Night Personified

Introduction

Dear Reader,

            Marked is the first book of many that represent one theme throughout the series.  Darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.  Zoey Montgomery now finds this out during this book, but realizes its true meaning throughout the books. In this post, you will see how the theme is conveyed throughout the book through the genres that will be portrayed.  In this summary, you will get an idea of how the theme is conveyed and it will give you a better understanding on why this is the main theme of the book(s).

Zoey was a small town girl living in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Attending SIHS, she had her best friend Kayla and her soon to be ex-boyfriend, Heath.  Since her mother had married John Heffer(her evil step-dad), home didn’t feel the same.  Just another typical day at school, Zoey soon realized her life would never be the same when she got Marked by another vampyre from the House of Night.  Rushing home from the embarrassment, Zoey packed a few of her belongings into her backpack and snuck out of her house.  As she was driving to her grandma Redbird’s house to tell her what had happened, she continued to get more and more ill, coughing up her lungs and almost too dizzy and nauseous to drive.  She finally arrived to find a letter on her front door of her lavender farm house that she knew Zoey was coming and to meet her out back in the lavender farm.  As Zoey was following the path, she suddenly passed out and met the Goddess of Night personified, Nyx.  Nyx told Zoey that she was special and she was going to be her eyes and ears through the rest of her life to prevent evil from taking over.  At this moment Nyx presents the theme of the book and the series, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.  Her mark that was just a sapphire moon outlined was now a filled in sapphire moon, and she would be the first fledgling (a newly marked vampyre going through the Change to become an adult vampyre) that had this.

Zoey woke up in the infirmary of the House of Night to meet her grandma there and her new mentor and the High Priestess of the school, Neferet.  After she changed her last name to Redbird, she went to meet her new roommate, Stevie Rae.  After watching the whole event with Aphrodite (hag-from-hell, leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons, and High Priestess in training) and Erik, she was more than frightened at this point.  She went downstairs to eat dinner and she met her new friends: Damien, Erin, and Shaunee.  Things start to get weird when she sees dead fledglings that could not complete the Change, and Heath and Kayla coming to visit her at the House of Night.  And when she gets invited to join the Dark Daughters and participate in their ritual by Aphrodite, she finds many surprises.  Like at the Samhein Night (Halloween) ritual when they leave the House of Night and go to a gazebo, and Heath shows up just when Aphrodite calls the Dead Spirits.  Zoey Redbird finds out that she has an affinity for all 5 elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit. This has never happened in history, and she is pronounced the new leader of the Dark Daughters after she saves Heath and Erik from the dead spirits that Aphrodite released.  Throughout the book, Zoey begins to realize this theme when she has to face the evil Aphrodite. In the upcoming books she also realizes that Aphrodite might not be a hag-from-hell, and Neferet might not the person who she puts herself out to be.

I chose this theme because it can be relevant to life and this fantasy novel.  Nyx, the Goddess of Night personified presented this theme herself that is shown throughout the series of the House of Night.

“She was beginning to understand that evil is not absolute, and that good is often an occasion more than a condition.” -Gilbert Parker

Internal Monologue:

“Her father lov’d me; oft invited me;

Still question’d me the story of my life

From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes

That I have pass’d.”

“She wish’d she had not heard it, yet she wish’d

That heaven had made her such a man; she thank’d me,

And bade me, if I had a friend that lov’d her,

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her.  Upon this hint I spake:

She lov’d me for the dangers I had pass’d,

And I lov’d her that she did pity them.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”-Martin Luther King Jr.

Prayer:

“Airy light of themoon

Mystery of the deep earth

Power of the flowing water

Warmth of the burning flame

In Nyx’s name we call to thee!”

“Healing of ills

Righting of wrongs

Cleansing ofimpurity

Desiring of truths

In Nyx’s name we call to thee!”

“Sight of the cat

Hearing of the dolphin

Speed of the snake

Mystery of the phoenix

In Nyx’s name we call to thee

And ask that with us you will blessed be!”

“Every one is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody”-Mark Twain

Haiku:

Ancient queen awake

A chrysalis not yet formed

Will you wings unfold?

“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”-Victor Hugo

Photographs with caption:

“Those who voluntarily put power into the hands of a tyrant… must not wonder if it be at last turned against themselves.”- Aesop

“She was beginning to understand that evil is not absolute, and that good is often an occasion more than a condition.” -Gilbert Parker

            The genres I chose represented the book and the theme very well.  I learned that recognizing genres and their true meaning are more complex than what meets the eye.  Genres have more to them than just describing the theme and the book.  With genres, you have to think more deeply on what the real meaning is to it and how it fully connects to the theme itself.  That was the part that was sort of difficult, was making my project more complex that I thought it would be.  I liked that I got to choose any novel that I wanted to and to talk about it in deep sense, because it truly is a good book and it has a great theme to it.  Each genre type that I chose reflected my book and theme very well. The photograph with captions goes with this well because it shows evil vs. good, which is what the whole series including this book is about. The haiku goes well with this well because it was actually said by a character in the book and it foreshadows the theme.  The prayer goes well with this because it was also in the book and it again shows the theme well.  And the internal monologue is also in the book, which again shows the theme. This book shows a good theme that can be used in fantasy novels and sometimes real life.

Works Cited

http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~mccolm/Equotes.html

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/dark/

http://thinkexist.com/quotations/darkness/