Gate Of Fire Dialectic Journal: Chapters 4-7

Chapter 4, page 21.

"This I learned then: There is always fire.
An acrid haze hangs in the air night and day, and sulphurous smoke chokes the nostrils. The sun is the color of ash , and black stones litter the road, smoking. Everywhere one looks, some object is afire. Timber, flesh, the earth itself. Even water burns. The pitilessness of flame reinforces the sensation of the gods' anger, of fate, retribution, deeds done and hell to pay."

Whoa. This quote was very intense. As soon as I read "there is always fire", I knew something big was going to happen or he was going to say something very strong. Xeones has definitely shown great intensity in what he says. For this passage, Xeones is describing what it would look like if a fire was going on. It's scary to think about that there is something always on fire, no matter what it is. We all know fire is a dangerous thing (especially in southern California), such as what it does and even what it sometimes represents. When he says "The pitilessness of flame reinforces the sensation of the gods' anger, of fate, retribution, deeds done and hell to pay" When he says hell to pay, it could be referring to the flames of hell. Being surrounded by fire is probably not the most joyful thing in the world. Its the way he describes the fire that makes it so interesting to read this passage. When he says "The sun is the color of ash , and black stones litter the road, smoking" it really hooks me in. Its similar to hearing juicy gossip, or watching a movie that has you on the end of your seat.

Chapter 5, page 28.

"Before, on my fathers farm, we had caught wild birds for our cote, or to make breeding pairs, or just to hold for an hour before returning them to freedom. Now we ate them. Bruxieus made us devour everything but the feathers. We crunched the little hallow bones; we ate the eyes, and the legs right down to the boot, discarding only the beak and the unchewable feet. We gulped the eggs raw."

Ew. I am not kidding, I cringed after reading that. That is disgusting! I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been. This was the first passage of this book to actually make me physically react. I litteraly cuffed my mouth and squinted my eyes. That was mostly because he said "We crunched the little hallow bones", which brought me in and made me feel like I was there observing that. Besides the fact that it was beyond disgusting, it represents a change or in a way a transformation. Lets think of it as chores. When we were young, we had to just simply clean up our messes or help vacuum the floor. Now that we are older we have to clean the dishes, mow the lawn, take out the trash and much more. Chores to me when I was younger wasn't a big deal and sometimes fun. Now I dread it. I have to do things I don't want to do, and the load of stuff for me to do is bigger. Being forced to do more stuff you don't want to do is an awful feeling. Even though doing chores isn't anywhere near being as bad as eating chicken bones, it is a similar transition. You go from doing something okay and fun with the chickens, to crunching up their bones in you mouth. (I'm not sure if this is the right way to think of this situation, but that's what it reminded me of when reading it)

Chapter 6, page 40.

"Then a terrifying thought struck me.
What if this is the wrong tree? Perhaps I should be leaning against that one. Or that other, over there. A panic of indecision seized me. I was in the wrong spot!"

Haha. Making choices. If anyone ever asked me the number one thing I'm bad at or my number one least favorite thing to do, my answer would be making a decision or choice. I can never decide on anything. I'm always my afraid my decisions are wrong or something that another person doesn't want. My parents always ask me what I want for dinner. Every single time they ask me that, I always say "I don't know. I'll eat whatever you want." Even today I couldn't make a choice. My mom and I were in See's candy and I was getting 3 of those Cafe Latte Lolly-pops. Then I saw a box full of mini ones. I asked my mom if it was a good idea to get the 3 pops or the box of little ones. My mom asked me to decide and I couldn't choose. I looked behind me and saw a line of people. So my mom finally chose for me (the 3 pops). Then I realized that getting the box of mini ones was a better deal. Choosing the right tree would definitely be stressful and a very tough decision. Its horrible when you make a choice and its the wrong one, so I know what that panic feeling would be like for him.