Im Done!!! Book Summary

I just finished reading the book, “And The There Were None”, by Agatha Christie and I have to say that it was one of my favorite books of all time. I don’t really books (or reading) but this book really drew me in and made me want to read more. In this post I am going to be giving a summary as well as my thought as about the authors writing craft and technique (THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!! Skip to 3^rd paragraph if you don’t want spoilers)

            In the beginning of the book, 8 normal people are invited to a party on a mysterious party. None of the characters know who the host is or why he invited them. When they got there, the only other people there were the butler, and the butlers wife. So in total there are 10 people on the island/in the house. A nursery rhyme is hung up above each person’s bed, it is called “Ten Little Indian Boys”. This nursery rhyme comes into play later in the book. People start to die in unusual ways. The deaths (murders) follow the nursery rhyme (look at my previous blog post to see the poem) perfectly. Also as each person dies a little clay doll is removed from the middle if the dining room table, there were ten to start but the number decreases every time someone dies. When there is only 5 people left, they decide to set out and look for this cereal killer, but they cant find anyone else on the island. So they are left to assume that someone among them is the killer. More people start to die and no one knows who is doing it. Eventually there is only 2 people left, they go out and try to sine the SOS signal using a mirror, one of them turns on the other and shoots them with a pistol, then the remaining survivor proceeds to hang themselves, fulfilling the last line of the poem, “One little Indian boy left all alone: he went and hanged himself, and then there were none. A group of boy scouts spotted there signal and told the police. A couple days after the final murder, the police show up and investigate the crime scene. They found the girl hanging from the ceiling but there was no chair near her to step up on, and she couldn’t have kicked it away because the only chair left in the room was put neatly back under the desk. They come to the conclusion that someone else had to have put it back. A few days later a bottle washes up on shore with a note inside of it. The author is Lawrence Wargrave, one of the houseguests. He goes on to explain how he was always intrigued by death ever since he was a little boy, and that is why he plotted the whole thing. He was the 6^th one to die but it turns out that he faked his own death so that he would not get caught. He then proceeds to explain how he did the whole thing, but that is for me to know and for you to read about.

            I really enjoyed the authors writing craft, as well as the amount of characterization he incorporated throughout the story. It really educated me on the characters personalities and natural tendencies. I really recommend that you read this book if you like mysterious/sinister murder type books that have a lot of twists and always leave you wanting to read more. As for the next book I will be reading, I haven’t picked it out yet, but it probably be one of Agatha Christie’s books.

Using an Allusion to Prove Writing Craft

     I am a little over halfway through my book, "And Then There Were None", by Agatha Christie. Since lasts time I posted TWO more people have died, and as expected no one knows the murderer. I will say that the murder did follow the sinister nursery rhyme and I will get into that in the next paragraph.

     The poem to left is not the exact poem from the book, but it is the most clear readable poem I could find. Replace "Little Soldier Boys" with "Little Indians" and that is the exact poem. As you can see in stanza five, the poem describes someone being killed by a bumblebee. The character in the book is killed by the stabbing of a syringe into her neck. The liquid was poisonous venom from a wasp that was on the island. I really enjoy how the author closely follows the poem but does not follow it exactly. I believe that it builds suspense by letting you in on half the secret but not all of it so that you will keep reading to see what will happen. The next stanza states that the boy will die by getting in chancery(a court of equity). Again, the author does not copy the poem exactly, but follows the main idea. The character that is murdered is actually a judge and the way he is murdered is kind of comedic but spooky at the same time. The other characters find the judge sitting in a chair with a purple robe on and a huge white judge wig with a bullet whole in his head. Coincidentally, one of the characters pistols went missing about a day before the murder, and he found that pistol sitting in his room after the murder. I am excited to see what will happen next I will keep you updated.

Using Evidence from the Text to Show Suspense

     I am Halfway through my book, "And Then There Were None", and the suspense is immense. Five people have died out of ten and no one knows who or what is killing them. They are left with nothing to do but turn on each other. Each character is equally suspected of the murders and no one is left out. One quote that really shows and magnifies the situation is on page 135 when one of the characters says, " It is perfectly clear. Mr. Owen is one of us..."(135 Christie) Mr. Owen is the supposed owner of the mansion and he is believed to be the one that is murdering the house guests. The only problem is that there is not a single other person on the island. They can do nothing but suspect each other. It is very interesting to see these characters have to live together while all of this shenanigans is going on. Every one watches there back at all times and never lets their guard down.
     Each murder follows a nursery rhyme that is hung up in each persons bedroom. One example of this is when Rogers(the house butler) goes out to chop wood and gets chopped in the head by another axe. This correlates with the line in the poems that says, "Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks, one chopped himself in halves, and then there were six."(31 Christie) All of the characters find this really suspicious and as they look back they realize that each of the other murders followed the poem. it is going to be very interesting to see if anyone gets murdered and whether it follows the next line of the poem. I will keep you updated.

Using a Pictire to Enhance Imagery

     

     As you probably know, the book I am reading is called "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. I am about 150 pages in and I am really enjoying the book. All of the characters are in a "Mad Mans Mansion" on a secret island. I had an idea in my head about what this mansion might look like, but I wanted to see the authors thoughts and ideas about the mansion to further my knowledge on the book. So I looked up pictures of the mansion and found the one above.

     Seeing the mansion planted on the secret island really helps me build a picture in my head as I am reading the book. The way the author portrays the island really correlates with the main mood and tone; dark, gloomy, sinister, isolated, and many more. I really recommend trying this and looking up an important setting in your book so that you know exactly what it looks like. I know that it really helped me by making it easier to follow along and adding a better sense of imagery to the book.