Briefly summarize a decision made by a main character in which you disagreed. How did this decision affect the conflict or theme of the novel? What, in your opinion, should the character have done differently? How would this have affected the conflict or theme of the novel?
34 Comments
Delaney Kidd
11/6/2015 09:46:46 am
Decisions are what shape a book and could be considered the rising action. In “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier the protagonist has to make a decision that will shape the whole book. Jerry Renault goes to an all boy Christian school where he joins the football team. The vigils are a group of boys whose goal is to cause as much psychological pain as possible. They give special jobs to their victims such as Jerry. They give him the job of selling chocolate. The decision that I don’t agree with in Jerry is the decision to refuse selling chocolate.
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Gaby Bowman
11/7/2015 11:10:29 am
Dear Delaney,
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Chris Balding
11/8/2015 07:32:57 am
In every book, there is a decision that is key to the plot of the story. Without it, there is no turning point which changes the feeling of the audience. Wether it is a decision that you agree or disagree with, its still is a game changer, no matter what.
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Ethan Gdovin
11/8/2015 12:29:27 pm
Chris,
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Cora Perkins
11/8/2015 04:23:01 pm
Chris,
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Aliya Wilcox
11/8/2015 06:22:28 pm
Chris,
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Kole Arellano
12/6/2015 04:30:22 pm
Chris,
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Autumn Detor
12/7/2015 03:13:07 pm
Chris,
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Tysen Trujillo
12/9/2015 02:56:27 pm
Chris,
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Joshua Case
12/15/2015 06:24:55 pm
Chris,
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Bella Hautzinger
11/8/2015 09:00:54 am
The decisions we make everyday will no matter what affect us in some shape or form. The same goes for books. "The Red Pyramid" by Rick Riordan has 3 main characters, Sadie, Carter, and Bast. Bast made the decision to sacrifice herself for Sadie and Carter. "'NO!'
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Violet Detwiler
11/8/2015 06:04:27 pm
Bella,
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Ethan Gdovin
11/8/2015 09:57:18 am
In my book "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, the protagonist is named Jim Hawkins. Jim Hawkins has a father named Billy Bones, and Billy Bones is a captain of a ship. Billy is a well known person around town and he is very much respected in it as well. But Billy has a major addiction. His major addiction is to alcohol. An addiction to alcohol can cause many health risks. But Billy Bones doesn't know this so all he drinks is rum.
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Noah Butzine
11/8/2015 02:58:50 pm
To make a book realistic and similar to real life, authors often choose for characters to make decisions that go against one’s logic. “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee includes many of these decisions to strengthen the theme and overall conflict of the book. The main character Scout is a six year old girl that makes a lot of irrational decisions, and this makes sense due to her age. Most of the time the reader is ok with her mistakes because she is just a little girl, but in chapter 9 Scout makes one decision that I certainly do not agree with. She chooses to fight her older cousin instead of ignoring him when he taunts her about her dad Atticus. I disagree with this decision for a few reasons, but mainly because Atticus specifically told Scout not to fight anyone physically. “You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change… it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.” (Page 87) He specifically asks for her to do ONE thing, and she couldn’t do it. Atticus even told Scout that he could fight people with her head (meaning her brain). Scout also knew that the adults (except for Atticus) would never believe her, so there was no reason to even try to get back at her cousin. “Aunty had continued to isolate me long after Jem and Francis graduated to the big table.” (Page 93) This quote shows that Scout’s aunt has a clear negative bias towards her. Plus, Scout’s cousin is Aunt Alexandra’s son, so she is clearly going to side against her. This makes Scout’s decision a useless and rather foolish one.
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Michael Winward
11/9/2015 06:25:17 pm
Noah,
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Grace Smith
11/8/2015 07:09:02 pm
In my novel, A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, the main character, Landon Carter, made a decision that I don’t agree with, but I have an idea of what he could have done differently that could have changed the conflict for the better. After Jamie and Landon practiced for the Christmas play, Jamie asked Landon to walk her home since it was dark outside and Landon thought “Jamie’s house was on the way to mine, and I couldn’t say no without hurting her feelings. It wasn’t like I liked her or anything, don’t get the wrong idea, but when you’ve had to spend a few hours a day with someone, and you’re going to continue that for at least another week, you don’t want to do anything that might make the next day miserable for either of you,”(109) so he agreed. Now when you first think about this decision, you think it would be the right one, since Landon has chosen to walk Jamie home instead of make some excuse of why he couldn’t, but if he would have made a different choice, not to walk her home, Jamie would still be the kind, smiling girl she always is for the play, rather than the distant one she is for it.
