Wrapping up

So for this last post I've decided to come "out of character" and just speak to Mr. Forke normally. The book was... well to me not going to lie it was a little boring haha, but that doesn't take away from the meaning of the book. These kids all had amazing talent, and amazing potential for their talent, except they were oppressed and weren't allowed to use it. It's cruel really. Kira mentions many times in the book how her hands just want to make their own things, and be free, but they couldn't because of their "duty" to the council. It wasn't a heaven like Niggle's, it was an imprisonment, like Kira's disease. Her leg hindered her from doing what she wanted, just like the council is now stopping her from doing what she wants to. Her full potential cannot come out this way. It's hindering like Rose's disease in Silver Water, her true beauty that her sister believes in can't come out. We never got to see Kira stand up for herself in this story, although I am confident that in the sequel (yes there is one) there will be some form of uprising, even if it's just Kira and the other kids running away. I would say the biggest theme in this story is that while being suppressed, nobody's true potential can come out. Who knows what kind of future these children could create if not being controlled by someone else! Who knows what kind of person Rose would be without her disease hindering her and holding her true beauty back. I also like the theme that I mentioned earlier, with the patterns on the robe. How you build your life, then somebody or something comes and just knocks it down. So you learn to build it better so that it won't be so easily shaken, but something new comes. This is a theme we can all relate to in our own lives. That's something that a reader looks for in a story.

Chapter 23

Well, finding out that Kira's guardian wasn't who she thought he was was pretty traumatizing. So that night Matt found a safe place for Kira's father to sleep and Kira started thinking things over. Then she thought back to the clanking she heard at the gathering, while the singer was singing. We found out something new, that we didn't know before. Kira saw, on the singer's feet, shackles. His feet were completely deformed and bloody and shackled. Here is when Kira puts things together. All of the young artists parents were killed by the council. They were killed so that the council could have the children all to themselves. She also realized that the kids have the power to change the future, they create what happens in the future. The story ends with Matt about to lead her dad back home, and Kira holding her dad's shirt, now completely unraveled and in blue thread.

Chapter 22

Well Kira's father told his story. It was no beast that attacked him, it was someone jealous of him. He was about to receive a place in the council, but was attacked on a hunting trip by somebody who wanted his position, Jamison. Kira's father also told about their village, how the cripples from many different villages have banded together and formed their own place. While Kira's father was laid out in the fields to die they came for him. The people in the village have grown in number, and families have started, and healthy people have grown up there. There is always somebody there for you. If you can't walk you are carried. If you can't see you are led. Kira's father also invited her to come home with him, but she refused. Until she found out who Jamison really was. Im also curious... Could all of the specially talented three parents' been killed? So that the council could have the talents all to themselves? This is where the final chapter begins.

Chapter 21

The big gift arrived- It's Kira's father!! His eyes are ruined though. He came from the place Matt went. He has a blue shirt on as well. Obviously no beast killed him, I'm now confident that beasts never existed. I'm sure we'll be hearing his story in the next chapter.

Chapter 19 & 20

The gathering has begun! For the first time the three special children are introduced to the village. Even Jo, the young singer. The song begins in an odd sort of way. It starts with "In the beginning..." and goes on to explain an almost creation-like beginning. It isn't very specific though. During the lunchbreak Kira finds that Matt has returned, with a portion of blue cloth. He says the place he went was nearly all cripples, it makes me wonder.... Is that place the field that they bring cripples to? Instead of killing them do they have a special place? Is Annabella there? I'm sure we will find out. Matt also said that there is a much larger gift for Kira that isn't there yet, but will be soon. Kira heard a large, heavy scraping noise a couple times during the song.... Could this be the gift? What could it possibly be?

Chapters 17 & 18

At the beginning of chapter 17 Kira and Thomas go to look for Matt. They haven't seen him in a couple of days and are worried. Now Matt lives on the bad side of town, where everybody is poor and lives nearly homeless and hungry. They eventually find Matt's house, but only his brother is home. His brother informs Kira and Thomas that Matt went on a journey to find "blue" for "a friend of his". Now obviously the kid has no idea the significance of this to Kira. I'm starting to see that blue is more of a symbol in this story.... What of? I'm not exactly sure yet. I have an idea though. Later on Kira talks with Jamison and he tells her that that the yearly gathering where the song is to be sung is very soon, and whatever last minute changes need to be made should be made so soon. She is also informed that after the gathering she will begin making new pictures on the robe. She is surprised because she though that would come when her skills were better.

