Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Book Review: Eragon Part 1

     Eragon, the first of three books in the same yet-to-be-completed series by Christopher Paolini, is a fictional novel following the adventure of Eragon and Saphira in a world of mythical creatures - dragons, elves, dwarves, etc - and magic. His journey begins when a polished blue stone suddenly crashes in front of him, disrupting his hunt in The Spine, an expansion of feared mountains surrounding his village and extending up and down the west coast of the land. Not long after, Eragon discovers that what he had always assumed to be a stone was actually an egg when a blue dragon, later named Saphira, hatches from it. A series of events follow and causes Eragon the necessity to leave his hometown. Over the course of the novel, Eragon changes from an indecisive entity ignorant of the world outside The Spine to a dependable individual strong enough to stand on his own against his obstacles.
     In the beginning, Eragon was depending on those around him for support and the feeling of security. He becomes pained when his uncle dies, "Everything was insubstantial except for Garrow's face. Tears flooded Eragon's cheeks. He stood there, shoulders shaking, but did not cry out. Mother, aunt, uncle - he had lost them all. The weight of his grief was crashing, a monstrous force that left him tottering. [...] Frustrated and terrified, he turned his tear-dampened face toward the heavens and shouted, 'What god would do this? Show yourself!...He didn't deserve this!'" (90-91). When he finds that his uncle has also passed away, Eragon feels abandoned and is overwhelmed by sadness due to the loss another loved one from his family. He is unable to immediately accept the reality that the person who raised him was dead. This pain causes him to desire revenge but he is uncertain about his ability, "Am I strong enough for this?" (93). Eragon questions his own ability to achieve revenge for his uncle. Although he is still vulnerable due to the news of the death, he feared that he would be unable to defeat his opponents when he left his hometown.

2 comments:

  1. This idea that you are developing about how living in a remote simple village blocks out knowledge and that traveling and venturing out into the world educates us. Do you think that the dragon Eragon has resembles something. For instance education or something, life maybe? If this idea get more developed I think you can write alot about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. First of all, you should format your quotes and separate your paragraphs so it doesn't seem long and sort of choppy. Also, you should explain your idea a bit more in the second paragraph and give your readers an understanding of why you are writing this.

    ReplyDelete