Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see the future? In the book Numbers by Rachel Ward, the main character, Jem, can see the date of when people die. She has seen the number of when people will die for as long as she remembers. When she is fifteen, Jem meets a boy named spider. The two are accused of bombing the London Eye, a big ferris wheel. Spider and Jem run away together and fall in love. The only problem is that Jem can see the date of Spider's death, which is very soon. On the date of when Spider is supposed to die, Jem is overcome with sadness. She thinks that if she is dead that the numbers, the dates when people will die, won't exist. Instead of her jumping off the church roof and dying, Spider slips off the wall and sadly falls to his death. The author conveys the idea that seeing the future isn't always a good thing.

 In the beginning of the story Jem can see the numbers but she doesn't know what they mean. The author shows her in a stroller reading out the numbers she sees in the people that pass. Then she sees her mother's number "and all the time, as we we sat there eye to eye her number was there, stamped inside of my skull:10102001". She soon learns what it meant, "four years later, I watched a man in a scruffy suit write it down on a piece of paper: Date of Death:10.10.2001." This shows us that her ability is connected to her mother's death, which is a terrible loss in her life.


 She sees the date of when the love of her life Spider, will die. She is so sad because Spider doesn't know that he is going to die soon, but Jem can't tell him because it isn't right. After they are accused of the bombing, they run away. At first Jem and Spider get away at first, but then Spider is caught.
When Jem and Spider are finally reunited it is the date that Spider is suppose to die. Jem thinks that
if she doesn't exist then the numbers won't exist and Spider won't die. Jem is going to jump off the top of the church, but Spider stops her, after they talk and she has calmed down, "he spun 'round to face me, ready to jump down. Our eyes met, and we held each other's gaze; my warmth and love for him reflected right back to me. It was going to be alright. And then his foot slipped on the we stone and his balance was gone."


   Jem becomes pregnant with spider's baby. When she has the baby boy, she can not see the numbers any more, she is very relieved. Jem's foster mother Karen dies of illness, she had known that she was going to die on that day. At the very end of the story Adam's teacher calls Jem in for a conference.
The teacher talks about a drawing Adam made. "Above the head of the taller figure, arching over like a rainbow, was some writing I think you meant to write mommy, didn't you, Adam? No miss, I told you. It's not her name. It's her number. It's Mommy's special number." This is a big twist to the happy ending. Jem must be super upset at that moment.


   The author does an excellent job overall making the case that seeing the future is problematic. The only problem is that she causes too many people die very young. Most of the major characters die very young. While this makes the book even more dramatic and sad, it is unnecessary. Even if the most of the characters lived long lives, she could still make the point that it is a burden. Reading this book makes the reader glad that they can't see the future.





























































     

Faithful Elephants

Benji Timoner

806

  Faithful Elephants is a twist on a regular children’s story—instead of beginning in sadness and ending in joy, it opens in happiness and ends in darkness. The true story takes place in a zoo in Japan during World War II. It tells of how three elephants were killed under orders from the army so that they wouldn’t escape and rampage through the city. The author, Yukio Tsuchiya, shows the impact of war on animals and people.

In the story the author uses the setting to express feeling and anticipate the variation of mood from beginning to end.

   The story starts at Ueno Zoo with cherry blossoms in full bloom. Tsuchiya describes the setting by saying: “Their petals are falling in the soft breeze and sparkling in the sun. Beneath the cherry trees, crowds of people are pushing to enter the zoo on such a beautiful day.” The author uses this setting to create a picture and feeling of happiness and peace. The author adds to the mood of joy by describing two elephants performing tricks, “While blowing toy trumpets with their long trunks the elephants walk along large wooden logs.” These playful elephants will be contrasted to the other elephants in the story. 

    The mood immediately shifts from happiness to foreboding when the author introduces a new setting. “Not far from the cheerful square, there stands a tombstone.” This sentence leads into the story about how the army was afraid that bombs would hit the zoo and let the animals loose, so they killed all of the big animals. When they tried to poison the elephants it didn’t work, so they starved the three elephants to death. The zookeeper loved the elephants so much that “he could only pace in front of the cage and moan.” That shows how empty everyone felt about what was happening. This section leads us to an ending of sorrow.

    The concluding setting paints a depressing picture. As the elephants lie dying, they can barely see “the white clouds floating in the sky over the zoo.” This is depressing because it is so beautiful and it is the last thing they will see. The story ends in the same way it began, with the description of cherry blossoms falling. However, the mood has changed completely: “The cherry blossoms fell on the grave, like snowflakes.” This demonstrates how much suffering happened in this zoo.

     From beginning to end the author takes us on a journey of moods. The author not only introduces different settings to create different moods, but also contrasts the same setting to highlight the mood of sorrow at the end of the story. In the beginning, the cherry blossoms are falling on a happy scene of life, but at the end they are falling on a scene of death. This shows us that tragedy happens even in beautiful places.  Because the author uses setting to make us feel the tragedy of the elephants at the zoo, the story makes us aware that happiness and peace are very precious.