which an iron collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck until death occurs by strangulation or by injury to the spinal column at the base of the brain
Galvanized- (233) “But now, as if the horror had galvanized his brain, he was thinking clearly” to stimulate or treat (muscles or nerves) with induced direct current
Convulsive- (153) “And then, with a sudden convulsive spasm, his hand was almost kicked away” of the nature of or characterized by convulsions or spasms
Spasm- (153) “And then, with a sudden convulsive spasm, his hand was almost kicked away” Pathology. a sudden, abnormal, involuntary muscular contraction, consisting of a continued muscular contraction (tonic spasm) or of a series of alternating muscular contractions and relaxations (clonic spasm).
Spurt- (193) “Theo felt a spurt of irritation” to gush or issue suddenly in a stream or jet, as a liquid; spout.
Vocab. Enhancer
Delusion- (148) “It used, after all, to be a common delusion” a false belief or opinions
Confounded- (148) “He didn’t like having his judgment of a person so confounded” bewildered; confused; perplexed.
Cervix- (227) “But I’d estimate that the cervix is almost fully dilated” the neck, esp. the back part.
Garroted- (232) “She had been garroted and the body into a large wicker chair to the right of the fireplace” method of capital punishment of Spanish origin in which an iron collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck until death occurs by strangulation or by injury to the spinal column at the base of the brain
Galvanized- (233) “But now, as if the horror had galvanized his brain, he was thinking clearly” to stimulate or treat (muscles or nerves) with induced direct current
Convulsive- (153) “And then, with a sudden convulsive spasm, his hand was almost kicked away” of the nature of or characterized by convulsions or spasms
Spasm- (153) “And then, with a sudden convulsive spasm, his hand was almost kicked away” Pathology. a sudden, abnormal, involuntary muscular contraction, consisting of a continued muscular contraction (tonic spasm) or of a series of alternating muscular contractions and relaxations (clonic spasm).
Spurt- (193) “Theo felt a spurt of irritation” to gush or issue suddenly in a stream or jet, as a liquid; spout.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Journal #3
Characterization – Journal #3
Choose an important character
Write the following:
Write a paragraph about the character and include:
--appearance.
--actions
--ideas-- what the character thinks.
--manner-- how the character acts.
--reactions of others to the characters.
One of the characters in The Children of Men is Xan Lyppiatt. Xan is the Warden of England at the time of the story. Xan is Theo’s cousin. Xan wears the Coronation Ring on his left hand. He wears an old coat whenever he goes out. Xan is a confusing person as he believes that teachers are around to figure out what the kids are like. Because of this he acts good in the first and third terms but makes lots of trouble in the second. Other actions of his are that he tells Theo to warn Julian and her group to stop acting against the English Council. Xan has never thought of Theo as his inferior but as a friend. Xan is very rude to his father and he acts as though he deserves many things. In contrast to this though he says that he doesn’t want to be Warden but if he held a vote he would still probably be Warden, and he doesn’t believe that anyone on the council has the knowledge to take his job. Xan has received mixed reactions from characters as Julian and her group think of him as an evil tyrant. Rolf even goes as far as wanting to take his place for the power. Theo on the other hand thinks of Xan as a kind person and a friend.
Why is s/he important in the novel?
Xan is important in this novel as he is the Warden of England and Julian’s group wants to get rid of him and have a new leader of England. He is also Theo’s cousin.
Would you like to be the main character? Why or why not?
I would not like to be Xan because of his status. Being the Warden of England has given him many rivals who want his power such as Rolf. Another reason is that he is cruel and seemingly doesn’t care for the Sojourners or anyone on the Man Penal Colony.
Would you like the main character for a friend? Give your reasons.
I would not like the Xan for a friend because he is cruel to many people. I also wouldn’t want to because; due to status his enemies would go after me to get to him. This is why I wouldn’t want to be his friend.
Choose an important character
Write the following:
Write a paragraph about the character and include:
--appearance.
--actions
--ideas-- what the character thinks.
--manner-- how the character acts.
--reactions of others to the characters.
One of the characters in The Children of Men is Xan Lyppiatt. Xan is the Warden of England at the time of the story. Xan is Theo’s cousin. Xan wears the Coronation Ring on his left hand. He wears an old coat whenever he goes out. Xan is a confusing person as he believes that teachers are around to figure out what the kids are like. Because of this he acts good in the first and third terms but makes lots of trouble in the second. Other actions of his are that he tells Theo to warn Julian and her group to stop acting against the English Council. Xan has never thought of Theo as his inferior but as a friend. Xan is very rude to his father and he acts as though he deserves many things. In contrast to this though he says that he doesn’t want to be Warden but if he held a vote he would still probably be Warden, and he doesn’t believe that anyone on the council has the knowledge to take his job. Xan has received mixed reactions from characters as Julian and her group think of him as an evil tyrant. Rolf even goes as far as wanting to take his place for the power. Theo on the other hand thinks of Xan as a kind person and a friend.
