Independant+Novel+Sudy

//Artemis Fowl -// by Eoin Colfer [] **Journal Entry 1** Pages - beginning to pg. 89

1. Why did you select this novel? I selected this novel because many of my friends have read it and they recommended it to me. I never got a chance until this assignment, so I'm actually taking this assignment quite happily. I find it to be a great book, and so far so I'm very happy with it. 2. What information did you need to know before reading the novel? I needed to have some sort of prologue on the story because I knew absolutely nothing about the series. This was provided by the little information summary on the back cover and the prologue. In order for the story to work, I needed to understand that his father was missing and that he is looking for the so called "fairies" and finally, I needed to know that he has a mother who is very sick.

3. What has happened before the novel began? Artemis has been on various expeditions, looking for his lost father, and trying to find "The People". Recently, they have been looking for "The Book", which is sort of like a Bible or a guideline for the fairy folk.They took a trip to Cairo, which ended up in a disastrous wild goose chase and a very disappointed Artemis. As the novel begins, they have taken a trip to Ho Chi Mingh city, because of a Internet request response.Their contact, a Vietnamese man, claims to know where to find "The Book" and meets them at a tea house. ** Journal Entry 2 **Pages - pg.89 to pg.159 5. Who is telling the story? How does this person’s perspective effect the way the story is told? The Story is told from a third person point of view. His perspective of not being in the story keeps himself uninvolved with the dangers of the current situation,  so the story teller never uses much emotion in the tone of voice. However, the mood of the story is made up for by the extensive amount of dialogue used. 6. What is the setting of the novel? Is the setting important or could the novel be happening anywhere? Why? Artemis is preparing to capture a fairy at an ancient oak tree. This is important, because the fairy is running low on magic and there must be an ancient oak by a riverbend and a full moon present in order for her to complete the magic replenishing ritual. Artemis also knows of the ritual, and sets many possible sites with ancient oaks, checking them systematically each full moon. When they finally catchs one, he mocks it and completely incapitates her. The tone of Artermis' voice is mocking and amusing., which sets the mood to be quite sinister. 7. What is the initial or first problem faced by the main character? Artemis' first problem was to locate places that met the criteria of the ritual. He first looked for ancient oaks over 100 years old, then andded the riverbend and found precisly 129 possible places. He checked each of them on full moons over a course of six months, and finally managed to get a fairy. ** Journal Entry 3 ** Pages - pg.159 to pg.285 8. How does the author get you to read on or hold your interest? He puts lots of suspension and action in the novel, along with some concepts that are very hard to grasp or understand, so I want to read on to have things explaned.He makes me want to know by making the prospect of knowing sound like it will deliver a vital piece of information.Very suspenseful and it is not resolved instantly. This makes me want to read on. 9. What new things are added to the original problem as the novel progresses? LEP officer Holly Short has been kidnapped by Artemis. LEP commander Julius Root is leading a team to rescue her from the clutches of Artemis Fowl at Fowl Manor. The fairies are trying to find out why the human knows so much about The People, so they have to get into the house, but since the rules say that they will lose their magic for eternity if the commit a housebreak, they must think of a way to get in and out without losing their magic. They do this by hiring a convict dwarf named mulch diggums who has already lost his magic. The fact that he's a dwarf is vital, since dwarves can literally ea through earth and rock, stripping it of any helpful minerals, and then release it from the back ends, just as it was. He gets in to the house, takes a look around, and finds out why the human knows so much about The People. Turns out, the devious Fowl boy has aquired a copy of the book. Mulch is delighted at his find and quickly reports back. However, he is planning to escape. He starts eating through the earth, finds a rabbit tunnel, grabs a rabbit and puts his camera on the rabbit. In the darkness of the underground, it is impossible to see the change from the camera, so the LEP are oblivious to Mulch's escape. 10. What plot twists or unexpected events happen as the novel goes on? One unexpected twist was how Butler was actually defeated once, by Mulch's excretion of rocks. It was very intriguing, since the manservant is portrayed as basically invincible. But to be defeated by a dwarf's rock excretion. Thinking back, it wasn't actually that crazy, since it was basically a ton of rock flying through the air at impossible speeds. No human, not even Butler could stand up to that kind of beating. Even with all the training he's had, he couldn't have stopped a force similar to a jet plane crashing into him. **Journal Entry 4** Pages - pg.285 to pg. 340 11. Comment on the style of the novel. Is it easy or hard to follow the events? The novel goes back and forth between two main settings (underground and Fowl Manor), but there remains a connection between the two places through a two way radio and "iris cam" literaly a contact lense with a camera, carried by LEP field unit Commander Root, hooked up to a computer down at LEP headquarters. The events are fairly easy to follow, but you must be able to distinguish between where it's happening, and wether or not it has jumped back in time to show what was happening at that time as well. So if words like "meanwhile" or "at the same time", The novel gets kind of confusing.

12. Is the language in the novel difficult or easy? GIve examples and explain. The language in the novel is fairly easy to understand, but there are exceptions, such as on page 290, when Commander Root says "put the kibosh on the deprivation-breeds-antisocial-behavior chestnut." so many adjectives subsections, it gets kind of hard to follow.

