The Once and Future King: Post 5, The Candle in the Wind

The main conflict in this last part of the book is Mordred's undying will to upend his father's kingdom and do unto Arthur what was done unto him. First, Agravaine and Mordred try to get Lancelot and Guenever killed by exposing their relationship. As Gareth explains it, "They hate you. Or Agravaine does. He is Jealous. Mordred hates Arthur most"(White 593). Agravaine and Mordred lure Lancelot and Guenever into a trap and then try to kill them both, but Agravaine ends up getting killed instead. Not too long after, Guenever is set to be burned to death, which overjoys Mordred. Arthur exclaims as Mordred goes to give the order to start Guenever's execution, "He might not have done it with a little more decency. He might have tried to show that he was not so pleased" (611). After Lancelot saves Guenever, mordred is furious that yet again his plans have been foiled. He decides that because of Arthur's incestuous relationship with Morgause, his only way to get back at Arthur is to marry Guenever. Mordred very bluntly puts this as, "Yes. My father committed incest with my mother. Don't you think it would be a pattern, Jenny, if I were to answer it by marrying my father's wife?" (625). THe book ends only twenty pages later and tells us that Arthur grew old and was a wise, fair king, Mordred was slain, and Lancelot and Guenever lived happily together until the ends of their lives.

The themes of loving more than one person remind me of ELIC, but the idea that there are grey areas between good and evil make me think of Terry Malloy from On the Waterfront.

I overall enjoyed the book and found it challenging, but a rewarding read.

The Once and Future King: Post 4, The Ill-Made Knight

Elaine (not the sister of Morgause, but a different Elaine) Is a girl who Lancelot rescues on a quest. She had been locked in a tower full of boiling water by Morgan Le Fay, and she fell in love with Lancelot when he rescued her. She tricked him into thinking she was Guenever and ended up having Lancelot's child. Elaine is certainly the damsel-in-distress type and she is said to be only eighteen, yet very beautiful.

Mordred is the illegitimate child of Arthur and Morgause, who joined Arthur's court. Mordred was, "a thin wisp of a fellow, so fair haired that he was almost an albino: and his bright eyes were so blue, so purely azure in their fadad depths, that you could not see into them" (White 453). Mordred has no problem killing his mother or her lover and is a dastardly character who has very low morals.

Lancelot, after going on many journeys to escape the situation with Arthur and Guenever, returns to the castle in england and ends up continuing his affair with Guenever. But conflict arises when Lancelot is tricked into thinking that a woman, Elaine is Guenever and having an affair with her. Lancelot chooses not to tell Guenever about his affair with Elaine, only about how he had saved her on one of his quests. When Guenever finds out that Elaine had a child and named him Galahad (Lancelot's first name) She breaks off all relations with him and, "She said to herself that Lancelot had betrayed her, that she was a victim of Elaine's cunning, that her lover was sure to betray her again. She tormented herself with a thousand words of the same sort" (406).

The situation deepens when Elaine arrives at Camelot with Galahad and once again tricks Lancelot into thinking that she is Guenever under the cover of night. Guenever finds out and her wrath is impenetrable, she yells at Lancelot, "Get out of my castle. Never show your face in it again. Your evil, ugly, beastlike face" (414). Lancelot goes mad and runs from the castle after jumping out a first-story window. Lancelot, after regaining his senses, calls himself the Chevalier Mal Fet (the Ill-Made Knight), because of his misfortunes with Elaine. Lancelot leaves elaine and returns to the court, picking up where he had left off with both Arthur and Guenever

The Once and Future King: Post 3, The Ill-Made Knight

Lancelot now comes into the story and so does Guenever. Lancelot is driven by his desire to become the best knight ever, and by Arthur's request he travels to england to become a knight of the round table. Lancelot does not tell his parents that he is leaving, only his uncle.

Guenever is a very self-independent girl, but I find her character hard to explain. T. H. White does describe her well though. He says, "There is a story that her hair was yellow, but it was not. It was so black that it was startling, and her blue eyes, deep and clear, had a sort of fearlessness which was startling, too" (White 345).

The other new character is Nimue. Merlyn loves Nimue and teaches her magic, even though he knows she's going to steal his secrets and seal him in a cave for a few centuries.

Arthur's biggest problem is that his best friend (and best knight), Lancelot, falls in love with his wife, Guenever. Arthur had known about this even before he knew Lancelot and Guenever. White reminds us of this by writing, "Arthur had been warned about this by Merlyn- who was now safely locked up in his cave by the fickle Nimue- and had been fearing it subconsciously. But he always hated knowing the future and had managed to dismiss it from his mind" (349). Arthur's immediate instinct is to separate the two. Lancelot and Arthur soon agree that they won't let Guenever come between them, but as T.H. White says only, "the first few years were safely past" (352). Although, T.H. White goes on to say "The first thing Lancelot knew after she had kissed the King, was that she was able to come between them after all" (354).

The Once and Future King: Post Two, The Queen of Air and Darkness

Starting in the second part of the book, Arthur is our most main character. As stated in my previous post Arthur is a very trusting and kind individual. After pulling the sword from the stone, Arthur goes right into becoming king, but he barely changes at all. T.H. White helps show that Arthur's transformation into king is not a self-transformation by saying, "He had fair hair and a stupid face, or at any rate there was a lack of cunning in it. It was an open face, with kind eyes and a reliable, or faithful expression" (White 224). Arthur's experiences with being an animal really drive him to be a true, kind ruler and to not be a tyrant.