Why is s/he important in the novel?
Xan is important in this novel as he is the Warden of England and Julian’s group wants to get rid of him and have a new leader of England. He is also Theo’s cousin.
Would you like to be the main character? Why or why not?
I would not like to be Xan because of his status. Being the Warden of England has given him many rivals who want his power such as Rolf. Another reason is that he is cruel and seemingly doesn’t care for the Sojourners or anyone on the Man Penal Colony.
Would you like the main character for a friend? Give your reasons.
I would not like the Xan for a friend because he is cruel to many people. I also wouldn’t want to because; due to status his enemies would go after me to get to him. This is why I wouldn’t want to be his friend.
Discussion #3
My role for this weeks discussion is Summarizer. I summarized the chapters we read.
Chapter’s 7-12-Summarizer
Chapter 7
- Theo visits his former university teacher
- Theo offers to give him some of his house
- Sees Rosie McClure a television host who tells people how Man’s infertility is God’s punishment
Chapter 8
- Goes to meet Julian’s group
- They want him to see the Quietus that is happening on Wednesday
- They want him to then talk to Xan about the problems in England
- Theo agrees to see the Quietus and then tell them if he will talk to Xan
Chapter 9
- Goes to the Quietus
- Tries to help the lady but is knocked out by the people supervising the event
- Stays at a house in Southwold as he can’t drive anywhere
Chapter 10
- At the Cast Museum he drops off a note saying that he will talk to Xan for them
Chapter 11
- Goes to see Xan
- Thinks about some of his previous conversations with Xan
Chapter 12
- Talks to the council about the Quietus, The Man Penal Colony, and the Sojourners
- Xan knows that someone sent him to talk about these problems
- The council is not ready to do anything about these problems as the don’t feel that they need to
Chapter’s 7-12-Summarizer
Chapter 7
- Theo visits his former university teacher
- Theo offers to give him some of his house
- Sees Rosie McClure a television host who tells people how Man’s infertility is God’s punishment
Chapter 8
- Goes to meet Julian’s group
- They want him to see the Quietus that is happening on Wednesday
- They want him to then talk to Xan about the problems in England
- Theo agrees to see the Quietus and then tell them if he will talk to Xan
Chapter 9
- Goes to the Quietus
- Tries to help the lady but is knocked out by the people supervising the event
- Stays at a house in Southwold as he can’t drive anywhere
Chapter 10
- At the Cast Museum he drops off a note saying that he will talk to Xan for them
Chapter 11
- Goes to see Xan
- Thinks about some of his previous conversations with Xan
Chapter 12
- Talks to the council about the Quietus, The Man Penal Colony, and the Sojourners
- Xan knows that someone sent him to talk about these problems
- The council is not ready to do anything about these problems as the don’t feel that they need to
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Journal #2
1. What point of view is your story told in?
There are two points of view in this novel: first and third person throughout the first six chapters of the novel.
2. Is the point of view effective?
Yes the point of view is effective as it shows that the novel is following him in his journal for the first 5 chapters but changes to 3rd person in the sixth chapter as it is an easier way to retell the story for this part.
3. What is one of the most important/memorable events that have happened so far? Think about that moment and re-tell it from another point of view. For example, if you were reading We All Fall Down as your Literature Circles novel you may re-write from Will’s fathers Point of View (min. 300 words)
I led Theo up the stairs and looking back I saw a look of nervousness on his face and I knew that he was thinking that he was being put with our slaves. I turn my back on him and lead him up the last flight of stairs. I lead him across the hall to an ornate wood door.
Still seeing a look of terror on his face I said “Don’t worry; I’m staying in the next room”.
His body relaxed and he went into the room. He took a quick look around and put his bag on his bed.
The room was just like any other room in the house: a four-poster bed with ornate designs on the poles, a wood dresser and a bookcase but to him it looked like the room of a king. He started to put his clothes in the dresser and I saw that his clothes were looking as if they were picked put by his mother. Hiding my smile I kept a straight face for the rest of the time that he put his clothes at me but I did see that he frequently took a look at me as if he thought that I thought his clothes were lame.
When he was done I led him outside. “Will I be able to get a tour of the property at sometime” he asked.
“Well I can get you a tour if you have a bit of money for Sunday” I replied.
