Gods and Generals: A Novel of the Civil War - Characters

Book by Jeff Shaara, 1996

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    [CHARACTERS]

    I've been pretty excited about reading this book for some time. Gods and Generals is a book by Jeff Shaara, who is actually the son of the author of The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. If you look to my previous posts, you'll notice I admired the book very much.

 

    Basically, the gist of Gods and Generals is that's it's a bit of a prelude to The Killer Angels, but contains its own thrilling plot itself. The same historical figures are focused on, plus a couple more. General Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain are the main focuses in the text. The book's title comes from its initial focus on the lives of these powerful men. Lee is the character chosen to start the book, with his return to Arlington. The man who normally catered his house while he was away at war, Custis, had died. Now Lee returns to his family on emergency leave, but is stricken with indecision. His love for his family, his love for his country, and his love for God all pull him in different directions.

    Additionally, Jackson is a major religious figure in the novel. Again, a man of war, yet similiarly a devout Christian. His struggle is also centered around his family (these 19th century people seemed to have a lot of family problems) as he had tried and failed (twice) to have a child with two different women, because "Ellie died in childbirth...the Junkins were still his family, but he had married again, to Anna Morrison...but he was not safe from the unspeakable, from the sad face of God, and stared hard ahead." (Shaara 21) Jackson's struggle as a father was similarly stifled not only by deaths of his children, but his duty as a military instructor.

 

    This was a shorter post, to my standards at least, but I'm not too far into the book yet. Gods and Generals is not over yet.

Plot Against America - Theme

Book by Philip Roth, 2004

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[THEME]

    I keep jumping around with my books, I know. That's kind of what you get when you read more than one book at a time. Both The Plot Against America and Don't Turn Around are two good books that I seriously recommend, though, and they're different enough to read simultaneously.

   

    Focusing on the theme of The Plot Against America, it can be pretty easily gleaned. On a more general scale, any decent reader will draw the idea that perseverance is huge at this time for the Roth family: perseverance against the Republicans and perseverance against the Hitler ideas and perseverance against the internal conflicts of the trying times. The Republicans have already killed Walter Winchell. (who was, in fact, a real person; a radio gossip commentator and political figure, known for name-calling and slang in his writings) After Winchell's death, the power balance between Democrats and Republicans was thrown severely into the Republicans' favor. Additionally, Hitler's ideas were spread in America through Lindbergh, the close friend of Hitler and the President of the United States of America. These two factors and several other smaller life struggles for the Jewish Roth family left them fractured: a father and mother constantly bickering, a young protagonist left on his own with a friend he didn't like, and his older brother who seemed to have an allegiance to the opposite political faction.

    But perseverance.

    The theological meaning is the continuation with grace to eternal salvation. If the Roth family, who are heavily Jewish, remember, continue to live together, to continue to exist in hostile territory which they call home, they might survive and be known not as a family but as survivors. The oppressed. The beaten-down. The lesser class. The people who were stripped of their freedom and their public favors and their status and they lived. The theme of The Plot Against America is undoubtedly: Resiliency through trying times leads to a greater compensation. If the Roth family can endure what plagues them now, they will be brought to the light as being those who were "right", those who were challenged for their beliefs and they won.

    That wraps up this post. More The Plot Against America and other books will be featured in future posts.

Don't Turn Around - Characters: Noa

Book by Michelle Gagnon, 2013

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[CHARACTERS]

    If you have been paying attention to the books I've done, then you'd know that Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon was actually the first book I'd done. It was only a brief overview but I have read it again since then and we're taking a closer look at the characters.

    First: the obvious choice, the protagonist, Noa. Basically, stereotypical realistic-fiction modern style here. Noa is an amnesiac, or somewhat so, given that the book starts off with [again] a stereotypical wake-up-on-a-cot-with-no-recent-memory. The past few weeks are gone for Noa Torson. Even better, it's in a cold hospital with no apparent identity, "This wasn't like any hospital she'd ever seen [...] Looking down, Noa discovered that she was wearing a cloth gown, but there was no hospital name stamped on it. Not juvie, and not an official hospital." (Gagnon 2) This, along with the other first 5 pages, is all the beginning setting-analytic jargon found in virtually every novel you will ever read. 

    As you will notice, much of Noa Torson is characterized within the first ten pages. It can be noted that she obviously has some degree of sarcasm or carries an ironic mood, "'It won't work' he said. [...] He dropped hard, knocking over boxes on the way down. He didn't get back up. 'I hate negativity' she muttered." (Gagnon 6) Noa Torson seems to have this dry wit throughout the story, this being only one example. Hatred and negativity are synonyms, and to proclaim your own hatred of negative behavior is irony.

    Another characteristic of Noa apparent in the first few pages is her adherence to violence. In response to seeing the first people since waking from amnesia, she adopts an aggressive answer to the situation: "In one smooth motion, Noa scooped the scalpel off the tray and pressed it against the side of his neck. [...] she said firmly, 'or I'm going to slit your throat.'" (Gagnon 4) This overly aggressive behavior is Noa's first response to the strange situation she's found herself in. 

    This is the beginning of the character analysis for Noa, and more is to follow.