Thursday, June 17, 2010

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Pages 80-120)



Summary
The twins are released from jail and were able to continue their lives. As Angela moved to another town she sold encyclopedias and medical books to make a living, over the years she aged due to her experiences. I was shocked to hear this as she was described to be a good looking young lady. Missing Bayardo she wrote him many letters which he never responded to. She comforted herself by knowing he was receiving all of them. 17 years later he went to her door with clothes and the unopened letters. Santiago's death was never spoken about directly after but it is believed that Santiago didn't take away her virginity because they were never seen together. It is also said that he didn't understand why it was he was being murdered when the twins stabbed him.

Quote
"The more letters she sent the more the coals of her fever burned. (Maquez 93)"

Reaction
In this quote you can see all of the pain she feels due to the shameful happenings after her marriage, as well as the pain of being rejected by her husband. She wrote letters to him which he wouldn't reply to. Rejection made her feel as if it was bad luck that he had chosen to marry her; bringing her self-esteem down.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Chronicle of A Death Foretold (Pages 40-80)

Summary
The Vicario twins planned Santiago's death after the night where Bayardo knocked on the door in the middle of the night. He kissed mother Pura Vicario and after he left she pulled Angela by her hair and beat her with her other hand. She was lying on the couch bruised up when the twins found her. They asked who did it and she said it was Santiago. They went off after having some liquor looking for Santiago stating that they were going to kill him, no one believed it at first because they were known as good people. Their first set of knives were taken away but then they got other ones in which they returned to the butcher shop to sharpen them. As Santiago went off to do serenades, they waited at the milk shop for his return. The father was distracted with the bishops upcoming arrival that he forgot about the uprising crime. Santiago Nasar had been killed during the night and the twin brothers were put in prison for a charge of murder. The whole family then moved out of town to the town in which they had been imprisoned. While in jail they could not sleep as they always smelled like Santiago and they would begin to have nightmares when they fell asleep which made it feel as though they were always awake.

Quote
"..he said to her, trembling with rage,"tell us who it was." She only took the time necessary to say the name.. "Santiago Nasar." (Maquez 47)"

Reaction
As I first read the ending of this chapter I thought her mother was ordered to give her a beating, but then it became clear she had been informed by Bayardo that she wasn't a virgin before marriage. This was a shame to the family which is why her brothers felt it was necessary to kill the man who had done this.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Chronicle of A Death Foretold (Pages 1-40)

Summary
After the wedding everyone felt that something bad would happen to Santiago Nazar. When he left he had exited through the grand door dressed in white linen. There was a note that was slid under the door that was discovered after the crime was committed stating the plan and motif. Bayardo San Roman's wife Angela Vicario had been sent home back to her parents as he discovered she was not a virgin. Due to this her twin brothers wanted to kill Santiago as he some how ended up in the middle of this mix-up. The people in town all met Bayardo and had the first impression that he was evil but his charm gained their friendship. He married Angela believing thinking that she was still a virgin as she hadn't been engaged previously which is why she refused to be married by church.

Quote
"In reality, my sister Mayot was one of the only people who still didn't know that they were going to kill him. (Maquez 20)"

Reaction
Many people in the town were aware of Santiago's preceding death that was to come. It's strange how well planned out the crime was as everyone knew but never let him know.

Friday, April 23, 2010

The Devil in the White City (Pages 316- 390)