“I’d like it if you could though” he said after a pause.
“Fine I will give you one tomorrow” I finally said.
“When’s dinner tonight?” he asked.
“It is whenever we want” I said “nothing is compulsory here, except misery.”
We walked around the lot for a little longer and I told him that I would tell him when we would do things, and then we headed in to get ready for dinner.
There are two points of view in this novel: first and third person throughout the first six chapters of the novel.
2. Is the point of view effective?
Yes the point of view is effective as it shows that the novel is following him in his journal for the first 5 chapters but changes to 3rd person in the sixth chapter as it is an easier way to retell the story for this part.
3. What is one of the most important/memorable events that have happened so far? Think about that moment and re-tell it from another point of view. For example, if you were reading We All Fall Down as your Literature Circles novel you may re-write from Will’s fathers Point of View (min. 300 words)
I led Theo up the stairs and looking back I saw a look of nervousness on his face and I knew that he was thinking that he was being put with our slaves. I turn my back on him and lead him up the last flight of stairs. I lead him across the hall to an ornate wood door.
Still seeing a look of terror on his face I said “Don’t worry; I’m staying in the next room”.
His body relaxed and he went into the room. He took a quick look around and put his bag on his bed.
The room was just like any other room in the house: a four-poster bed with ornate designs on the poles, a wood dresser and a bookcase but to him it looked like the room of a king. He started to put his clothes in the dresser and I saw that his clothes were looking as if they were picked put by his mother. Hiding my smile I kept a straight face for the rest of the time that he put his clothes at me but I did see that he frequently took a look at me as if he thought that I thought his clothes were lame.
When he was done I led him outside. “Will I be able to get a tour of the property at sometime” he asked.
“Well I can get you a tour if you have a bit of money for Sunday” I replied.
“I’d like it if you could though” he said after a pause.
“Fine I will give you one tomorrow” I finally said.
“When’s dinner tonight?” he asked.
“It is whenever we want” I said “nothing is compulsory here, except misery.”
We walked around the lot for a little longer and I told him that I would tell him when we would do things, and then we headed in to get ready for dinner.
Discussion #2
For this week's discussion I was the discussion director.
Chapters 3-6 Discussion Director
1. Do you think that Theo admired his mother?
I think that Theo did admire his mother as he chose to steal paint supplies and paintings for her and she also cared for him throughout her life.
2. Why do you think that Theo remembers his first trip to Woolcombe instead of other trips?
I think that he remembers this as it was his first trip to the place and that every year he returned and stayed in the same room every summer for the rest of his life until adulthood where he moved to Oxford.
3. Do you think that Theo is justified in saying that taking care of his 15 month old child was his wife’s job at the time and she wasn’t taking care of her?
I don’t think that Theo is justified for doing this as taking care of their child is both of their jobs and that if he wasn’t paying attention then it was his fault that his daughter died.
4. Do you think that Theo’s mother had the right to keep him in the dark about how his father is dying?
I think that his mother did have a good reason as it could cause him a lot of emotional problems but I think that when it was certain that he was going to die then she should have told him so that he could have spent as much time as possible with him
5. Do you think that Theo should have stolen the paintings and painting supplies for his mother?
I think that he shouldn’t have stolen the paintings and some of the paint supplies his mother probably could have purchased instead of resorting to having someone steal the supplies for her.
Chapters 3-6 Discussion Director
1. Do you think that Theo admired his mother?
I think that Theo did admire his mother as he chose to steal paint supplies and paintings for her and she also cared for him throughout her life.
2. Why do you think that Theo remembers his first trip to Woolcombe instead of other trips?
I think that he remembers this as it was his first trip to the place and that every year he returned and stayed in the same room every summer for the rest of his life until adulthood where he moved to Oxford.
3. Do you think that Theo is justified in saying that taking care of his 15 month old child was his wife’s job at the time and she wasn’t taking care of her?
I don’t think that Theo is justified for doing this as taking care of their child is both of their jobs and that if he wasn’t paying attention then it was his fault that his daughter died.
4. Do you think that Theo’s mother had the right to keep him in the dark about how his father is dying?
I think that his mother did have a good reason as it could cause him a lot of emotional problems but I think that when it was certain that he was going to die then she should have told him so that he could have spent as much time as possible with him
5. Do you think that Theo should have stolen the paintings and painting supplies for his mother?
I think that he shouldn’t have stolen the paintings and some of the paint supplies his mother probably could have purchased instead of resorting to having someone steal the supplies for her.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Fisrt Journal Entry
1. Describe the setting in the novel – Time, Place and Circumstance. Please use quotations to support your answer.
In the first two chapters in this book the main character of the book, Theo has written a diary and in each chapter it is one of his diary entries. He started this diary when he was 50 years old, the day that the last child to be born on the Earth was killed in a bar fight in the year 2021. The main setting for the first few chapters is Theo's cousin Xan's house. His house is in Woolcombe, England and Theo went there to visit his cousin for the summer, every summer. It was described as "one of the most beautiful manor houses in Dorset." The room Theo always stayed in was a room with a "four-poster bed...a Georgian desk and a little bookcase". The house in the present of the book is used as a nursing home for the relations to and friends of the Council.
