1. In your opinion what is the most important theme in the book?
2. What crime did Cardinal commit?
3. Why does Edie cooperate with Eric?
4. Do you think Eric's past affected his future?
5. Why do you think the author made Cardinal's wife depressed?
6. Do you think the weather is important to the novel?
7. When the killers take their victims, where are the victims usually?
8. When Eric kills a victim, what do they call it? And why?
9. Why do you think Eric likes to calls him victims "guests"?
10. Do you think Cardinal should have confessed his guilt even though Delorme stopped him?
Friday, 10 May 2013
Theme Summary-Kate
Theme Summary
Forty words for sorrow has many small themes that affect how the story unfolds.
Theme 1: The weather
The story takes place in Algonquin Bay during winter which is a fitting time of year because the story is very gruesome and cold. For example when Cardinal and the other policemen finally find Katie Pine after she had been gone since September 12, they found her body in a mine shaft in the middle of a frozen lake. Her body was mutilated and frozen. The freezing temperature of the lake and island added to how morbid Katie Pine's death was. The fact that the entire book's events take place in Canada during the winter is a theme directly related to the book because it adds to the cold and mysterious atmosphere of the book.
Theme 2: Love is blind
The murders in Forty Words For Sorrow are named Eric Fraser and Edith Soames. Eric is a someone who finds happiness and pleasure while torturing others. In other words, he is insane. However, he is able to alter Edie (or Edith) into believing what he is doing is alright. He is able to make her believe this because she is in love with him. Edie had very low self confidence in fact she wrote, "I am nothing. My life is nothing, i amount to a big fat zero." She wrote this 3 days before meeting Eric. After she met Eric she became blind to his faults. To anyone who witnessed his behaviour up close, it was obvious that he was crazy. He liked to video tape killing people. He called them "parties". Eric got Edie to help him find and kill his victims. Edie wasn't thrilled with it at first but she was just happy that Eric was happy. She would do whatever he told her to do. The sad part is though, that Eric had absolutely no feelings towards Edie at all. In the book he refers to Edie as, "A pet, some kind of reptile." He enjoyed having someone who worshiped him the way Edie did, and if he didn't find her attractive at least she would do anything and believe anything he said.
Theme 3: The past can come back to haunt you
John Cardinal, the main character in this book is a loving father, caring husband and talented detective. However, he made choices in his past that set him up for failure in the end. Delorme, his partner for the case, was inverstigating him the whole time they were working together because they thought that Cardinal was involved with Kyle Corbett who was a huge drug dealer. It turns out that he wasn't in fact the perpatrator in Kyle Corbett fiasco, it was sergeant Dyson. However, Cardinal did commit a crime when he was new cop, he was on a police raid for Rick Bouchard and Kiki, who were popular drug dealers. He found a hidden stash of over $200,000 and he kept the money. So, Cardinal sent a letter to the Chief saying he took the money but Delorme took it out of the mail telling him that he doesnt deserve to get fired. But, now that the drug dealers were finally released out of prison, they were after Cardinal to get the money back.
Another case where the past can come back to haunt you is with the murderer Eric. Since he was a young child he was in foster homes. He was ignored alot and he became fed up with it. So, he killed his foster sister's dog so he could comfort her and get her attention. It worked for a little while, but afterwards she just kept ignoring him. So, one night he snuck into her room and she say him, screamed and he was kicked out of his fourth foster home. Then, he was shipped off to different group homes and it resulted in him being sent to Juvenile Court for beating a smaller boy up with an electrical cord after the boy had made fun of him for wetting the bed. Afterwards, he was sent to Saint Bartholomew Training School in Deep River, where he lived with Christian Brothers until he was eighteen. Then, he moved to Toronto, where he had lots of boring jobs and no friends. So, he moved to Algonquin Bay.
So, Eric had a horrible past. Maybe if he hadn't gone through so many people and places who didn't care for him, he might've ended up alright in the end.
Forty words for sorrow has many small themes that affect how the story unfolds.