H. H. Holmes
Summary
Prendergast was to be Kraus successor to be city counsel but when he went to City Hall he began to question whether it would really happen. On October 9, 1893 which was recognized as Chicago Day the record of people attending this fair exceeded the one of Paris by morning or any peaceable event in history. In result the officials of the World's Columbian Exposition Company were able to present a $1.5 million check to the Illinois Trust and Savings company to get rid of the expositions debt. Now that the fair was coming to an end people were escaping having to say good bye, many workers also became unemployed which would lead to an increase in violence for the city of Chicago. Holmes also fled as pressure increased, he set the top of his castle on fire and that was when he began to be investigated. When he arrived at what he believed would be a one-on-one meeting he came into an office with all of the creditors and their attorneys. There he appealed to their emotions stating that the Panic of 1893 but fled as the meeting became more heated. He fled with his assistant Benjamin Pitezel who he insured his like for $!0,000 previously and his new fiancee Miss Georgiana Yoke. Back in Chicago the number of people attending the fair continued to rise as time was running out for the fair's closing. Since the mayor had not given Prendergast the job he promised and had made a fool out of him, he shot the mayor in his office. In result the closing ceremony that was planned had been cancelled and instead would be a march in honor of the mayor. At the end of the fair all of the buildings were set on fire and a long list of missing people was released leading the officers to point fingers : it was Holmes. He was caught and imprisoned as he faked the death of his assistant, whose children went missing after entering his company. He had convinced their mother to take them on a journey to see their father where he was hidden and desperate to see them. On this journey the children wrote multiple letters to their mother which were never received as Holmes used different names to avoid leaving a trail. Detectives were led to Toronto, Canada where they found two of the children buried in the backyard of what was one of his residences. Holmes was taken to Pennsylvania for trial of Pitezel's murder; he was found guilty and sentenced to execution by hanging. Before he would be hanged he would have a long confession where he admitted to killing 27 people, but was estimated that he could have killed up to 200 people. Also, in this confession he told the story of how he killed the kids ( he connected gas into a hole of the box in which they had been placed and buried in).

Quote
"Just before leaving Chicago Holmes acquired a life insurance policy, from the Fidelity Mutual Life Association of Philadelphia, to insure Pietzel's life for $10,000 .(Larson 326)"

Reaction
This quote led me to believe that Holmes had another escape plan prepared for the next time he feels he needs to flee to another city. The plan would be that he would protect his life using his assistant. He would gain not only saving his own life but also wealth which has always been his priority.

THE END


Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Devil in the White City (Pages 234- 316)



Summary

Opening day arrived and thousands of people made their way to Jackson Park. Burnham turned on the electricity in the park after the opening statements had been made to begin the fair. It was a success as more than a quarter million people attended. After the first day, only a few people went as stocks went down, which started an economic scare in Chicago and the rest of the country. Many wanted to go see the exhibitions and attractions but were discouraged by this. Expectations for the fair and other businesses didn't reach the expectations to make a good profit. Holmes hotel one and he only allowed women to stay there. The benefit of visiting the fair was to learn new things from around the world. During this time Holmes not only continued making profit but continued his suspicious activity as one of his waitresses disappeared. In the next month attendance numbers began to rise again. On July 4th, the grand exhibition made the numbers rise far more than they expected, but the economic depression kept putting stress on whether or not it would be a complete success. The upcoming storm caused many scares due to changing conditions. There was a scare on the ferris wheel and a fire in the cold storage tower, which led to Burnhams arrest. The Retrenchment Directors became in charge of the fair to fix the economic worries.

Quote
" Burnham's work did ot cease, the pace at his office did not slow ... the fair became the subject to the inevitable forces of degradation and decline- and tragedy.(Larson 299)"

Reaction
This quote introduced the accidents that began to occur at the fair. The men working there did not take regulations necessary in order to prevent such events from occurring. One of the scares that happened was with the Ferris Wheel when they tried it for the first time. Also, when I read this quote I thought the scares would lead to the downfall of the world fair.

Monday, April 5, 2010

The Devil in the White City (Pages 150- 234)