2. Which characters have you been introduced to so far? What are they like? Is there any conflict between characters?
There have been two main characters. The two main characters are Xan and Theo. Xan is now the leader of England. He was the richer of him and Theo. He liked to confuse teachers by being a good student but them becoming a bad student for the next term. Xan was always kind to Theo such as not commenting on how Theo is poor. Theo is the other main character. Theo is kind and very intelligent. He works at the University of Oxford by being a Doctor of Psycology. He is very good with a gun but doesn't like to use one. Theo is hard working and also logical about what he does. These are the characters that have been introduced.
3. Find a quotation that helps describe each of the characters you have been introduced to.
"Xan hated to be touched and I early recognized and respected his invisible no-mans land, as he respected mine. It wasn't, either, the usual story of the dominant partner, the elder, if only by four months, leading the younger, his admiring disipline. He never made me feel inferior; that wasn't his way. He welcomed me without particular warmth but as if he were receiving back his twin, a part of himself. He had charm, of course; he still has."
"What possible intrest can there be in the journal of Theodore Faron, Doctor of Philosophy, Fellow of Merton College in the University of Oxford, historian of the Victorian age, divorced, childless, solitary, whose only claim to notice is that he is cousin to Xan Lyppiatt the dictator and Warden of England. No additional personal record is, in any case, necessary."
In the first two chapters in this book the main character of the book, Theo has written a diary and in each chapter it is one of his diary entries. He started this diary when he was 50 years old, the day that the last child to be born on the Earth was killed in a bar fight in the year 2021. The main setting for the first few chapters is Theo's cousin Xan's house. His house is in Woolcombe, England and Theo went there to visit his cousin for the summer, every summer. It was described as "one of the most beautiful manor houses in Dorset." The room Theo always stayed in was a room with a "four-poster bed...a Georgian desk and a little bookcase". The house in the present of the book is used as a nursing home for the relations to and friends of the Council.
2. Which characters have you been introduced to so far? What are they like? Is there any conflict between characters?
There have been two main characters. The two main characters are Xan and Theo. Xan is now the leader of England. He was the richer of him and Theo. He liked to confuse teachers by being a good student but them becoming a bad student for the next term. Xan was always kind to Theo such as not commenting on how Theo is poor. Theo is the other main character. Theo is kind and very intelligent. He works at the University of Oxford by being a Doctor of Psycology. He is very good with a gun but doesn't like to use one. Theo is hard working and also logical about what he does. These are the characters that have been introduced.
3. Find a quotation that helps describe each of the characters you have been introduced to.
"Xan hated to be touched and I early recognized and respected his invisible no-mans land, as he respected mine. It wasn't, either, the usual story of the dominant partner, the elder, if only by four months, leading the younger, his admiring disipline. He never made me feel inferior; that wasn't his way. He welcomed me without particular warmth but as if he were receiving back his twin, a part of himself. He had charm, of course; he still has."
"What possible intrest can there be in the journal of Theodore Faron, Doctor of Philosophy, Fellow of Merton College in the University of Oxford, historian of the Victorian age, divorced, childless, solitary, whose only claim to notice is that he is cousin to Xan Lyppiatt the dictator and Warden of England. No additional personal record is, in any case, necessary."
First Discussion
Accidie (Pg. 3) - laziness or indifference in religious matters
Omega (Pg. 1 and many more) - the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet (Ω, ω); the last of any series; the end.
Egalitarian (5) - asserting, resulting from, or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, esp. in political, economic, or social life.
Bereavement (9) - to deprive and make desolate, esp. by death
Disconcerted (15) - to disturb the self-possession of; perturb; ruffle:
Colluding (17) - to act together through a secret understanding, esp. with evil or harmful intent.
Pathological (18) - caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition
Omega (Pg. 1 and many more) - the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet (Ω, ω); the last of any series; the end.
Egalitarian (5) - asserting, resulting from, or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, esp. in political, economic, or social life.
Bereavement (9) - to deprive and make desolate, esp. by death
Disconcerted (15) - to disturb the self-possession of; perturb; ruffle:
Colluding (17) - to act together through a secret understanding, esp. with evil or harmful intent.
