Focus+Assignment

Focus Assignment

My Reaction Questions I will answer: What do you think the theme of the novel was?Do you think that the author was successful in getting the message across?What did you find most interesting?Did the novel help you in any way?

I think the theme of the novel is that no matter what kind of love it is, love is often taken away or muddled with for irrational reasons, kind of like the theme from Shakespeare's Mid Summer Night's Dream. When the bear was taken away from Rose for very exotic reasons, I think she was starting to love him as a friend and that love kind of motivated her to search for him. Through her journey, she feels that she might actually love him as a man and not just a friend anymore, so that motivates her even more. When the white bear is taken away from her and she realizes her love for him, which is really when the story starts and the plot grows and form new shapes and angles. Most of the main and important parts of the story are caused because of her love being taken away. I did not get this theory from the main conflict because the message that came from the main conflict didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the story. It was that you have to work hard for what you want and if you really put your best efforts into it, most likely you will be at least satisfied with the outcome. The problem with this theme is that most stories end this way and I get this theme all the time, just by a happy ending because most protagonists work or do something that causes the ending to be a happy one. Rose worked hard to get to the white bear, and in the end she does and everything is fixed and everyone is happy. The author definitely was not very successful in getting the message across to the reader. It's not that often that a reader finishes a very long book and still is stumped by what the message or theme is supposed to be. The theme is supposed to have connection to the main conflict and the resolution, which was the ice castle falling down and theoretically killing the Troll Queen. I did not see a theme emerging from that which made it hard for me as the reader to get and understand the message that the author is trying to express. Even though the book was over-all a tedious one, there was a few scenes that were very intriguing the one that stands out to me is when Rose if first looking at the ice palace and she's describing it: "The palace lay directly north of me and I was still a long, long distance from it, but as I slogged forward, day followed by day, I began to see how vast and splendid it truly was. It stood so tall and shimmering on the snowy plain that it could be seen for miles and miles." That is one example of the many long but effective pieces of imagery used in the story often. The novel helped me realize that before choosing a novel that you are about to look deep into, find a bit about other people's opinions on it. You really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover which is what I did, thinking it was going to be a really good book. It turns out that sometimes, the reviews and awards are not exactly for your age group and you realize that you should have looked more into a book before choosing it as your novel study book.