Novel
Summary Sheet ~Quartering the Text ~
Your name: Sarah
Tayler Novel Name: Girlfriend in a Coma
Quarter #
2 Author’s last name: Coupland
1. Skeletal
plot(Point form only- keep this short but insightful):
1.–Karen is
inevitably starred in a T.V. Interview, where she goes into a daze
and foretells the oncoming apocalypse. When Richard has to go on a
business trip on her foretold date they have a fight about whether or
not he should go and she refuses to tell him why.
2.– The world
starts falling asleep, taking everybody but Richard, Karen, Pam,
Linus, Megan, Wendy and Hamilton. Vancouver riots, like everywhere
else in the world, burning, pillaging, killing, bombing, whatever.
The group all meets at Rabbit lane, Karen's house, and Wendy
encounters Jared's ghost who leads her, lost, to the house after he
accidentally scares the hell out of Karen.
3.– Karen and
company use her visions to find out what's happening, both in the
present and the future. They move to her grandparents ranch in the
mountains and there Karen witnesses the last person to die of the
plague through her visions and they are all that's left.
4.– A year
later, It becomes Jared's story. He gives the friends and Megan's
daughter, Jane, a quick visit and disappears, having sex with the
floor on his way to where ever. He later comes back and converses
with Karen about her first views of the world from when she woke up.
5.– Through
visits to each one, Jared gives the friends a miracle. Karen's legs
are whole again. He gets Wendy pregnant. Cures Jane's blindness for
Megan and her daughter. Gives Linus a brief glance at heaven that
makes him blind for a week. Erases Hamilton and Pam's drug addictions
and fixes their brains.
Conflict or
“tension” eg person vs person, or (internal) person vs self; Is
this important to the novel’s theme or purpose? Yes.
Explanation:
Conflicts include the group vs
the plague (Nature) where they battle their fears to survive, and
Karen vs Society as her opinion comes into conflict with what people
expect.
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?): Still set mainly in Vancouver, the characters travel all
around the city to socialize until the plague hits. Once the sleeping
begins Karen and company all converge on her Rabbit Lane home to wait
out the deaths. A year later they invade all sorts of places in
Vancouver, but there's a sense of isolation, even when they're
together.
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 – as the foretold date of the apocalypse approaches she
becomes very anxious and troubles arise between her and Richard.
2) Richard: Round
/ Dynamic – Richard becomes...responsible at his job. And humble.
And he's the one person who tries to remain civil after the world
ends.
3) Megan: Round /
Dynamic – Megan changes from a messed up girl stuck with her druggy
boyfriend to a independent mother who realises how she took life for
granted.
6) Hamilton: Round
/ Dynamic – Hamilton doesn't get any better. He's a permanently
wasted loser, even after the apocalypse. Thank God Jared performs his
miracle and cures his mind of the addiction.
7) Pam: Round
Dynamic – She started to improve after Karen woke up, but after the
apocalypse slips back into addiction with Hamilton until she's
virtually reborn with Hamilton as a clear headed human being.
8) Linus: Round /
Dynamic – He's still desperately searching for meaning and
experiencing all the wonderful things he can. It becomes more intense
after the apocalypse, wondering what they're supposed to do. Given a
sight of heaven, Linus becomes blissful.
9) Wendy: Round /
Dynamic – Her love for Jared becomes more intense, and she
acknowledges that she's extremely lonely. Her lonesomeness is filled
by Jared who gives her a baby.
4.Point Of
View~ Circle one!: Omniscient
§ Whydo
you think the writer chose this point of view to develop
plotcharacter or themes?
Because Jared is a
know-it-all ghost and it also gives the important thoughts of the
group and what they're thinking during this apocalypse. Jared is kind
of like God.
5.Notables on
writer’s style and structure!
§ Are there
similes or metaphors? Record a quote: “A throw rug caught on
her numb senseless legs like sacks of potatoes strapped onto her
waist.”
§ Visual or
other imagery? Record a quote: “Richard can see the plumes of
smoke of several fires and patches of the city with failed electrical
grids.”
§ Is there
unusual vocabulary or diction? Record a quote: ”All
the people we've ever known, think
Richard and Megan,
the best-looking girl in high school; favorite movie stars; old
friends; lighthouse keepers and lab technicians. Am-scrayed.”
§ Is the novel
structured with a particular idea? Record a quote or explain:
“This is the moment she's been waiting for a dreading. Now it's
here.” The apocalypse comes, and it involves a lot of paranoia
about sleeping and the plague. Humanity goes chaotic.
§ Ist
here dialogue & is it realistic? Record a quote: “Why'd you
do that, Meg?”
“For being too
weak to cry like a real human being.”
“Oh honey. . .”
6. Themes:
Record words and topics related to themes contained and developed in
your novel:
· “There was
a real debate about whether they should let you land or let your fuel
run out over the mountains.”
· “It's
like those cartoons of guys with long beards holding a sign on a
street corner saying THE END IS NEAR; there's always a little part of
yoyu that wonders, what if?”
· “There
is a light withing us all—a light brighter than the sun, a light
inside the mind. He had forgotten this and now he remembers, there on
the balcony..”
· “She had
a daughter, Jane, born blind and brain defective—probably because
of all the crap in the air these days—and she simply assumed that's
the way life should be.”
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?
I thought that it sucks that we can't
believe in omens and supernatural things anymore. Despite reading
Karen's eerie letter years ago, and knowing about the freaky fortune
telling, Richard can't accept Karen's warning and stay home. I felt
that Karen was right, waking up and seeing everyone so busy and
striving towards nothing besides efficiency. I can relate to that
view sometimes. Karen's experience I think is pretty odd though. I'm
not sure if people would universally react the same way or if she's a
special chosen case. I liked her as a teenager.
No comments:
Post a Comment