Theme 1: The weather
The story takes place in Algonquin Bay during winter which is a fitting time of year because the story is very gruesome and cold. For example when Cardinal and the other policemen finally find Katie Pine after she had been gone since September 12, they found her body in a mine shaft in the middle of a frozen lake. Her body was mutilated and frozen. The freezing temperature of the lake and island added to how morbid Katie Pine's death was. The fact that the entire book's events take place in Canada during the winter is a theme directly related to the book because it adds to the cold and mysterious atmosphere of the book.
Theme 2: Love is blind
The murders in Forty Words For Sorrow are named Eric Fraser and Edith Soames. Eric is a someone who finds happiness and pleasure while torturing others. In other words, he is insane. However, he is able to alter Edie (or Edith) into believing what he is doing is alright. He is able to make her believe this because she is in love with him. Edie had very low self confidence in fact she wrote, "I am nothing. My life is nothing, i amount to a big fat zero." She wrote this 3 days before meeting Eric. After she met Eric she became blind to his faults. To anyone who witnessed his behaviour up close, it was obvious that he was crazy. He liked to video tape killing people. He called them "parties". Eric got Edie to help him find and kill his victims. Edie wasn't thrilled with it at first but she was just happy that Eric was happy. She would do whatever he told her to do. The sad part is though, that Eric had absolutely no feelings towards Edie at all. In the book he refers to Edie as, "A pet, some kind of reptile." He enjoyed having someone who worshiped him the way Edie did, and if he didn't find her attractive at least she would do anything and believe anything he said.
Theme 3: The past can come back to haunt you
John Cardinal, the main character in this book is a loving father, caring husband and talented detective. However, he made choices in his past that set him up for failure in the end. Delorme, his partner for the case, was inverstigating him the whole time they were working together because they thought that Cardinal was involved with Kyle Corbett who was a huge drug dealer. It turns out that he wasn't in fact the perpatrator in Kyle Corbett fiasco, it was sergeant Dyson. However, Cardinal did commit a crime when he was new cop, he was on a police raid for Rick Bouchard and Kiki, who were popular drug dealers. He found a hidden stash of over $200,000 and he kept the money. So, Cardinal sent a letter to the Chief saying he took the money but Delorme took it out of the mail telling him that he doesnt deserve to get fired. But, now that the drug dealers were finally released out of prison, they were after Cardinal to get the money back.
Another case where the past can come back to haunt you is with the murderer Eric. Since he was a young child he was in foster homes. He was ignored alot and he became fed up with it. So, he killed his foster sister's dog so he could comfort her and get her attention. It worked for a little while, but afterwards she just kept ignoring him. So, one night he snuck into her room and she say him, screamed and he was kicked out of his fourth foster home. Then, he was shipped off to different group homes and it resulted in him being sent to Juvenile Court for beating a smaller boy up with an electrical cord after the boy had made fun of him for wetting the bed. Afterwards, he was sent to Saint Bartholomew Training School in Deep River, where he lived with Christian Brothers until he was eighteen. Then, he moved to Toronto, where he had lots of boring jobs and no friends. So, he moved to Algonquin Bay.
So, Eric had a horrible past. Maybe if he hadn't gone through so many people and places who didn't care for him, he might've ended up alright in the end.
