Monday, November 26, 2007

Quarter 2 outside reading week 2

Part I:

Vitality (110)
-lively and animated character

Conviviality (90)
-fondness towards drinking, feasting, and socializing

Part II:

"...Last thing we wanna do is cause any undue panic around here." (122) This quote is very important, because it serves as an ironic bridge from the previous hum-drum backwater feel of the first section into what appears to be a tense period in the novel. In most of the diplomats' eyes, colonel Munn (the man delivering the line) is an imbecile; and this statement only serves to reinforce this idea. The quote came after the rebels from the north of Kutar had flanked the front lines of the Alliance's army (the fictional version of the U.N.) and invaded the capitol, forcing citizens, soldiers, and ambassadors to flee. This assault came as the result of the colonel's own plan to make a statement in the desert against the rebels, and show some American gusto. His character is one that I find to be so irritating, with his Southern drawl, and "Let's go shoot some foreigners" attitude. His ignorance towards the nation of Kutar only serves to put him deeper into an element that is not his, and already has his coworkers disliking him. What is even more annoying is that back home in the U.S. the media is portraying him as a war hero; the fictional version of the savior Petraeus (of course he is anything but). The main character David Richards shares my viewpoint (this was probably the author's intention) as he has already cultivated a deep dislike for the colonel early on in section 2.

No comments: