The Pact

The Pact

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Post 9

             Jodi Picoult's settings throughout the novel serve for a place of conflict. They are very important and they further the book along. Chris and Emilys families were best friends until the death of Emily. Then the families split. Chris's mom stuck by Chris's side while Emilys mom went insane and into denial that maybe her daughter could of been depressed and instead of even trying to think about accepting that she blamed Chris for everything. Chris and Emilys moms used to be best friends and now they were against each other. Emilys dad on the other hand continually flip flops. He doesn't believe Chris would of even done anything like that to Emily but he also doesn't want to accept the fact that his daughter may of been depressed.
             Chris is the center of conflict in this entire novel. His decisions and actions made the novel what it is. By Chris opting not to tell any adult the conflict of Emilys death occurs. There are many lessons and morals that can be learned from this novel. Life lessons are taught  at Emily and Chris expense an they showed up what it means to love. The theme of undying love is constantly carried throughtout this book.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Post 8- Rhetoric

               Jodi Picoult uses several writing strategies to really intensify her novel. She uses a technique of switching between points of views and past and present. This is a hard writing style to follow but it allows the reader to get every single point of view from different angles. This gives the reader a more diverse view into different points of view from the book at basically the same time.
               She also tells the story with a ton of foreshadowing. Some of it is blunt and obvious but the majority of her foreshadowing is hidden and you don't realize how symbolic it was until way later into the novel. She uses a variety of basic rhetorical devices to make her novel a better and more successful novel. Her rhetorical devices help the intensity and keep her readers hooked.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Post 7

            Now that I have finished the novel The Pact by Jodi Picoult all my questions have been answered. At the beginning when i began the book some of my questions included did Chris kill Emily, did Emily kill herself and Chris actually tripped, what made Emily want to kill herself so badly, if Chris loves her as much as it acts like he does why does he let her kill herself? These questions all popped into my mind throughout different areas of the book and they were all eventually answered.
           At the beginning all you hear about is the death of Emily and how Chris is potentially the one to blame.... well Chris and Emily are in love so why would he kill her? But a autopsy of Emily's body reveals she was pregnant. Now once i read this the thought that Chris killed Emily because he couldn't live with the fact that she was pregnant popped into my head. But from textual evidence and from my knowledge of Chris as a character i knew this couldn't be true. Then i thought was it because she was pregnant that she killed herself? After i thought of this the book revealed that, that was her main reason. Emily couldn't live with that. When Emily was little Chris dared her to go into the boys bathroom in McDonalds and when she went in there was a guy in there and her molested her. Although the book briefly describes this i personally think it led to some of her trauma later down the road. Every time her and Chris were hooking up she would only ever really let him get to a certain point. And for me personally i related it back to her childhood experience. It never directly relates that in the book but i just assumed from certain context clues and other things. Once she finally let Chris get all the way she ended up pregnant which caused her so much pain and regret that she couldn't bear to live anymore. This is where her suicide plan forms. She tells Chris about the suicide but does not exactly tell him about the baby. Chris tries to talk her out of it but he soon realizes her mind wont change. He thinks about telling one of the parents but she begs him not to and he decides he can handle it on his own.
             Ultimately Emily ends up dead at the carousal and the police find her and blame Chris who is passed out next to her. They try to pin his reasoning on the baby but it is soon revealed that he had no knowledge that Emily was even pregnant. This book was extremely intense and kept me hooked the entire time. I often found myself wondering what would happen next!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Image Blog 6


 Emily and Chris have lived next to each other their entire lives.
For most of their childhood they were just friends and sometimes didn't even get along. As the two grew older they fell madly in love and would do anything to make the other one happy. This image is significant because it shows a young couple holding hands much like Emily and Chris would have. This image is also significant because for me it represents their passionate love and willingness to do anything for one another and thats where the conflict from the entire story comes from.






The book starts off at a crime scene. Emily is dead and Chris is knocked out. He is taken to the hospital to be examined and questioned. This picture is important because it right off the bat starts the tone of the book. We instantly know because the novel starts off at a crime scene that something terrible has happened and for the rest of the book we spend time figuring out what it was.






 Chris spends most of his time in jail. Even though the book bounces back and fourth throughout the past and present Chris is in jail in the present. This is his location and shows us that they believe him to be a suspect in Emily's case. This also creates one of the main conflicts in the book. Chris and Emily's parents have always been best friends but because of this incident their families are breaking up. Chris's mom defends Chris and believes that Chris didn't do anything wrong and has no reason to be locked up while on the other hand Emily's mom goes insane and basically blames Chris for everything and thinks he did it. The two women were best friends an this incident is tearing them apart. Chris being
in jail is an extremely important factor in the conflict of this novel.


This is a picture of 2 houses side by side. Emily and Chris were neighbors for their entire life and without this connection the love interest most likely would of never sparked an they most likely wouldn't of gone through anything that they have been going through. The setting is a key factor in enhancing the conflicts in this book.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Pact- Blog 5

               The pact is still a very intense book and although her writing style gets a bit confusing i still really like it and its still keeping me intrigued. I keep getting these little hitns into what maybe actually happened to Emily. It looks even less like suicide but i cant figure out why Chris would want to kill her because he loved her so much.
               Maybe because he loves her so much he killed her cause she seems quite unhappy with life because of everything shes been through. Im excited to keep reading whats going to happen to Chris and whether they're going to find him guilty or not. He seems innocent to me but at the same time he seems like hes hiding stuff. This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if he actually did kill her. But were just going to have to wait and see.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The Pact- Themes Blog 4

            The main themes I have picked up in the book The Pact so far is the theme of love and the theme or a hint of the theme of truth. The theme of love is evident everywhere. There is love in the friendship between Emily and Chris and then there is romantic love between them too. Theres also the love between and child and a mother or father. Even when Chris is in jail his mother stands by his side and defends her boy. Chris father on the other hand has doubts and doesnt stand by his child this is the exact opposite.
             The love between Emily and Chris and their families is a romantic type of love and an example of friendship type of love. Emily and Chris started off as bestfriends for as long as they can remember and now they have this relationship thats something much more. The theme of love is carried throughout the entire novel.
             The other theme that seems to be in the novel so far is truth and love tied in together. Chris loves Emily and shes dead because of a "suicide pact" but we dont necessarily know or believe this. Chris says it keeps being a suicide pact but we dont know how truthful this is! I feel like in the end Chris will end up saying what actually happened and well find out the real truth.