Monday, 29 April 2013
Plot summary paragraph -- Bridget
**Warning, there are spoilers in this text. If you didn't read through the book yet, don't read**
Forty words for sorrow is set in action when the partly-decomposed body of the native 13-year old girl, Katie Pine, was found preserved in the ice within the abandoned mine shaft on Windigo Island. John Cardinal was in charge of Katie Pine's case and kept it open before her body was found, insisting that she was no mere runaway. Cardinal was demoted to burglaries because of his determination for Katie Pine's sake. Katie Pine however is not the only teenager that disappeared In Algonquin bay. Cardinal had the “green light” to reopen the cases of the other missing teens such as the case of Todd Curry and Billy Labelle. Cardinal is assigned a new Partner, Lise Delorme, who just got out of the Special Investigations department. Lise Delorme however was assigned to investigate Cardinal for helping a know counterfeiter, Kyle Corbett, get away from police. With his wife, Catherine Cardinal, in the hospital with clinical depression and his daughter away studying at York University, this was no surprise for him and was actually expected. When Cardinal and Delorme were called to forensics to extract evidence from the body of Katie Pine, they found some fibers and a tape of her murder. To some, people would think that this was enough to catch the serial killer but in reality, the two detectives couldn't identify who's voices, other than Katie Pine's, was on the tape. So, it was back to square one for Cardinal and Delorme. Cardinal was determined to solve the case quickly and so, he investigated the case of Todd Curry, who was last seen in the area. After some sleuthing, he concluded that the last possible place that Todd would've visited was an abandoned house near main street. When he entered the house, after a little search, he discovered the gruesome murder scene of Todd Curry, who was viciously beaten to death and had a screwdriver rod in his skull. When Keith London disappeared when he arrived at Algonquin Bay, the race is on to catch the serial killers and to rescue Keith. Keith was having a drink when he encountered Eddie Soames and Eric Fraser. Little did he know at the time, that they were planning on torturing him and eventually killing him in the most gruesome ways. After bringing him to Eddie's house, they began drugging him and making him as weak as possible so that they wouldn't have a hard time “having fun” with him. One night, Cardinal invited Delorme to “brainstorm” at his place but in reality, he was giving her an opportunity to search his house for any “evidence” of him helping Kyle Corbett escape the police raids. When he left to attend a “press thing”, Delorme did just that. She found a lot of evidence of questionable purchases and properties, based on a policeman's salary. Meanwhile, the thief Arthur “Woody” Wood was about to enter Eddie's home to steal some recording equipment to sell on the black market. He certainly didn't expect to find Keith London tied up in a chair without any clothes on in the basement. When Eric and Eddie got home, Woody's fate was sealed with a bullet. The clock was ticking for Keith and Cardinal was running out of time. Cardinal was finally cleared from the Kyle Corbett fiasco when sergeant Dyson ended up being the perpetrator passing information to Corbett and could finally work the case without Delorme suspecting him of doing anything. The final chase was near and Cardinal could feel it when he found the missing detail that linked all of the missing teenagers; The Troy music center. As Eric and Eddie were transporting Keith to his set for death in an abandoned Pump house, the police were closing on on them. Finally, Cardinal figured out who was the killer and surrounded Eric Fraser in the Pump house while Eddie was out getting lights for the “show”. With bullets flying and an epic final chase, Cardinal and Fraser were face to face in Fraser's van. When the van's front end fell through the ice, Fraser's life came to an end in the freezing arctic waters. Just when Cardinal thought it was all over, Eddie arrived at his house posing as a rape victim. She shot him in the stomach so that he would suffer before he died. As she posed for another shot, she was taken down by Delorme just in time. In the end, it was exposed that Cardinal did do something wrong to get money for his daughter...While he was still a new cop, he was on a police raid for Rick Bouchard and Kiki, who were known drug dealers. He found a hidden stash of over $200,000 and took that money. Int eh end, it was intended that there will be another conflict with this situation.
-Bridget
Character Summary- Rachel Champagne
The main character of the novel, Forty Words for Sorrow is John Cardinal who works as a detective in the Algonquin Bay police department. He is an intelligent driven and caring man. Others may perceive John to be a quiet observer but internally he repels against the wave of doubt and struggles to maintain a positive attitude towards his wife and career. He is a very considerate man but he has always been a loaner especially when his wife is hospitalized for severe depression and his beautiful daughter Kelly leaves for school, John is left to cope with solitutde. He clearly works hard because he is determined to solve the case of Katie Pine even when all faith has deceased. There are other secondary characters who add importance to the novel such as Lise Delorme who acts as the partner in crime with John. She is an assiduous tenacious attractive young woman who has accomplished brillliant achievments throughout her career. John's persistence and Delorme's postive attitude lead John to beleive that the killings are no co incidence and that there is a pattern evolving. He uses his intellect and ambition to discover that this is the act of a serial killer. John must divide his attention towards being a staunch caring husband and father and being a bright effective detective. Throughout the novel there are copious examples of racism towards the native indians of the reserve. The people of Algonquin Bay seem to be illustrated as myserious bias citizens. Author Giles Blunt intentionally creates a cold winter enviroment to portray the eerie atmosphere that effects the people of the town.
