Papillon

I like the book 'Papillon', because it is a very exciting story, I suggest that all should read it.

Condemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charriere (nicknamed Papillon) was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty-two days after his arrival he made his first break, travelling a thousad gruelling miles in an open boat. Recaptured, he suffered solitary confinement and was sent eventually to Devil's Island, a hell-hole of disease and brutality. No one had ever escaped form this notorious prison-until Papillon took to the shark-infested sea supported only by a makeshift coconut-sack raft. In thirteen years he made nine daring escapes, living through many fantastic adventures while on the run. Henri Charriere died in 1973 at the age of 66.

The book is full of good adventures and is cleverly written.

Mr James homework- Dramatic journey

As I was changing into the clingy plastic overalls I heard some scattering just outside the mouldy wooden door, I thought nothing of it and resumed my arduous battle with the sticky and smelly overalls. ‘I still don’t know why I have to get the ones with the hole next to my arse’ I muttered to myself fervently. The door startled me as it swung open with a crash ‘Are you ready yet?’, mum was obviously getting impatient, although I couldn’t blame her, who would want to spend much longer changing in this dank, festering room. And with that notion I zipped up the front of my baggy costume and we went to join the others.

My belly was churning astonishingly for what was to come. We walked silently along the road in single profile, the bushes pulling at our trousers and the wind howling down the road like a dog on fire. We got to the idyllic glade and through the luscious green trees with their wavy branches I could see the beginning of the hole. The clammy stone felt sharp under my delicate hands as I left the warm sweet breeze behind me.

The entrance of the dark and slimy cave was not what I had expected and instantly I had submerged my unprotected behind into an ice cold stream, the water stung as icy tendrils shot up into my spinal cord, molesting it as they went. I skidded downwards into the caves endless depths, flattening myself into the rock wall to do so. The others were just in front of me and had turned their dripping headlamps on to illuminate the pitch black walls, I scraped down behind them, then clambering to my feet (with the help of my friend) I opened my eyes like a new born baby to witness the awe inspiring caverns which I once mistook for gloom.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert- Homework

1. In the extract it seems that a young boy or girl is narrating the scene. Most likely a girl because of the heavy emphasis of the friend being a boy, it makes it seem that the narrator is not.
2. The voice is created in the first paragraph (mostly) and is shown to be informative but in an informal way, she is narrating but only as a memory, she is setting out what has happened and why it was normal- The voice is created as a monologue of memory which slowly turns into a dialogue later on (old man ranting on).
3. The register of the voice of the passage is informal, angry, happy and very rude, the man is obviously used to swearing and has no care that a minor will hear him, he seems to be using very basic words that are just blunt enough to be considered brutish. He doesnt have any relation to the narrator except for his massive amount of swearing which the narrator 'loves'.
4.The readers response is controlled by the narrators actions towards the passage of text, instead of being outraged at the huge amounts of swearing the reader instead thinks much like the girl/narrator. If the narrator can put up with the language than we have no excuse as the reader not to, we also think how she thinks, so instead of disliking the language we accept it as being in a way very beautiful in how it can flow and show such emotion.
5.The impact it makes on me is that the narrator is clever in some ways, oblivious to what is actually happening in the stadium and is thus quite content on listening to what is going on around her. But she is also slightly rebellious in the way she finds fluent bad language, I would of thought that another person would be against such use of language on a sport especially one such as football.

Practical Information sheet homework

English Analysis of ‘Practical Information sheet’

The first part of the fact sheet clearly entitled ‘Practical Information’ is the main purpose of the whole sheet. It is within the few paragraphs within it that we get the ‘overall picture’ of the sheet. It is biased but it holds information in it which is very important towards the topic of the sheet and would not be told if it were unbiased furthermore it is located at the start (top left) of the sheet so we know It’s important. We can also guess that it is correct because of ‘The State Seal of Florida’ logo (the person who wrote it must live in Florida and so know what to expect).

There are many columns over the next two sides of the sheet all of which have a different topics and subtitles; firstly this makes it easy to navigate quickly to whatever you may want/need to know and secondly it provides the secondary purpose of the sheet- to inform you about many different topics. The columns are also arranged in an order which is relative to what you would need to know in real life e.g. ‘Visas’ column comes before ‘Customs allowances’ because you would need a visa before you even got to customs.

There are a few pictures in some of the columns which give an accurate example of what you should expect to see when you get to your destination e.g. under the ‘Traveling with children’ columns there is a picture showing a little boy on a ‘Dolphin stroller’ at SeaWorld. The pictures are also spaced around the sheet so that any white spaces can be filled, this helps the sheet look appealing and thus it makes the sheet more readable.

There is a directory easily visible at the right side of the sheet which has clear information categorised all the way down it with phone numbers and names for helpfulness. It has been put out on the right side because whilst over there it is out of the way but at the same time it is apparent and can be looked to when needed.

The disability sign is right next to the ‘Travellers with disabilities’ column this indicates where information about disabled access etc. will be and is very useful as a navigation purpose.

The lexis for the sheet is all very straight forward and informative (par the initial couple of paragraphs of ‘Practical information’ which are friendly, informal and biased) it is unbiased and is designed to yield results that will help you make a decision.