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The Essence of Story
Assignment 2
by Colleen Forrest © June 7, 1999
Level: Beginner
A) For this assignment I've decided to review the following works, , and the movie Meet Joe Black
Genera: Fantasy Medium: Novel Vanyel Asheveron grows up alone in a household filled with people. His family respects strength. Vanyel is a slim boy who likes the finer things. He's also the heir to the holding. Vanyel drowns the pain of his loneliness in his music, a skill his father dismisses. Vanyel is sent to his Aunt Savil, a Herald mage living in the Capital City. His father hopes the Palace Schools will have better luck teaching Vanyel. Savil and a mage-student, Tylendel recognize Vanyel's pain. Vanyel and Tylendel become very good friends. A magical accident kills Tylendel and tears open Vanyel's hidden mage channels. The Herald mages wrongfully blame Vanyel for the death. Vanyel can now easily hear their thoughts. These feed his own feelings of guilt. When an evil mage threatens to destroy a village, Vanyel is part of the team sent to stop him. Vanyel learns this mage had been hired to kill Tylendel and had caused the accident. Vanyel uses his guilt and mage gifts in a near-suicidal strike against the evil mage. The Herald mages realize they had been wrong about Vanyel, and Vanyel finally gains the acceptance he's craved.
Vanyel is the protagonist. His conflict is to survive amidst the casual and careless abuse he gets from almost everyone in the story. He's an underdog who's gradually gaining power, because of, not in spite of everything life is throwing at him. He has several antagonists. Vanyel is pitted against his father, who won't let him follow his dreams of becoming a musician, the family priest, who thinks Vanyel is shiftless and lazy, the Sergeant of the guard, who brutalizes him while trying to turn the slim boy into a fighter, his mother, who nearly pampers him to death, and the rest of the family, who mistake his desperate attempts at fitting for petty vanity. Later, there's the mages who only see Vanyel's outer shell and not his true being. As Vanyel gains in power, he also gains a more deliberate antagonist, the evil mage that killed Tylendel. Defeating that antagonist is the key to defeating everyone's misconceptions about him.
Genera: Military Suspense Medium: Novel Jack Ryan called in to help the CIA discover why a Soviet submarine captain, Marko Ramius, is heading his top secret Soviet submarine, the Red October, towards the American coast. When the Soviets announce that Ramius is a mad man bent on launching his nuclear missals at Washington D.C., the U.S. navy goes on alert. Jack thinks he's defecting and bringing the top-secret sub with him. The CIA gives Jack the backing to prove his theory. Jack must convince the Navy brass of his theory. He's helped by an unseen ally, John Clark, a CIA agent sent to the US hunter-submarine Dallas. The Dallas has been tracking the Red October. The Dallas contacts the Red October and confirms Jack's defection theory. Jack devises a plan to get the Red October safely behind American boarders. The plan has to be executed before the rest of the U.S. Navy, the Soviet Navy, and a former student of Ramius named Tupolov, who views his defection as a personal affront, destroy the Red October. In the end, the Red-October is saved and the Soviets think the US Navy sank the sub.
Jack Ryan is the protagonist in this story. His conflict is to beet the odds and bring in the commander and the Red October safely. His antagonist will remain unknown to him. It's the commander of the [NAME]. They're both competing for the same prize.
Death is curious about life. Death enlists Bill Parish, a wealthy CEO with a vim for living. Bill is dying, but he's given more time to act as Death's guide. Bill introduces Death as Joe Black, a business acquaintance. Death/Joe accompanies Bill to his businesses meetings and finds a mutual attraction with Bill's daughter, Susan. These developments threaten Drew, Susan's fiancée and Bill's handpicked successor. When Bill withdraws his support for a merger deal Drew's developed, Drew uses Bill's mysterious relationship with Joe to oust Bill as CEO. With the board's support, Drew continues his merger deal. Death and Susan fall in love. Amidst Bill's protest, Death decides to take Susan with them. With Susan he doesn't feel lonely anymore. A Jamaican grandmother who's seen through Death's disguise convinces him otherwise. Death tells Bill that he's changed his mind. Before leaving, they deal with Drew. Bill tricks Drew into revealing his plans while the board listens on the speakerphone. Joe reveals himself as an IRS agent investigating Drew's activities. The board votes to oust Drew and restore Bill. The victory is short lived. That night, Bill and Death make the journey to the other side.
Death is the protagonist. From the moment Death steps into the picture, the story is fractured into two worlds. One is the everyday world we live in, and the other is a private world that's formed around Bill and Death's mutual knowledge of Joe's true identity. The relationships between the characters change depending on which world the viewer is seeing. In the everyday world, Death is a child-like innocent wondering around in a world he knows nothing about, but is fascinated by. Bill is a man he respects and "Joe" follows him around like a puppy. His advisory is Drew. Drew delights in every opportunity to insult Joe on his awkwardness. Drew is wants to find out who Joe is and why he has so much influence over Bill. That's where the conflict lies. If Drew is successful, Death's vacation ends and Bill dies. Hence, Death is powerless to help Bill when Drew has him ousted from the board. In the private world, Bill is the advisory, not the ally. Death is arrogant and all-powerful, but he wants something. In the process of that wanting, he's given Bill a little bit of power, the power to expose who Joe really is, ending his adventure as a human and his relationship with Susan. Bill gains power in this world as he gradually looses his fear of dying. This conflict revolves around Death's relationship with Susan. Viewed from the everyday, its a sweet, loving, relationship evolving between two people. But Death isn't a person and Bill knows this. His daughter is literally courting Death, and if that relationship is allowed to continue, it can only end one way. This is an intolerable situation to Bill. Death needs a new moral compass in this world, hence the Jamaican grandmother.
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