Ruined by Paula Morris (again)
Karmic Lightning Bolts - Ouch! Image via Wikipedia
This post is dedicated to the lazy students writing book reports.
I don’t know how many of you are doing book reports on this book or why, or maybe there’s a class project out there, but I keep coming across search terms to this site like “theme of ruined by paula morris” and “setting in paula morris ruined” and so on and so forth.
So let me make it easy for you, you lazy minxes.
Ruined, by Paula Morris
Setting: New Orleans, Louisiana, shortly after Hurricane Katrina blasted through and ruined (ahem) many lives and livelihoods. It’s definitely gloomy and spooky in places. You don’t know how tempting it is for me to tell you cheaters this book takes place in Iceland. So tempting. Actually, there might be a scene in Iceland, towards the end. If I remember correctly (and I might not), Rebecca takes her beloved library books and whaps Helena over the head with them.
Characters:
Rebecca Brown, the main character. She likes libraries and this is extremely important to the story.
Anton Grey, the hottie inexplicably drawn to Rebecca.
Helena Bowman, Rebecca’s snooty arch-nemesis.
Lisette, the ghost who helps Rebecca piece together the secrets of Rebecca’s life and the secrets of Lisette’s death.
Theme: I don’t know; months have passed since I read this book. If you’re writing a book report, you can always make something up. I frequently did (but before you think I’m getting all chummy or approving of you cheating by looking up these details on a website that maybe you can trust, maybe not, I will also say that I actually read the books I reported on. Except Moby Dick. But that is much longer than a 307-page contemporary fantasy and while some people actually enjoy reading Moby Dick (or say they do), that book was not for me).
As long as you can support whatever you say about the theme with evidence from the book, you should be golden. A good starting point for a theme is “friendship versus secrets.”
Symbols: Go for fire, gravestones, angels. Oh, and libraries. Again, what they symbolize is up to you, but you’ll impress your teacher if you cite evidence from the story or even – gasp! – supply quotations placed within quotation marks, followed by page numbers. If you are usually a slacker, and your teacher has a heart condition, please just skip this step. Pretend you don’t know what a symbol is. I don’t want to be responsible for any teacher deaths. Teachers put up with enough crap in this world.
That’s it. I didn’t rein in my tendency for parenthetical journeys into the Land of Totally Irrelevant. And it was oh, so fun.
1/28/2011. EDITED TO ADD: This is one of the most popular posts on my blog. I would LOVE to hear from the people reading it. Why’d you come here? Did you find what you were looking for? What did you think of Ruined? Please leave a comment. If you’re a cheater & don’t want your teacher to catch you, you can sign your name as Anonymous. Your email address won’t be posted.
I am a Jr. High student, and I actually am doing this book. I am also having trouble on the theme.. Theme is a message or moral and in this book I did not find a message or moral. What was the lesson learned from this book? I have no idea!! Even though you did not give a direct answer to the theme [I see why] , I found your information very helpful! Thank you for posting and your help!
For my theme I am putting “The theme of this story is never give up because Lisette never gives up on her revenge, and Rebecca never gives up on making things right.” I know it isn’t really accurate, but at least I’ll pass! I hope this helps other students!!
Lydia, thank you for sharing! Theme can be really difficult. I think that your idea for the theme is excellent, and as long as you support it with evidence from the book, you’re good to go!
I read this book very, very recently, and there is absolutely nothing about libraries…
thx
but other than that it was pretty accurate
i am looking at this because i am in jr. high too and doing a report and the theme was fuzzy.. hehe
Thanks, Lexi, for chiming in! I could’ve sworn there was something about libraries, but then again, I mention Iceland. I really can’t be trusted.
Actually, it does say she goes to the library to find books for research about the town… Just putting that out there.
Jaina, thank you for setting the record straight!
your information really helped alot with my book report the only thing i seemed to have trouble with that you didnt mention was the plot but overall you helped me alot(:
Glad to help, Anonymous! Plot’s a really tricky thing to tackle without giving the whole book away, but the basics are scattered throughout this post (with a few lies in there to keep things interesting & keep people honest(er)).
I’m doing a book project on this novel too…i just read the book reently and I’m sure i never heard tell of the Iceland scene…just wondering where you got that from..Your ‘cheat sheet’ helped me out quite a bit and i appreciate it greatly..Thank you
You’re welcome, meowmeow! Just be careful about anything you read on the internet…it might not always be true. Like Iceland in Ruined.