Summary
The construction for the World's Fair continued but they realized that if they were going to build a building that was designed to be 500 feet taller than the Eiffel tower then they wouldn't make the deadline and they would go over their budget. Also many workers were cut off besides the additional cuts they had to make in costs. As usual Holmes was also in this pursuit for money so he went to Dwight, IL to find the cure of alcoholism in order to cure Pitezel and to recreate it to then resell it. Pitezel met Emeline and Holmes wrote to her to offer her a job. She was obsessed with him and was going to move into his apartment building. Olmsted was putting 300% of what he had in him in order to work on the construction but it was still behind schedule. Burnham also was pushing the pace to speed up construction in order to make the dedication day deadline by making the workers double their shift at night. Since the pace was so fast and they kept having set backs they are leaving small flaws behind. Pittsburg the young engineer proposed the idea to build an Eiffel like structure and that he had raised enough money to fund it and got it approved. On the other hand Holmes was still getting himself into suspicious activities as he proposed to marry but her family continued to question it. She left her family in Indiana to come live with Holmes which from then on she had disappeared. Continuing his progress on his financial scale Holmes now owned a portion of a company that produced machines for duplicating documents, he had also established a alcohol-treatment company. He had progressed and had carefully disposed Emeline's body. With all of the business he needed help to administer such as a secretary. He hired Minnie R. Williams in March, just like all other women who worked for him she too fell in love with him. He promised her many things in exchange for her land that would gain him the biggest profit. The World's Fair date came closer and everyone in Chicago was preparing for it. In the city something else also increased, the deaths. There had been multiple deaths of workers from different reasons while working on the World's Fair. After carpenters began going on strike, Burnham in fear of them destroying the fair compromised with them. After they got back to work it began raining everyday.

Quote
" As the buildings rose, the architects spotted flaws in their design but found the forward crush of work so overwhelming, it threatened to leave the flaws locked on stone.(Larson 176)"

Reaction
From this quote I am inferring that the structure itself is going to cause huge problems at the World's Fair. When I read this quote I only thought about further flaws being left behind and just building up. If they do not solve them it is going to create dangerous circumstances for all of the visitors.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Devil in the White City (Pages 75 - 150)

Summary
Now the plan was on its way as they made a rough draft of the plan and looked for architects to work on the world's fair with them. Hunt, McKim, Post, and Peabody were the architects who agreed and were all out of state. Holmes decided to turn his building to a hotel that would be cheap enough for visitors. The architects arrived in Chicago on January 9 and were amazed of how poor the conditions were for Olmsted Park. Ned and his sister moved to Chicago for a better life, they were employed by Holmes hoping to soon be able to buy their own house. During this time the city department realized that multiple disappearances were occurring. The plans for building the fair continues and one day they went to Root's house to find him gasping for him where he eventually passed away. The vision came together with the architects but they were primarily interested in the size rather than the challenge they would face by the terrain. Ned's sister left to Iowa after coming in crying without an explanation. Holmes sold Ned the pharmacy and Ned didn't question it because he wanted to become wealthy, Holmes said he would take care of the paper work and paying for any expenses, but he realized otherwise when people came to ask for their money. Ned & Julia's marriage had come to an end, soon followed by her pregnancy by Holmes. He agreed to marrying her as long as she an abortion on Christmas Eve. After performing the abortion no one had seen or heard from Julia. When asked Holmes said she went to visit her family but they denied it.

Quote
" For the police there were warnings of a different sort- ... vanishment seemed a Chicago pasttime.(Larson 102)"

Reaction
This was said after Ned mentioned the mystery in Holmes' building having a sound proof vault. The order in which it was said led me to believe that Holmes probably has something to do with the increase of the crime rates. His sneaky and control-freak behavior adds to my suspicion. I am eager to find out, Does he really have something to do with it?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Devil in the White City (Pages 1 - 74)

Summary
The story takes place in Chicago in the late 1890's where a World's Fair known as the White City was built in celebration of Columbus' 400th anniversary of discovering America. The main character is Daniel Burnham who was the head architect. After it was built many murders and crimes happened near the fair or inside its big space. Also during this time, many people travelled to and from the city but some disappeared. In the year of 1892 the top architect of Chicago propesed the idea of hosting the World's Fair in their city. They had won over the voted on February 14, 1890. After the city received the news that they would be hosting the world's fair, they chose Root and Burnham to do the honors. Burnham had to choose the location as all regions wanted it to take place where they wanted it. H. H. Holmes bought a pharmacy chasing after success and then married to make a family. He also bought a building for which he had men working who he could trust and do as he says even if it meant killing someone.

