Week 3- Entry A

Vocabulary-

(p 156) ammoniac- pertaining to or containing or similar to ammonia

(p 158) rococo- a style of architecture and decoration

Appeals-

1. (p 159) “They stood upon the edge of the ravine that cut the town half in two. Behind them were the lit houses and music, ahead was deepness, moistness, fireflies and dark.” The lit houses and music show how pleasant the town is behind, while the deepness, moistness, fireflies and dark sound scary and uninviting. These words are used to make the reader feel emotion.
2. (p 174) “She told her legs what to do, her arms, her body, her terror; she advised all parts of herself in this white and terrible moment, […] she ran, followed by the wild footsteps behind, behind, with the music following, too, the music shrieking and babbling.” Words are used in this passage to ensue terror in the reader. The shrieking and babbling music made my stomach squirm as I thought of the girl running from a murderer.
3. (p 187) “Douglas watched them (fireflies) go. [...] They left his face and his body and the space inside his body to darkness. They left his empty as the Mason jar.” The emotional appeal uses words like darkness and empty to explain how Douglas feels.

Quote-

(p 186) “So if trolleys and runabouts and friends and near friends can go away for a while or go away forever, or rust, or fall apart or die, and if people can be murdered, and if someone like great-grandma, who was going to live forever, can die… if all of this is true… then… I, Douglas Spaulding, some day… must… die.” Throughout the entire novel, the overriding theme has been the ever presence of change. Death is just another example of change. Douglas is coming to terms with the eventuality of his own death as many people around him die throughout his summer.

Theme-

I have stated before that change is the main theme of Dandelion Wine. In the pages I have read for this week, Douglas’s great-grandmother, a young woman Elizabeth, and an old woman Helen Loomis die. Earlier in the novel, Colonel Freeleigh and Mister Quartermain died. So much death surrounds Douglas over his summer. He thinks about his own death and how the world will change until then. Death is an evident fact of life. We must face the facts and adapt to changes.