Although a secondary character, Morgause, Aurthur's half-sister, has been playing a big role in the conflicts Arthur faces. Morgause is very bitter about the fact that Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, killed her father and raped her mother. Morgause is one of the Gaels along with her sisters, Morgan Le Fay and Elaine. It is because of the added conflict between the Gaels and the Normans that she rallies the country and helps start one of the Gaelic wars. Morgause's sons also play a larger role in the book. Gawaine, Agrivane, Gaharis and Gareth are Morgause's sons with Lot, her husband, and serve to tell the stories of Igraine(their grandmother) and Uther.

Arthur's biggest conflict right now is the Gaelic war that is backed by Morgause. Arthur has little knowledge of why the war exists, but Merlyn explains to him that there are multiple reasons (some being cultural tensions and others being Morgause's personal dislike for Uther and now Arthur. Merlyn explains it as, "I said the war happens for dozens of reasons, not for one. Another of the reasons for this particular war is because Queen Morgause wears the trousers" (234).

I find Arthur's view of war and life is similar to Oskar's from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. In the first part of the book, during Arthur's adventures as a goose, Lyo-Lyok tells him that there are only a few species of animals that wage wars, humans being one of them. Although originally Arthur thinks war is noble, his first experiences with war leave him wondering why wars exist and if there are better ways to solve problems.

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Outside Reading

The Once and Future King, Part 1: The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

The characters in my book, thus far, are the Wart, Kay, Merlyn.
The Wart is actually (soon to be king) Arthur, although he is called such because, "The Wart was called the Wart because it more or less rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name. Kay had given him the nickname" (White 3). The Wart is an adventuresome boy who blindly admires Kay. He is being raised by Sir Ector, Kay's father and is much like a brother to Kay. (You can easily tell this by their squabbles.) The Wart is constantly asking Merlyn to turn him into different animals and has been turned into a pike, a merlin, an ant, an owl, a goose, and a badger. The Wart looks up to Kay and seems to be envious of him, partially because he is older and will be knighted before him.

Kay is the son of Sir Ector. He is incredibly short tempered and is envious of Wart because Merlyn will not turn him (Kay) into animals. Kay knows that he will be knighted before the Wart, and uses this to provoke the Wart and make Kay, himself, feel superior. Kay acts very brotherly towards Wart.

Merlyn is the tutor to both Kay and Wart. Merlyn teaches Kay normal schooling while Wart gets to learn about magic and animals and such. Merlyn seems to be teaching Wart about different governments and ways of treating situations by turning him into animals and I'm pretty sure this plays into how Wart acts and how Wart will rule when he becomes King.

This first part of the book has very little conflict in it and is used to set up the characters of Wart and Merlyn for later on in the novel. Don't get me wrong, though, the novel is fascinating and at times hilarious. Thus far, there are also few/no similarities, but it is a long book, so it should have some similarities later on.

Question Number 3!

Why do people write memoirs?

What power is there in telling our own stories?

As much as I despise writing memoirs, I must admit that they're fun to read. I think many people write memoirs so that they can show others what you can make of life. There are memoirs about climbing Mt. Everest, fighting racial discrimination, and how to deal with the deaths of loved ones. For almost any topic, there's a memoir. I think that by learning from the mistakes of others we can prosper more in our lives. We can learn from the mistakes that those who wrote the memoirs made, and we can swear to ourselves that we don't want to do what they did (or maybe you do). I at least, get those sort of lessons from memoirs.

What power do we have in telling our own stories? All stories are powerful in one way or another. Whether you're a magic boy at a magic school, or a black boy growing up being repressed, I think stories have some sort of power. Memoirs evoke a sense of who we truly are from within their tales, and I think the ability to let readers connect is very meaningful. If I can teach others to learn from my mistakes, I feel like I've accomplished something. I suppose that is the best part of writing memoirs.

Question Number Two!

What types of things does Richard "hunger" for

and what are the effects (positive and negative) of hunger?

Throughout the book, Richard has both physical hunger and mental hunger. Although his deepest desire is for the freedom to do as he pleases. Richard causes great rifts to form between him and many others because of his actions, but he also gets closer and closer to achieving his freedom.

Richard often argues that his beatings are unfair, showing his need for independence. At one time, Richard's uncle threatens to beat him, but Richard fights back. Richard's threat to slice his uncle with a razor blade is only his way of preserving the little freedom he already has. Richard tells his uncle, "'I didn't mean to hurt your feelings this morning,' I told him. 'you insist I did. Now, I'll be damned if I'm going to be beaten because of your hurt feelings'"(Wright 159). Richard wants to be independent, and make his own life, so he'll bow down to no one.

Although, Richard did not always have the freedom he longed for. I'll go back to the incident with the kitten to explain this. Richard was told early on that his parents' words were law, and that he should never disobey them. Many children who grow up like that are subservient and docile, but Richard knows, deep within, that that is not the way he wants to live. Richard takes His father's words literally, but he explains later on why he did just what he did. Mr Wright explains, "I had had my first triumph over my father. I had made him believe that I had taken his words literally. He could not punish me without risking his authority" (12). This is really when Richard gains his first taste of free life, and where his hunger begins.

Richard Wright constantly longed for freedom in his life, and he used his disestablishmentarianistic approach to life to gain the freedom he needed. Although this caused rifts, such as his uncle forbidding his family to talk to Richard, he was able to finally gain the freedom he hungered for.