Summer Reading Blog Post 2

One main character in my book is a child that gets trapped under building rubble after an earthquake. He doesn't tell us his name. His main goal throughout the story is to survive the wreckage. He constantly yearns for water and does lots of crazy things in order to survive. For example, he gets so thirsty that he drinks his own urine for sustenance. He doesn't know whether he is still alive or not. It's impossible to be sure of anything in the darkness in which he is trapped.

Another main character is Toussaint l'Ouverture. His desire is for the rebellion to succeed against the white slavers that rule his nation. He is tasked with leading the rebellion because he is chosen by an Iwa (vodou god). He also feels conflicted as to whether he believes in the vodou or the Christian religion.

Some themes that are beginning to appear is that the risk of death can make people do crazy things. For example, as mentioned before, the child drinks his own urine. Another theme is that people can do great things if they are passionate. Toussaint l'Ouverture wasn't very into the vodou religion. Some people also said that he was visually unappealing. However, he is passionate about leading the rebellion.

In this story, it doesn't say chapter numbers. It says THEN or NOW. THEN focuses on the story behind Toussaint l'Ouverture. NOW focuses on the child's story.

Summer Reading Blog Post 1

My book, In Darkness by Nick Lake, has two different story lines. One is about a 15 year old Haitian child. He doesn't really reveal his name. All that we know about him is that he is trapped under a collapsed building after an earthquake. He doesn't really know whether he may be dead or alive. He constantly struggles to find water and food. He tells us all about how it led to him being trapped. This seems similar to the time that a man got his arm stuck in a mountain when he went rock climbing. He eventually had to cut his arm off to free himself. This is similar because both people were trapped with almost no sustenance and nobody was able to help him. However, the rock climber had light. I predict that the child will die in the rubble. I think that people  think that no one else is there.

 The other story in the book focuses on Haitian revolutionary, Toussaint l'Ouverture. He is a slave that believes in both the vodou and Christian religion. He has to lead a rebellion against the white slavers that occupy the country. He finds out during a ceremony before the war that he was chosen by an Iwa (vodou god) to lead the rebellion. This is similar to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Germany because the Jews in the ghetto rebelled against the Nazis that tried to take them to a concentration camp. I predict that the rebellion will triumph.

How will the story connect Toussaint to the child? What will happen to both of the protagonists?