Gone Girl By: Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl by: Gillian Flynn   Published in 2012

Author: Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, whose parents were both community- college professors. Her mom taught reading, while her father taught film.Flynn had a great childhood, because she had spent a lot of time watching movies and going through many books. She made a lot of good memories by reading books that she loved; and one of them was A Wrinkle in Time. While she was in high school, she had many strange jobs that she had to do.These jobs required her to do things such as wrap and unwrap hams, and even to dress up as a giant yogurt cone. After high school, she attended the University of Kansas, where she received her undergraduate degrees in both English and Journalism.  After about two years writing about human resources in California for a trade magazine, she moved to Chicago. In Chicago, she went to Northern University, and earned her maters degree in Journalism.Flynn was also a movie geek, and she moved to New York City, where she joined Entertainment Weekly magazine, and wrote for 10 years, while visiting film sets all around the world. Flynn is also the author of Dark Places and Sharp Objects. Her book, Dark Places, was the first book to ever win multiple Daggers in one year.Flynn's work has been published around the world in 28 different countries. Now, she lives in Chicago with her husband Bret Nolan, their one son, and a cat named Roy.

Genre: Fiction

Characteristics of fiction: Fiction is any narrative work in which the events that take place are imaginary. In a story, the plot is the overall action, or the sequence of events, that make up the whole story. Also, the point of view refers to how the author is telling the story, and from whose perspective. So, fiction is something that never really happened, and is told in the form of a story. 

Characters and Character Traits

Nick Dunne: Nick is a very calm, and an independent guy. He likes to do things his way, and is not a very emotional or romantic husband. He is the husband of Amy Elliot, and tries to make her happy, but he somehow cannot all the time. He is significant to the story, because he is one of the main reasons why Amy disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary, and always lies to his wife. Nick is a dynamic character in the story, because he goes from being a selfish, not caring cheating husband, to a guy who wants to get his wife back, and truly cares for her. He is also the main character in the story.

Amy Elliot: Amy is a very nice, respectful, and a caring wife to her husband Nick. She tries everything she can to make sure that Nick is happy even if that means she has to live with lies, and makes her unhappy. She is significant to the story, because she is not the person she seems to be in the beginning of the story. She was pretending to be a different person, but then her true colors showed, when she was the one who framed Nick was the one who killed her. So Amy is a dynamic character, because her attitude, and her personality changes significantly in the story. Amy is also a major character in the story, and is a wife who can really trick her husband with success.

Go: Go is Nick's brother, and sort of acts as a protector towards Nick. She is a girl that Nick can always rely on, and feels the most comfortable around her. Go is a very strong, cautious, and a strong headed person, who makes decisions by herself. She is a significant character in the story, because she helps Nick out with the disappearance of Amy, and tries to support him through this situation. She makes sure that Nick does not make any wrong moves, that might hurt him in any way. Go is a static character in the story, because her attitude does not change, and stays the same throughout the story. She is also one of the major characters, and is the one who has the closest relationship with Nick.

Themes and Symbols:

Themes - Do not be fooled by the appearance a person seems to bring
               Even the most nice and sweetest person cannot be trusted
               Trying to please someone may not end up the way you wish it would

Symbols - Treasure Hunt: The treasure hunt is a major symbol, because Amy always does a treasure hunt on     their anniversary. This was a way that tested Nick on their relationship, and Amy shows her love for Nick.

Puppets: The puppets represent the stress and struggles between Amy and Nicks's marriage. This was Amy's way of showing that she is sick and tired of Nick playing games with her, and she will get back at him. They were representing a threat towards Nick, and he should be afraid.

Important Quotes: "My wife was no longer my wife but a razor-wire knot daring me to unloop her, and I was not up to the job with my thick, numb, nervous fingers" (Flynn 49).

• This quote is significant, because it describes how Nick and Amy have been slowly becoming farther apart from one another, and how Nick seems to be losing some trust towards Amy. He now looks at his wife as some sort of threat.

"My wife, she just happens to be the coolest girl I've ever met. How many guys can say that? I married the coolest girl I ever met" (Flynn 300).

• This quote is significant, because Nick was doing an interview on his wife Amy Amy when she went missing. And also, since by this point Nick knew that Amy was framing him, he had to make himself sound like he wants Amy back. But truly deep down, he feels used and betrayed by his own wife, who turned out to be much more clever and smarter than he though she would be.

