Prompt (based on 2.2.a/b): Determine what subject your author has an opinion about in the book. This opinion could be on anything from dating to race to heroism to social media. The opinions, like character traits, most like come from the main character’s or narrator’s thoughts, actions or dialogue. Once you have determined the opinion, find at least one quote and one example (though two quotes is always better) that shows how your author supports his opinion.
Your response formatting should look exactly like mine (except the period & Date). It is quarter two. If the heading is not correct, I will return it to you so you can revise it.
Corey Ryan
Author’s Opinion (2.2.a/b) RR
Period 0
October 25, 2015
Background
At the moment, I am on page 109 of Koji Suzuki’s Ring. This was the book that spawned the movie The Ring in 2002, but the book was published in Japan in 1991.
Asakawa is a journalist who discovers that four teenagers died at the exact same time at the exact same day. Each of their deaths was ruled as a heart attack because a more plausible explanation could not be found. Each kid also had a look of fright on their face; each of them trying to either choke themselves, rip off their heads or hair. Creepy.
At the point I am in the book, Asakawa just watched the blank VHS tape that all four kids watched before they died. It told him he would die in 7 days if he did not do the four things the videotape asked him to do. The problem is the four things have been erased, recorded over with a commercial. Asakawa asked a friend, Ryuji, to help him find out the four ways that one can survive.
Prompt
Koji Suzuki states his opinions about fatherhood in Japan throughout Ring. (I’m trying to find the quote I want to use. I know where it is, but I can’t find it. I hate that-part of the process. Look around to where you think it might have been. Think of where the characters were. What was happening. Who was he/she talking to. Etc.)
Asakawa and his wife Shizu have a one and a half year old daughter named Yoko. Asakawa and his family go to visit Shuzi’s sister, the mother of the first victim, so Asakawa can “look for clues,” though he never tells his wife that. Yoko starts crying and Asakawa says that he will lay the baby down for a nap. The 3rd person omniscient narrator states, “The words sounded strange coming from Asakawa, who hardly ever helped with the baby” (42). Here Suzuki is inserting his opinions about fatherhood in Japan. Basically, it’s easy to be a Japanese dad; you don’t have to do anything. The wife will take care of everything. I know Suzuki beleives this is wrong because of the author’s biography at the end of the book-he wrote this book “with a baby on his lap.”
Another time that Suzuki shares his opinion about fatherhood in Japan is when he knows that he has only 5 days left to live. He peeks his head in and sees his wife and daughter sleeping. He gains some inner strength and knows that he has to do everything he can to survive. He can’t imagine what his wife and daughter will do if he dies. He decides to enlist two friends to help. His opinion is that a Japanese father (all fathers) must do whatever they can to survive (metaphorically and literally) to ensure that his family is safe.
Koji Suzuki expresses his opinion about Japanese fatherhood in many ways in Ring.
My Thinking
I watched this The Ring when it came out 14 years ago. My memory is not good enough to remember specific details, but I do remember I creeped me out. I scare easily and do not watch horror films because then I won’t be able to sleep. But I want to like them. I really do. Needless to say, this book is doing a pretty good job creeping me out. Suzuki writes in a very simplistic way that creates suspense enough to both keep me reading and to keep me from reading until there is sunlight. I’m looking forward to seeing the creepy girl and finding out whether Asakawa will survive. I don’t think he will, but I’m kind of hoping he does.
Oh, there are also three more book after Ring. I plan on reading one every October for the next three years because I’m weird like that.