Quote
"Ultimately theses setbacks proved to be minor ones for Burnham and Root. Far worse was to occur, and soon, but as of February 14, 1890, the day of the great fair vote, the partners seemed destined for a lifetime of success. (Larson 30)"

Reaction
In this quote it is quite evident that the fair would be the beginning to both the success of the architect's careers and the beginning of something bad that was to happen in this city known for the bad things that occurred there.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Slumdog Millionaire (Film)

-Sections/characters minimized in the film
In the film there were many sections that were minimized such as the lawyer. In the book the main character had to explain his journey that corresponded to each answer to a lawyer but in the film he explained it to the police. Also, after answering each question on the play back of the show, it did not flashback to see his reaction about his experience to the police as it had in the book to the lawyer. Another part that was minimized was his journey, we were not able to see in depth how he got from one place to the other or his motifs as we had in the film.
-Sections/characters emphasized in the film
The film emphasizes the violence and torture being brought upon him by the police. His relationship with Latika as the three muskateers is also emphasized in the film as they always talk about it, he is always thinking about her and when they are together they enjoy each other's company.
-Narration- how does the camera show omniscient or limited 3rd person (or POV 1st)
The film shows first point of view because his life is retold from his experience according to each question that was asked. Then it goes back to the present in which he was being interrogated to show his reaction.
-Reoccurring images (motifs)
The image of an indian girl at a train station and Latika running after the rain are reoccurring in the film. This emphasized the relationship that the film portrays.
-Use of music/sound effects
The music and sound effects adds a lot to the film. The sounds of the time going (tic toc) emphasizes the importance of time in the film. Also, the suspenseful music played throughout the film increases the tension to finding out the result of the film and for the answer of each question.
-Description of one shot using strong film terms
Jamal and Salim are in a box during a rainy night after witnessing their mother being killed during an attack on the village. A full shot is shown on a girl standing outside of it in the rain, Latika another orphan girl. Jamal then calls her over and she is introduced through an over the shoulder shot. The camera then pan's back and forth from Jamal to Latika in a close up shot.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Slumdog Millionaire (Pages 238- 318)

Summary
Ram has now left from the flat and being a live-in servant because Neelima Kumari has died from an overdose. Fearing that he would be accused of having part in her death he fled. Along his journey he was in Agra and had learn many things about Taj Mahal during his visit. In order to answer the 12th question he used his life boat to call a friend in which he called Mr. Utpal Chatterjee who he had given money to in order to help his son from dying. During the commercial break he realized that the guy asking all of the questions was the guy who had abused Neelima. He had learned that he was working at the quiz show from a newspaper ad he had seen in Agra which is his reason for coming on the quiz show to take revenge. For the last question he uses his life-boat for 50/50 and then uses a coin to choose. Luckily, he guessed correctly winning him the million rupees. The lawyer who had gone to the police station to help him was a woman who he had helped at the shawl. She was returning the favor he had done for her father at the shawl and she was going to fight just as hard to save him.

Quote
"Like a lamb, they are fattening me with adulation before slaughtering me on the next question. (Swarup 302)"

Reaction
I knew that the last question was going to be a tough one when I read these lines. He already knew that they did not want him to win the money and thought that he cheated his way through. They had a misjudgement about him and knew that they were pretending to help him out to then attempt to screw him over; he knew that if he was going to win this, he had to do it on his own.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Slumdog Millionaire (Pages 166-237)

Summary
India had entered in to a state of war and the village stayed together at a shawl. There Ram met a veteran from the war of 1971 in which he told them his experience at war to everyone so that they would understand the seriousness of war. He had come close to winning the MVC/PVC award which helped Ram answer the eighth question. Every night they were sent home and one day he ran into Salim which he hadnt seen in 5 years. In this encounter Salim told him the story of a man who was paying for his acting school. He won money by illegal betting on cricket matches and he knew the averages of every player. He had shared his knowledge with Ram which answered the next question for Ram on the quiz show. Then Ram went with Salim to an actresses house as they were looking for a fulltime servant; only Ram got the job. As time went on Neelima Kumari asked him to be a live in servant and he learned a lot about her life and accomplishments first hand from the Tradgedy Queen; which answered the following question.

