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Essay on The Whale Rider

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This book really grabbed me right from the beginning of the story. The story begins with the birth of fraternal twins, with the grandfather patiently awaiting the birth of the son. Right away I felt sadness when the mother and one of the twins die. The boy dies and the girl survives. The grandpa seems to not care about the girl who survived . He was longing for his grandson because he is from the Maori tribe and the tribe is waiting for the sign of a new chief to be born . The chief would lead the village and its community to greatness. Many elders have been born but none with the strength to be the next chief. The little girl was named Pai. The grandma of Pai took her home to raise her along with the grandfather. The grandfather showed …show more content…

But those words didn’t get to her at all it seemed to make her try harder. In the movie, There’s a part where The grandfather takes the boys from the school out to the sea. He drops a whale tooth necklace into the sea. He tells the boys “ One of you will bring this back to me” . The boys dive in and actually one comes close to getting it but it falls through his hands back to the sea. The grandfather loses all hope for his tribe and at the same time he again blames the girl. It really was sad to watch at times how he lays all the blame on his tribe to her birth. He feels that the birth of a girl was the biggest curse ever. Pia secretly still wanting all the knowledge of her grandfather and I don’t think she actually thinking “I want to be the tribe leader” . I feel that for Pia is was just wanting the acceptance and uncondional love of her grandad. . Pia was learning and becoming exactly what the tribe needed and she was a girl. Pia would hear her grandfather trying to call in the whales but she knew that they were not listening to him. So she began to call them in for him. She had the power to do so. Pia wanted to what ever it took to help her grandad. I think as the movie progressed it got more intense . The granddad was wanting Pia out of his house . He felt she was messing up his world by not listening to him. She was rebelling from him and he wasn’t ready for that . He was used to the

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