20. Is the novel believable? The novel is obviously fiction, but it is written like a science fiction story in certain ways. It has advanced technology that could very well exist, and scientific theories that make sense. However it's written to be believable as well, such as when it explains leprechaun as "**L**ower**E**lements**P**olice Recon, or LEPrecon". **Journal Entry 5** Pages - pg.340 to end 16. What is the climax of the novel? The Climax of the story is when Artemis, Butler and Juliet drink champagne to celebrate their victory. As they drink the wine, they ingest tranquilizer which allows them to fall asleep, despite the time field making it physically  impossible. The fact that they broke the natural laws of time stoppage, they were instantly ejected from the time stop field when they fell asleep. This resolves all but one problem of the story, that is, Artemis' mother is still ill. 17. How are the major and minor conflicts solved? The main conflict between the LEP and Artemis in trying to rescue Holly, was resolved when the LEP decided to send the ransom and Artemis let Holly out. however, the secondary problem of Artemis escaping the time  stop field and bio bomb has not yet been resovled. This is fixed when Artemis "mysteriously disappears" from the manor, and escapes, despite the fact that it is impossible to pysically escape. His life essence was  expelled from the time field when he fell asleep and his physical being was ejected into the real world. In the end, Madame Fowl's illness is also cured, as Artemis used the wish he bought from Holly to cure her. 18. What were the major things that helped to resolve the plot? The Plot was resolved through the Gold that served as a ransom for Holly, as this resolved the main conflict, and the champagne that Artemis drinks along with Butler and Juliet allowed the secondary problem to be resolved by having the residents of Fowl manor escape and survive the bio-bomb = Focus Assignment  = = Plot Summary =

__Introduction__
Artemis Fowl is in Ho Chi Minh City with his manservant, Butler because a certain Vietnamese man named Nguyen Xuan has answered Artemis' internet request to see a fairy, sprite, elf, dwarf or goblin. Artemis wants to take a look at "The Book" which is like the guide to life for the fairy folk. Each fairy has one, and Artemis is willing to go to extremes to get a copy of it. He photographs each page of the Ho Chi Minh sprite's book and and emails the files to himself.

Meanwhile, Captain Holly Short of the LEP (**L**ower **E**lements **P**olice) was trying to make it to work through the treacherous metropolis traffic of Haven City's downtown. Her Commander, Julius Root is extremely mad at her for being late. She is furious that just because she's the first female LEP officer ever, Root's being extra strict to her. Root has given her one last chance to prove herself worthy by taking a mission to subdue a fully grown rampaging bull troll.

Artemis has successfully translated The Book into English. Holly has chased the troll and tried to fight it in an Italian restaurant that the troll is in the process of demolishing. She is defeated miserably, but manages to weaken the troll enough for the retrieval squad to effectively capture. Root orders her to appear to him only after restoring her magic powers completely, so she goes out at night and goes to a restoration site. There, she attempts to do "The Ritual", the technical name for the magic restoration procedure.

__Conflict__
Artemis has thoroughly reviewed the fairy magic chapter, particularly the section on restoring magic. He plans to find all the places in his country that meet the criteria for magic restoration. Turns out, there are precisely 129 sites. They set up a stakeout at each of the sites, and over a period of 4 months, systematically check the sites. They find Holly Short at the ritual site and shoot her with a specialized tranquilizer dart, then take her back to Fowl Manor. When she wakes up, she is battered, tired and not in the right of mind from the damage. After recovering, she finds an acorn in her boot, and a plan formed in her mind.

__Rising Action__
Holly's plan is to use her cot as a hammer and damage the cell until a small patch of earth appears so that she can complete the ritual. It works, and escapes her cell running hot on magic. Root has time-stopped Fowl Manor. He has taken a retrieval squad with him led by LEP Captain Trouble Kelp. Root tries to negotiate with Artemis, and Artemis says "I am special, because I can escape the time stop." Root thinks Artemis is crazy. He comes with a plan to send Mulch Diggums, a dwarf criminal, to go into the house and figure out how Artemis knows so much about the fairies. He runs around, and finds a copy of the book. He also even manages to dispatch the almost invincible Butler using his "excretions". He apparently "dies in a cave in while tunneling out" when in reality just fakes it and tunnels away and to freedom, since he had pick pocketed Root's time-field portal access card. Root's lieutenant, Briar Cudgeon, suggests to, and sends in a troll. He is a backstabber to Root and only wants to secure himself a seat on the Fairy High Council. His troll happens to be the only one that the LEP has ever managed to take alive, and it is the one that Holly defeated earlier. The troll is eventually defeated again by Butler, but only after dispatching Holly again and causing tons of damage. Root sends in the gold after Cudgeon's Plans fail, and Holly comes out. The prepare to detonate the Bio-Bomb

__Climax__
Artemis Fowl has a plan to escape the Time-Field. Foaly says it's impossible. Who's right? Well, Artemis is right, as always. He suggests that they have a toast, to their victory. He gets out some champagne and wine glasses. He instructs Butler and Juliet to drink the wine. Butler is suspicious, and immediately tastes the tranquilizer. He could have easliy snapped Artemis' neck before he passed out, but decided not to cause too much distress to his sister. When they wake up, turns out Artemis' plan to escap worked. they needed to unnaturally change states of being from awake to asleep for time to "Flow". Their beings slipped back into the real world as they slipped into sleep and escaped the Bio-Bomb.

__Falling Action__
Artemis has around 15 million dollars worth of gold and is feeling very pleased with himself. He has successfully escaped the time field and has beaten the LEP. The wish he had bought from Holly for half of the ransom was used to heal his mother. He did not, however, do this out of compassion. He does this because Social services are starting to get on his case, and he doesn't want to have to deal with them. To tell the truth, he's not so happy that his mother has recovered, because now he has to start living like any other twelve year-old. School, silliness, friends, etc. not so appealing to Artemis Fowl.

__Conclusion__
Artemis is mostly satisfied. He has half a ton of 24 carat gold, worth roughly 15 million US dollars, A copy of The Book, and the ability to exploit the fairy race, however he seems hesitant to do so. It is possible that he has learned, if not at least starting to learn, to care for other's feelings. The only thing that will hinder him from future expeditions is his mother, who has fully recovered from her mental illness, due to Artemis' wish to have her cured. But he does not seem to think of it as a problem. We will just have to wait and see!