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Ella Dillon
11/9/2015 04:15:22 pm
In my current book “Go Ask Alice “she makes the decision to turn to drugs. The reason why I disagree is because drugs take over lives. The first time she uses drugs she talks about them as if they are her life and something she could never give up on. I believe drugs take over the soul and make people lose track of what is important. “Go Ask Alice” is a perfect example of that. Halfway through the book she leaves her family, moves away and becomes a drug dealer. The drugs turn into her way of life. She makes money off of them, and also uses them. Her decision to start drugs affects the conflict because throughout the book she realizes she really needs her family and everything she has lost due to her decision so she tries to turn away from drugs but, sadly she can’t. She tries her best to stay away from them but her addictive personality keeps her hooked to the drugs. Drugs are an important part in the book because they shape her, they may hurt her but it’s something she can’t give up on. I strongly disagree with her decision to turn to drugs but, without them she wouldn’t be herself.
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Will Smardo
12/9/2015 08:50:31 pm
Dear Ella,
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Sydni Stoffel
11/9/2015 05:43:02 pm
In my current novel “Thirteen Reasons Why” the secondary main character Hannah Baker committed suicide and left haunting tapes for the people who caused this horrible tragedies. However I don’t agree with this decision to permanently haunt and remind these people of the mistakes they made in the past. If Hannah could have avoided the problem, or looked for other options than hurting herself she wouldn’t have to have committed suicide and not left these tapes for many to dread and have anxiety on for the rest of their lives. This decision effects the whole conflict in the story, because without this conflict there wouldn’t be much of a story at all.
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Delaney Kidd
11/9/2015 07:42:26 pm
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Gia Colosimo
11/9/2015 08:02:06 pm
In my book “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka the main protagonist (character) is Gregor. Gregor made many decisions that I disagree with, but one really stands out to me. When his mom came to his door and said “Gregor, it’s a quarter to seven. Didn’t you want to go somewhere?” (Kafka 2) He “had wanted to give a full answer and explain everything” to his mom “but in the circumstances contended himself” and didn’t tell her everything.
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Chris Balidng
11/12/2015 05:18:53 pm
I would like to use this revised draft please.
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Ella Tripoli
11/15/2015 12:26:43 pm
In my current novel “The Face on the Milk Carton” Janie makes a decision to go against her health risk and go for a carton of milk, Janie happens to be lactose and tolerant. On this milk brand they happen to put out a missing persons warrant. Janie had always assumed that there was something different about her family; they seemed much older than all of her friend’s parents. When she went for the milk carton she noticed the warrant, this person looked familiar…. She made the decision to go for the milk. I disagree with this decision, I disagree because she was putting herself at risk wether or not she should have thought about her own decision before getting something that she was allergic to.
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Gia Colosimo
11/15/2015 06:05:39 pm
I would like to use this copy instead
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Ethan Konrad
11/15/2015 10:09:13 pm
In the book that i am reading, "Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes" there is a chapter explaining the story of Hercules, the son of Zeus. He always did have anger issues that really messed up most of his life. Like the decision that he made that i really disagreed with was when he he had a massive breakdown and killed his entire family. except for one. Iolaus, his nephew. i disagreed with this choice that Hercules made because I believe that is it wrong to murder your family. But hey, that Greek mythology for you. i feel like something that Hercules should have done differently was not kill his family. The whole family mix up really messed up his life in the way that he had to go to the kingdom of his cousin, who was the high king at the time, and do ten tasks to repent for what he did. if he hadn't gone and killed his family, he wouldn't have had to spend the rest of his life doing ten tasks. and if he hadn't done this, then there would really be no conflict to the story at all.