Quote
"Meeting a long-lost friend is similar, I suppose, to eating a favorite dish after a long time. You don't know how your taste buds will react after all this while, whether the dish will still taste as good as it used to. (Swarup 193)"

Reaction
Ram felt this when he had a surprise encounter with Salim, he did not know what to expect after a long time of not seeing him. Luckily for him he had a sad reaction as he missed his good friend but he attempted in keeping his wall up. He did not want Salim involved in his aspirations about his wanting to be on the show.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Slumdog Millionaire (Pages 81-165)

Summary
As he grew up he had seen and learned many new things when he was taken away to a home where they prepared orphans for success. This experience helped him answer the fourth question. In the end they decide that they would runaway from Maman's den. Salim and Ram runoff to the Taylor's in order to work as servants where no one would be able to learn about their whereabouts. He had been there a long time and the family had a lot of trust in him. Mr.Taylor had a den in which no one was allowed to enter, spy tapes/papers and had secret meetings with Jeevan Kumar and was declared persona non Grata and was to leave immediately. He then worked at a bar and restaurant as a bartender , one night he met a man who told him a story about his life which helped him answer the sixth question. He then takes the money he had earned to go to Mumbai to visit Salim. On the train ride there is a family there and he believes he could be possibly falling in love with the daughter. A decoit had robbed all of them after disturbing their sleep on the train. Before leaving he attempted in making the girl show her breasts so Ram acted on it and killed the man. With the pistol in his hand he got the answer for the next question of who had invented a revolver.


Quote
"Train journeys are about possibilities. They denote a change in state. When you arrive, you are no longer the same person who departed. (Swarup 153)"

Reaction
When I read this quote it summed up my impressions of train rides because he gets to see different things in cities he does not usually visit on a daily basis. Also, the things he is exposed to helps him develop his way of thinking and helps him recognize/aspire to better things. I did not think it was making reference to what he was to do, to kill a man in self defense during a train robbery.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Slumdog Millionaire (Pages 1 - 80)

Summary
The main character Ram Mohammad Thomas was arrested because there was suspicion that he cheated on the quiz show Who Wants to be a Billionaire. He was a poor orphan at the age of sixteen who explains his victory as luck. They could not believe he won because he was poor, a church orphan and did not read the newspaper. While being interrogated and beaten by an official a lawyer defended him as they had no evidence and no right to abuse him. To explain how he was lucky in getting those questions on the show to his lawyer, he had to explain his life stories corresponding to each of the questions he was asked. For the 1st question he knew the answer because his friend Armaan Ali and had taken him along to watch his most famous film Betrayal. For the 2nd question the host asked him if he knew what FBI stood for but he didn't, he then asked him which one did he know in which he said INRI which was the sequence of letters normally inscribed on a cross. Next door moved a family of a couple and a daughter. The father was a scientist who studied stars but was fired. One night with the help of a telescope he taught his daughter about the solar system and Ram listened in which helped him answer the 3rd question What is the smallest planet in our solar system?, he remembered because they named their cat after the smallest planet; Pluto. The father had abused the both of them and Ram could not stand by and watch any longer so he was not very proud of, leading to his runaway to Delhi where he stayed at a Juvenile Home for boys.


Quote
"I told you not to poke your nose into other people's affairs, or make other people's troubles your own. Remember this as a lesson for the future. (Swarup 55)"

Reaction
Ram had told this to Salim, his best friend when he was going to attempt in helping Armaan Ali get back together with his ex Urvashi. Soon after Salim saw a picture of Armaan in a magazine with lots of women around him, he was very disappointed because he had hope. Ram advised him no to do this again because his attempts will not help the situation. Salim soon had to remind Ram of his own advice when he wanted to attempt in helping the family that had just moved in next door.