Analysis Of Run Zan Run English Literature Essay

Catherine MacPhail (born 25 January 1946, Greenock) is a Scottish-born author. MacPhail has quickly established a reputation as a writer of gritty, urban stories that tackle emotitional, contemporary issues but always work towards a positive solution and usually always are realistic.. Although she has had jobs (Assembling computers for IBM, housewife) she always wanted to be a writer but she didn’t think she would be suited to it. Her first published work was a sort of “twist-in-the-tale” story in Titbits, followed by a story in the Sunday Post. After she had won a romantic story competition in Woman’s Weekly, she decided to concentrate on romantic novels, but after writing two, she decided that it wasn’t right for her. In addition to writing books for children around their teens, she also writes for adults, she is the author of the BBC Radio 2 series, My Mammy And Me.

explanation:

Zan has to run away all the time to other places. Why she has to do that, you can read in my plot.

Place:

They don’t talk about a place in the story. I can’t find it.

Time:

The story can be set in every time. I don’t know how to prove my point, than I have to type the whole book.

I think that the time that is covered in the story 3 months or so. Because there happens a lot of things. You can read what happens in my plot.

Main characters:

Katie Cassidy: Katie is the main character in the book. She is a very nice person and wants to help everybody. She’s also very fair but she’s going to lie when she has to help a good friend. She’s got dark-brown hair until the shoulders and a small posture. She’s afraid for Ivy Toner and her gang but Zan helps her.

Zan: Katie meets a girl on the dump and she calls her ‘Zan’. Zan is a girl that runs away from home and lives in a cardboard box now. She has the same looks as Katie. Unlike Katie, Zan isn’t afraid for Ivy and her gang and she defends Katie with fighting. But she only fights when she has to.

Ivy Toner: Ivy is the girl that bullies Katie. She’s not a good person but she changes in the book because Zan teaches her a lesson and then she’s going to be a shy person. She always got 2 friends by her (that makes the gang complete), they are Lindy Harkins and Michelle Thomson. Katie just thinks that they’re stupid, because when Ivy is not with them, they don’t dare to bully Katie.

Nazeem: Nazeem is a girl that wants Katie’s (and Zan’s) help. Why she needs that help you can read in the plot. She’s going to be a good friend of Katie. And she talks a lot.

Plot:

Katie always walks via the dump after school to avoid Ivy and her gang. But Ivy is still there behind that Katie is hiding on the dump. Katie runs away but she falls. She sees a box moving and there is a girl coming out. She is very nasty. She walks to Ivy, and she says she had to go. By Katie she says that she no longer had to come here. But when Katie came up the girl was gone.

Katie girl wants to thank the girl. She’s helped by Ivy and her two friends go away. The next morning, she walks via the dump too. The girl is there too and says she did not help her because Katie, but because it is her dump. Katie called the girl Zan because that what was on the box.

At home, Katie isn’t telling what had happened. Her mother wants that she goes to another school and her father encouraging her to fight on against the girls. Since Katie has no sense.

A few days later, it is Halloween. Katie is the only one who’s not dressed for the party at school because she is afraid that other people think that she’s stupid. But when she goes walking around the city, she goes across a bridge. But then, Ivy suddenly appeared. She takes Katie and wants to drop her from the bridge. But then suddenly emerges Zan. She is “moved” so that Katie could not find her. She grabs Linda and Michelle. Ivy is afraid of Zan and she promises that she will do nothing to Katie and she runs away. Katie proposes to Zan that she can come home with her. But that Zan doesn’t and says that it is safer under the bridge (where she currently lives).

Katie tells everyone about Zan. Because of that, Zan is going to be in trouble. Katie must tell everyone that what she said about Zan was untrue. Katie does and says everything she has invented and that she is the one who has defeated herself from Ivy and her gang. Everyone thinks that she is magic.

Once Katie get a call from a girl, Nazeem. She is chased by a mob and beaten. Katie thinks she can help her, because now everyone thinks that she can change in Zan and can beat everyone. Katie promises that she will help Nazeem.

She goes to Zan and they invent something to defeat Nazeem to the gang and succeed by putting them in a trap.

A few days later, Katie gets visit from a detective. He asks her to a homeless girl but Katie says she knows nothing. She must protect Zan.

Katie gets a discussion with her father and she runs away to Zan, and she says she never goes home. Zan says she doesn’t believe that and say that she would go home and so does Katie.

The detective, Mr. Whittaker, said that Zan has putted her home on fire when her parents were asleep, that’s the reason he wants to find her. But Katie cannot believe it and goes to Zan to ask. Zan says she walked away from home and saw that a gentleman putted the house on fire. She describes the man. The description of Zan corresponds to the looks of Mr. Whittaker. He gives Zan the debt. Meanwhile, Mr. Whittaker is collaborating with Ivy. Ivy knows where Zan is. Katie and Zan try to escape but Mr. Whittaker is intercepting them. The father of Katie, her mother and Nazeem are saving Katie. But Mr. Whittaker and Zan are no longer visible. They chase Zan en she is saved.

During Christmas she’s with Katie and her parents. But after Christmas, Zan will go to her aunt in Australia. Katie and Zan will remain friends forever.

LuisterenFonetisch lezen

Woordenboek – Gedetailleerd woordenboek weergeven

Favourite part:

‘Each knew what the other was thinking.’ This is almost the last sentence of the book and it shows how well they became good friends. I like it because it is a confirmation that they became good friends, in such a small period.

Essential words:

Tenements – huurkazernes

Nowadays – tegenwoordig

Cardboard box – kartonnen doos

Willingly – goedschiks

Bully – pesten

Sinister – onheilspellend

Shivers – rillingen

My verdict:

Characters

I think Katie is kind of a hero. She arranges everything by herself. I think Katie solves her problems very well and I think also that her way is very mature. She is a good girl.

Construction of the story

I think the story is fascinating because a lot happens. They’re not looking back to occurrings from the past. The only thing is the story of the murdered parents. I think it is a good end. Because everything is resolved and you know exactly how everything is.

Language usage

I think that the story was not really hard to read. The sentences were not too long and it was logical. The only thing I noticed was that it was difficult that there were a lot of things happening simultaneously. This made it occasionally difficult. I think that the language will fit well with the people and how the story is.

Conclusion

I think it was a nice book to read and I will prefer it to other people when they need a English book to read.

Optional assignment:

I have write a letter for a diary:

Dear diary,

Today a lot of things happened. Zan is sitting next to me. You will think, that cannot happen. But today, there happens a lot. Nazeem came to me this morning and said that Ivy knew everything about Zan and she told to Mr. Whittaker. When I heard this, I immediately went to Zan, and told her. Just after I told that to Zan, Ivy showed up and said that Mr. Whittaker and my parents knew everything. We were really in trouble. Everyone was looking for us and the only thing we knew, was that Mr. Whittaker was a murderer! When I was arguing with Ivy, Zan escaped. When my parents and Mr. Whittaker arrived, Zan was gone. My parents were asking me where she was, and after the conversation, Mr. Whittaker was gone. It flashed to my head that maybe he followed Zan. We followed him and found them together. We could save Zan.

And now we are here together. It is almost Christmas and Zan is spending it with us. After Christmas she’s going to her aunt in Australia. That is far away, isn’t it? But in the holidays we can meet each other and there is still a telephone. But the next few days we have together. We remain friends forever.

Lots of love,

Katie (and Zan).