Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Book Of Dreams by O.R. Melling



The Book Of Dreams is mainly the story of Dana. She is part faerie and has recently moved to a new town from Ireland. She is depressed about the lack of magic there and whenever she can she goes to visits her mother in the Faerie lands that she can access through her mind.

She eventually meets Jean and the two become fast friends. She slowly starts to find out that there is some terrible force after her. It has severed the gateways to the Faerie World successfully blocking Dana out from her only refuge from earth.

She travels to her grandmothers house for a bit of a vacation. However she is kidnapped by the evil Crowley. He is trying to destroy the world. "While Dana's dream held her spellbound in Crowley's car, her real self was sleep walking through her grandmother's house." (Melling 79)Jean rescues her though and you learn that he can turn into a wolf at night.

The two go on a adventure through the book and they meet many of the creatures and people of Irish legend. Toward the end of the book Jean is cursed to stay a wolf forever after saving Dana. Dana blames herself for this and eventually joins him as a wolf later in the story. Before that however she confronts the deformed Crowley and all the bad entities that have joined him. During the battle she is almost over come by Crowley. "Weighed down by hopelessness, Dana searched in her heart for something bright to offset the dark." (Melling 637)However eventually she turns the tides and restores the portals between the Faeries and Earth.

1)Why do people often try to escape reality and go to ideal or fantasy world? Are they afraid to try new things? Or is it because they don't know anything other then their habits and ideals and have no wish to change?

8 comments:

Madi Y 7-8 said...

I think people find a safe place by escaping reality and entering their own fantasies. I think they are also stuck in there own ideals. This is still shown in today's communities.

Kyle N.1-2 said...

1. I think they go to these fake worlds to escape their troubles. In the fake world, you control whatever happens to you, and that leads to your happiness. You don't have to worry about any of your normal struggles, and that's why so many people enjoy fantasy.

Nicole H. 7-8 said...

I think that people go into their dreams and fantasies to escape the problems they are facing in everyday life. Sometimes the stress and anxiety I that is overwhelming and one may feel powerless. In a fantasy, they control what happens, relieving them of the stress and giving them the power they do not have in reality.

Lisa T. 1-2 said...

1. I agree with Nicole; it's in part about control. The course of reality is affected by so many different factors that sometimes we don't have a choice in what happens to us. A fantasy world would allow us to hold on to an organized way of living, something routine and safe.

Josie D 7/8 said...

I think people like to daydream becuase they want to have a life different from theirs. It is neccessarily a matter of if they are afraid to try new things, but rather that they just want to think about what something different would be like, even if they cannot have that different life.

Adam B. 7-8 said...

I think that people go to fantasy worlds in order to escape their problems. They find it as a way to escape and go off to a world where everything is perfect and all of their problems go away.

Spencer P. 1-2 said...

They go to other non real places to try and hide from their problems rather than having to deal with them.

Laura P 7-8 said...

1.) I agree with the people who said it is to escape their problems. I think they create these realities just to get away from them and focus on something completely different, even if it isn't real.