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Aiga Petelo
11/30/2015 07:26:04 pm
In the current book I’m reading which is “Going Bovine” by Libba Bray Cameron has made the decision to run away from the hospital, and find Dr. X with his new friend Gonzo. I disagree with Cameron’s decision because it causes problems in the future. First of all right after Cameron made that decision he got into a taxi, but he had no plan of where he was going to go. “‘Where to?’ the guy asks, flipping on the meter.’ Good question.’ Gonzo glares at me.”(131)”The meter goes up another fifteen cents and we haven’t even moved.”(131)”’That’s, like, a dollar seventy-five. My mom will kill me.’”(131) these quotes show how leaving the hospital causes small minor problems. The quotes also show how Cameron shouldn’t have left the hospital because it causes Gonzo (who has a very attached mother) to freak out over spending money that he shouldn’t have spent, but has to due to the circumstances that they are in right now. This decision affected the conflict of the story because later on Cameron and Gonzo run out of cash. The character should’ve walked to the bus station, and thought of a better plan.
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Haley Christianson
11/30/2015 07:47:51 pm
A decision made by my main character Ruby in my book “ One of those Horrible books where the mother dies” by Sonya Sones, is when she just decides to hate her father just because he left and divorced her mom before she was born. I understand she doesn’t like him in the beginning because of what he did but she never gives him a chance it’s almost like she blames him for her mother's death. Throughout the book she brings up how much she doesn't trust her Father and how he's a bad guy for letting her stay with him in his big house. A good example of how much she likes her father can be found on the first page “I’m dragged three thousand miles away from my gorgeous boyfriend, Ray, to live in L.A. with my father,who I’ve never met because he’s such a scumbag that he divorced my mom before I was born. The only way I’ve ever “seen” him is in the movies, since he’s this megafamous actor who’s been too busy trying to win Oscars to even visit me “once” in fifteen years. Everyone loves my father. Everyone but me.” This shows how much she dislikes her dad and doesn’t want to give him any chance to show himself to her.
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Raleigh Carlton
12/1/2015 04:29:07 pm
I am reading The Martian by Andy Wier. Mark Watney needed to create water for him and his crops, he being a skilled botanist and a fair chemist created water by burning hydrogen and oxygen, this gives off one molecule of pure oxygen winch is extremely flammable. he realized later that he had just filled his entire living space in lots and lots of pure oxygen, he decided to hide in his rover for a while until he found an answer to the problem. This was a terrible idea, even that he almost died this situation added to the mood by him being humorous and in a good mood when this happened. throughout the book he gets into life threatening situations and he just makes bad puns. his decision about creating water did apply a lot to the overall mood and tone.
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Cora Perkins
12/3/2015 07:05:28 pm
In my novel, “Falconer” the first book of the Falconer Trilogy by Elizabeth May, the main character makes a very poor and almost idiotic decision due to something that she knew that she couldn’t prevent. I know this is a very vague yet definite description of what happened but it’s pretty complicated. First, Aileana is in love but won’t say so but is in love with a faery named Kiaran who went rouge when his kind were trapped in an underground magical prison basically. At the point in which Aileana makes her diction this prison’s seal is gone and it let out a nasty group of blood thirsty fae. The seal may have been broken, but she could fix it by putting the pieces back into their place. Doing so would recapture all of the faerys that wanted to kill all of humanity, but it would also seal Kiaran into the prison. She had put all but one piece back into its spot and she glanced back to see Kiaran for the last time and the border that was protecting the area of the key to the seal from faerys broke, she was captured, Kiaran passes out, and hope for all of Scotland to be saved was banished. The first book ends this way and the consequences are only hinted at. The real consequences aren’t shown until the second book “The Vanishing Throne.”
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Autumn Detor
12/4/2015 02:59:12 pm
In the book I am currently reading, Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans, the main protagonist has made a few poor decisions that I, personally, do not agree with. Michael has special electrically powers, and he becomes a walking lightning bolt whenever he wants to. This is learned fairly early in the book, though Evans doesn’t full on blurt out that Michael has powers. Instead, he expertly weaves this information into his writing until the reader figures it out.
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Michael Winward
12/9/2015 05:23:55 pm
Autumn,
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Violet Detwiler
12/5/2015 02:57:33 pm
I am currently reading “Will Grayson” by John Green and David Levithan. Decisions made by characters often reflect what kind of person they are and what role they play in the novel. In this book, a character named Maura created a fake profile online in order to lead her friend on and find out if he was gay.
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Chloe Williams
12/6/2015 05:41:45 pm
Violet,
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Kole Arellano
12/6/2015 04:18:25 pm
In books there can be many decisions or there can be few. In my book so far there have been many. Some of which I disagree with. “ ‘Casper and Charlie [snuck] off to try to find the missing men,’ [JD] told Amerine angrily.
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