The Ordinary World.

In the book Insomnia, Ralph's ordinary world is living at his home in Derry with his wife Carolyn. He lives an ordinary life in Derry with his wife and they don't do much interesting. Ralph goes to the extension at the end of his street that leads to the airport and watches planes land and take off a lot of the time. He is comfortable with this life and Derry is filled with people his age, at an age of 70+, so he feels comfortable around them and they all understand each other. 

"Ralph Roberts used to be an ordinary guy - until insomnia robbed him of sleep." 

(Stephen King, Insomnia 0)

This quote is directly from the back of the book and shows when his ordinary world changed for him. To find his ordinary world and all of the details about it, I just took information out of the story from any time before he had insomnia, which was any time before his wife had passed away. 

"Simple.jpg - Google Images"
This picture displays Ralph's ordinary world very well. Not much is going on in his life and for decades he lives the same life. He is happy this way, though and not bored, although his life is very simple and not filled with excitement. When Ralph's wife dies, Ralph develops insomnia as well as he starts seeing strange auras that reflect peoples emotions and moods. This is when his ordinary world changes because many strange events occur. At one point in the story, Ralph sees a little girl skipping but then notices she has no face. The little girl then does a hand signal that meant "Mark For Death". This is one of many things that happen after Ralph's ordinary world changes.

Character Archetypes

In the book "Insomnia - Stephen King" A character named Ed is the best person to describe as the Shadow in this story. (From my perspective 1/2 way through the book) Ed thinks that abortions are murder and so he creates a group of people who have the same perspective as him. He gets those people to try to kill people who think abortion is a good thing and he does things like smash the windows on the abortion clinic to try to stop people from getting abortions. He is a hero in his own mind because he thinks that abortion is like murdering babies. He is trying to stop the abortion clinic and make it illegal. He is a hero to people with the same perspective as him but to the perspective of the main character in the book, he is the shadow. He is also thought of as the shadow because he abused his wife and nearly killed her. Again, he thought he was being a hero because he beat her only because she signed a petition that supported something at the abortion clinic. He is a shadow in the eyes of the police as he does things that are illegal because he is fighting against something that is legal. If abortions were illegal in this story, he probably would be a hero in most peoples eyes as he would be stopping abortions. He has changed peoples opinions on this to, making them see him as a hero because he has very good facts and proof that is against the abortion clinic. He tells the main character of the story, Ralph, exactly what they do with the unborn babies. I think in the future of this story, Ralph will think of Ed as a hero and his perspective will change entirely. Ed told Ralph that unborn babies skin are more expensive than gold. That triggered something in Ralph's mind that made him think that it's all done for money, which Ralph didn't like which is influencing his decision on the entire situation. This quote "Leydecker cracked his knuckles and sighed at the ceiling."The boys were celebrating my appointment to a special detail."" Shows  how the story is slowly waning on making Ed seem as he is a hero because Leydecker (A police officer) is sighing and not happy that he got the job of guarding the chairman of the abortion clinic during her speech. He is not happy because he knows that Ed and his group will see him as a bad guy and try to kill him but he also doesn't agree with abortions 100% so he doesn't want to protect someone that he himself might not like to be protected.

Task 5 - Classic

Classic
Standard or higher quality things. An original or old/antique thing. Ex: "This is a classic book" <- A great book and could be an old book that was popular back in it's day.

The novel I'm reading right now is a book made many years ago and is a #1 Bestseller. The author is Stephen King who is a fairly popular horror book/movie author. It's a #1 Bestseller which shows that it is very popular. It gained popularity for a reason and that is because it is a higher quality book, making it a classic. It has lived on for many generations and is still considered a good book.

Protagonist

"Maybe I am a lunatic." (Stephen King, Insomnia pg.43)
 I've only read the prologue and part of the first chapter so the protagonist isn't as clear as it would be if i was further in the story. The protagonist is a man who is over 70 years old named Ralph. Ralph is a very sad or depressed person because his wife was dying which made him start his sadness and then after the prologue, she died which made Ralph depressed and it made him get insomnia - a sleeping disorder.

               From what I know about Ralph, it is hard to make a prediction on his outcome. My best guess is that as the plot progresses and a problem starts then he will use something he knows about his wife to solve the problem because the entire prologue was based on his dying wife and her death.







I chose this video because it shows how Ralph feels knowing that his wife is dying. Ralph even describes how he had emotionally prepared himself for her to die which made him more depressed.

Stephen King - Night Shift / Children of the Corn

Stephen King - Night Shift / Children of the Corn

"Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2012.

I'm reading a book that has many Stephen King stories in it and is titled 'Stephen King's Night Shift including the chilling story of Children of the Corn'.  It has a total of 20 stories in it and each of them are short variations of the original novels by Stephen King. So far I've read 15 of the 20 stories and I'm reading the 16th which is called 'Children of the Corn'. I'm going to summarize my favorite story (so far) but review the entire concept of the book.

              My favorite story that I've read so far is 'Jerusalem's Lot' which mostly consists of a few men writing letters back and forth between each other and messages from all of their journals. One of the men recently moved into a new house. Ever since he had moved into the house, the noises that came from the house generations before started returning and everybody in the town had problems that they considered 'demonic'. The problems were all blamed on this man for moving in, including a baby with no eyes and other scary things.

            I like this book but there are some things in it that are very disturbing so I wouldn't suggest reading it if you have a weak stomach of get frightened easily. Also, the storyline of these short stories are very hard to follow because things happen too quickly. It's not a book that a younger audience should read because of these things and the fact that there is a lot of cursing and swearing in this book. I'd rather read the entire novel of all of these stories instead of the shortened, very vague stories. Overall I would rate this book at about 6/10 for my personal liking of this book but I think I'd like the individual stories much better.

“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” ― George R.R. Martin

I chose this quote because it's very interesting and you have to think about it afterward. You are comparing two completely different things when you read this quote yet they connect to each other very easily ,when it says; 'To keep its edge" Then you can understand the meaning of the quote. This quote connects so me in a very literal way. Lots of the books i read are fantasy books or fiction novels. Most of the time, these types of books are set in medieval times with swords and bows and magic and all that. The quote itself is comparing swords to reading which connects to fantasy books very closely.

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/books