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I. First Reactions A. After I read Galapagos, I thought it was a good story.
It was a little different from other novels I have read in that the author, Kurt
Vonnegut, had a different style than most other authors. I liked how he made
comments about humans’ “big brains” that always gave them foolish or reckless
ideas that almost always had negative results. The way he showed how a world
changed because people no longer thought that paper money was valuable provoked
many thoughts about how something like that could actually happen. B. I saw
myself a few times throughout the book. For example, I saw myself in Mandarax;
always a source of some information, none of which is of use to most people.
Mandarax would always have something to say under any circumstance, but usually
what it said had nothing to do with what was going on. Much like an internet
search engine, you give it a bit of information and in return you get a whole
lot of nothing. I also saw myself in Leon Trout. When the blue tunnel into the
afterlife came for him, he didn’t want to go until he found out what happened to
the people on the ship. Once I start reading something and it gets to a
situation where someone is in trouble; I don’t like to stop until I know they
are safe. From this story I learned a lesson. Don’t always trust your big
brain?! Though it may tell the rest of your body to do the things that make you
live and breathe, it will sometimes tell you to something that might endanger or
kill you. For instance, Mary Hepburn’s brain told her to put a plastic dress bag
over her head to kill herself. I also learned to not judge someone by first
sight or based on little knowledge. When Mary Hepburn first met James Wait, he
was feeding some starving children. She immediately thought that he was a good
guy and she really liked him before she knew anything about him. It turns out
that Wait is a con man who has robbed and widowed many women. Mary Hepburn would
never know that, however. After I read the book, I was somewhat inspired to make
a friend. Someone like Leon Trout, he has been around for a while and would
probably have quite a bit to say. He has had many experiences and would be able
to help you out when your big brain got you in trouble or hurt or what not. He
would probably be an incredibly good history tutor too. I learned some things
about the Galapagos Islands as well. The book spoke of the mating rituals of
blue footed boobies and how marine iguanas digest seaweed and some other
information about Charles Darwin and what he thought about the place. II. Point
of View A. The point of view would have to be first-person, but the character
that the author inhabits is dead and can see into the minds of people. With this
ability, the author goes into the minds and hearts of anyone he wants. He does
this a lot to give a background of each of the characters. He goes into their
past thoughts and actions and gives a general idea of how each of the characters
thinks and responds to different situations. It helps to get a feel for the
personality of everyone as well. B. The point of view greatly influenced the
perception of the story. If the author couldn’t get into the minds of each of
the characters, the reader wouldn’t be able to know what the person was
thinking, which played a good part in the story. Particularly because the author
made mention to how the great big brains of one million years ago (1986 A.D.)
gave people all of these thoughts and ideas that people “today” can’t do with
their smaller brains. The story might have been different told from another
point of view. Had it been told from the objective point of view, the author
wouldn’t have been able to effectively get across the ideas of the great big
brains that the characters had. Nor would he have been able to give his own
insights and ideas about the characters.
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