Book Tests

Book Test 1

1. Provide 2 examples where you feel your author clearly used research methods to gather info about the topic being written about. Please provide quotes from the novel for each example and THOROUGHLY explain why you chose that quote and why you feel the novelist was also a researcher.

At first I was unable to see exactly how the author used research to get information to write the book, but after talking to Marlen and getting ideas, I was then able to see many examples of her research in the novel. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is very much based on research and the accuracy of the research to make the story sound legitimate. Without the research Murphy has done, the story would have come out sounding much like the fairy tale it is based off of.

The first and most prominent example to me is the research Murphy did on the geography and landscape of the area. The books’ setting is Poland, more specifically, the city of Piaski and the Bialowieza Forest. Without the research done on these areas, Murphy would not have been able to give the travels of the children or the partisans throughout the book. At the end of the book, Louise Murphy answers some questions for the readers. In this section, she says “I read for three years and took hundreds of pages of notes to understand the area and the people, the timetables and the daily details of life in a Polish village” (Murphy 5). This quote was one that I chose for the obvious reason that it shows Murphy did do an extensive amount of research for the book. But even without this quote, one should be able tell that she researched this area intensely as they read through the novel. I found the travels of the partisans to be very detailed. I found a good example of the travels of the partisans came with this quote, “”We keep going east,” the Russian said. “The Soviet army must be just ahead of us. We’ll thread our way through the Germans, link with my people, and fight our way to Germany” (Murphy 188). Throughout the book, the partisans traveled up and down the countryside of Poland to fight off any Nazi they found. Murphy uses the research that she found to give the reader detailed descriptions of their travels and plans of action. I chose this quote above because it shows exactly what the point of the partisan movement was during the war. I did not know about the partisans until reading the book, but found out that they played a very big role in protecting the Polish people against the Nazi.

As with the geography, Murphy had to do some research on the different rankings and jobs of the Nazi army. There are multiple characters throughout the book that have specific rankings, and their actions match this ranking. She writes in the novel that the Polish children were only allowed schooling on certain days, and on those days in which they were taught, they were taught the rankings of the army. She displays this in a scene where Hansel is playing with the children of Piaski and he orders each child to be a different ranking of the Nazi army. He tells the younger children, “You’re the Hauptmann and you take command from the Oberst. And we have to have a regular soldier, so you’re the Grenadier” (Murphy 141). These rankings are not something that is common day knowledge to most people. Without the research of the positions and the ranks, Murphy would not have been able to have Hansel give off the order of ranks and who they take command from. Overall, throughout the book, Murphy did an outstanding job of using research to make the story more believable and pull the reader further into the story.

2. How does the author hook in the reader at the beginning of the novel? Please provide 2 quotes from the novel and THOROUGHLY explain why you chose those quotes and why you feel the novelist did what he/she did.

Louise Murphy does an amazing job using the intro of the novel to draw the attention of the reader. As we talked about in class after reading multiple articles on the subject of the introduction paragraph/paper, we learned that many times it is very effective to use a story at the beginning of a paper to grab the attention of the audience. This is exactly what Louise Murphy does with her novel. It may sound odd to say that the author uses a story to begin a story, because honestly that is what the whole book is, but she uses a particular scene to hook the reader.

The first thing she does to hook the reader is to use the heading “Once Upon A Time” (Murphy 2). I found this to be very clever because the book is based off a very well known children’s fairy tale that begins with the same line. Many readers probably picked out the novel because of the title and the association to the fairy tale. This particular heading made me as a reader feel the connection and want to know exactly what the real story of Hansel and Gretel is, so I continued to read.

As I said, Murphy uses a particular scene to hook the reader into the story. The scene that she uses is very descriptive, and very suspenseful. This type of story many times makes the reader want to continue to read to see what happens to the characters. Along with the suspense of the intro, Murphy taps into a reader’s emotions by giving the thoughts of a father who is on the run because of his religion and about to see his whole family killed right in front of his eyes. She explains in one of the first paragraphs how the father had survived many trials and tribulations and had gotten his family out of the ghetto. She describes his fear of this being the end by writing, “ Hearing the screams and shots all night. Hearing them when he was awake. Hearing them in his dreams when he slept. He would not look over his shoulder again. The pursuing Nazis would be closer and he couldn’t bear much more” (Murphy 3). This quote and the ones surrounding it made me as a reader feel the emotions of the father. You learn in the intro that he cares so much for his children that me leaves them in the woods to save their lives. All of the love you learn that the father has makes you want to continue to read on to see if they are all reunited at the end of the book.

