Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Magicians Draft 2

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? 


*Spoiler Alert


The novel, The Magicians, by Lev Grossman portrays a 17 year old boy, named Quentin, throughout his life at a college for magicians.  In the second half of the book, Quentin graduates from Brakebills and moves onto the real world.  He thinks that he can avoid boredom by partying all day and all night.  He and his friends finally decide to do something with their life and they go on an adventure to Fillory.  Fillory was always thought to be fake because it was written in children's book.  They had always thought the author just made it up, but then they found out it was real and they took the adventure.  there, they faced a beast that ends up killing Quentin's girlfriend.  


Grossman wrote this book to show that people should reflect on their life and realize how good they have it and not seek for more.  He shows this through telling the failed life of Quentin.  He was a really smart, and liked by everyone, but he didn't have the girl he liked so he was "miserable".  Next, at Brakebills, the college for magicians, he was completely content when he got there, but after a while, he began to get bored and felt  not content.  He yearned to get out, and when he did get to the real world, he partied and drank and did drugs all day and night.  During this time, her ignored hsi girlfriend and ended up cheating on her.  He soon regrets it and realizes what a great girlfriend he had (they got back together later). He was still no content with life and went seeking for more. He then entered Fillory, the place he fantasized of visiting his whole life (the alternate world of adventure. a utopia).  Here is where everything feel apart.  the fun adventure they thought they were going on turned out to be a mad competition for survival.  His thirst for fulfilling his life (which was already complete, with all the greatest things ever) lead to the death of his beloved girlfriend.  He then realized how much he already had before, and that he should have never looked for anything more because he had magical powers, people who loved him, and all the money he could dream of. He didn't need anything else, but he was just being selfish.


Grossman sums up all of this in this quote:  "You just go from one thing to the next, don't you, and you think it's going to make you happy.  Brakebills didn't. I didn't..."(255) here, it shows that Quentin is unsatisfied by small things and tries to move onto the next thing.  he tries to move on and make himself feel better.  Grossman shows this wrong and that you should look at all the great things that you have in your life because in the end, Quentin lost everything.  I think this is true.  Some people take things for granted, and they must realize how good they have it.

No comments:

Post a Comment