Pathological (18) - caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
This weeks Literacy Circle Role
I am going to be the Vocabulary Enricher. I will be finding and describing unfarmiliar words in the first two chapters.
About the Author
Phyllis Dorothy James commonly known as P.D James is the author of nineteen books of which many have become films in many countries. Some books she has written include: The Children of Men, The Lighthouse and The Murder RoomShe was born on August 13, 1920 in London, England. She has served in the Police and Criminal Law Departments of Great Britains Home Office. In the year 2000 she celebrated her 80th by publishing her autobiography Time to be in Earnest. She has won many awards including: International Crime Writing Hall of Fame 2008; Grand Master Award from Mystery Writers of America, 1999; Diamond Dagger from British Crime Writers' Association, 1987. A famous quote from her was ""The weapon should always be appropriate to the murderer," P.D. James has said. "For example, elderly ladies, however murderous, are unlikely in the UK to have access to guns."" She is currently living in London and Oxford.
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/abouttheauthor.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pdjames/abouttheauthor.html
Monday, February 2, 2009
Book Review #2
By: S. Mark Heim
THE YEAR IS 2021. No one is younger than 25. The millennium brought an apocalypse, but a quiet one. Suddenly, inexplicably, completely, humanity has lost the power to conceive. So things stand in P. D. James's most recent novel, a striking departure from the elegant mysteries that have endeared her to readers and Masterpiece Theatre viewers. The religious themes well seeded in her earlier books flower with bright intensity in this story of eschatology and redemption.We enter on New Year's Day, when newspapers report that "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl" and James's narrator begins to keep a journal. He is Theodore Faron, an Oxford history don teaching sparsely attended adult education seminars. He is divorced, haunted by responsibility for the death of his infant daughter, and the cousin and childhood confidante of the Warden of England, Xan Lyppiat. A kind of Lord Protector of the latter days, Xan rules absolutely through a mix of media populism and state security police.
The warden's England is a stable realm, its democratically installed dictator plotting an orderly way to turn out the lights in a darkening house. But the everyday landscape of London and Lake Country is crossed with eerie shadows: wandering groups of flagellants, outlaw bands of the last generation who have taken to living wild and capturing victims for human sacrifice, mass government-assisted suicides in which the old and the halt are drugged, floated out to sea in barges and sunk, to the sound of bands playing "Abide with Me."
Quite inadvertently, Theo falls into acquaintance with a quixotic resistance movement and into love with Julian, one of its members. "The Five," whose sign is the fish, are an unlikely group, including Miriam, a rusty midwife, and Luke, a rather ineffectual oldline Anglican priest, as well as Julian's husband, Rolf. They oppose the suicide rituals (to the point of blowing up the embarkation docks in advance of the events), the exploitation of immigrant guest workers imported to keep society going, and the exile of criminals to an unsupervised state of nature on the Isle of Man.
In countless concrete glimpses the novel incarnates its simple premise: no more babies. Violent crime has fallen off, with few young people and increasing surpluses of most things one would want to steal. In Theo's Oxford the university is arguing over whether it is worth refacing the crumbling Sheldonian Theatre. Museums are laying down the great paintings, rigging themselves as mausoleums to preserve literature and music a few silent centuries for possible visitors from another planet. The scientific material hardly appears to merit saving: for planetary visitors it would seem primitive or uselessly tailored to parochial--and now vanished--organisms. People are gradually withdrawing from the country villages, pulling back to the urban centers where the warden has promised that services will be maintained to the end.
Children's playgrounds have been made over into pocket parks, the less to pain passers-by. Strict laws govern the reproduction of pets so that their numbers will not overwhelm their dwindling masters. Bitter custody battles are not unknown. The government enforces regular testing of all men's sperm, and women under 45 are likewise examined. If good seed should be found, it must have the optimal hosts. State-sponsored porn shops stoke a somewhat faltering fire. It is all rather perfunctory.
THE SUPREME scientific challenge to a race contemplating its jump to the stars has come with shattering swiftness, striking at resources so common their fragility was obscured: time and descendants. For a while people expected a breakthrough. Institutes were created, and all research money and personnel diverted to a single end. Nations jockeyed for the ultimate advantage. But hope has become unusual. The ranks of lab researchers are thinning; education has steadily shut down from the nurseries upward.
