dogsong

My Opinion of the Book

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:41:28 +0100

Gary Paulsen's DOGSONG was a very good and interesting book even for someone who is not Eskimo you begin to associate yourself to the character and the can relate to him in some ways and other than the description is astronomically good and really brings you into the book and the setting of the book. I liked this book but it was very sad in lots of parts for the loss of life both human and animal. Regardless I would give Gary Paulsen's DOGSONG a seven and half out of ten and would recommend reading it as long as you don’t have to do a growling write on reading book report on it that takes up your life especially your weekends.

My Opinion of the Book

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:40:39 +0100

Chapter 13 & 14 Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:24:13 +0100

Summary: The dream Russel sees the ripped up black tent and when he comes in all that is left is two bones and a fox taking the oil lamp to lick up the left over oil because he had took a much too long time and now his family was dead and became skeletons from the scavengers and now the dream lamp lay under the dream overhang. He woke up and Nancy said that she had run away because the church told her it is wrong do become pregnant if you’re not married then they keep going until they stop after a while so he can find food. He goes out to find some food and can’t find any but then sees a giant polar bear and does what he did to the mammoth and make it back onto the spear. Then takes the meat back to her and she is still alive and they eat then she has the baby and asks him to get rid of it. Then they go back and get more meat and fur from the polar bear and then they go to the coast and find an old village where they live and they make his song, a Dogsong.

Main Character: Russel: This develops again because he helps Nancy come back to life and gets meat for him and her and lives out the dream then discards her unwanted baby and they find another village and live there.

Setting: Alaskan Wilderness and Eskimo village

Quote: “The Lace went through the polar bear like a light beam” This is the exact line used when he kills the mammoth in his dream and shows that the dream and run are one in the same except the details are slightly different.

Vocab Definitions:

Coma: A state of prolonged unconsciousness, including a lack of response to stimuli, from which it is impossible to rouse a person.

Discourtesy: Lack of courtesy or niceness; unkindness; rudeness

Chapter 11 & 12 Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:19:46 +0100

Summary: He is not in the coastal village any more he is headed back to his family but there is a great storm and he whips his dogs to get them to keep going but then stops and takes shelter for the wind is to strong and back at home the mom and her kids aren’t fat any more they are skin and bone and have eaten even there clothes the mom wipes some grease from the oil lamp onto both there lips one licks it off the other doesn’t. Russel wakes up and leaves and as he’s riding out the dogs find tracks and then a snowmobile with no gas and his happy him and his dogs live off the land but then after a while longer the dogs stop and he looks up ahead and finds a girls freezing so he sets up shelter and heats her up and he can tell she is going to live as he falls asleep.

Main character: Dream Russel: This developed because he was having a great time with the other people but decided he had go back and then after only a while longer he was stormed in. And because of this his family is dying.

Setting: Alaskan wilderness

Quote: “My dogs and I live off land which a snow machine can not” This shows importance because he can live off the snow and animals that are of the land which as a snow machine needs gas to function.

Vocab Definitions:

Igloo: An Eskimo house, being a dome-shaped hut usually built of blocks of hard snow.

Whisp: A thin puff or streak, as of smoke

Chapter 9 & 10 Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:59:27 +0100

Summary: As the mist and fog in his dream settles he looks out to a coastal village that is rich in meat and fat and people stirring every where he wants to head back but his dogs pull him down the hill and all the villagers welcome him into the large light-filled warm tent where they tell the great strong visitor to come into their tent and tell them stories and does and they have a dance. He woke up to a storm hitting his shelter so he went back to bed and slept for three days then got up and rode out because the storm had left and then kept going while stopping every once in a while to eat and feed the dogs and began telling the dogs where to go with his mind then he made a makeshift shelter and slept and had a dream, darker this time.

Main Character: Russel: he again develops differently has a dream about the great man who tells everyone stories and becomes one the with the dogs.

Setting: Alaskan wilderness

Quote “He was surely a mighty hunter because his sled was full of meat” This Quote shows how great the dream Russel was because he was strong and mighty and had lots of meat that he had got from hunting along the way.

Vocab Definitions:

Bluff: A cliff, headland or hill with a broad, steep face.

Quiver: A case for holding or carrying arrows.

Chapter 7 & 8 Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:11:53 +0100

Summary: Russel has dream that there are people in a tent eating red coarse meat with yellow fat. The husband and wife both look very sad and worry then the husband leaves and takes his huge dogs out. They find a trail and keep going on it then after a while see a mammoth so Russel pulls out his lance and fixes it into the ground then the mammoth backs up, falls on it and as it goes through him. And Russel figures he is the man in the dream . He then wakes up and clothes himself and keeps going out until at the end of the day he finds where there was a large overhang so he set skins over it to make a shelter then sets his bed up and something digs into his back. He wants a good sleep so gets it out and it’s a oil lamp so he takes some fat from the deer and moss for the wick and uses the stone lamp to heat his tent area and he has another dream.

Main Character: Russel: This character develops a lot because he figures out his strange dream and becomes one with the man in the dream and then makes a great tent area in his next camp.

