Ending

In my book the Wars it ends with the main character, in a barn with horses. When other soldiers surround the barn and set fire to the barn. This fire kills all the horses plus severely burns Robert and 6 years later he dies never recovering from his burns. This was really devastating for Robert that all the horses were killed, he loved all animals and he was depressed for the rest of his life at the sights of animals and hearing birds.

Blame

When Roberts sister falls out of her wheel chair onto the hard ground and dies. He blames himself because she was his whole life. His mother Mrs. Ross has issues with closeness to people that she truly loves. Later on it is revealed in the novel that her brother died in a completely random trolley accident and ever since then she realized how hopeless it was to keep people alive. This way of being "distant" from the ones she loves is displayed early on in the novel when she joins Robert in the bathroom during his bath. She tells him that "people in the world are all born alone and at the hands of strangers" and tells him that she could do nothing to keep him alive from the moment he was cut away from her. This statement makes it seem as though she doesn't care about Robert going off to the army because she can't keep him alive anyways. Later on when Robert is labelled as "missing in action" by the army, Mrs. Ross goes blind almost as though without her son in the world there is nothing left to see.

The Wars and Animals

While reading i came across a man named Rodwell. Something odd about him is that when the soldiers and him were on patrol one day, Rodwell came across a bunch of animals under a hedge. He found a toad, hedgehog, a bird and rabbits. All the animals were injured and he takes care of them in the barracks under his bed. All the other soldiers think it is weird at first but then get used to him and enjoy the company.

A game of Wits

As you find out while reading the book, Nelson Mandela is a very nice and outgoing man. While in prison he be-friends a lot of the guards, one guard is into the game of rugby, so Nelson starts reading about teams, scores and watching it on TV. Then when Mandela gets the chance he starts chatting and became Major van Sittert's friend and with that he could ask for things that weren't around when he went into prison, such as a TV, a microwave and extra food for dinner.
Many people said that Nelson had a commanding kind of presence and personality; He knew how to handle power without humiliating his enemies.

Upington 26

In Chapter 3, you learn about a group of people called the Upington 26. The Upington 26 were 26 people that were charged with the murder of one police man. The law of common purpose as it was called, allowed for the prosecution not only of the person or persons directly responsible for a crime, but also of all those who might have shared in the desire to commit it. In this case the police could have rounded up 3, 4, or 15, people but they opted for 26. In the case of the Upington 26 they would face the same sentence Mandela had prepared for when he stood 21 years earlier: death my hanging.
I just found this very interesting while in a civilized society that 26 people can be charged for the murder of one man because they thought about doing it or even just because the police felt like charging them that day.
So wrong!

Invictus

I am almost finished reading Invictus by John Carlin. This book is what the movie by the same name was made after is starred Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar. The book is about how one man, and a game that made a nation. The man was President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and the game was rugby.

Frye's Imagination

While reading chapter 2 the singing song, i was very intriguid by the writing style of Northrop Frye and the way that he thinks about things. One thing that I thought was intereasting was Myths tend to stick together to form a mythology. That is so because myths are conventional, because one myth inspires another. Similarly, in our culture, one novel inspires another. Frye does not accept the romantic theory that literature is uniquely inspired. "A writer's desire to write can only have come from previous experience of literature," says Frye, "and he'll start by imitating whatever he's read" (p. 40). This leads to conventions in form as well as content: "Literature can derive its forms only from itself" (p. 42), he says and again, "The writer of literature can only write out what takes shape in his mind" (p. 46), Literary conventions enable the writer to incorporate personal experience into literature.

assignment #1

When i first read the line “One person by himself s not a complete human being…” (p.6)

Frye means in my opinion that behind every successful person there is something there either it is a mentor a book or just an event that as impacted that persons life. I do agree i think that people are only themselves because of events that have taken place in their lives and that is what shaped them into who they are today