Name of Book: Whale Talk Author of Book: Chris Crutcher Name: Date: March 10, 2014 Summary of Book: At Cutter High School there is no swimming pool. This affects the swim team because they have no pool to swim in but there is only one student that can swim on their team. A bunch of students are looked upon as the outcasts that T.J. brings together he calls them "one swimmer of color, a representative from each extreme of the educational spectrum, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a one-legged psychopath." His goal is that all the members in the group will earn a Cutter High School varsity letter. T.J. faces angry opposition from the athletic advisors, and he and his coach spend lots of time throughout the season going through the politics of high school athletics.
The inspiration for most of his stories come from true inspired events that happened with real kids, in real life. One of Crutcher most popular books, Whale talk, was published in 2001. Its main conflict involves a black “athlete” (T.J. jones)who is good at virtually every sport, but never turns out for the team because his morals and values involving team work are not represented, and even trashed by some members of the team, especially the cocky varsity quarter back (who just happens to play every sport the school offers). It has gotten to the point where other students and even coaches persecute him for “being blessed with talent, and throwing it in the trash, selfishly only thinking of himself.” And when the only teacher who sides with him is told he must become a active coach (this is a sports school who last year barley missed it by a few points for over all state champion) in order to help the school earn more points for the state competition, he decides to put the joke on the administration and other coaches. He convinces the administration to let him start a swim team, so instead of adding a few points on another sport, he adds and entire sport to get points for.
In the story “Children of the sea” two lovers were separated because of a revolution against Baby Doc. An example for foreshadowing would be in the story “Children of the sea” on page 10 the boy said “I cannot help but wonder how long this tar will hold out.” That represents that he knows he might die and not escape his fate to die on that boat the author uses foreshadowing to get readers hooked even more than they are. So by using this wonderful literary element foreshadowing was a great incorporation for “The high cost of freedom.”
By mid afternoon Huggy Face and his sailors figured out that the calmness of the beaches, sun kissed sand, and blissful wind compound was perfect for fishing, swimming and surfing. In order to know for sure that it was what he was looking for Captain Huggy Face decided to stay around and explore the outskirts of the island. Two days passed and they discovered that the island had a gold treasure! Now with this finding he came back every day to see if it’d be replenished again and so one day it was filled up again. After several weeks Huggy Face saw the adversity of creatures that lived there, which was a total bonus on his behalf; he knew it’d become more than a want but a wish to be there for every traveler in the world.
White contrasts the sounds on the lake from his childhood with the present ones when mentioning a boating trip with his son: “In the old days the boats were powered by inboards “and when they were at a little distance, the noise they made was a sedative, an ingredient of summer sleep. . . But now the campers all had outboards and these made a petulant, irritable sound” (White), which displays his inability to accept the technological changes that come around with time, in places that felt very remote in his youth. As White walks down the wharf with his son, he mentions “I had trouble making out which was I, the one walking at my side, the one walking in my pants” (White), showing that although he wishes to relive the entire trip through his son, he is gaining a sense of awareness that he is an individual in a different position than in his past and his environment has also undergone change due to
The smell of the water and the warmth that touched my skin, when the sun peeked through the clouds, took me back in time to the campground. I could see it so clearly in my mind, I felt like I was there. I sat still, just enjoying the moment. Visiting Halifax was a whole new experience. One second I felt like I went back in time to the 50’s, and the next second I felt like I was back 10 years, camping with my family.
Grandpa Bobby tells his story: some people offered him a job smuggling emeralds from South America, but later double-crossed him, tried to kill him, and stole his beloved fishing boat. Ever since then, he's been trying to track them down and get back his boat. It hurt to think that everyone thought he was dead, but it was necessary. First, he didn't want the guys he was looking for to know he was still alive; second, he also knew that if his son found out, he would, true to form, drop everything and rush down to South America without another thought. Grandpa Bobby was in a bar in a small fishing village in Colombia when he saw Paine's interview on the satellite TV.
This can be attributed to her father’s deep secrecy. It can be shocking when Alison first reveals her dad’s homosexuality when she says “…would an ideal father and husband have sex with teenage boys,” and how she talks about masturbation and sex and shows illustrations of her and her partner, but this is all because Alison wants things to be presented as honestly as possible since so much of her early life was shrouded in secrecy. She does not seem to like her father, but he has undoubtedly helped form who she is. Alison’s depiction of her father shows that she did not want to be like him. She forms analogies to their differences when she says, “I was Spartan to my father’s Athenian.
Pai’s grandfather was not happy that her twin brother died at birth because he was supposed to be the next leader due to being the first-born son so he could follow the quest of the ancestors. Paikea feels as if she needs to fulfill the quest of her ancestor who was also named Paikea even though she is a girl and wants to prove everyone that she can do it and ride a whale. A mother and a twin
In Homer’s appealing epic The Odyssey, voyager Odysseus journeys on a struggling battle to return home on Poseidon’s struggling seas. As Poseidon makes it more difficult for Odysseus to sail back to his homeland, the adventuring salesman Edward Bloom from Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish is remembered for the journeys he takes that keep him at an emotionally distant relationship from his family. To make up for lost times, during every moment he can, Edward presents wild, imaginative stories to his son. Although these two stories seem exceptionally different, the explorations these men experience shape who they are. Odysseus’ pride and curiosity molds his character.