Setting: Alaskan wilderness

Quote: “Two children were small round and wonderfully fat eating coarse red meat with rich yellow fat.” This shows how abundantly fat and well-nourished these children were and the whole family so well off before the husband went away.

Vocab Definitions:

Exultation: the act of exulting with triumphant joy over success or victory.

Rendered: To reduce or melt down fat by heating.

Chapter 5 & 6 Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:49:44 +0100

Summary: Russel now hunted for him and Oogruk and got lots of light meat like birds with a net that Oogruk had fashioned. He occasionally got heavy meat like dear but now Oogruk wanted some of the best meat seal or whale some Russel and Oogruk went a few miles on the sea ice and Oogruk wearing just a light parka. Sat on the ice and told Russel to leave and become a man and leave him to freeze, then he left and came back because he couldn’t leave him there. But he was dead and he was sad and left his lance on Oogruk’s lap. Then he left and went out, then hunted animals and kept going out until he had hunted few dear and gorged then sleep in a handmade fort with his belly full and he had a dream.

Main Character: Oogruk: This character develops in the sense that he accepts death and gets Russel to take him out on the ice so he can have a peaceful death on the ice. Russel leaves sadly but comes back to see he is dead and sits his lance on Oogruk's lap.

Setting: Sea ice in Alaska and Oogruk house

Quote: “You left too soon Grandfather. I was coming back for you.:” This is an important quote because it shows that Russel really cared for the old man and was sad to see him but also because it made me made and feel bad for Oogruk and sad for Russel.

Vocab Definitions:

Shaman: A person who acts as an intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds, using magic to cure illness, foretell the future, control spiritual forces, etc.

Anorak: A type of heavy with a hood often lined with fur so as to protect the face from both freezing temperatures and cold wind.

Chapter 3 & 4 of Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:02:41 +0100

Summary: Through a trance Oogruk tells Russel everything needs to know about how to be an Eskimo. But now he takes the dogs out for a run and get use to them to learns to be a part of them then comes back and in the next little while Oogruk asks him to him to hunt some Ptarmigan. When he comes out and aims at the center of the center of the bird he gets it. Then is about to go home but as he is going he gets close to a large deer so he sneaks out to it and gets it in the heart. Oogruk is happy and they feast on the deer then in a while Oogruk wants some seal blubber and meat so Russel goes out and does get anything because of a huge storm that he hides under a rock for then the dogs drag him in what he thinks is the wrong direction. But after several hours he starts to freeze and realizes he is going in the wrong direction so he lets the dogs go and they find the right over a thirty foot straight of water that he eventually once thins to twenty feet across. He throws the lead dog and he and the follow across a small iceberg and leave the ice island and go back home on the solid ground.

Main Character: Russel: This character develops in this chapter by becoming one with the dogs and putting his learning into hands on experience, and especially solving problems.

Setting: An Eskimo village in Alaska.

Quote: “Sometimes dogs are smarter then humans.” This shows that in a sense dogs are smarter that humans because lots of time humans let their emotions run them, and in Russel’s case he thought he knew which way the village was but was wrong and the dogs all along which way the village actually was.

Vocab Definitions:
Ptarmigan: Bird of the grouse family inhabiting arctic, sub arctic, and alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere and having feathered legs and feet and plumage that is brown or gray in summer and white in winter.

Scrabbling: To scratch or scrape with claws or hands.

Chapter: 1 & 2 of Dogsong by Gary Paulsen

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:06:13 +0100

Summary: Russel Susskit is a fourteen year old Eskimo in a village in Alaska. He lives with father who is a chain smoker and before Jesus was part of his life he used to drink too. One day after breakfast Russel tells his dad that he is confused and wants his own song so his dad says he should go live with Oogruk an old man who has all the answers. He goes to Oogruk house with the only dogs in town were he comes right in with out stopping and observes all the well kept Eskimo weapons and gear for hunting. Oogruk tells him to sit down and Russel says that he brought him two deer as a present so Oogruk asks him to bring him the eyes which he does and Oogruk heats them up in pan of water over his lamp which runs on fat. Then eats them and asks Russel to get deer meat which he does and then they both eat until they are bursting then Russel goes into a trance.

Main Character: Russel: This character has developed from living in a small house and being confused about everything to moving in with Oogruk and helping him by bringing the meat in and feasting on the mostly raw meat as Oogruk started to answer his questions after they ate all they could hold.

Setting: An Eskimo village in Alaska

Quote: Russel said, ``I like raw meat better`` This quote is important to the story because shows all about their culture and how eating raw meat was the way to go if your an Eskimo which is and that`s why he likes raw meat.

Vocab Definitions:
Ulu: A knife with a broad, semicircular blade with a handle joined at the top of the unsharpened side: a traditional tool of Eskimo women.

Muktuk: Blubber and skin of a whale fermented and then cubed and eaten raw or cooked.

First Blog: DOGSONG

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:59:11 +0100

Book Title: DOGSONG

Author: Gary Paulsen

Genre: Fictional, Multicultural Adventure for
Young Adults