Novel Summary Sheet ~Quartering the Text ~
Your name: Sarah Tayler Novel Name: Girlfriend in a Coma
Quarter # 2 Author’slast
name: DouglasCoupland
1. Skeletal
plot(Point form only- keep thisshort but insightful):
1.–After
hearing her mom is a “vegetable” at age 6 Richard finally brings Megan to visit
Karen and after that they go together every Sunday.
2.–
After a stock market crash Richard gets a drinking problem and never sees Megan.
Ham and Pam get together. So do Wendy and Linus. Everyone is confronted by their
problems. Megan is a teen.
3.–
Pam becomes a movie make-up artist, and while on set the friends all get movie
jobs together.
4.–
After a Halloween party, everyone coincidentally ends up at the hospital where
Karen is, and she wakes up after 17 years.
5.–
Becomes Karen's story. Karen views the world from eyes of the past from a
17year old, disappointed, while everyone is proud of efficiency.
Conflict or
“tension” eg person vs person, or (internal) person vs self; Is this important
to the novel’s theme or purpose? Yes
Explanation: The
most important tension is when Karen wakes up, and the tension between the
friends that follows. She doesn't understand or approve of the new world, while
her friends have all totally bought into it. This is very important, later in
the story.
2. Setting (Where &
where does various parts of your novel take place-how are these places important
to the character or the theme of your work?): A lot of the setting in this
quarter ranges in Vancouver. Most is at Karen's home, but the place doesn't
contribute a lot to this portion of the story. What matters is that it is now
the twenty first century. It's important to Karen because she missed the ending
and transition to the future. Everything that is common sense to everyone else
is strange and alien to her, even though it's the place she grew up.
3.Characters (Know
your character types and why this is important to your novel! (Eg. Are they
round/flat-why?/static/dynamic-why?) How many characters do you meet in this
quarter or do you find more about their personalities?):
1) Karen: Round / Dynamic –Karen is forced to change in
the new world, and it becomes her story. She's got the maturity and mind of a
teenager, but she loves her daughter,
and Richard. The world changes her a bit, but she disapproves of the way it's devolved
and become so proud of efficiency, when there's no ambition or beliefs about
anything anymore.
2) Richard: Round / Dynamic– Richard goes through a big
change, being a loser dad, to a somewhat
happy special effects worker, to a hope-fulfilled half of a couple when Karen awakes. He works
really hard for Karen.
3) Megan: Round / Dynamic –Three changes. She's a teenage
clone with the identical group like Karen
was, then gets into drugs and drinking with a scum bag boyfriend. The moment
Karen wakes up she resolves to change and be a great daughter, becoming instant
pals with Karen.
4) Lois: Round / Static – She's
still the same old horrible mom who tries to raise Megan as another obedient
Karen, without success, as Megan always rebels harshly. When Karen wakes up she
feels ashamed, but returns to the shallow treatment as Karen gets better.
5) George: Flat / Static – He becomes a rarely talked
about background character who's closer to Karen now, and doesn't love Megan as
much compared to Karen.
6) Hamilton: Round / Dynamic – He really gets in trouble
with heroin, almost dying, and is a
complete pessimist about life who escapes through getting high. When Karen
wakes up, he's shocked out of it a little, but still miserable.
7) Pam: Round Dynamic – After her modelling career goes
down the toilet she reunites with her group in show-biz behind the scenes. Same
as Ham, she almost dies from heroin after trying to escape life, but is shocked
out of it when Karen wakes up and they return
to their best-friendship.
8) Linus: Round / Dynamic – He disappears on a journey
for a while, trying to find the meaning of
life. He eventually comes back, failed, gets in trouble after whimsically
stealing dynamite from his company to make rock art, becomes a special effects
artist with the friends, marries Wendy because they understand each other and
recognizes how screwed up they all
are.
9) Wendy: Round / Dynamic – She overworks herself all the
time as a doctor, and gets married to Linus after he returns because of mutual
similarity, though she still secretly loves Jared from high school who died.
She's fed up with Pam and Ham about heroin and almost doesn't believe the irrational,
impossible fully functioning awakened Karen.
4.Point Of View~
Circle one!: Limited Omniscient
§ Whydo you think the writer chose this point
of view to develop plotcharacter or themes?
It switches from POV to POV of different characters to
effectively show the personality, thoughtand change in each characters, and the
subconscious bracing beforeKaren's awakening.
5.Notables on
writer’s style and structure!
§ Are there similes or metaphors? Record a
quote: “A cough like two thick steaks flapping against each other.”
§ Visual or other imagery? Record a quote: “The
Ocean far below the highway is a flat anvil blue.”
§ Is there unusual vocabulary or diction?
Record a quote: ”Scuzz bucket...Sugar-cakes...like a rib-ticklish
Camaro...”
§ Is the novel structured with a particular
idea? Record a quote orexplain: This quarter is about how things change
over time, and devolution.
§ Ist here dialogue & is it realistic?
Record a quote: “And now you have and I see I've just been horrible to
everybody .”
6. Themes: Record
words and topics related to themes contained and developed in your novel:
· “My twenties were vanishing and
the only good thing I had going for me was a daughter who I hardly ever saw.”
· “I’m worried that we might not
even be able to change.”
· “It would really bug me not to know what
the cty looked like in a hundred years.”
· “The afterworld is all about
infinity; the future is only about changes in this world.”
Personal Response
to this quarter: what you thought or felt, related to, did not relate to; how
universal is the experience that your protagonist goes through?
Since I have not gone through a couple more decades and
experienced the change in times, or gone into a coma and woken up in the future
and experienced the sudden change, It’s hard to relate to this portion.
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