Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Entry Two - Important Things to Understand About the Novel

In the novel I am reading, Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick, there are five major characters. I will be discussing each of their individual complexities.

Sig wants to represent his family in a positive way. He learned a lot of valuable lessons from his mother and father, and he carries them out to the real world. His parents, in their separate ways, taught Sig and his siblings to know as much as they could of how the world works, and how other people will treat you. Sig is really good at working through things when he is in a tough spot and not disappointing anybody. An example of this approach is that he chooses to shoot Wolff in the hand, rather than kill him, when he had the choice to do either one. He wants his loved ones and himself to be safe and happy.

Anna wants to help her family anyway that she can. For example, the first thing she did when she walked into the cabin with Sig lying there hurt and Wolff standing in the room was to rush to her brother to help him get better. She, too, learned those same valuable lessons as Sig did from their parents. She recognizes that life is hard and people need to take care of themselves as their father taught them, but also tries to live a life of love and peace, like her mother did.

Einar always puts family first. He wants the best for his family, even if it is not what is best for him personally. An example of this is that Einar had been stealing gold from his job the whole time and taking it home for his family. I'm sure he knew that, by doing that, he could've gotten hurt or even killed, but he wanted the best for his family. He was doing what he felt he needed to do, to take care of his family in desperate circumstances.

Gunther Wolff is a character that just wants what he wants, no matter how selfish or mean it is. He will do anything to get what he wants. As an example, Wolff traveled for ten years to get to Einar's cabin so he could get the gold that Einar had been stealing. Wolff was driven to get that gold back from Einar and his family. I think that Wolff could relate to President Snow, from the Hunger Games, because President Snow does a lot of selfish things just to get what he wants. Snow puts a lot of other people in bad situations, only to make things better for him. To learn more about President Snow, click here. 

Maria wanted for her family to be great followers of God. She would always tell her children Bible verses that would serve as a life lesson and would stick with them forever. She always talked about God and the Bible. Maria was trying to make her children better people, and teaching them to face challenges with love and faith.  

      I think that the main theme of this novel is to respect and honor your family, and all the characteristics about them, because you never know when or how they could be beneficial to you. I think that another theme in this book is to work together when you are in a hard situation with somebody, because they could always be a big help to you and help you to achieve something that you couldn't do by yourself. We saw this happen with Sig and Anna during the novel. Anna, for example, reminds Sig that “There’s always a third choice in life. Even if you think you’re stuck between two impossible choices, there’s always a third way. You just have to look for it” (Sedgwick, 116).


      The structure of this novel is very unique and interesting because it is not an ordinary structure of a book. What Sedgwick does, throughout the book, is that he alternates between the past and the present during the book. One chapter could be about the past, or the present, or both. That is a very unique structure, in my opinion. This approach helps the reader understand why some of the things that are happening in the present are taking place. Also, there are a lot more chapters than there is in an ordinary book, so that is different as well.

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