Character Patterns (Archetypes)- Mexican Whiteboy Matt de la Peña

         In Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña, I have noticed some patterns in the main character's (Danny's) habits. When Danny gets stressed, uncomfortable, nervous or any emotion that is the opposites of joy, excitement, and comfort he starts to dig his fingernails into his arm. In the book it said that Danny did this to remind himself that he was a real person.
         Danny's father Javier, left him going on four years ago. All Danny wanted when he was little was to get attention from his Dad. Whenever his dad and him were watching TV and his Dad said "Put on whatever you want." he would flip through the channels and watch his father's facial expressions out of the corner of his eyes to see what he looked interested in. Danny's father had a MAJOR anger problem, he caught one guy hitting on his now former wife Wendy and beat him within and inch of his life. He pummeled the guy so hard that blood was flying through the air and you could hear the punches landing. Javier was arrested that day and soon after disappeared without a word to Ensenada, Mexico.
         Danny has been thinking  a lot about his father, wondering why he left him. He often thinks that he is the reason but he didn't realize that his father's temper reached to far when he violently put his hands on Wendy. Danny's father's little brother Ray Lopez has followed in Javier's footsteps up until a certain point where he draws the line. That line is hitting his women, but Ray doesn't take ANYTHING from anybody. If somebody does something to Ray they pay back the price a million times worse. For example; A man on a motorcycle clipped Ray's Bronco and knocked off the side view mirror. When Ray realized this he made a dangerous U-turn in the middle of traffic and sped off towards the guy. The man dismounted his bike and started walking towards the Bronco, when he was standing directly in front of the hood he ran him over. Danny was horrified at this and had a traumatic effect, they pummeled the guy so bad that blood was splattered on Danny in the back and seat, Ray and his two friends. It ran down the windshield, the steering wheel, the leather seats, and pooled in the car floor. Then Ray knocked the guy out the window and backed over both of his legs, crushing them and the speeding off. Danny described in this scene that he could see the crazy look in his uncle's eyes that his dad had in his eyes when he was beating up the man. Danny claimed that he could actually see his father standing there joining in on the action as well.
        I say all of this to say I think that Danny has been exposed to A LOT in his child hood, that your normal everyday child isn't exposed to. I think that this is why Danny is so quiet and solemn. I also think that there are some things to Danny's background that have yet to have been shown to the readers and that it will all make sense in the end.
      I think that whenever a certain event takes place that reminds Danny in the smallest way about another important, scary, scarring event that took place in Danny's child hood he feels like he is being sucked back into that specific time and he digs his nails into his arm self consciously to remind himself that he's still in the present.

Conflict

       I finished reading my book Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, but while I was reading it I noticed a pattern in the characters roles and backgrounds. They had all been through something really bad and it all comes back to haunt them in some way during their quest. Hazel was born in 1941 and she was a daughter of Hades or in Rome, Pluto. Hazel had a curse that allowed her to contact diamonds and natural minerals in the earth, whenever she gets stressed or really nervous diamonds start popping up around her but the catch is that these diamonds are poisonous. Whoever touches them will die in a horrible and extremely unpleasant way. Her mother Marie Levesque was haunted by Gaea or as she is more commonly known "Mother Earth". When Marie was haunted Gaea forced her to produce diamonds that she would then pile into this pit and speak these odd incantations. This was all to raise a powerful giant that wanted to wipe out the human race, when Hazel found this out she destroyed the cave and slowed the giants growth process down a few decades. Hazel and her mother died in the process and they were banished to the underworld. Hazel sat down there for seventy years until Nico di Angelo (her godly half brother) came looking for his full sister Bianca di Angelo when he found Hazel. Thanatos literally known as "Death" had been captured and chained and the Doors of Death stood wide open. People who had been dead for forty years could walk straight out those doors and immediately be alive again and walk the Earth just like you and I. Hazel grasped her second chance at life and held on to it dearly, she didn't want to die again.
       In the book the giant Hazel had raised had finally been born and was planning on destroying Mount Olympus and human civilization. Percy Jackson, Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque all had to go to Alaska on foot (technically) to save the world. If they got to Alaska they had a chance of defeating the treacherous giant and saving the Roman World, the Greek World, and every other World there was. Hazel was always finding herself blacking out and disappearing into her past life reliving any moment that she thought about for an extended period of time. When Hazel had to face the giant he kept bringing up heart wrenching facts about her past life to emotionally compromise her and when it started working he started to slowly beat them but she let it all go and became really strong and was able to conquer this giant that she had single handedly created with her own powers and strength.

