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.

The Magicians First Impressions

Currently, I am half way through the novel, The Magicians, by Lev Grossman.  This book portrays a 17 year old boy, named Quentin, throughout his life at a college for magicians.  Instead of attending Princeton, Quentin attends a college for magicians called Brakebills for five years instead of four.  There, they learn basic magic.  Normally, they are placed into their "disciplines", something like a major, and they get placed into their specific housing area.  For some strange reason, Quentin didn't place in any of the Disciplines.  Then in their fourth year, they go on a trip to prove who is fit to become a first class magician.  They set off on a trip to Antarctica, and there, they make a five hundred mile run to the South Pole, without any clothes on or food.  Only Alice, Quentin's girl friend and he made it.  They were the only ones that tried.  During their fifth year, they graduate.  This school hidden from the outside world and the people stay concealed from the outside world.  This school reminds me of Hogwarts, and the book reminds me of Harry potter. 

It reminds me of Harry Potter because it is about magicians going to a concealed, mystical school.  There are some major differences though.  They use hand gestures to cast spells, instead of wands.  I really liked how Grossman referenced the Harry Potter series in his book because throughout reading it, I always thought to myself, “this reminds me of Harry Potter”.  He reference how the magic in each story is difference:

“He’d look at the kids with an obvious flawed feature… and wondered why they didn’t get somebody to fix them up, like Hermione with her teeth in Harry Potter.  But in reality it always ended in a disaster.”(page 188)

This was interesting to hear a reference to my favorite series in what seems like my new favorite book.  This book also reminds me of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, in the fact that there is a whole new world living right in front of our eyes, but we don’t notice it.  I like these types because I feel like it can actually happen to me.  It can turn my boring life into a life of adventure and excitement.  I know; I’m a nerd.  

Trees

The novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, a compilations of vignettes, is narrated by a young Esperanza who has to overcome adversity and finds comfort and support from trees. She does this through many symbols, and one of them is trees. Trees are constantly seen throughout the book as being forced to stay in one spot.  Trees symbolize the loneliness of Esperanza and outcast.  For example in “Skinny Trees” Esperanza compares herself to the trees. “They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong but are here... But Nenny just sleeps and doesn’t appreciate these things” (page 74).  This shows that she is very different, and looks at herself in a low esteem.  She dislikes the way she looks, even if it doesn’t affect the way others look at her.  She also shows her difference by mentioning that Nenny doesn’t look at these things, the things that she looks at.  Also, she says that the trees are the only ones who understand her, and she understands them. This mean they are alike and Cisneros plays with the fact that they are both outcasts.

Also, she proves her point with this quote on page 24:“The kids bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases u can’t replace. They think it’s funny. They are without respect for all things living, including themselves” she shows that she is a child, but she is different of how she sees them as disrespectful and observes the other children from afar. This shows her isolation from the others.

Also Cisneros writes, “And then I don’t know why but I had to run away. I had to hide myself at the other end of the garden, in the jungle part, under a tree that wouldn’t mind if I lay down and cried a long time” (Page 97).  She shows thsi relationship between Esperanza and trees again.  It portrays how they are tightly wound together and understand each other’s feelings.  Also, it shows up when she is feeling left out.  She is left out from the others, and finds comfort and support from her loving, much alike trees.

Journal on Celie

In the Book, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, young Celie has an interesting relationship with god.  I believe that she doesn't necessarily believe in god, but she resides in a society that does.  She is constantly told that god is the one who she should turn to when she needs help, etc.  She speaks to god as if he were her journal, in which she can just pour out her feelings in. She lives in a lonely world where she has no one to talk to, and so she turn to the person who would always listen, god.  She usually doesn't ask for any guidance or help, but when she does, it is usually for another person.  All in all, she talks to god as a friend who she can trust not to tell anyone, and listen to her dearly, not as a prayer.

Thesis and Three Bodies

Q always often misunderstands (and is misunderstood by) others.