For some reason our visions of the end of humanity tend to focus on externals: asteroids, nuclear war, ecological disaster. We imagine humanity, intact and functioning, being killed off or dying out. But in James's world humans simply stop coming in. Within the massive shell of our civilizations and our knowledge, this small defect, the slightest change, one that affects nothing we do or see or feel, spells the end. The helplessness of humanity has suddenly an absurd obviousness. With all its cleverness, Theo observes, humanity can no longer do what the animals do without thought. It is as if nature encountered an enormous robot, part computer of unimagined power, part mechanism with unlimited adaptability, and casually pulled its plug.
The religious responses to this situation are sketched deftly. There is no great rush to faith. One younger man tells Theo, "Perhaps He's just baffled. Seeing the mess, not knowing how to put it right. Perhaps not wanting to put it right. Perhaps He only had enough power left for one final intervention. So He made it. Whoever He is, whatever He is, I hope He bums in His own held."
THE YEAR IS 2021. No one is younger than 25. The millennium brought an apocalypse, but a quiet one. Suddenly, inexplicably, completely, humanity has lost the power to conceive. So things stand in P. D. James's most recent novel, a striking departure from the elegant mysteries that have endeared her to readers and Masterpiece Theatre viewers. The religious themes well seeded in her earlier books flower with bright intensity in this story of eschatology and redemption.We enter on New Year's Day, when newspapers report that "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl" and James's narrator begins to keep a journal. He is Theodore Faron, an Oxford history don teaching sparsely attended adult education seminars. He is divorced, haunted by responsibility for the death of his infant daughter, and the cousin and childhood confidante of the Warden of England, Xan Lyppiat. A kind of Lord Protector of the latter days, Xan rules absolutely through a mix of media populism and state security police.
The warden's England is a stable realm, its democratically installed dictator plotting an orderly way to turn out the lights in a darkening house. But the everyday landscape of London and Lake Country is crossed with eerie shadows: wandering groups of flagellants, outlaw bands of the last generation who have taken to living wild and capturing victims for human sacrifice, mass government-assisted suicides in which the old and the halt are drugged, floated out to sea in barges and sunk, to the sound of bands playing "Abide with Me."
Quite inadvertently, Theo falls into acquaintance with a quixotic resistance movement and into love with Julian, one of its members. "The Five," whose sign is the fish, are an unlikely group, including Miriam, a rusty midwife, and Luke, a rather ineffectual oldline Anglican priest, as well as Julian's husband, Rolf. They oppose the suicide rituals (to the point of blowing up the embarkation docks in advance of the events), the exploitation of immigrant guest workers imported to keep society going, and the exile of criminals to an unsupervised state of nature on the Isle of Man.
In countless concrete glimpses the novel incarnates its simple premise: no more babies. Violent crime has fallen off, with few young people and increasing surpluses of most things one would want to steal. In Theo's Oxford the university is arguing over whether it is worth refacing the crumbling Sheldonian Theatre. Museums are laying down the great paintings, rigging themselves as mausoleums to preserve literature and music a few silent centuries for possible visitors from another planet. The scientific material hardly appears to merit saving: for planetary visitors it would seem primitive or uselessly tailored to parochial--and now vanished--organisms. People are gradually withdrawing from the country villages, pulling back to the urban centers where the warden has promised that services will be maintained to the end.
Children's playgrounds have been made over into pocket parks, the less to pain passers-by. Strict laws govern the reproduction of pets so that their numbers will not overwhelm their dwindling masters. Bitter custody battles are not unknown. The government enforces regular testing of all men's sperm, and women under 45 are likewise examined. If good seed should be found, it must have the optimal hosts. State-sponsored porn shops stoke a somewhat faltering fire. It is all rather perfunctory.
THE SUPREME scientific challenge to a race contemplating its jump to the stars has come with shattering swiftness, striking at resources so common their fragility was obscured: time and descendants. For a while people expected a breakthrough. Institutes were created, and all research money and personnel diverted to a single end. Nations jockeyed for the ultimate advantage. But hope has become unusual. The ranks of lab researchers are thinning; education has steadily shut down from the nurseries upward.
For some reason our visions of the end of humanity tend to focus on externals: asteroids, nuclear war, ecological disaster. We imagine humanity, intact and functioning, being killed off or dying out. But in James's world humans simply stop coming in. Within the massive shell of our civilizations and our knowledge, this small defect, the slightest change, one that affects nothing we do or see or feel, spells the end. The helplessness of humanity has suddenly an absurd obviousness. With all its cleverness, Theo observes, humanity can no longer do what the animals do without thought. It is as if nature encountered an enormous robot, part computer of unimagined power, part mechanism with unlimited adaptability, and casually pulled its plug.
