the children escape before a huge wave comes and drowns everyone and everything in the underground town. The novel ends when the rescued children are taken home, back to the south and Gold Kingy unrepentantly dies.
As you begin to read the novel, you begin to understand what the characters personalities are like and how they act towards others. Right from the start of the book, I could tell that Is was a very caring, and capable girl. As the novel went on, this was extended to tell me she was brave and determined to reach her aim of saving the children. She had a good understanding of what was right and wrong in life and was always put others before herself. I feel Is is the heroine of the novel, after reading the book, I feel she has shown me that she has many of the qualities I think a heroine needs.
At the start of the novel she is brave and helps fight off the wolves, an example of this quotes, “A wolf catapulted inside, but was instantly driven out by Is.” Even from this short quote you can gather quite a large piece of information about Is. If I was given just this little quote without having read the book, words like brave, dependable, confident and capable come to mind. Throughout the whole book I feel Is is extremely brave. She could have turned back at any time, but instead she kept going, and did whatever she could to help the poor children.
Another very good word to describe Is’s character is determined. As I said in the previous paragraph, she could have turned back at any time, but she was determined to reach her aim. There are many quotes that would prove this, such as, “You will undertake this task, then, my lassie? You will search for these boys?
I was a-going to anyways, wasn’t I?” This quote shows us directly that she is determined, and from the way the author has written that quote, I feel she is confident. Another quote showing determination follows, “I’m still lokkn fer Arn Twite.” This quote was taken from much further on in the book in a letter sent from Is to Penny her sister. It show us that she still hasn’t given up hope of finding Arun even though she has just found out Davie has died.
I also feel, after reading the novel, that Is was an extremely pleasant person, and very loyal and faithful towards others. She always did whatever she could to help and was always polite when speaking even if she didn’t like the person she was talking to.
Quotes that prove this follow, “I promised, Pen. You make a promise to a cove whats dying, you gotta keep it.” and also, “No sense treating him, he won’t be much use after,” “Doc. Doc! Could you come and see to this fellow.”
Even though Is had never been properly educated, she has very good common sense so when I say I think Is is clever, I don’t mean academically clever, I mean thoughtfully clever. I do feel Is is very clever in the way she does what she does. Here is a quote that proves this,“ The best thing I can do, thought Is, will be to disobey Uncle Roy; not go home like he told me, but nip straight to the foundries and ask some more questions. That’ll show him I don’t care for him and his threats.” Is is using her common sense to disobey Uncle Roy and not do what he said so it will show him that she doesn’t care for him and his threats. This happens in many other places during the novel that shows Is using her common sense.
In my definition of a heroine, I stated that I felt that a heroine had to have a good understanding of what is right and wrong in life. I don’t feel they can lie and cheat on people. Is, however did have a good understanding of this. One example from the novel follows, “You can’t tell whoppers to kings.” There are many other quotes like this throughout the book.
After reading the novel I feel Is is an extremely caring girl who always puts others before herself. She is a very strong character who did achieve a great amount. In conclusion to this, I feel the author has written Is’s character well and she is a suitable heroine for the novel.