He often jumps to conclusions and makes false inferences that cause many of his discomforts.  After Q introduces Lll to his great grandfather Nb’a Ng’a, he thinks she doesn't like him, and when she asks about him, Q thinks:

“I suspected she was remaining silent in order to embarrass me later in some spectacular way, in front of her family, or else-and, for me, this was an even worse hypothesis- she was making an effort to talk about other things only because hes felt sorry for me... ‘Are you joking?’”(77)

Q is very self conscious and thinks that Lll may try to embarrass him.  This shows a lot about him because he does nothing to stop it, and  he thinks that maybe he deserved the embarrassment. Also, although Q assumes Lll might be “sorry for” him, it seems more likely that he is sorry for himself. Q could not believe his ears when she told him that she wanted to visit his great uncle again, and actually thought that it was some kind of a sick joke.

Also, Q believe that the New Ones would be terrified of him because he is a dinosaur.  As he takes time to drink for the springs, he believe that the reaction of the New one next to here would be terror:

“I could already imagine her desperate screams the moment she saw me, her breathless flight.  she would spread the alarm, and the New Ones and the new ones would come out and hunt me... I should tear her limb from limb at once”(98)

He seems to be over confident, in that he feels as if he is a great beast that everyone should fear.  But on the other hand, he fears that the New Ones will come and shows a little vulnerability, and feels like he should prevent this through violence.  His inference almost got him into a lot of trouble.  If he had killed her, then her tribe would Have gone after him and killed him.  Q was lucky that she talked to him before he got too hasty.

In addition to misunderstanding others, Q is often misunderstood by them.

“If he wanted to fight, I was ready. But the mood of the village had changed in recent time: they made a joke of everything... ‘Yes, I am one... a  Dinosaur!’... general snickering broke out.”(108)

throughout the The Aquatic Uncle and the Dinosaurs, Q is always an outsider.  Once he begins to adapt to his surroundings, the others change.  For example, before, Q does not want to fight, when Zahn did, now when Q wants to fight, Zahn does not.  Also, he tries to hide that he is a dinosaur throughout the story while the New Ones are suspicious, but when they become comfortable around him, he reveals his secret, but no one believes him.

Touched

I have recently read a book called Silent Boy, by Lois Lowry and highly recommend it to anyone.  It introduces the troubles people with down syndromes face everyday.  Maybe we can even read it as a class this year...  well heres a summary of it(caution- spoilers):

 

The Silent Boy, by Lois Lowry, portrays young Katy Thatcher whose life ambition is to become a doctor, following in the footsteps of her father.  She frequently joins him on doctor calls, riding next to him on the buggy.  One day, while picking up Peggy, the new helper of the Thatcher family, Katy met Peggy’s brother, Jacob, and noticed his silence.  Later, she asks Peggy what is wrong with her brother. Peggy says that he is “touched in the head”.  Later, Katy meets Jacob in her stables, petting her horses.  She learns that he makes noises instead of using words and about his love for animals.

Later, she asked Peggy about his life on the farm. She informs her that Jacob tends to the animals on the farm.  When she visited the farm, Jacob surprised Katy with a kitten (which she had always wanted). That day, she noticed that he kept his wool hat on even when it was extremely hot out. She asks her dad and he explains that he thinks that he wears his hat to protect himself. “Jacob has his own world inside his head, Katy. I think his cap keeps that world feeling safe.”(Page 134)

Nell, Jacobs’s sister, had an unwanted baby. She was not going to take care of her, so Jacob applied farm animal strategies to this problem. He attempted bring the unwanted child to a wanting family, but, unfortunately, the baby was too young and did not survive the travel. It died and Jacob went into hiding, afraid that he would be punished for his act. When he was caught, and was sent to asylum and Katy never saw him again.

This story had a very deep impact on me.  It brought out emotions I never thought I could experience from reading a book.  It is an easy reading book with many different deep meanings that could be viewed from different ways.  I really hope that we can fit in time for reading this book this year, it will be worth it.