Returning to Earth-Week 2, Post A

Vocab:
-Germinal (50): Being in the earliest stage of development.
-Embezzled (51): to appropriate fraudulently to one's own use, as money or property entrusted to one's care.

Figurative Language:
"I took a pretty good haymaker to an ear, which made my head ring like a church bell." (55) This statement is a similie describing the immense pain Donald experience after being punched by a bouncer at a club.

"He [Donald] said his whole body felt like his foot did when he dropped a cement block on it, which he did a couple of times in his working life." (61-62) This statement is also a similie in which Donald's most severe seizure is being described.

"Floyd was no more than a character in one of those zombie movies I used to watch on television with Herald and Clare." (62) This statement is an example of a metaphor Donald is using to describe the state of his old classmate Floyd.

Quote:
"I kept thinking of a passage Cynthia read me once from a book where there was a Cheyenne Indian character named One Who Sees as a Bird who was an actual person in history. I don't have any faith in what they call reincarnation but if I was to return to earth in the form of another creature it would be nice if it was a bird, a raven to be exact. Once when I was night fishing in the fall with my dad on the Escanaba River down near Arnold he pointed up into the darkness at the big moon to where you could see birds like little pieces of black confetti flying south." (65) I like this passage and that's why I chose it to post on this blog. In the middle of typing it I discovered that it was the quote that represented the title and the picture on the front cover. There is a picture of a raven and the novel is called Returning to Earth. I would guess that Donald would choose to come back to earth as a bird because birds can travel the world and see other places much easier than people can. He often discusses how he regrets never seeing certain places that he is too weak to visit now in the story. Flying is second nature to a bird, so even a slightly injured one can sometimes find the will to fly. I think Donald aspires to have that ability.

Theme:
The theme that seems to be present in this portion of the novel is regret. The reader learns about many things Donald has done in the past that he regrets and also about things he wishes he had done when he was stronger.