The main character of the novel, Forty Words for Sorrow is John Cardinal who works as a detective in the Algonquin Bay police department. He is an intelligent driven and caring man. Others may perceive John to be a quiet observer but internally he repels against the wave of doubt and struggles to maintain a positive attitude towards his wife and career. He is a very considerate man but he has always been a loaner especially when his wife is hospitalized for severe depression and his beautiful daughter Kelly leaves for school, John is left to cope with solitutde. He clearly works hard because he is determined to solve the case of Katie Pine even when all faith has deceased. There are other secondary characters who add importance to the novel such as Lise Delorme who acts as the partner in crime with John. She is an assiduous tenacious attractive young woman who has accomplished brillliant achievments throughout her career. John's persistence and Delorme's postive attitude lead John to beleive that the killings are no co incidence and that there is a pattern evolving. He uses his intellect and ambition to discover that this is the act of a serial killer. John must divide his attention towards being a staunch caring husband and father and being a bright effective detective. Throughout the novel there are copious examples of racism towards the native indians of the reserve. The people of Algonquin Bay seem to be illustrated as myserious bias citizens. Author Giles Blunt intentionally creates a cold winter enviroment to portray the eerie atmosphere that effects the people of the town.
Character quetions for Forty Words for Sorrow
Rachel Champagne
1) Name 3 character traits that represent John Cardinal's personality and provide detailed reasons to support your conclusion.
2) Deteremine who the main character(s), secondarycharacter(s) are.
3) How cam you tell Delorme is new to the homocide department? Explain.
4) Name 1 example of internal conflict that John battles with during the novel. Resolution yes or no, explain.
5) What is Johns initial reaction towards working with Delorme and why does he feel this way?
6) What is Johns attitude towards his wife sickness? Is there a difference between his internal thoughts versus his external behaviours? Explain.
7) In your opinion explain why John becomnes very attatched and involved in the case os Katie Pine.
8) What type of father is john?
9) What are some characteristic differences and similarities between Delorme and John?
10) How does John cop with being in solitutde? Show evidence from the novel to prove your statement.
Rachel Champagne
1) Name 3 character traits that represent John Cardinal's personality and provide detailed reasons to support your conclusion.
2) Deteremine who the main character(s), secondarycharacter(s) are.
3) How cam you tell Delorme is new to the homocide department? Explain.
4) Name 1 example of internal conflict that John battles with during the novel. Resolution yes or no, explain.
5) What is Johns initial reaction towards working with Delorme and why does he feel this way?
6) What is Johns attitude towards his wife sickness? Is there a difference between his internal thoughts versus his external behaviours? Explain.
7) In your opinion explain why John becomnes very attatched and involved in the case os Katie Pine.
8) What type of father is john?
9) What are some characteristic differences and similarities between Delorme and John?
10) How does John cop with being in solitutde? Show evidence from the novel to prove your statement.
Monday, 22 April 2013
Forty words for sorrow - Plot ( Bridget )
Please answer in ful sentences
1. Why is Lise Delorme investigating Cardinal? List some reasons why this would be hard for Delorme?
2. What section did Delorme work before being moved to homicide? How long did she work there?
3. When did Katie Pine disappear? Explain the details of her disappearance.
4. When did Todd Curry disappear? Explain the details of his disappearance.
5. Describe Todd Curry's murder scene. (The condition of the body, environnement,ect.)
6. Who were the murderers in the story?
7. Why did Edie stay with Eric, even though he was murdering people and encouraging her to take a part of it?
8. Describe Eric's childhood. How did his childhood affect his life?
9. What was Cardinal's crime?
10. Describe the chase between Cardinal and Eric. How did it end?
-Bridget
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Setting Summary - Alissa
Summary
Though the setting changes subtly throughout the book, Forty Words for Sorrow is mainly based in Algonquin Bay, Ontario: a small town in central Canada. This town has a small town mentality while it faces big city problems such as murders and drug dealers. Time does not pass by very quickly throughout this novel as it takes place over a couple of months starting early on in the year of 2000. The atmosphere reflects that of the weather: cold and snowy. It shifts from being calm and peaceful, to very grave and serious when the main character, John Cardinal (a dectective with the Algonquin Bay Police Department), is asked to investigate the homicide of a teenager, whom he believes is 13-year-old Katie Pine.
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