Eragon Book Review Rough Draft

     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 displays many characteristics that makes him uniquely himself.
    Eragon has a strong sense of responsibility. Even before he begins his adventure, he dutifully hunts in the Spine, an expansion of mountains surrounding his village feared by many, for food so that his family can survive through the winter, "The deer had led him deep into the Spine, a range of untamed mountains that extend up and down the land of Alagaesia. Strange tales and men often came from those mountains, usually boding ill. Despite that, Eragon did not fear the Spine - he was the only human near Carvahall who dared track game into its craggy recesses. [...] If he did not fell the doe, he would be forced to return home empty-handed. His family needed the meat for the rapidly approaching winter and could not afford to buy it in Carvahall," (6-7). Although Eragon's family's inability to obtain meat from Carvahall plays a part in the necessity for Eragon to hunt in the Spine for meat, it does not cloud the fact that he is willing to hunt in those mountains even though many others whould avoid them due to fear. Eragon's courage stems from his family's reliance on him to hunt so that food can be provided to last throughout the winter. The tales that others tell about the Spine mountains does not suppress his sense of duty. Instead, it only causes him to gain stubborness.
     Another trait Eragon has is that he is stubborn. When something has great importance to him, his stubbornness would show when he refuses to listen to others. Because the crash-landing of the stone caused the game Eragon was hunting to run away, it forced Eragon to go to the village's butcher shop in hopes of trading the stone for meat that his family needs. However, once Eragon replies that the stone was found in the Spine when the butcher questioned its origin, the butcher refuses to trade meat to Eragon, causing Eragon to refuse to leave. Luckily, Houst, the town's blacksmith stepped in and bought Eragon the meat and offered Eragon the opportunity to work off the debt by working at the blacksmith when he had free time, "'Good thing I came - the two of you were almost at blows. Unfortunately, I doubt he'll serve you meat or any of your family the next time you go in there, even if you do have coins...As for payment, Albriech plans to leave for Feinster next spring. He wants to become a master smith, and I'm going to need an assistant. You can come and work off the debt on your spare days,'" (15). Eragon's stubbornness mostly derived from the obvious fact that his family would starve if they are unable to attain the necessary meat. They would not be able to survive through the winter so he defiantly stay in the butcher shop even though he knew that his actions would only cause the butcher to hate him and his family even more even though they have not done anything harmful towards the butcher and his family. However, this stubbornness only contributes to his rashness.
     On top of being stubborn, Eragon is also rash. During his journey for "revenge," he comes across a bottle with a symbol that is the same as that of his enemy's. Without being causious, he simply smells the content of the bottle before pouring a drop on he finger. "Lying on the ground was a metal flask with a leather strap just long wnough to hang off someone's shoulder. A silver insignia Eragon recognized as the Ra'zac's symbl was wought on it...(etc)," (166). Even though eragon had enough common sense to not dronk something he found that belongs to his enemies, his rashness to discover the unknown had him pour a drop of the liquid onto his finger. In a sense, his rashness had him prioritize his desire to find the use of the content by testing it out right then and there rather than returning back to camp to ask Brom, who obviously knew a lot more about the world than Eragon, about it
     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.

Book Review: Eragon Part 2

     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 displays may characteristics.
    Eragon has a strong sense of responsibility. Even before he begins his adventure, he dutifully hunts in the Spine, an expansion of mountains surrounding his village feared by many, for food so that his family can survive through the winter, "The deer had led him deep into the Spine, a range of untamed mountains that extend up and down the land of Alagaesia. Strange tales and men often came from those mountains, usually boding ill. Despite that, Eragon did not fear the Spine - he was the only human near Carvahall who dared track game into its craggy recesses. [...] If he did not fell the doe, he would be forced to return home empty-handed. His family needed the meat for the rapidly approaching winter and could not afford to buy it in Carvahall," (6-7). Although Eragon's family's inability to obtain meat from Carvahall plays a part in the necessity for Eragon to hunt in the Spine for meat, it does not cloud the fact that he is willing to hunt in those mountains even though many others whould avoid them due to fear. Eragon's courage stems from his family's reliance on him to hunt so that food can be provided to last throughout the winter. The tales that others tell about the Spine mountains does not suppress his sense of duty.

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.

