Themes In Katherine Applegate's The One And Only Ivan

Themes and motifs: The book, Water for Elephants, has a symbolic study of human need for love and acceptance. The primary symbols are revealed through unique characters that struggle to feed deep internal desires. Rosie, the elephant, is a big and powerful symbol. More than just being a performing animal, Rosie reflects the desperation of so many

In this sometimes heartbreaking, inspiring novel, Rob Horton, a glum,twelve year old boy living his sad, lonely life with his dad, was wandering through the woods one misty Florida morning when he finds the most unexpected creature, a beautiful tiger. A real life glistening tiger, locked up in a cage. On the same outstanding day he meets a fierce girl named Sistine Bailey while in school. Together, with the tiger always in their hearts;guiding them and leading them to make choices, they go through heartaches,happiness and loneliness. Also, despite their opposites,they uncover the meaning of true friendship and learn that the most important things in life, can’t stay hidden forever. In my opinion, this book teaches an important lesson. I think the lesson taught in this novel is inspiring, and is something worth-while. I think this book teaches you that you can’t focus on your past, and you can’t keep the whole world locked up forever.

Change is unavoidable. It occurs in everyone’s life, no matter their circumstances. These changes can vary from being minor to being very significant. Although these changes can affect an individual in its aftermath, there is a lot of fear and anxiety that many people have prior to the change occurring. For example, a young child may worry about starting school due to the new environment and people. This essay will highlight the major changes in the story, “The Giraffe”, and changes in my life that shaped my thinking today. Furthermore, I will explore the similarities and differences between the events that occur in the story and in real life. This essay will highlight that you should embrace change, accept new experiences and face reality

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is about Ivan, a silverback gorilla who is raised by a human and lives in captivity at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan is brought to the Exit 8 after being captured and separated from his family while living in the wild. Ivan considers his new habitat a “domain” and refuses to admit that he is living in a cage. However, when Stella, an elephant, dies as a result of neglect, Ivan is forced to accept his situation. Moreover, he has to fight to keep the promise he made to save Ruby, a young elephant, from going down the same path as the rest of them. In her novel, The One and Only Ivan, Applegate uses characterization, setting, and plot to convey Ivan’s determination to become a protector.

The book Endangered is about the journey of survival and the connection between a young American girl (Sophie) and a bonobo monkey (Otto) in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sophie’s mother lives in the Congo and runs a bonobo sanctuary. While on her way to the sanctuary to visit her mother for the summer, Sophie sees a man on the side of the road with a bonobo. She notices how malnourished and how bad the bonobo looks and against the rules of her mother, Sophie purchases the bonobo. When she reaches the sanctuary her mother is upset because even though she had good intentions of saving the bonobos life, bargaining with the man Sophie inadvertently promoted the illegal sale of the endangered bonobos. While at the sanctuary Sophie struggles to improve Otto’s health and a

To start with, the narrative in “The Elephant in the Village of the Blind” is very simple; the main

Imagine you are visiting a zoo, seeing all the animals and the Zookeeper, would you think that they were being treated poorly? Jacqueline Adams, the author of “The Stripes will Survive” was about these two cubs that learned different techniques from their zookeeper. Nicholas

The story “Shooting an Elephant” is told by an ongoing and first person narrator, who was committed to events he was faced with and obtained insight and wisdom from these adventures even though he struggled internally and externally.

Like a ghost, he hides all the time and is afraid of the light. Among the Hidden is a fictional book by Margaret Peterson Haddix that takes place in a dystopian society. The story is about a boy named Luke Garner who does not legally exist. There is a law that families are not allowed to have more than two children, and Luke has two older brothers. Therefore, Luke has spent his whole life in hiding. Luke had never met anyone except his immediate family, until now. When Luke sees another third child’s face in his neighbor’s house he decides to risk his life to go meet her. Taking risks can be scary, but can change the way the life path twists forever.

We are introduced to the main characters of the story here, Ivan the Silverback gorilla, who is also the narrator of the story, introduces us as the reader to his home inside the mall. The setting is described from Ivan’s point of view, and here we realize just how lonely his life is. According to Ivan in the story he describes his setting as “I am lucky my domain has three windowed walls. I can see the whole mall and a bit of the world beyond: the frantic pinball machines, the pink billows of cotton candy, the vast and treeless parking lot” (Applegate 2012, p. 14). This gives us an indication as the reader how miserable yet accurate the life of a circus gorilla is. A gorilla should have the freedom of the wild which we see that Ivan and his fellow characters do not have further exceeding in the accuracy of the setting of the story. Applegate is able to give a clear delineation of the setting which ties into the overall concept of her story which was that of humanity and what it means to be compassionate for other living

Ishmael is told from the point of view of a middle-aged man who had long given up his idea of ‘saving the world’, but an ad in the personals section of the newspaper reignites his youthful dreams. Pursuing the ad, the man finds himself in the home of Ishmael, an old gorilla that has more to offer the world than most humans. Ishmael, with the help of his previous caretaker Walter Sokolow, has

The movie Water for Elephants and the book Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen are both intriguing stories that capture one’s heart when reading the book or watching the movie. Though both versions of the story seemed fascinating, I happened to find the book better than the movie for many reasons. Due to the book being told from one of the main characters, Jacob’s, point of view, gave a certain view and understanding of the use of imagery, characterization, and detail, in which the movie was not able to illustrate as well.

Elephant is the garden by Michael Morpurgo is an adventure filled story about Lizzie’s childhood. Lizzies father left to go fight in the war, leaver her, her mother, and Karli who is her little brother, behind. Lizzie’s family is waiting for the air sirens to sound saying that they are being bombed. While this anxious time period is happening, Lizzie’s mother brings an elephant home from the zoo called Marlene. Lizzie’s mother says “we have been told to put down any dangerous animals, but I can’t let Marlene go”. A couple of days later the whole family find themselves running across a park trying to catch up to Marlene, after she had run after a dog. That is when they hear the sound they had been dreading, “air sirens”. After hours of running

Within the story “Once Upon a Time” by South African author Nadine Gordimer one of the main themes discussed would have to be that fear in the end leads to disaster. Gordimer says in the story that the characters are allowing fear to control their actions. Because fear is such a strong emotion, it can be the cause for many irrational and thoughtless actions that inevitably lead to disasters. Along with these actions Fear can cause hallucinations like in “Once Upon a Time.”

Elephant is a short story written by Polly Clark in 2006. My focus point is William and his life, which I will analyze and interpret. I will also discuss the