In my opinion, it is possible for a novel to deliver a serious message and offer entertainment for the reader. In order to demonstrate this, I am using Stone Cold by Robert Swindells and The Black Veil by Charles Dickens.

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Wide Reading Assignment

In my opinion, it is possible for a novel to deliver a serious message and offer entertainment for the reader. In order to demonstrate this, I am using Stone Cold by Robert Swindells and The Black Veil by Charles Dickens.

Set in the cold hard streets of London, Stone Cold is a definite warning for those planning to run away from home in the near future. Not only is it a rough, painful life full of poverty, but there’s also an insane killer on the loose. When Link’s newly found friend, Ginger, mysteriously goes missing one day, Link begins to get worried. ‘All the time I was looking for him, and he didn’t show.’ – Link

  While Link is looking for his friend, he finds something sinister about the man living at Nine Mornington Place, because he was the last person to see Ginger. But as Link closes in, so does danger. With the mysterious ‘Shelter’ on his tail, Link will be lucky if he gets away alive. But he does get away, with a little help from Gail, who is really a reporter in disguise. Shelter is taken away, leaving Link worse off than before, with no friends and no hope of a life.

One evening, a young doctor is sat in front of a warm fire, simply waiting for patient. His first patient enters, dressed in black with her face covered with a black veil. While speaking is peculiar riddles, she tries to explain her situation to the doctor. ‘…How can I hope that others will believe what seems incredible even to myself?’ – The lady

Eventually, she gives him the address, and tells him to come at a certain time the following morning. He arrives, but only to discover that the ‘patient’ that the lady was talking about is her dead son. He has turned to crimes to get things that his mother could not provide for him, and has been hanged as a result. The lady realises that the doctor cannot help her son, and blames herself for his death. The doctor feels sorry for her, and helps her in any way he can for as long as she lives. He is paid back in full, because he is never short of patients or money again.    

Mood

In both stories, a mood of mystery is created, although there is more in The Black Veil than there is in Stone Cold. Stone Cold  takes place during winter, and ends the following winter. This is a particularly hard time for people on the street. ‘And don’t forget the cold. If you’ve ever tried dropping off to sleep with cold feet, even in bed, you’ll know it’s impossible.’- Link. The writer also includes a mystery person, ‘Gail’. She appears out of nowhere when Link is at his lowest, and is desperate to be with him. ‘Don’t go.’ – Gail

Link assumes that Ginger has moved on and left him, and vows that he will never get that dependant on anybody, or trust anyone again. A little later, Link thinks that he is in love with this mysterious ‘Gail’ character. The reader wants to believe him as well, because they think he deserves some happiness after the miserable life he has had up until now. All along, the reader is hoping that things will work out for Link, and he will maybe get a job, get married to Gail, have children, and lead a normal life; but they don’t. ‘Gail’ turns out to be a newspaper reporter called Louise, who is just out for a good story on homelessness. Both the reader and Link are shocked at this news, even though there have been clues earlier on in the story that Gail might not be what she seems. The reader hopes that Gail will make a difference to Link’s lonely life.

A mood of horror and fear is also created. The writer of Stone Cold includes a surprise person, Shelter. This character tells the reader that he used to be in the army, and the reader assumes that he has ‘retired’. ‘And that was my mission in life – to turn dirty, scruffy, pimply youths into soldiers. And I did it, too. Year after year. Yes, and what thanks do I get? I’ll tell you…’ – Shelter.

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Near the beginning of the novel, he talks about his ‘mission to clean up the streets of London’. His ‘mission’, as the reader finds out a little later on in the novel, is actually to go around the city murdering all the homeless people he thinks deserve to die. The reader finds this out fairly so, but the other narrator, Link, doesn’t know much about Shelter. Not only does Shelter murder these poor, unsuspecting people in cold blood, but he also keeps their bodies under the floorboards in his house. He gives these corpses names, cuts their hair, and buys ...

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