The Revenge of Seven: Setting

The book that I chose to read independently is The Revenge of Seven. The Revenge of Seven is the fifth book in the Lorien Legacies series. This book follows the main character, John, and his journey to find other people of his kind. John is an "alien" who was sent to Earth to protect it from Mogadorians. These Mogadorians had attacked John's home planet which caused him and nine other people to be sent to Earth so they could keep their culture alive. They had a spell cast on them that if the Mogadorians were to find them, they had to kill each person in number order. Each was split up around the world and had a number. #1, #2, and #3 have all been killed by the Mogadorians. John is #4. Throughout this series, John has been trying to find other "numbers" and successfully finds some of them. Some go off to hide in different places so they break apart. Each of these people have Legacies, meaning they have special powers. For example, John can talk to animals, heal things, and his hands can become lit up. Each has different powers but they all look like humans. They only way to tell them apart is if you see them use their Legacies or their scars.

Right now, in The Revenge of Seven, John is hiding in an old textile factory with Sam, a human friend, and Sarah, his girlfriend (also a human). This textile factory is described excellently with the quote I found. "We follow Sam down a rusty spiral staircase and onto the floor of the factory proper. The place must've been closed down in a hurry because there are still racks of musty, eighties-style men's suits pushed up against the walls and half-full boxes of raincoats abandoned on conveyor belts." This quote shows how old the factory is and how there is still clothes in the factory. This could mean that the people occupying the space before had to leave in a hurry because of a disaster. The line that says "eighties-style men's suits pushed up against the walls" really gave me a clear understanding of how old it was and how it was probably abandoned during the 80's. This means that no one has probably been in there forever which could lead to maybe someone living in there that could be bad. Possibly a Mogadorian.

Below is a picture of an old textile factory, which could show what it looked like in John's point of view.

LINK FOR PHOTO

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

The second memoir that I chose to read for this assignment was A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. A Long Way Gone is about Ishmael, a child soldier, and his life in the army. He experiences lots of violence and deaths during his time as as soldier. This leads up to him eventually becoming violent also and having violent thoughts. The central idea in A Long Way Gone is: War and/or violence can change a person's life greatly.

This affects Ishmael because he used to be a normal kid who loved to play games with his friends. After he is forced to become a soldier, he is very violent and starts to think that this is the best thing for him. A quote to support this is, "When the young muscular rebel was captured, the lieutenant slit his neck with his bayonet. The rebel ran up and down the village before he fell to the ground and stopped moving. We cheered again, raising our guns in the air, shouting and whistling" (Beah 122).

The central idea that war and/or violence can change a person's life greatly can be seen throughout this world today. An example of this in the world right now is in Ferguson, Missouri. If you don't know about Ferguson, long story short, a white police officer shot a black 18-year old who was unarmed. This has caused many controversies over why the police officer shot him. Because of this, violence has broken out in Ferguson. An article by USA Today gives a timeline of what had happened after he was shot. One of these events highlighted in the timeline was that police had to fire tear gas because of violent protests. This supports the central idea because after Michael Brown's death (the one who was shot), the city of Ferguson, Missouri resorted to violent protests which changed their lives from peaceful to being violent.

Below is a photo from the USA Today article that shows police officers firing tear gas into the crowd. This shows the police officers also resorting to being violent because of the violent protests. Also, the link to the USA Today article is below.

 LINK FOR USA TODAY ARTICLE