Stardust - essay for the novel star dust PDF

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essay for the novel star dust...

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Rasam Joulany Ms. Fridman ENG2D1-06 5/28/2019 “Stardust” Have you ever seen a shooting star and wondered where it’s going towards? This book from Neil Gaiman is about a star falling from the sky that looks a heckofa lot like a girl. In Stardust we follow Tristran Thorn, a teen who follows the star to capture it for the girl he thinks that is his true love. Through out the book he goes through a lot to reach his goal and made it to the end successfully. Stardust represents many themes in it’s writing. Themes such as “Love”, “Courage”, “Rules and Order”, and “Family”. I’m going to showcase all the comparing I did in the fiction and nonfiction parts of this book with articles related to the themes. Stardust has a lot of themes that I’m going to open up and show here they were used in the book and compare them to a nonfiction article with various quotes. Love makes people do all kinds of unreasonable stuff, most characters in the book had fallen in love with each other and this makes the theme show itself amongst the others. Rules and order show us that all the wild and crazy and full of magic in governed by all kinds of rules. How it works, the etiquette, all the species acting in a certain way. Courage showcases that bravery carries you pretty far throughout the book. About knowing when to fight and alternately, when to back down. Family demonstrates the complexity of this story. The murder of siblings, long-lost children, arranged marriages.

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Tristran went after a star to get to his self thought soulmate, he has done everything to get her “There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire.” (1.1). A lot of stories start this way, but the specific twists in this story make it very unique and pleasant. Tristran spends most of the book lovesick over a girl named Victoria Forester, but that not the only plot going on, on the other hand we have Victoria that has fallen in love with a man twice her age, and let’s not forget Dunstan (Tristran’s dad)falling for the unknown slave-girl is what kicked off this entire live story. Tristran fall in love with the star named Yvaine and it effects in transferring her heart to his keeping it. Love generates power in this story and so in real life, “It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.” (Eleanor Roosevelt). This quote describes all the actions placing in the book, so young Tristran could get to his soulmate. Tristran was a scared 17-year-old boy until he went after the falling star and met Yvaine, they battled out all the challenges in front of them and when they were done with all the obstacles, they fell in love with each other. The witch arrived to get Yvaine’s heart from her but she didn’t have one anymore because it was all belonged to Tristran. "You should have let me take it back then, for my sisters and me. We could have been young again, well into the next age of the world. Your boy will break it, or waste it, or lose it. They all do." (10.207). the quote is when the witch was talking to Tristran and told him that the star’s heart belongs to him. Courage come in different perspective in this story, it comes from wanting to get to your soul mate or wanting to impress your family or even the people in the village of Wall. It took Tristran

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was brave enough to go out of the village to chase the star for his so thought soul mate. He passed boundaries and got what he wanted at the end of the story, he found his soul mate and lived happily. As said in this article by Z. Hereford “Courage is the mental and emotional preparedness and ability to deal with difficult, challenging, and sometimes seemingly impossible circumstances. It is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, intimidation and other threats.” (Z. Hereford). Courage is very important in the story and real life; it helps you remove some boundaries that help you succeed in life. Every place and job have rules for itself, all the wild and crazy and full of magic in stardust is governed by all kinds of rules. There are rules about how the magic works, the etiquette of the usage of it, and how different species should react to that magic in certain ways. When Tristran found Yvain for insurance, now Yvain has to stay with Tristran because that’s how things work with their people, stars. The rule to not exit the village because there are witches and spiritual creatures behind those walls. The rule that every man in the village should guard the village and take shifts. "Because," she told him, her voice taut, "now that you have saved my life, you are, by the law of my people, responsible for me, and I for you. Where you go, I must also go." (8.20) the star is annoyed that she has been found because the rules are that if a star gets found, it should stay with the person who discovered her and follow him/her wherever he/she goes. This seems like a crummy rule since she's not too fond of him (though luckily for her that changes). On the other hand, there is a lot of rebelliousness in this story as well. For example, when Tristran escaped the village, or Dunstan had sex with the slave-girl outside of the village in the fairy market. “Breaking rules isn’t bad when what you’re doing is more important than the rule itself.” (Kim Harrison). This quote represents the rebelliousness in

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the book and all it’s advantages of Tristan’s decision. If it wasn’t for his rule breaking, he would’ve never found his love of his life. Do you want to keep someone busy for a few hours? Just tell them to write down Stardust’s family tree. Family is a complicated topic in this book, it’s got illegitimate half-human babies, arranged marriages, sibling murders, long-lost children, and more. We had the brothers kill each other to get to the star Tristran got to first, they wanted to kill the other ones to rule over the world. We had family surprises throughout the story, found out that Tristran is the last living male heir of Storm hold royal family, Yvaine’s mom is the moon, and the moon is somehow related to unicorns, so good luck finding how. “And the moon was talking to him. Please, whispered the moon, in a voice that reminded him a little of his mother's, protect her. Protect my child. They mean her harm.” (6.4) shows that so much family stuff is going on in the story, the moon is talking to Tristran and her voice is just like Tristran’s mother, and proves that the moon is the mother of the fallen star, and Tristran and the star have fallen in love so he’s going to go show her to his parents. the story is about 17-year-old boy chasing his dreams and reaching his goals, plus his one and only. Tristran went through some events in the story that made different themes for each chapter and made each one of them unique and special. Love representing the power of decision making and pushing your limits to get to the love of your life. Rules and Orders represent that there are limits to everything and you should obey the rules, or you won’t get to where you wanted. Courage shows the bravery in the character’s, to speak up to themselves and chase after they’re dreams. The last theme is family, “Neither man nor woman is perfect or complete without the other. Thus, no marriage or family, no ward or stake is likely to reach its

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full potential until husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, men and women work together in unity of purpose, respecting and relying upon each other's strengths.” (Sheri L. Dew) and it shows that there’s nothing more important than it in this world. You either work with them to reach your goals, or you ride solo and do whatever you want, but you shouldn’t head back to them when you fail.

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Shmoop Editorial Team. “Stardust Themes.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/stardust/themes.html.

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“Live a Life of Courage.” Essential Life Skills.net, Essential Life Skills, www.essentiallifeskills.net/courage.html.

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Eleanor Roosevelt, "My Day, April 1, 1939," The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2017), accessed 5/26/2019, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm? _y=1939&_f=md055229....