Chapters 15 & 16

Well the two are finally starting to piece things together now. They have realized that they're there for a very special purpose, and that nobody else can do their jobs. Thomas called the three of them (Jo, Thomas, and Kira) artists, a term foreign to Kira and most of the village. They decided that artists are people who make beautiful things. The two went down to Jo's room that night to talk to her and make her believe they were her friend. They showed her a way to contact them (which is tapping in the ceiling because Thomas's room is right above Jo's) and said only do it in emergencies. Afterwards Kira went back to her room and thought about things, realizing this wasn't exactly the heaven she thought it was. This wasn't her master work of art like Niggle's, because she was being forced to do it. Art cannot be forced. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.... Will they run away? Rebel? We shall see.

Chapter 14

I knew this would happen. Kira woke up earlier than usual in the morning to go to Annabella's for whatever reason, and on the way she met up with Matt and his dog. Matt informed her that Annabella had been taken to the fields to be killed by the beasts (this is the main form of punishment in the village). He also said that he had seen Jamison with the group leading Annabella away. I am now sure of it, beasts do not exist. Annabella was killed within 24 hours of Jamison being informed of what she told Kira. Whatever killed her father weren't beasts- I personally believe that it was Jamison himself. He claimed to be there at her fathers death. I believe that Jamison is responsible for all the parents deaths of the three working orphans: Kira, Thomas, and Jo (the young singing girl). I'm sure Kira will start putting this together soon, she's a smart girl.

End 13

Well..... That's interesting. We found no more out about the girl except for the fact that she's from the same part of town as Matt. Janison, who is always nice to Thomas and Kira didn't sound nice to the little girl at all. Matt says she's just a little bit younger than him. At the end of the workday, as always, Janison stopped by Kira's room and was friendly as always. She talked about the beasts with him and he seemed upset that Annabella had told Kira that there are no beasts. Perhaps Janison and Annabella know something that Kira doesnt? Or maybe just Annabella knows something that neither of them know? I sense deceit.... Somethings fishy about this.

Middle of 13

Well this is quite interesting..... One night Thomas said that he thought he heard a Childs crying on the floor below them in a different corridor. So the next morning Kira, Thomas, Matt and his dog went to go check it out. The kids got downstairs and immediately stopped at the sound of Janison's voice (the council member who had been appointed to defend her and has been assisting her with her work). Janison opened a door, and a child inside began to cry, and after a little while sing in a nearly angelic voice. I think that this child is being trained to be the new singer, just as Thomas and Kira are being trained to become the new weaver and carver. This interesting let's finish the chapter.

Chapters 11 & 12

Well the book is starting to go somewhere finally. The beginning of the chapters was pretty boring again. One day on the way to Annabella's house, Kira swore she heard a beast following her. Beasts are famous in the town, and feared by all. If you go outside the towns borders you will almost surely be killed by one. Beasts are to blame for the death of Kira's father. Anyways Kira got to Anabella's cott, and told her what she was hearing. Anabella swore up and down that there is no such thing as beasts. This confused Kira, so when she got back she began asking people if they'd ever seen a beast before. If they didn't exist how'd her father die? She's a very curious girl...and she's now on a mission to find it out any way she can. Like Hamlet in Shakespeare's famous play. He wanted to know how is his father died and did anything to find out. Later on while she was working on the robe she noticed the pattern of the designs and pictures; it's a constant cycle of death and rebirth. Cities grow and grow, then fall. They grow again even bigger, just to fall again. I almost wonder if this might end up being a recurring theme in the book.... To start off we had Kira with her dead mother. Then things went up a little, she found he'r old home and started to rebuild. Then Vandara brought her to the council for trial and almost cost Kira her life. From that though, Kira got a prestigious position in fixing the robe up. Will there be another fall? It reminds me a bit of Homers epic poem, The Odyssey. Odysseus would overcome one challenge, just to have another staring him straight in the face. I'm sure we could actually apply that to all of our lives. We all have good times and hard times, and as soon as we get out of one hard time God sends something else our way to keep us crawling back to him. "I know I am filled to be emptied again...", isn't that how the song goes? Well have to see what happens next.

