Second Semester Reflection

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Literary Analysis Ideas

A Historical Novel

Title: In Enemy Territory

Point of View: First Person

Tone: intense

Setting: World War II (1939-1945), Europe

Conflict: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature

Character List

Red Natochenny- Main protagonist. Talented American pilot.

Jesse and James Cathcart- Main antagonists. Twin German spies/assassins.

Summary:

Red Natochenny is a pilot, but not just any pilot; he was the very best like no one ever was. He was able to fly any form of aircraft. So the setting takes place during World War II. America had just joined in on the fight against Hitler’s army. Of course Red was called out to lead a group of men in air strikes and in transportation. However, one day, during a normal air patrol, Red and his men were attacked suddenly by German forces. Although he and his men were elite pilots, they were outnumbered and one by one they began to fall. Red tired his hardest to fight back and get away as his comrades were shot down. Eventually, Red’s plane is hit, barely, but just enough to cause him to lose altitude. The German forces give chase at him but he is able to escape into the mountains but had to crash land. Red was now in enemy territory.

             Thankfully, Red was able to escape from serious injuries from the crash. However, he was stranded in enemy territory with no way of calling for help. He has to travel across the land, searching far and wide for a way out and back to the safety of the Allied Forces. During his journey, he has to face the coming winter and ravaging animals. Also, being on enemy territory, he had to be on constant watch for enemy patrols. He comes across small towns and villages that were guarded by German soldiers, and at one point was caught. He was taken to a concentration camp where he was imprisoned. However, he was eventually able to escape along with some plans that he was able to snatch. This caused the German officer in charge of the camp to send out twin German assassins, Jesse and James Cathcart, to hunt down Red and retrieve the plans.

            With now two assassins chasing after him, Red’s journey to safety has become more perilous. However, he was able to obtain help from multiple people such as commoner and rebels. Yet, many died assisting him.

TTC Writing I

            I never really had a favorite literary genre. Whenever it comes to books, I pretty much read anything. I have like times where I’m really into horrors at one point, but then a week later, I’m into science fiction. I guess what I really focus on when I read a book is how entertaining I find the plot to be. There are plenty of times where I just got bored with the story and never actually finished the book. There are also times where it is a series and I like the beginning so I get the next books. However, I get bored with the plot and just end up with a bunch of unread books lying around and I move on to something else. 

However, if I had to choose a specific genre that I like the most; I would say it would be adventure. Really this is actually a broad genre and I feel that it could probably be spread out to like science fiction, horror, fantasy, and mystery. The reason I like adventure the most is mainly because the plot has a pretty good flow. The imagery that adventure literature provides is just amazing to me. Books like The Lord of the Rings trilogy show a vast land with different beings and magic, while books like Star Wars novels provide me with futuristic ideas.

Since I use to read a lot of books when I was younger, I should know a lot about different genres. However, the only reading I’ve done in the past few years is for school mostly and sadly my interest in actual fine literature has greatly fallen. However, I do remember reading a lot of mysteries. The Boxcar Children was probably my favorite mystery series that I read as a child. Although they seem very predictable and childish now, I remember the suspense and surprise that it provided as a child. There was also romance genre. Back then I never liked it and even now I don’t really care much for it. I wasn’t much for the love and happiness provided by romance. I also mentioned science fiction as being branched off of adventure. The most recent science fiction I have read is probably The Hunger Games. Really this genre of science fiction just opens my eyes to the future and how things can possibly be like.

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GE Writing II

A major theme of the book is wealth. At the beginning, Wang Lung was just a poor farmer that only had little land, an ox, and his old father to care for. He was only able a arranged marriage with a servant unlike today where you actually meet the one through God’s plan. However, because of his marriage to the servant O-lan, Wang Lung life began to get better and his wealth slowly increased later on. With this increase in wealth, his property expanded and his life became easier.

The significance to this theme of wealth is that although Wang Lung worked hard for his wealth, it wasn’t always a good thing. Because of his wealth, a lot of issues occurred. One of the major issues was the issue of lust. Because of his wealth, Wang Lung was able to buy more land from the family of Hwang. With all this land came more wealth and the ability to hire workers. Since he had workers to do everything, Wang Lung had nothing to do and pretty much was bored and went out to find pleasure. This pleasure came in the form of a woman. Wang Lung lusted after this woman and pretty much bought her to serve him as a sex slave. Because of this he was constantly spending money to please her desires. Also another issue was family. With all his wealth, his uncle took advantage of him and Wang Lung could do nothing to get rid of him since he was afraid of losing all his earthly wealth. Also his oldest son didn’t finance the money well and just spent it a lot of it on looking good.

Really this theme of wealth is teaching people that sometimes being wealthy isn’t always a good thing. It is great to have money and property, although it would probably take a lot of work to obtain, but how you use it greatly affects your life. We have to be aware of what we do and control ourselves to prevent any lust or foolish spending by yourself or by family. Also, from a Christian perspective, we shouldn’t desire earthly riches that rot away, but rather desire to have heavenly riches that are eternal.