Reflection #4: Book 2

Nolan B.

Mr. Salsich

English 9

1/31/11

The Silver Donkey

Pages: 56 - 71

The soldier continues to tell his story in these pages. It has to do with a man and his wife trying to go back to their homeland because their king is making them, and it's many miles away, but the wife is pregnant. This obviously means she can't walk all that way the ask a neighboring women to borrow her old and fragile donkey to carry the wife. The women was hesitant because her donkey hazel is very old now, but agreed as long as they take good care of hazel. They walk for four days until they reach their homeland, but Mary, the wife, will have the baby very soon. They wander trying to find a hotel but all are booked because of people coming there from kings orders so they end up having to sleep in a stable. The story continues on with the baby being born a prince and then is kidnapped by the king. I'm still not sure why the soldier is telling the kids this story. I think he might be trying to tell them how sacred the donkey's are and why he considers his little silver donkey luck. That's all I can really think of, but it's a plausible guess.

Reflection #3: Book 2

Nolan B.

Mr. Salsich

English 9

1/25/11

The Silver Donkey

Pages: 41 - 55

These pages were confusing. In the pages before this they had said the soldier left the woods where the girls found them. Now they girls have returned to the woods, and he is still there! This makes me wonder if he had maybe walked back or the chapter before this happened before this chapter. Anyways, the girls continue to have a liking toward this man and treat him with much food. Coco has an obsession over the little silver donkey the man has. She admires it, and so does the man, who treats it like his good luck charm. The man is happy for the first time in a while by being with these girls. He then starts to tell them a story.

Reflection #2: Book 2

Nolan B.

Mr. Salsich

English 9

1/10/11

The Silver Donkey

Pages: 23 - 40

The book takes a different turn in this part of the book. We learn that the man had tricked the two sisters by leaving his spot when he had told them to bring him food. I found this mean, but I guess he didn't want the girls to start to like him. He then describes how it's like being blind, and that everything he see's is now just white. He travels on to the sea even with his blindness, stealing an old man's cloths that were drying so he wouldn't look like a soldier no more. It's as if he's trying to hide his past behind him. His blindness keeps getting worse, making everything less and less able for him to see and more and more white. He goes back to when he enlisted into the war and that he thought it'd be exciting, but how wrong he was. He was horrified and fled. Now he is just trying to return home, which I would completely understand. War is something not to mess with.

Reflection #1: Book 2

Nolan B.

Mr. Salsich

English 9

1/4/10

The Silver Donkey

Pages: 1 - 22

The book starts off rather oddly. There are two sisters named Coco and Marcelle walking through the woods when they find a man laying on the ground. They immediately assume he his dead and run away screaming. After running for a bit they stop to think if the man was actually dead or not so they pull themselves together, and go back to find the man sitting up. He looks toward them in the woods, and he is frightened by them. We then find out the man is blind! This makes me wonder why he is in the woods in the first place or that he could be homeless. Later we're told that the sisters are young and that the man is a soldier trying to cross the sea to see his ill brother. The war is still going on, but he needs to get to his brother. This than brings me to the thought of how is he blind and a soldier? He would be useless in a war. A even more questionable fact we find out is that he is a lieutenant. I really want to figure out who this man truly is.