Son of Neptune- Rick Riordan

          Rick Riordan has a myriad of series out and one of his best selling is Percy Jackson and The Olympians this is about a boy named Percy Jackson that is a demigod (half mortal, half god) he goes to a magical camp named Camp Half Blood, there he meets other people like him and he is accepted there. Camp Half Blood is based off of Greek Mythology but there is a Roman side to all of this, all Greek gods have a Roman side where they have different names and don't remember really anything from their Greek side when in Roman form. For Example: Ares is Mars, Hades is Pluto, Zeus is Jupiter, and Poseidon is Neptune, Percy had a best friend who is a Satyr named Grover, a girlfriend named Annabeth (Daughter of Athena) and a half brother who is a Cyclopes named Tyson. Percy supposedly went off on a quest and when he woke up he didn't know anything at all he barely even knew his own name! Little did he know that the goddess Hera had temporarily wiped his memory clean because he had a Roman quest to do. 

          In this book Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque and Percy Jackson are on a Roman quest for Camp Jupiter's safety and the world. Thanatos who is basically Death is chained and now people 1. Can't die and 2. If they were once dead are walking the Earth again. In this book each character has special traits that helps them at convenient times and they each have a back story that makes the plot of the story more complicated and full of surprises. I wondered why Rick Riordan did this but as I read more and more of the book the plot became more and more clear. There were twists and turns and secrets were revealed but it all fits together into a large puzzle. 

         I think that there is going to be a moral to this story, so far Percy is different in a way from all of the people at Camp Jupiter because he is on the Greek side. He has a different "family" but here since Percy 1. Can't remember anything and 2. The campers there gave him a house and food he considers himself now to be part of two families. He is putting his life on the line for the Camp's safety in his quest and I predict that the moral is going to be something along the lines of stick with your friends to the end or Don't let rivalries get in the way of the important things. 

Son of Neptune- Rick Riordan

Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan is the sequel to The Lost Hero. This series is called Heroes of Olympus. This book is connected to Riordan's previous series Percy Jackson & The Olympians.  In this last book the characters from the Percy Jackson series are connected to this one. Annabeth Chase from the last series is in here and she is searching for Percy her boyfriend. Jason, Piper, and Leo are the three newest half- bloods. They all had special powers and the satyr that was watching them (Gleeson Hedge, known to the kids as Coach Hedge).  They were moved to Camp Half- Blood when the monsters finally tracked them down and a whole queue of things began. Jason Grace the main character in the story found out that he was the son of Zeus and was Thalia Grace's older sister. This caused a whole different atmosphere for his life. I haven't started reading Son of Neptune yet, but I am going to go start reading it right now. Blogs with info to come!!

