Book report

Ellen Emerson White, Long Live The Queen, New York: Scholastic Inc, 343pages, 1989.

Summary:
Meg, the president’s daughter lived with her family in White House. She has nice parents, brothers and butlers. One day, she left home to school with her brothers us usual. Suddenly, something exploded right ahead of them, and some cars and vans were approaching to them in a very high speed with smoke. Some masked men burst out of the car and shot them. Meg saw the blood coming out from her brothers. Screaming, she was taken into the van by a man and brought to somewhere. She was kidnapped. Meg was put in a dark room alone. She was so scared that she cried a lot. She couldn’t understand why she was kidnapped. She was also shot side of her face, so she had some pain. She was forced to spend a few days in the room without any food or drink. Some days after she was kidnapped, the kidnappers came into her room with an injection and guns in their hands. They seemed like kill her. She was so scared and resisted a lot, but she was injected and fainted. After a while, she came to and found she was in a dark cave alone chained her arm to the wall. She was so weak that she was almost about to die. However, she tried to break the chain and finally she could run out from the cave. She asked for help, and found a boy. The boy called the police and she was finally rescued. She escaped death by. She could come back home though she had so terrible experience and got pain. Even after she was in safe, she was frightened and saw bad dream of the kidnappers. However, her parents and friends helped her and she gradually restored to the dairy life.

Setting: New York, America in the 19th Century

Point of view: This story is told from the third person.

Conflict: Meg was in conflict with the kidnappers. She didn’t understand what they wanted, but she knew that they had no intention of letting her live.

Climax: Meg thought she would be killed many times, but she was finally rescued and safe. Though she had very terrible and fear experience, with helps of many people around her, she gradually became good and restored. This is the climax of the story.

Symbol: “The kidnapper” is the symbol of this story. Meg was sending a good life until she was kidnapped by them. She had very scared experience and even after she was in safe, she dreamed bad dreams of them and needed a lot of time to restore. The kidnappers changed her life and gave her bad effect also to people around her.

Irony: The irony of this book is when Meg found her alive in a cave and relieved somewhat for not being killed, she also noticed that she was tied by chain to the wall and couldn’t escape from there. She was alone with no food or drink. She would die soon, though the kidnappers had gone to somewhere. Though there was water out of the cave for just three miles away, she couldn’t get it because she couldn’t move. This is very irony.

Theme: The theme of this book is “We cannot expect what will happen in the life”. Meg’s life was beginning to fall into routine, and then she was kidnapped. Though there was security office in White House, she was kidnapped. This story tells us that we cannot be too careful and expect what will happen next.

Evaluation: This story was written in a little difficult English, so it was not so easy for me to read this book. This story included unforeseen occurrence and unusual situation, I read it with my heart beating fast expecting what would happen next. In the point, this story is very exciting and interesting. However, there often appeared guns, kidnappers, and pain in this story, so I also felt scared as well as Meg. When Meg was finally rescued by police officers, I was really relieved. This story gave me the feeling of being there. I wonder if a man of the kidnappers loved Meg. I think she was not killed because of the man. She might be killed if the man wasn’t there when they tried to kill her. I was impressed by that many people tried to help her to restore in hospital after she was rescued, by showing many DVDs or speaking to her. I felt Meg was loved by many people and kindness of them. According to this story, I thought that the president’s daughter is difficult and dangerous. If I was in such a situation which Meg was put in, I would loose control and go mad. Through this book, I thought it is important for us to live a full life in each time because we cannot expect what will happen in the future.