iRead Journal Prompt #2 for The Compound

-Often main characters will grow in confidence and learn how to accept themselves in some new way.  Cite an example of how the protagonist found a source of strength.  Describe how you felt as the reader when this happened.

Eli, the protagonist, found a source of strength from the internet that he occasionally was able to access.  He found a computer in his twin brother, Eddy’s, room.  He never wanted to go in there because he missed his brother so much.  He knew it would be an exact replica of the room from his original house, and it would bring too many past memories of him.  One day he decided to go in there, and he found Eddy’s old laptop that was still charging in the wall.  While Eli was looking through the computer, he recognized an internet icon, that had been deleted off his personal computer.  He has not seen this icon for over 6 years and it brought back many distant memories of staying up late at night playing video games and instant messaging his brother and his friends.  However, the internet was down. “That was the difference between this laptop, and the one I used.  Mine had no integrated wireless internet.” (37). The internet icon made Eli very suspicious of his dad and the information that he was telling all of them.  Eli felt that his dad was not telling him the truth about what was happening above ground.  He knew that his dad was keeping secrets from them, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.  The internet icon gave him the confidence to confront his dad about what information he knew about the Earth.  Eli decided to secretly keep the laptop because he wanted to explore more of it.  He went to his dad’s office and sat outside the door and tried clicking the internet icon again.  Eli got the message “Wireless network now connected.” Seeing that message helped Eli grow in confidence that there was somebody that was keeping the internet working.  It gave him confidence to find out who was still on Earth.  Curiosity started to eat at him to make him find out more information and, of course, the truth.  One day he got on the internet and saw his brother’s user ID on the instant messager.  He immediately started to chat with that ID, and confirmed that it really was his brother, Eddy.  At that moment, he knew that everything his father has told him so far was a lie.  The conversation with his brother really made Eli determined to get out of the compound, knowing there was no nuclear attack.  This source of strength caused him to physically fight his dad to get the code.  I feel like this encounter with the internet created a new part of Eli.  It brought out a new side of Eli that was more determined than ever to get the code from his dad to get out of the compound.  Now that Eli knew that his dad has been tricking his family for the past couple years, Eli started to revolt against his dad and confront him about the code.  If Eli didn’t search Eddy’s room, I believe that Eli would have stayed inside the compound for the remaining 9 years, never doubting his dad’s views on the outside world.

iRead Journal Prompt #1 for The Compound

-Select a relatively important event in the book and describe why it was a turning point in the character's life? What was it that the character decided or learned to do?

The turning point of a relatively important event in the book happened when the dad was unconscious, and the mom was going in and out of consciousness.  The dad was unconscious because of the food poisoning and he was uttering numbers and words; he was very hard to understand.  Eli was trying to figure out if he was mumbling about the code to the door, or if he was just talking nonsense. Eli decided they had to get out of the compound; he needed to figure out the code to the door.  He knew that the code had to be numbers, but he was unsure how many numbers.  When Eli confronted his mother about the code, she replied that his father was the only person who knew about the code.  She claimed that the code was memorized, and not written. Eli was really concerned because his mother was pregnant, and she didn’t look so good.  He thought that his mother’s life could be in danger because she told him that doctors recommend that she not have any more babies.  She kept complaining about a lot of pain in her stomach.  She was starting to bleed.  He felt bad that he couldn’t help his mother besides giving her blankets and telling her to be calm and to rest.  Eli knew that she needed medical help and he didn’t know how to help her, except to get out of the compound.  He told his mother “I’ll find the clue” (194).  In his mind, that mentally committed him to find a way to get the door open.  He could see his mom was in a lot of pain, and this motivated him even more.  His father gave Eli a one word clue (turducken).  Eli remembered turducken was a type of food that his family enjoyed eating at Christmas time.  Turducken is a tuckey stuffed with a duck, that was stuffed with a chicken.  He was trying to figure out how that food was a clue.  He remembered his brother, Lucas, talking about the clowns, and saying “the mystery inside” (204).  Eli decided to go into the nursery and find the clowns that Lucas was referring to.  He took them all apart, and at the bottom of the smallest clown was a clue.  The word on the clown was “Hautbois” which is French for oboe.  Still driven to figure out the clue, Eli went to his sister’s oboe case and searched it.  He found a piece of blank paper.  He could tell there was invisible ink on it because when he was younger he used to write a bunch of messages to his twin brother, Eddy, in invisible ink.  He took the paper into the lab and put chemicals onto the paper to reveal the message.  A lot of numbers started to appear on the paper.  “I had it, I had the power to get us out of here.” (208).  While Eli was looking at the paper, he heard someone clapping.  His dad walked towards him and said “So you have the code now.” (209).  Eli replies by saying they can escape and get help.