Chapter 9 & 10

Again, not much interesting has happened in these couple chapters. Kira goes to Annabella's to keep learning and still hanging out with Thomas multiple times a day. We do find out that Thomas has a very important task similar to Kira's. His job is to fix and eventually "finish" the singers staff. The staff helps tell the story with its pictures, so the singer doesn't lose his way in the song. Kira and Thomas both a special medallion, that helps them get through things. Both started working on them while they were quite young, trying out things they learned. For Kira it's a small cloth, and Thomas's is a piece of wood that he carved up. I'm sure these will play a role as we move on in the book.

Chapters 7 & 8

Not a lot happened in these two chapters... Kira is still amazed at her new room, with so many more luxuries than she's used to. She even had to have somebody show her how to use the bath. She met a boy who lives down the hall, Thomas, who is a carver. She is sent to Annabella, a master dyer. She dyes threads, and Kira doesn't know how to do that so she must learn all the different plants and different ways to color dyes. Annabella tells Kira to come over every day for lessons. We are first introduced to the color blue, of which Annabella doesn't know how to make, but she tells Kira that there are people who can make it, quite a ways away from Annabella's little cot though and she could never make the journey. I'm interested to see if Kira will try.

Chapters 5 & 6

The decision has been made by the council- Kira will live! She is also given a very important task. Once a year at the yearly festivities "The Singer" comes out and sings the history of their village. The Singer has a very special robe, one that her mother had worked on and fixed up every year to be presentable in the festivities, and one that Kira always dreamed about working on. It is the prize of the town, a symbol of their history (which is unknown to us yet). She is given new quarters where she will work on the robe every workday. Her task, though we don't know specifically, will be to fix and to "finish" the robe. This will be explained in the coming chapters. Once again I can't help but relate this story to little Niggle, who spent his entire life devoted to one painting. Then he was brought to a brand new world where his painting was reality. Kira's childhood is Niggles lifetime, dreaming about the robe, and this new place she's been brought to is like her heaven. We will learn of her specific task coming up.

Chapters 3 & 4

The third and fourth chapters are Kira's trial. Vandara wants her killed, and her land. The council appoints one of themselves to defend Kira, because she would rather not defend herself. They talk about her disability, how she shouldn't be alive; but her defender points out she has great skill besides the fact that she can't do any physical labor. I could see how this could relate to a short story I've read called Leaf by Niggle. Niggle isn't a very handy man, he's small and fairly weak; although he is a fantastic painter. The situations are very similar actually, Niggle has a bad leg as well if I'm remembering the story correctly. People loved his artwork though because it is so good. Anyways, the case will be determined in the next chapter I'm sure.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Gathering Blue is quite interesting. Short yes, but interesting nonetheless. Kira goes to her cott, or home, and surveys the damage and what she will need to do to fix it up. Vandara, the leader of the women who want her property, comes up to Kira. Vandara and the women with her threaten to stone her, but Kira convinced her to bring it to the council instead. We also find out that Kira is good with her hands. She has a real talent for doing things like weaving, and stitching and things like that. So she is crippled in one way, but excels all the more in another. Though it is a stretch, it reminds me a little bit of the short story HopFrog. Though a small, lonely little man he has quite the knack for scheming things, coming up with plans. Like I said, maybe a stretch but it fits for me.

Chapter One

I have completed the first chapter the book now and a lot of information has been presented this far. The village that the main character lives in has a special way of doing things. Children receive names, and as they grow older their names change. They are born with a one syllabled name, once they hit puberty they receive a two syllabled name, once they reach adulthood they get a three syllabled name, and the oldest and wisest people in the village get a four syllabled name. We know the main characters name is Kira, and she is going through a hard time. She has a bum leg that doesn't work properly and nobody in this culture wants a child like that. Her mother has just died and her father never lived with her. Her home, or cott as they call it, has been burned down because it is contaminated because of Kira's mother's sickness. I would predict Kira to be about 15 years old at this point. Her friend, Matt, who seems to be about 10 years old, has warned her that some women want Kira dead so they can have her living space for themselves. Reading this so far I can't help but think of a short story I once read called Silver Water. Kira, being an outcast is similar to the main character's sister is Silver Water who is insane. They are both outcasts, and nobody really wants them around. The difference is, Kira has no family whereas the girl from Silver Water did. I'll have to keep reading, maybe I can find some more connections.

Introduction

I am reading the book Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry, and I decided it would be fun to make a reading blog to go along with the book. I will be posting as I read the book, so it's not like I know things that are going to happen along the way. I have not decided exactly how I am going to organize my posts, probably by chapter, or just when things occur to me. We'll see how it goes. Anyways, hope you enjoy my blog! :)