Dialectic Journals: Book Two

Chapter 8, Page 76

"The boy finished. The last of his words, shouted at the top of his voice, echoed for a long moment around the valley walls. Twenty-five hundred men stood listening and watching."

What really stuck me about his quote is that it really shows a great magnitude of people just standing and watching this one little boy. I think that the author was trying to get across the point that this boy must have just been so captivating. The author portrayed this point by showing that all of those men were silenced just by one boy singing. That the boy was singing so loud from his heart that they all payed attention. 

In our WEX writings we learned about showing and not telling and setting. I think that this quote really paints a picture of what was happening there. The author used two of the five senses (audio and visual) and he also used descriptive adjectives. This quote made me draw a connection to what we are learning in class and what we use in out own writing pieces. I think that this a great example of showing not telling because the author could have just said 'the boy yelled' but instead he used power descriptions of the reaction by all the men. Also, the setting is used brilliantly by him saying that the sound 'echoed for a long moment around the valley walls' because that really helps paint an even more clear picture in your head of what is going on.

Chapter 9, page 77

"His name was Hermion; the called him the 'Mountain'. At fourteen, he was as strong as any in his age-class of the class above, but dehydration in combination with exhaustion overcame him." 

This quote was very powerful because it really shows how such a built up and powerful person was completely destroyed by simple things such as exhaustion and dehydration. This quote really struck me because I thought that it really set the tone of the story. It really shows how the story is grim, and that even if you are considered on of the strongest, that simple elements be the thing that causes the end of you. It shows that no matter how good you think you are, anything can cause you to be conquered. I think that in a way it's a metaphor for the story: how in the story a very small amount of men fought of a 'mountain' of men. I think that this might be something the author put in to really make you think about the story a little harder and what it really means.

Chapter 10, Page 97

"An hour later we collapsed like Odysseus on a rock beach beneath a bawling rookery."

Honestly, the reason why I chose this quote is because I noticed for the first time in the book a simile that was lighthearted. To be totally honest, I didn't even (and still don't) exactly know what this simile meant. Regardless, even thought I don't exactly know what it means, I still understand the intent of the author: both characters collapsed out of exhaustion. 

I think it was nice to finally see a nice and cheerful simile. It shows diversity in the story, making it more interesting and more enjoyable to read. The wording in this quote just really wants to make you laugh. It's not every day that you hear somebody say that there was a 'bawling rookery'! I definitely think that it was smart of the author to include this just to brighten the story and make you smile. (or in my case, laugh!)