Mexican White Boy- Matt de la Peña

      "Mexican Whiteboy" by Matt de la Peña is about 16 year old Danny Lopez. Danny lives in a wealthy northern county in San Diego. Danny's mother is white and his father is Mexican, but Danny does not speak Spanish. He doesn't now who he is or who he wants to be and is having trouble figuring out his true identity. Does he belong in a Mexican society or a White Society? When Danny was younger his father suddenly packed his bags and went back to Mexico, without any type of explanation. Danny has always wondered why his father left but could never think of a good enough reason.
      Danny wants to connect with his Mexican roots so over the summer he goes down to National City, Mexico to visit his father's side of the family and to understand his father's ancestry (since he could not get this information from the source). Danny is potentially in search for answers, but the main question that is the most important to danny out of them all is why his father suddenly left San Diego and went to Mexico. Danny felt that it was because his father couldn't bear the thought of having a biracial son who didn't even speak Spanish.
      When Danny arrives to Mexico he is living with his favorite childhood friend and cousin Sofía. Upon arriving Sofía introduces Danny to all of her friends (whom start flirting with Danny). Danny feels discouraged and left out because he doesn't speak Spanish and all of the people on his father's side do.
      Danny has a real knack for baseball. Down at school he is known for having throwing fastballs that reach speeds up to ninety mph!! When Sofía brags about this to the neighborhood kids who are playing baseball in the street they challenge him to a game. Uno is one of the kids playing he is winning the game by six home runs. Uno is biracial also his father is black and his mother is Mexican. Uno has a crush on Sofía and when he sees her with Danny he automatically assumes that she is dating him. When the game is on every ball pitched at Danny was sent flying backwards over two houses onto a completely different block. Uno starts to get tense and starts cheating so that he can tease and taunt Danny like a jerk. When Danny hits another home run he accidentally hit Uno's younger brother Manny in the face with the bat, Uno punched Danny in the face and walked off.
      This book is very good so far I can barely put it down!!! I give many thanks to Matt de la Peña in English and Spanish for publishing this awesome novel.

Throne of Fire- Rick Riordan Response #2

Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan is so good. He has about three series that I am reading. I have read The Percy Jackson series already, and he has made a new series based off of that series called Heroes of Olympus. The sequel- Son of Neptune- just came out, I AM SO READING THAT. Throne of Fire is the sequel to the Kane Chronicles series The Red Pyramid. I will have this book done by about the end of the week. So much has happened since my last post! Walt (Sadie's sixteen year old crush) is a descendant from King Tut. He has the same cursed disease that King Tut had that made him die so young, and the more magic Walt uses the closer he is to dying. There is no cure (as far as he knows) and he says that he wants to spend as much time with Sadie as possible before he... you know. Carter and Zia Rashid (the girl of his dreams) have reunited in an awkward way because she doesn't know who he is AT ALL. The poor boy felt like she ripped his heart out of his chest and stomped on it. Now Carter, Sadie, Zia, Walt and the rest hae exactly 24 hours to awaken Ra from his eternal sleep so that he can defeat Apophis, otherwise known as the God of Chaos. If they fail at this attempt, Apophis will finally break free of his prison. He will rise up from the Duat and swallow the sun, casting the world into eternal darkness. All Chaos will break loose and the world will end as we know it.

Throne of Fire- Rick Riordan Response

I am reading Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan. This book is the sequel to The Red Pyramid,  this series is about two Siblings, Sadie and Carter Kane. They have Egyptian ancestry in their blood and they're descended from the gods. They have magical powers and are constantly having to save the world. In this book they are on a quest to find the Egyptian Sun god Ra. They have to find him and free him from the Duat because Apophis (The God of Chaos) is very close to breaking out of his prison, and when the equinox passes the bonds will weaken enough (the equinox is a magical day) that he can break free completely. If Apophis breaks out of his prison he will eat the sun forever casting the world into darkness and then all Chaos will break loose and the world will end as we know it. So it is up to Sadie and Carter to reach deep into the Duat and awaken Ra from his eternal sleep. The way they have to do this is by finding three separate scrolls that when put together form the Book of Ra, this book explains how to awaken him. The Antagonist that stands between them and their goal are may things. Vladmir Menshikov otherwise known as Vlad the Inhaler.  Vladmir is trying to get Apophis out of his prison as soon as possible. Another big obstacle in the story is all of the gods and titans that are opposed to  Carter and Sadie's idea of freeing Ra from  his sleep in the Duat. What's happening currently right now is that Carter and Sadie found the first scroll and know where the second one is. The second one is in Vladmir's desk drawer in Russia. They got the scroll and as they were sneaking out he saw them and they are dueling each other in a heated magic match. What will happen next?