Article 1 - from the mind of a 16-year-old girl
My daughter Madeline for her English Lit class:
Letters about literature
Killshot by Elmore Leonard is what I read that gave me strong and interesting feelings. Honestly the setting, characters, or conflicts didn’t in any way mirror my life. This is because I have never been around the country like some of the characters have or never been faced in the same situations as some of the characters. Also Some of the uncommon conflicts the characters faced are some I would think never would happen to me and haven’t yet. I know I share what I call a flaw with one of the characters named Armand Degas. He is a follower, he follows Richie and does what he says most of the time. Just as I am a follower. We both share a flaw also that is not being our own person. If I’m friends with someone who looks like they have a very short temper, sure I’m going to do what they say.
The book shows me, as I am reading, various things about my world I would have never thought would surface at any time anywhere. For example, when Wayne is followed to the market and shot at it’s really spontaneous; he didn’t see it coming. On self-reflection, I wouldn’t know someone like Richie would shoot at someone in a public place and then shoot the clerk at the counter. Things in the real world don’t really happen like that. Also, as I was reading about Wayne and Carmen happen to be at the same place as Richie and Bird made me realize that some things like that can happen at the same time and same place. I thought nothing like that would happen: one person would be at the wrong place at the wrong time starting a chain reaction.
I had some strong feeling on the location of Wayne and Carmen’s house, how it is around woods and wildlife. Wayne is a hunter of deer and I find it sort of ironic that they live by woods and hunt, then they get into this situation where they are the ones being hunted. To add even more irony Richie and Bird dress up in hunting outfits when they are hunting Wayne and Carmen so it’s like they are the deer being hunted. I also found that interesting during my read. That’s what keeps me reading more, the fact that situations so uncommon to most people today would happen to two unlucky people in the book just excites me, because there are hints of foreshadowing everywhere. If I had to choose one character to really connect to, I would have to pick Carmen because she is well-witted and internally strong. I’m about as laid-back as she is throughout the story, and sure she can have a temper just like any married women, but we both connect because I feel I have a quick temper sometimes as well.