The religious responses to this situation are sketched deftly. There is no great rush to faith. One younger man tells Theo, "Perhaps He's just baffled. Seeing the mess, not knowing how to put it right. Perhaps not wanting to put it right. Perhaps He only had enough power left for one final intervention. So He made it. Whoever He is, whatever He is, I hope He bums in His own held."
Book Review
By: Walter Wangerin Jr.
THE CHILDREN OF MEN By P. D. James. 245 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $22. Text:
ON New Year's Day, 2021, "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl." He was 25. It has been 25 years since a global disease rendered all human sperm infertile, 25 years, therefore, since any baby has been born to bear the future of humankind. The same day marks the 50th birthday of Theodore Faron, doctor of philosophy. On this day he begins to keep a journal as a "small additional defense against personal accidie."
With such swift strokes P. D. James establishes the central premise of her new novel, "The Children of Men." There follow two worthy adventures for Miss James, for her protagonist and for the thoughtful reader:
The first concerns final efforts at saving this race, the people, us. The first adventure exemplifies what has always made Miss James's detective fiction structured and strong: story. But Theodore Faron's real story -- the sequence of events that drives toward a conclusion that must succeed, or else all fails -- is slow to start. Not till Chapter Six does Faron meet the woman, Julian, who will involve him and us in plots. And even then things unfold slowly. Faron is not easily persuaded to crack his self-containment for the sake of others. It's not in his character. (He notes his "terror of taking responsibility for other people's lives or happiness.") Nor is it in the times. ("But those who lived gave way to the almost universal negativism, what the French named ennui universel. ") In fact, the novel's Book One, "Omega," acts much as a setup for the story that does not dominate until Book Two, "Alpha."
But it doesn't matter. The reader can certainly wait for action since the second adventure of the book -- perhaps the more fascinating one -- is the meditation that its premise encourages. In a recent interview, Miss James said, "I thought, if there was no future, how would we behave?" No future, not because it has been canceled suddenly, as by nuclear war, but because it has been cut off at the source: no babies, no next generation. Those alive are thus granted their fullness of years but their deaths are made dreadfully significant. When they die, all die. Contemplating that, in Book One, is the more terrible adventure. For look what becomes of us when we are the end, the point of it all:
Love is lavished on the inanimate. "Doll-making was the only section of the toy industry which . . . flourished; it had produced dolls for the whole range of frustrated maternal desire." And when Faron sees one woman dash the doll of another against a stone wall, its "mother" screams "the scream of the tortured, the bereaved, the terrified."
The last-born men and women, that final generation whom society calls "our Omegas," are strikingly handsome and talented but, as far as others are concerned, cold and incurious. Faron writes, "If from infancy you treat children as gods they are liable in adulthood to act as devils."
Fatalism, boredom, crime and religious hysteria increase. The Isle of Man is turned into a penal colony where thieves are dumped to survive or to die murdering one another.
The people hoard against a time when the state will fail. But, careless of anybody save themselves, they permit a dictator to rule England absolutely, serving his own power rather than their welfare. By his decree the old are herded onto a ship for a seeming mass suicide, a ritual called the Quietus. But these people are in fact not suicides but victims -- drugged and set adrift to drown. And Theodore Faron, trying to save one woman from the Quietus, is beaten senseless by a soldier of the state.
That, for him, is the crucial event. Pity cracks his solitude. He begins to heed Julian, the woman who believes she holds in herself the potential for a future. Since the dictator of England is Faron's cousin, Julian has begged him to reason with the man before she and her group begin subversive activity. After the Quietus Faron agrees and speaks with his cousin. But the dictator remains immovable, and Faron makes a commitment to others in spite of himself. And so begins the action of the book.
PLOT, under Miss James's hand, is never merely external action. Always she explores character, the complexities of motive and thought and emotion; and always she wonders about the nature of humankind in general -- this baffling admixture of good and evil, faith and failure, love and a murderous self-sufficiency. In her other novels, the author's attention is upon the plot and these concerns appear only indirectly. But here Miss James makes these contemplations the very business of her book, and her view is Olympian.
From the premise of this novel, death takes on tremendous dimension. And as Faron grows to love Julian, love is purged of personal return. In the time of endings, choices are reduced to the most basic, for self or for others, and those who choose selflessness choose genuine sacrifice, dying for Julian -- who believes she is pregnant -- and for the sake of the future.
And birth -- for this must be the real plot, the real rebellion, the real potency and salvation of humankind -- the birth of a single child becomes a thing of ineffable glory.
If there is a baby, there is a future, there is redemption. From this, Miss James's book draws -- but not heavily -- a mythic breath.
