A Sudden Silence By Eve Bunting English Literature Essay

A Sudden Silence By Eve Bunting

Eve Bunting, born in the small village of Maghera in Northern Ireland, 1928, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. She has won several awards. She went to school in Northern Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanachie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting’s first published story, Two Giants, focused an Irish folktale about Finn McCool who out smarted Culcullan, a terrible Scottish giant. The first published work gave Bunting confidence and passion to pursue a writing career.

explanation:

‘A sudden silence’ is a good title for this story because they don’t know who Bry has killed. And so this is a sudden silence.

Place:

I have no idea in which place this story is set. Because, they don’t tell it in the book.

Time:

This story can be set in any time, they don’t tell it. ‘It was Saturday the 20th of June at 11.30 P.M.’

The time that is covered in the story is like two months. Because it all happens very quickly. I can’t quote from the book.

Main characters:

Jesse: He’s the main character of the book. His personality is: he is shy but he is quick irritated. I don’t know how he looks. Jesse doesn’t change in the book.

Bry: He is the brother of Jesse and he is killed by a car accident. He is deaf and I don’t know how he looks. He can’t change because he dies in the beginning of the book.

Plot:

Bry and Jesse are walking home from a party of Wilson Eichler. They’re walking along the highway, against the traffic, so they can see if there a car was coming. After a while, they crossed over the highway, because they were almost home. There was no traffic on the highway, but then a car came out of nowhere. Jesse dived into the bank and he yelled to Bry, that he has to jump too, but he can’t hear him. Bry is deaf. The car hit him. First, Jesse thought that the car stopped, but it didn’t, he rode on. Bry was dead. Sirens were coming.

Shortly after that, a policeman asked Jesse questions about the accident. But Jesse forgot everything. Nobody was going to bed that night. Jesse’s dad called the family: the grandparents, aunt Lila and uncle Fred.

Jesse was going to surf that morning. He was just peddling around. On the beach, he met Sowbug, he lives there. On the location of the accident, Jesse found Bry’s shoe. He was angry and he would find the offender.

When he came home, he told nothing about the shoe. When he was on the highway, he saw a man, he was looking on the place where the accident happened. Jesse screwed to the man, but he ran away. Jesse ran home and he called detective Valle to tell him about the shoe. He wanted to have the shoe, so they can make prints of it. On the funeral, the man was there, but when Jesse looked to him, he ran away. After the funeral, Chloe Eichler walked to him, she said that they can make posters: Did anyone see what happened on the highway on 20th of June, 11.30 P.M.? His grandpa and his dad said that they put a reward on the person who will have the gold tip. Jesse goes to Chloe. She opened the door and said: ‘You’re Bry’s brother, right?’ Jesse goes in and walked to Chloe’s room. Chloe was making the posters and she shows them to Jesse. He read them and said: ‘Don’t forget the telephone number!’ ‘Of course I do not forget it!’ she said. They walked to the window. They see the man, Jesse asked Chloe: ‘Do you know him?’ She didn’t but she has seen him before. Jesse said that he was on Bry’s funeral. Then they go outside to glue the posters to boards sideward’s the road. 3 days later, Jesse goes to White Sands, a beach. There was a surf game. MTV was broadcasting it live. Jesse was looking for Chloe, he found her. She sat on the beach, she hurt herself on her foot. Jesse brought her with his dad to the hospital. On the way back Jesse saw a man in a restaurant. He looks just like the man looking on the place of the accident. He walked in and he asked him to show him his car. It wasn’t the car of the accident. Then they brought Chloe home and Jesse stay the evening with her, because her parents were going to a party. When he wanted to go home, he saw the car of Mr. and Mrs. Eichler. It was a green Volvo, he look just like the car of the accident. He was looking for Sowbug and he found him. He told him about the car and it was the car. He goes to Chloe and told her that her mom or dad killed Bry. Chloe said it was her mom. Her mom was alcoholic. She can’t do anything to it. Chloe’s mom goes to jail and Jesse was dating an other girl.

Favourite part:

‘Sometimes at night I go into Bry’s room. I sit and I stare to his trophies, his books, the surfboard in the corner that’s as dead as he is, and I promise myself that I’ll never let go of his memory.’

I choose this part because it is a nice part I think. Jesse promises that he will never forget Bry.

Essential words:

exhausted – very tired

compartment – small box

bulge – great amount

bombed – drunk

tee – T-Shirt

My verdict:

Introduction

I choose this book because it has enough pages and I read the back of the book and I liked it. It was a good choice!

Special

It is a special book because not in every book dies somebody. And certainly not in the beginning of the book. That was very special in this book. I like books like this one, but I absolutely not like when somebody dies. Jesse is getting it very well. He knows that he will never see Bry anymore but when he wanted to have good reminders to him, he goes in Bry’s room and he look to his trophies, his books and his bed.

Character Jesse

Jesse is a nice character, he knows what he does. He always stays calm. He is very careful. And in the end of the book, he made a good decision. He chooses to date an other girl, because Chloe’s mother killed Bry. Jesse is not a lucky person, his brother dies and he doesn’t remember anything about the accident.

Like

I like this book, because it is a very special book. I told this in the 1st paragraph. ‘Not in every book dies somebody.’ The writer makes Jesse a good character for this book.

Conclusion

The conclusion is: I like the book. It was a very nice book to read. I think it is very difficult to write a book. My stand is that it is pretty difficult to make a Mediafile. So I can’t make a book, that is too difficult for me. The writer made a good book.

Optional assignment:

As an optional assignment I have made a site. The link is:

Website A Sudden Silence