3. What is the connection between the introduction and conclusion of the novel? How does/doesn't the author form a circle between intro and conclusion? More specifically, what have you learned about storytelling from this author considering the Zinsser article you read about "the lead and the ending" and the Faryna article "Finding identity and voice?"

Had I not been given this question for this test, I may not have even thought of the connection that Murphy makes between the introduction and conclusion of the novel, but it is a very good one that I would have overlooked. In the introduction of the book, the reader learns that a family is on the run from the Nazi because they have escaped from a concentration camp. The family is riding on a motorcycle that the father, who is a mechanic, has rebuilt. The motorcycle is running low on gas, and the weight of the entire family is slowing them down, and the Nazi are gaining on them. It is a quick decision, but the family splits and the children are told to hide in the woods and when they believe the cost is clear to search for someone to take care of them. The children do as told, and are left by their parents with new names, Hansel and Gretel, for they can no longer use their Jewish names.

Throughout the book, the father continues to search for the children, but is unsuccessful, eventually believing them to be dead. But Murphy writes an amazing conclusion where the children and father are reunited in the city in which they once all lived freely. With this ending, Murphy has written for the family a full circle, one in which they have had many hard times. It is also interesting to see a connection between the names in the introduction and the conclusion. In the beginning of the book, the children were told to forget their Jewish names, and given the new ones, but by the end of the book, they can no longer remember their real names. This is interesting to read, and I found it quite odd. But I felt that because the family was reunited, the names were very trivial when it came down to it.

All of the articles that we have read in class have made me realize that the author must not only give research as straight forward facts, but they must also become story tellers. Or I could say that story tellers must also become researchers. Either statement works, because both are true. Louise Murphy used her story telling talent and her research skills to write a remarkable story that both caught my attention and kept it throughout the entirety of the novel.

Works Cited

Murphy, Louise. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel; a novel of war and survival. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

Book Test 2

# 2

As I stated many times to you and also in class discussion, I was very ignorant about what exactly research writing was and how much goes into writing a research paper. I also did not realize that many novels that I read and hear about are written by authors that are not only authors but also researchers. After being made to do intensive research myself and reading two novels that are strongly based on research, I feel I have a better understanding, and maybe even liking, or the research process.

The first novel that I read, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louis Murphy, was an outstanding book. Had I read it on my own time and not had this course on research writing, I honestly never would have thought that the author would have had to do any sort of research to write the novel. I would have just assumed she was a very creative person who focused greatly on detail and would have thought “wow, this was a great book”. Now however, I realize that Murphy would have been unable to write such detailed descriptions without research. Murphy gives such great descriptions of the landscape and geography throughout the book. The books’ setting is Poland, more specifically, the city of Piaski and the Bialowieza Forest. Without the research done on these areas, Murphy would not have been able to give the travels of the children or the partisans throughout the book. Murphy admits in a short interview at the end that she done intensive research on the area. She states, “I read for three years and took hundreds of pages of notes to understand the area and the people, the timetables and the daily details of life in a Polish village” (Murphy 5). Because I was asked to look for examples of research, I would not have needed this quote, but it helps give a greater understanding of exactly how much research Murphy did for this novel.

Along with a better understanding of how research writing could be used not only for research papers, but for novels too, I now have a stronger grasp on the concept of finding your voice in writing. This is one of the most important things I have learned so far in the course. I use to write all of my papers like I thought my teachers would want them written. I tried to use complicated sentences and big words, but honestly that is not exactly how I talk. We learned in class that this is unnecessary. In the novel, Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison, One finds a story of a man who grew up with aspergers but was unaware of the disease until later on in life. Throughout the book, I got a feeling like I was just sitting there listening to the man tell of his life. Some of the novel jumped around, and from experience with a person with aspergers, I found that this is somewhat the way they talk. I feel that Robison put down his story the way he wanted to, not the way he thought people would want to hear it written. This is a prime example of finding your voice in your writing. Had Robison written the story different, it may have not been as successful because it would not be as personal.

Overall I have learned a great deal from reading the novels. Research writing is an intense process. The novels are great ways to help students better understand exactly how the research process goes down and what it can be used for.

#3 book test 2 – Once upon a time…

Works Cited

Murphy, Louise. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel; a novel of war and survival. New York: Penguin Books, 2003

Robison, John. Look me in the eye; my life with Asperger’s. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008.