Michelle’s Weblog

so ive changed my mind. i’m no longer doing the “SEARCH” chapter of the book. instead im going to do the section called “HELP”. this chapter made more sense for me to base my paper on because the subject of my paper came to me as soon as i started reading it.in this chapter there is a reference to both mallory climbing everest and the lancelot/guinevere sub-story.my sub-story is about the red fox.I see risk when she has one of her men kill the fox even after the hunter said he would bring her the red fox if she did not kill it. It is risky that she deliberately disobeyed his wishes.It is risky of the hunter to dedicate all his time to the Princess even though she did not care much for him. It was risky that he wanted nothing but her love.I argue that risk operates in the red fox story through blindness of others feelings and selfishness of each individuals feelings

My essay will focus on the Lancelot and Guinevere sub story in the “Search” chapter.

One very risky line is on page 78 when the narrator states how he has rescued this woman several times but has only fought against the King’s knight and not the king himself: “Many times have I rescued you, through combat with your accuser, for the King, who is judge of all, cannot fight for his own wife.” It is risky to accuse the king of such cowardice acts.

Also, stating that the narrator does not care if the woman he is interested in is married, let alone to the king, is a huge risk by outrightly saying he would commit adultery.

Another part of this chapter i find risky is the deep meaning and explanation the narrator puts on love and what love does to two people. It is risky to dig so deep and write about what you believe love actually is.

One part i feel is risky but i am a little confused about is the part where it gets deep about their bodies on page 80. “My breasts weigh under your dress.” I thought Lancelot- the narrator- was a man. but i’m not sure if he is just saying this to show that he and his lover are one in the same body at this moment. or if this is maybe one of the moments where they switch to reality instead of being in the story.

Lancelot risks being killed for being with the Queen and the Queen risks being burned at the stake. pg 82 “As the soldiers were tying your hands and packing the dry straw under your bare feet…”

I argue that risk, in this sub-story, operates to make the reader want true love to prevail over the love of the King and his Queen.

the connection i see between the power book and elic are that the main characters are looking for something and devote their time to this object. it says “you had run out on the story. run out on me. vanished.” this is just like how oskars father died during 9/11. it happened so fast and just like that- at the snap of a finger- oskars father had vanished, not purposefully however. it later says ” im looking for something, it’s true. i’m looking for the meaning inside the data.” this is just like how oskar was looking for the meaning of the key he found. the data in this case would be like oskar’s key. it also talks about how she set the search engines to find the person just like oskar used a less technological way of searching for the meaning of black written on the envelope.

my question is based off ivy’s: Who is/are the main character(s)?

What is the background on the narrator?

why does the author start with such a strange story to begin the book?