Valley-of-Waters-Under-the-Earth ch.17 promt #1

I absolutely love how throughout this whole book James Marshall gives you facts about the terrain and the animals that live there. I think it brings the book onto another level. He demonstrates this particularly when Mary and Peter reach the valley of waters under the earth. Here there was an abundance of life and prosperity. For example he discusses the Jesus Bird, " walking the water on their long, disproportionate toes (that use the fragile underwater lily leaves as stepping stones). Tidbits like that just make the reading that much more interesting.

Passivity Ch.7 promt #4

Throughout the story so far, Mary has been very reserved and just kind of going with whatever the bush boy and her brother do. However, you do catch a hint of jealousy from her toward the bush boy. This is due to Peter looking to him for comfort instead of his older sister. It even say on page 65, that, "Uncertain, unsure, she fell back on a woman's oldest line of action-- passivity. She'd simply wait and see." Right now, Mary is unsure about how much help the bush boy is giving them and whether or not he is leading them in the right direction. I find this a little odd, if I were in her shoes, I would be looking for all the help I could get, especially from someone who knows the land.

Death is upon us! ch. 14 prompt 7

Off of my earlier prediction that the aboriginal would die, it came to be true. But the method about it is a little suspect.  The bush boy had come down with a cold for the first time and he saw it as a sign of his death. Up to this point he had taught Mary and Pete many valuable lessons and helped them travel many miles toward their destination. But he saw it as his time to die and because of it he did. It was due to the cold, but do to the loss of willingness to live and push for. The irony of the situations was that the look Mary gave him was not her seeing the spirit of death in his eyes, but of dissaproval on not wearing any clothes, at least to cover of his private parts.

Common Ground Ch. 14 Prompt #14

In chapter 14, when the bush boy died, Mary finally saw him for what he was. "Before, she had seen only as through a glass darkly, but now she saw face to face. And in that moment of truth all her fears and inhibitions were sponged away, and she saw that the world which she had thought was split in two was one." (pg. 123). This symbolizes how even though they did not speak the same language, they were able to still communicate and understand each other. He made them able to live off the land and adapt to the new and unfamiliar environment.

The White Children's Society Ch. prompt #8

The deeper message I am getting from the book is that of the time period in which the story takes place and how different races are viewed. What I noticed was that they possessed a very southern ideology, particularly Mary. Mary was the older of the two so she has been around longer and knows more about how life is around their home during this time period. You could say that due to Pete's youth he was ignorant and naive to race. She though definitely looked down upon the aboriginal and saw him as an inferior. They mentioned that their home was in Charleston, which supports my claim. I think the book takes place sometime in the mid 1900's before the civil rights movement or during. It had to have been sometime around here because the first ever commercial plane flight occurred in 1945 and there plane went down in the middle of the Australian outback, long flight from Charleston. Also, at the end Mary was not as embarrassed about being naked in front of the Black Aboriginal as she would have been if the man were white.

The Spirit of Death Ch. 7 prompt #6

I am going to make a prediction that the Bush Boy is going to die soon and the two white children will have to fend for themselves. I make this assumption off of a line at the end of chapter seven, "For, to him, the girl's terror could have only one meaning: that she had seen in his eyes an image-- the image of the Spirits of Death." His tribe believes that when it is your time to die, it is your time to die. If the spirit of death wishes to take your soul, it will. 

Learning a new language Ch. 6 prompt #3

What stuck out most to me was how willing Peter was to interact with the aboriginal and learn from him. He was the one who made the first move. He was quick to learn and adapt to what the bush boy told him. And he also started to learn some key words from the aboriginals language to make communication a little smoother. "Larana" meant fire, "Arkooloola" was water, and food was "Yeemara". And most important, Peter, was the one who made sure they stayed with the bush boy which was key to their survival, cause without him they would have been dead within a few days.

What's a Walkabout anyway??? Ch. 6 Promt #18

The name Walkabout came from the bush boy's tribe. The Aboriginal that Mary and Peter came across helped them survive and be self reliant off the land. The reason that the young aboriginal was alone and not with his tribe was due to the Walkabout. In his tribe when a male gets to be fourteen, in order to become a man he must go off alone and survive by himself for six to eight months. He just happened to come across the two during his travels and noticed that they were different and not from the area. Seeing that they seemed helpless, he took it upon himself to insure they survive even though he is braking traditions of his culture by talking to them during his Walkabout. In a sense, that is what Mary and Peter were on. A journey where they must survive until rescued or until them make it back to civilization. If I had to change the name of the book, I might name it "Learning to Survive".  That is what they did with the help of the Aboriginal. They learned how to make a fire, find food, water, and identify clues in nature that helped them survive. 

Authors got Style Ch. 2 prompt #11

James Marshall I believe is a fantastic writer. He is able to right a story and make it seem like you are standing right next to the characters. He uses knowledge about the area to enhance his writing and allow you to understand everything that is going on quite easily. Marshall uses vivid language throughout to describe things that are important and meaningless to the progression of the story. But it makes the story seem more realistic, so that not every single line is focused on a character. One example of this would be, "As the light gained in intensity, the bush beyond the gully took on new colors; vivid colors: jade and emerald, white and green, crimson, scarlet and gold." I like how he used the words crimson and scarlet instead of an ordinary plain and simple red. To me, these small differences are what separates something ordinary and something that has over 500,000 copies in print. James Vance Marshall is actually a pseudonym for Donald Gordon Payne.

Elements of a WALKABOUT Ch. 1 Prompt #17

The story, the Walkabout, written by James Vance Marshall, takes place in the Australian outback. The main idea of the story is that there is a 13 year old female named Mary, and her 8 year old brother, Peter. Their plane went down in the middle of the australian outback and they are trying to survive in this unknown environment. They meet a native to the land but have trouble communicating with him due to difference in language. They are trying to make it to the city Adelaide where they have an uncle and back to civilization. But in order to do this, they must cross many miles in harsh terrain.

An Ancient World

The Incan Ruins high up in the mountains of Peru known as Machu Picchu is one of the worlds most historic sites. If you had the opportunity to visit a historic place of the world where would you go.

Che's Impact

Che Guevara had become somewhat of a different man as he grew up and came out of his journey across South America. His travels made him what he was in the end. I believe he started off young and naive, then as he trecked around South America he saw how different governments worked and operated. He also saw what different people were like and how they were treated by their government. His ideology was centered around a utopian society, where everyone is on an even playing field and nobody is better than anybody else. But when this could not come true he went to what he thought to be the next best thing. That was the communist regime of Fidel Castro. I believe Castro put a facade over what his ruling would be like and that is what Che saw. I believe that Che helped people out, gave them hope and opportunity, but when is comes down to it, he caused destruction to a lot of people. He was the one who carried out the deaths to thousands of people and saw it as his duty to perform this task. Because of these tasks I feel his legacy will be tarnished even though I do believe he started off on good intentions.

Chile in six words

Ribbon like country of Incan ancestry.

A stop in Chile

During Che's time in Chile, he was here during a presidential election. At the end of the section, Che discusses how the candidates come from different political fields. He feels that the front runner is Carlos Ibanez who is part of the socialist party. He favors the anti-United States view point. I think this is where Che first really discovers the differences in political systems and it is where he starts deciding for himself which he believes will work best. He sees how discrimination affects people, like how, "40,000 communists were being denied the right to vote" (p.88)