    

The Stranger by Albert Camus Published in 1942

Author: Albert Camus

   Albert Camus was born in Algeria on November 7, 1913. As a child, he grew up in poverty in the proletarian neighborhood of Belcourt. Camus had a natural talent, which was seen by his teacher, and sooner or later, he won a high school scholarship. While still at school, he loved playing football, but he wanted to end up playing professionally. Sadly, this dream was soon ended for him, because he had a disease called tuberculosis. But things started getting better for him, because with the support of his uncle, he developed his love of literature. Another person that was a great influence on him was Jean Grenier, who was his high school philosophy teacher. Grenier helped persuade Camus to be active in the Algerian Communist Party. When Camus met a lady named Simone Hie who was an actress, they got married, but their marriage was very difficult. This was because Simone had a drug problem, which was that she was addicted to morphine, and she would also embarrass him in public, and sleep with his friends. Sooner or later, both of them divorced in the year of 1940. Also, Camus was never a Marxist, and was against the ideas of Lenin and Stalin. Then in 1938, he became a reporter for a recently founded newspaper called the Algerian Republican. His job was to cover the Algiers, and this job was in many ways beneficial for him. But later on Camus moved to Paris, because his job was changed. He did not like Paris at all, because he knew no one there. On the bright side, while Camus was in Paris, he found his time to pursue more in his writing. He wrote the book The Stranger, which was published in July 1942, and also The Myth of Sisyphus was brought in three months later in October.Camus had also continued to be the editor of Combat, and put on a production of The Misunderstanding. A while later, Camus was re married for a second time to Francine Faure. They had twins children named Jean and Catherine. in the year of 1946, he was well-received in lecture tour of the United States. Then in 1947, his best selling novel was seen, which was called The Plague. As the years passed, he had suffered much more serious illness from tuberculosis. But then in 1957, he was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature. Sadly, on January 4th, 1960, Camus was killed in a car accident.

Characters and Character Traits
    Meursault: He is the protagonist and also the narrator of the story. He is very emotionally indifferent to others, even when it comes to his mother, and his love, Marie.He is a static character, because his attitude does not change at all in the story. even when  his beliefs are being tested during his trial, he knows what he believes in, ans will not change his mind about anything. He is a very non-religious man, and he is also a man who seems very careless about everything. He is a major character in the story.
    Marie Cardona: She is a former co-worker of Meursault, who has an affair with him,the day after his mother's funeral. She is also a static character in the story, because her attitude stays the same throughout the story. She is a major character in the story, because she looks at Meursault like no one does; she is very drawn to his strange ways and thinking. She also wants to support him during his trial. Overall, Marie is a very spirited, young lady, who just wants the best for Meursault.
    Raymond Sintes: In the story, he is considered to be a local pimp. and Meursault's neighbor. He is also one of the major characters characters in the story, because he is one of the closest friends that Meursault has. He is a dynamic character, because in the beginning of the story, he acts like he is just using Meursault to do what he wants; but towards the end, he actually wants to help him through his arrest and trial. But, unlike Meursault, he is a very violent, and abusive man, who behaves with more emotion.

Themes and Symbols:

    Themes: Be careful to not let people judge a book by its cover, because they may judge you wrong.

                 Even though society will seem to be against you, just make sure you know what you believe in,
                 and prove them wrong.

    Symbols: The Courtroom - The courtroom symbolizes the society as a whole, and their laws.
                 
                   The Crucifix - The crucifix symbolizes Christianity, in which Meursault is opposed to. And it
                                         also symbolizes the belief structures in general for the society.


Important Quotes:

    "In the darkness of my mobile prison I could make out one by one, as if from the depths of my exhaustion, all the familiar sounds of a town I loved and a certain time of day when I used to feel happy" (Camus 97).

• This quote matters, because Meursault is feeling like he is getting that sense that he is in a happy place, because he is remembering all of the good memories that he had in the past, even though he is in a prison. He knows that he will probably not be happy ever in his life after this trial.            

"But everybody know life isn't worth living" (Camus 114).

• This quote is saying that Meursault is finally tired of life, and what it has to offer him. This quote matters, because he is realizing that the trial is really going off topic, and is not even focusing on the main topic. The trial is just mentioning things about his emotions, and how he felt toward his mother. He could not stand it any longer.