Garcia Girls Book Review

     Throughout her novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez uses a unique style of writing that contributes to the weaknesses of the book and its difference when compared to books with similar genres.

     The author’s writing style can only be described as unique because of the distinctive organization and development of this novel’s storyline. If an individual simply picks up this book and starts reading, confusion would most likely rise immediately because of the reversed storyline organization, inconsistent character viewpoints, and unclear character descriptions and events.

     For one, the story does not progress through the usual chronological order but instead, starts in the present and moves backwards so that the narration in the next vignette – or maybe even as soon as the next paragraph – would have happened before what the reader has just read. This style of writing can sometimes throw the reader off because the reader has to constantly keep in mind that the detail they just read had happened further back in time than the detail they had read before that detail. Although I do not have a problem with this reversed chronological order in the storyline, I sometimes find it hard to follow the before and after of the stories and vignettes.

     The second thing is the inconsistent viewpoints. Although Alvarez does give the names of the characters who play a part in narrating the vignette it is sometime had to differentiate between two characters that might both play a part in narrating in the same vignette. For example, in the vignette “The Four Girls” in the first section, the author lists that Carla, Yolanda, Sandra, and Sofia may be narrating but the story wavers between all four characters so that the reader cannot truly pinpoint the character that is telling the story. In this sense, the story becomes more of a third-person narration and it seems inconsistent when other vignettes have one character telling the story and is made clear who the vignette’s focus is on.

     The third writing style Alvarez uses is that she does not introduce the characters who are playing a role in the vignette at the beginning. She dives straight into the story and leaves the reader to figure out which character is telling the story as though the reader already knows what happened in the story. This can be exemplified in the last vignette of the third section, “The Drum.” The reader can find out that the focus of the vignette would be on Yolanda because it is written underneath the title but the vignette does not start out focused on Yolanda and is writing in first-person perspective.

It was a drum Mamita brought back from a trip to New York, a magnificent drum, its sides bright red, criss-crossed by gold wire held down by gold button heads, its top and bottom white. [...] "Ah," I sighed, for in the hollow at the center, two drumsticks were stored. (pg. 275).

     Here, it is easy to see that the first paragraph if the vignette practically has no connection with Yolanda, who is supposedly the focus of the vignette. The paragraph mainly describes about the drum and only refers to Yolanda through the usage of the word “I.” In addition, the use of that “I” does not even identify who is talking because the only character that is introduced in Mamita. This causes confusion because it leads to no clear or concise understanding of who the character is and what the character’s relationship is with the other characters or objects that may be or are also introduced. Therefore, I think that the author’s style of writing leads to the surfacing of some confusion which in turn leads to the novel’s weakness.

     The weaknesses of the book basically consists of what I mentioned above because I believe the weakness derives for the confusion that takes place due to the author’s unique style of writing. The most confusing aspects of this book seem to reside within the vignettes and the organization because of the three reasons mentioned above: the reversed storyline organization, inconsistent character viewpoints, and unclear character descriptions and events. In addition, there seems to be no connections between the order in which the vignettes appears except for the knowledge that what happens towards the end of the book happened before what took place in the beginning of the book. The story jumps around and there does not seem to be a pattern that derives from the incidents. Although I understand that the author may have written this novel because she might be relating back to her life, trying to make the book seem more realistic by connecting it the way an individual’s memories might surface – out of nowhere and without a pattern – makes the comprehension of the storyline challenging. Therefore, I think that the weaknesses of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents derive from the unusual writing style that the author uses throughout her essay.

     I think the only book that I have read that has a similar genre to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents may be The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The most obvious reason why these two books are similar is because of the novel’s structure through the use of vignettes and because of the focus on mainly one character. Although one relates to Latin American culture and the other relates to the Dominican Republic, both characters essentially show growth. Esperanza, the main character in The House on Mango Street, is shown to be restricted by her community but eventually leaves the town she lives in. This is similar to Yolanda because Yolanda is at first restricted to what she can and cannot do by her parents but as she began to lose touch with her native culture and adapt the American culture, she gains a sense of freedom. In short, a common theme that both novel touch upon is a character’s life being restricted in some way at the beginning but soon gains freedom as the character learns more about society and the world. Although similar, these two books are also very different from one another because The House on Mango Street can symbolize oppression while How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents can symbolize change.