Katrina's+Novel+Study+Page


 * ======Protagonist ====== || Kathleen Mary Maragret Byrne a.ka Kit, is a fourteen year old girl. She is the protagonist because the story is about her life and decisions during the potato famine in Ireland. ||
 * ======Antagonist ====== || Daniel Lynch who is a middleman for Kit's family's landlord. He evicts everyone from their homes and does not care about anyone but himself. ||
 * ======Setting ====== || Ireland 1847, during the potato famine. ||
 * ======Conflict ====== || There are countless conflicts and problems in this book. The main conflict is the blight, which causes people's potatoes to die. Because of this, many people starve to death or can not sell potatoes to get money to pay their rents, so they are evicted. ||
 * ======Climax ====== || When Kit tries to murder Lynch because he put her in jail and was going to evict her family from their house and she almost gets caught. ||
 * ======Resolution ====== || Kit, her family and her friend Mick escape to Canada away from Lynch and the famine to start new lives. ||
 * ======Foreshadowing ====== || Chapter 8 page 56- "Little did I know how wrong I was." Chapter 30 page 196- "I will kill Lynch. And I know just how to do it." ||
 * ======Simile ====== || Chapter 33 page 211- "Click! It broke the silence like a shot." Chapter 34 page 218- "Whatever lies I'd told myself about Tom wanting to be free from his fathers grip melted like mist in the midday sun as I watched them together." ||
 * ======<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Metaphor ====== || <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Chapter 40 page 250- 'Fear slithered down my back and coiled itself around my gut." ||
 * ======<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Alliteration ====== || <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I have not found any alliterations. ||

<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Thursday, June 9, 1847** **The United Irishman**
=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">**Potato Famine Strikes Killanamore** = <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Monday morning, hundreds of people in Killanamore woke up to find all of they’re potato crops struck by Phytophthora Infestans, commonly known as potato blight. Very few people have a single potato left and I personally believe that much of the community will struggle to feed their families this season. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This is not the first potato famine completely destroying the potato crop in Ireland. The first major, ever recorded potato famine in Ireland was in 1739. This famine completely destroyed the crop. There has been about 18 severe failures since then, not including this one. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As most of you will probably know, the blight hit the counties of Wexford and Waterford in 1845. Since then, it has spread into the surrounding counties and then, finally, to here in Wicklow. It is thought that the blight came from America and then spread into nothern Europe. It was eventually carried here, where we now have to suffer it. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Many people have already lost their jobs due to the blight. The British government has already put together a committee to help our country through this awful devastation. They will set up Public Works so that men can still earn a living.

<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">IMAGE <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A blighted potato

6. Find a song or poem, one of each, or several songs and poems that relate to the theme or subject of your novel. Write out the words/lyrics and then explain how it or they relate to your novel. Or you could write a song or poems and then explain them.

**<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 28px; padding-top: 14px;">It Ends In Ireland **
<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The docks are full of screaming ladies. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Some men swim out but can't climb aboard - <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This is not a scene from 'War of the Worlds'. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">They're left ashore with mournful looks, <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Knowing this is where it'll end. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Their plight will never cross the Atlantic; <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">No more coffin ships, just hopeless panic. ||
 * <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The ships can only hold so many;

<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This poem relates to Greener Grass because at the end of the book, <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Kit gets left behind when her family heads off to Canada. But, one <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">thing that is different between ‘It Ends In Ireland’ and Greener Grass <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">is that Kit makes it on a boat and heads to Canada to find her family, <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">but in this poem, no one makes it across the Atlantic to America or Canada.

=<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">__Alternate Ending__ = =<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 80%;">Chapter 40 = <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">My stomach fluttered. Today was the day! I had a few tears when I thought of leaving Ireland forever, but I soon got caught up in the excitement of the crowds lined up by the gangplanks leading to the ships. Suddenly, I saw someone I recognized. It was Mick! I ran over to him and asked him where his family was. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Gone," he said, a faint hint of sadness in his voice. " I’ve lost everything. But now I have you. For the only thing keeping me sane after losing everything was the thought of seeing you. And now I have. What about you? Where is your family?" <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Over there, in that line. Where are you headed?" <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Nowhere Kit, for I’ve no money." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Come stand with me and my family and we’ll think of something." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">After I explained Mick’s situation to my family and the Creans, Tommy came up with an idea. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Why don’t you ask the Captain if you can work on the //Dunbrody’s// crew. You can pay for your passage that way." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"That’s a great idea!" said Mick. "I’ll go talk to the Captain right now. Thank you <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Mr. Crean!" <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Call me Tommy." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As Mick headed over to talk to the Captain, I started to get anxious. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//What if Lynch regains his speech? What if they come after me? What if they catch me?// <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">These questions nagged at my soul. A few minutes later, Mick came back. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"I have the Captains approval! Thank you so much Mr. Cr... I mean Tommy!" <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"That’s great Mick! But, you realize that you will be headed to Canada. Do you not want to find Joseph? Then, you could live with him. At least you would be with a part of your family." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"That’s true, but I would rather be with you." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Really?" <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Suddenly, Jack whispered to me, "Kit! They’re here! They found us!" <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Without asking or looking around, I knew exactly who he was talking about. It was the Lynch’s! They had found me! I started to get anxious. I told everyone to push ahead in the line and to hurry on to the boat. I quickly told Mick what had happened and he looked at me with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"You did that?" he asked in awe. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Yes. Now move ahead, We are almost at the front of the line." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I took a quick look to see if they were heading my way, and Tom caught my eye. I heard him say ‘I’m going to go look around’ to his brothers and he started casually heading my way. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//This is not good! He’s coming over here.// <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Jack was being checked by the doctor to get on and I was the last one. I tried to hurry, but I wasn't fast enough. Tom was standing right behind me when the doctor called out, 'Next!' <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">' Kit!' He whispered in my ear. //<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">NO! // <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Don’t go, yet. I want to ask you one simple question and if you answer truthfully I won’t call my brothers over." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"OK?" I answered, not sure of what was coming. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Why did you do it? Try to kill my Father, I mean." //<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How am I going to answer that!? He’ll //<span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//never understand!// <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">" I did it only to save my family." <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As I answered it I knew I wasn’t being completely truthful, but I needed to get on that ship. I raced over to the doctor and as I did, Tom just stood there, seeming like he was trying to figure out what had just happened. After what seemed like an eternity, I was climbing up the gangplanks of the //Dunbrody//. I looked around and found Mick with my family and the Creans. I was finally on my way with nothing to stop me. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tom joined his brothers on the quay. When the last of the passenger stepped aboard, Mick helped the sailor reel in the gangplank. With the moorings untied, wind snapped the lone sail on the mast and the ship shifted beneath my feet-free. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I walked to the front of the ship and leaned against the prow, just above the figure head. Glancing back for one last look, my eyes wandered over the gray-green mountains rolling in the distance under the bright sky. Wicklow. I lived there, once. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">My gaze drifted downward to the dock where Tom stood like a lone statue staring at the ship. Shoulders slumped, his eyes scanned the crowd at the ship's rail, stopping when they met mine. He raised his hand and yelled something. A threat? An apology? The sea wind whipped the words away. As the prow drew away from the quay, I turned to face the open sea and all that lay ahead. Salt wind blew the shaggy curls off of my forehead. I raised my face to the sun and smiled. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I cannot say who Tom saw that day. A murderer. That girl over the hill. Kathleen Byrne. His own Kit. Or perhaps he saw the very spirit of Ireland herself. <span style="color: #00b800; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Alive. Free. And full of hope.
 * 3. Write an alternate (better?) ending for the novel.**