And she herself signals the source of its title and perhaps of its hope. During a makeshift funeral for one who sacrificed his life for Julian and the future, Faron reads from an old prayer book this psalm: "Lord, thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another. . . . Thou turnest man to destruction: again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men."
THE CHILDREN OF MEN By P. D. James. 245 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $22. Text:
ON New Year's Day, 2021, "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl." He was 25. It has been 25 years since a global disease rendered all human sperm infertile, 25 years, therefore, since any baby has been born to bear the future of humankind. The same day marks the 50th birthday of Theodore Faron, doctor of philosophy. On this day he begins to keep a journal as a "small additional defense against personal accidie."
With such swift strokes P. D. James establishes the central premise of her new novel, "The Children of Men." There follow two worthy adventures for Miss James, for her protagonist and for the thoughtful reader:
The first concerns final efforts at saving this race, the people, us. The first adventure exemplifies what has always made Miss James's detective fiction structured and strong: story. But Theodore Faron's real story -- the sequence of events that drives toward a conclusion that must succeed, or else all fails -- is slow to start. Not till Chapter Six does Faron meet the woman, Julian, who will involve him and us in plots. And even then things unfold slowly. Faron is not easily persuaded to crack his self-containment for the sake of others. It's not in his character. (He notes his "terror of taking responsibility for other people's lives or happiness.") Nor is it in the times. ("But those who lived gave way to the almost universal negativism, what the French named ennui universel. ") In fact, the novel's Book One, "Omega," acts much as a setup for the story that does not dominate until Book Two, "Alpha."
But it doesn't matter. The reader can certainly wait for action since the second adventure of the book -- perhaps the more fascinating one -- is the meditation that its premise encourages. In a recent interview, Miss James said, "I thought, if there was no future, how would we behave?" No future, not because it has been canceled suddenly, as by nuclear war, but because it has been cut off at the source: no babies, no next generation. Those alive are thus granted their fullness of years but their deaths are made dreadfully significant. When they die, all die. Contemplating that, in Book One, is the more terrible adventure. For look what becomes of us when we are the end, the point of it all:
Love is lavished on the inanimate. "Doll-making was the only section of the toy industry which . . . flourished; it had produced dolls for the whole range of frustrated maternal desire." And when Faron sees one woman dash the doll of another against a stone wall, its "mother" screams "the scream of the tortured, the bereaved, the terrified."
The last-born men and women, that final generation whom society calls "our Omegas," are strikingly handsome and talented but, as far as others are concerned, cold and incurious. Faron writes, "If from infancy you treat children as gods they are liable in adulthood to act as devils."
Fatalism, boredom, crime and religious hysteria increase. The Isle of Man is turned into a penal colony where thieves are dumped to survive or to die murdering one another.
The people hoard against a time when the state will fail. But, careless of anybody save themselves, they permit a dictator to rule England absolutely, serving his own power rather than their welfare. By his decree the old are herded onto a ship for a seeming mass suicide, a ritual called the Quietus. But these people are in fact not suicides but victims -- drugged and set adrift to drown. And Theodore Faron, trying to save one woman from the Quietus, is beaten senseless by a soldier of the state.
That, for him, is the crucial event. Pity cracks his solitude. He begins to heed Julian, the woman who believes she holds in herself the potential for a future. Since the dictator of England is Faron's cousin, Julian has begged him to reason with the man before she and her group begin subversive activity. After the Quietus Faron agrees and speaks with his cousin. But the dictator remains immovable, and Faron makes a commitment to others in spite of himself. And so begins the action of the book.
PLOT, under Miss James's hand, is never merely external action. Always she explores character, the complexities of motive and thought and emotion; and always she wonders about the nature of humankind in general -- this baffling admixture of good and evil, faith and failure, love and a murderous self-sufficiency. In her other novels, the author's attention is upon the plot and these concerns appear only indirectly. But here Miss James makes these contemplations the very business of her book, and her view is Olympian.
From the premise of this novel, death takes on tremendous dimension. And as Faron grows to love Julian, love is purged of personal return. In the time of endings, choices are reduced to the most basic, for self or for others, and those who choose selflessness choose genuine sacrifice, dying for Julian -- who believes she is pregnant -- and for the sake of the future.
And birth -- for this must be the real plot, the real rebellion, the real potency and salvation of humankind -- the birth of a single child becomes a thing of ineffable glory.
If there is a baby, there is a future, there is redemption. From this, Miss James's book draws -- but not heavily -- a mythic breath.
And she herself signals the source of its title and perhaps of its hope. During a makeshift funeral for one who sacrificed his life for Julian and the future, Faron reads from an old prayer book this psalm: "Lord, thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another. . . . Thou turnest man to destruction: again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men."
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