Four Past Midnight (324-399)

Summary:

Amy calls Mort and tells him that someone burned their house down.  Then he finds out Shooter killed both Tom and Don with his tools.  Mort thought about how the first story he published was a story he stole from a student in one of his creative writing classes in college. After it got accepted and was published he went on to publishing more stories, but the rest were his own. he goes to pick up the magazine that shows that his story that was published in 1980. When he turns to the pages of his story, the pages were ripped out. Confused and angry, Mort doesn't understand how he even got into his mail and ripped the pages of the magazine out. Mort put on Shooters hat then realized, there was no John Shooter, there never had been. Mort had made him up and started to believe his own lies. Mort was Shooter. He was the one that killed those people. A car slowly drove into the driveway, it was Amy. She found the door unlocked and went inside only to find "SHOOTER" written everywhere on the walls. Mort came out in Shooters hat. He took a pair of scissors and walked toward her, she scurried away. She then fell on a stack of paper, Mort stabbed her in the thigh. She kicked him and he fell. She tried to run away and he caught up with her again and stabbed her again, then a bullet was shot into his chest. Someone saved Amy, shot Mort and got rid of Shooter. 

Quote: 

"There was no Shooter. There never had been." (King 380)

Reaction:

Once I read this quote I was literally blown away. I couldn't believe that Mort was Shooter the whole time! He had made him up and made himself believe that he was an actual person! Mort was the killer. He killed his cat and burned his house and even killed Tom and Don and he blamed it on Shooter, he blamed it on an imaginary figure. He did not want, and could not get rid of these people any other way, so he killed them and decided to say that Shooter did it. This is a very strong quote because it flips the whole story around. This was also my favorite quote because it showed that Shooter was not even a real person, just someone that Mort made up. 

Four Past Midnight (247-323)

Summary:

 A man named John Shooter shows up at Mort Rainey's doorstep. "You stole my story." he says. Mort, a writer, is confused about this accusation, Mort didn't even know what this guy in a black hat was talking about. Mort decided to close the door, and waited for the crazy man to leave. After a couple of minutes the man got into his car and left. Mort opens his door and sees that the man left a wad of paper with a rock on top of it, so the pages would not fly away. Mort takes the rock off and picks the stack of paper up. He sees that the front cover says "John Shooter - Secret Window, Secret Garden." He reads the first page and then realizes it's  almost an exact replica of his story "Sowing Season." the only difference was the title. The phone ring, it's his ex-wife, Amy, calling to make sure he was alright. Amy and Mort were divorced. After he gets off the phone with Amy he goes back to thinking what he's going to do about Shooter. He decides to take a walk. After a couple minutes of walking in the woods he sees John Shooter and his car, nervous, he approaches him. Shooter wants to know why Mort would steal a story from a man from all the way in Mississippi, and more importantly how. Mort decides to tell him that he wrote his story in 1980, whereas Shooter claimed to have written in 1983. Shooter wants proof, and Mort tells him that he has a magazine that has the story that was published in 1980 and that he would show Shooter. Shooter gives him three days to prove himself or everyone he loves will die. Mort isn't afraid of his threats and walks home and takes a nap. When he wakes up from his nap he sees his cat, Bump, killed with a screwdriver driven through his head. Shooter had killed Bump and left a note that said "You have 3 days." 

Quote: 

"As he spoke, the face of John Shooter floated into his consciousness with increasing clarity like the face of a spirit swimming up to the curved side of a medium's crystal ball." (King 303)

Reaction:

This quote is a simile, it describes the clarity like a face appearing in a crystal  ball. This shows how much Mort thought of  Shooter and how scared he was of him. Mort didn't know what to do about Shooter or who to tell. He was afraid of people dying around him, he did not want to be alone. It also shows that he could see Shooter in a very could clarity, like he could describe him very well to people, if he wanted to. Overall, this quote seems to show Morts fear of Shooter and the way he could always picture the way Shooter looked in his mind.

Four Past Midnight (1-246)

Summary:

From a flight from Los Angeles  to Boston, ten passengers find out that they are the only ones left in the plane. As they awaken they find that no one else is on the plane and the only people that are were sleeping. They had gone through a time warp that was located in the Mojave Desert where an aurora borealis was occurring. The time warp took them into the past. The ten remaining passengers, Brian Engle, a pilot, Dinah Bellman, a blind girl, Don Gaffney, an engineer, Laurel Stevenson, a teacher, Nick Hopewell, a man from England that works as an assassin, Rudy Warwick, a businessman, Alber Kaussner, a violinist, Bethany Simms, a girl that does drugs, Bob Jenkins, a mystery author, and lastly, Craig Toomy an investor that is basically crazy. Since no one is flying the plane, captain Engle decides to land the plain in Bangor, Maine. When they arrive they see no one, everything is quiet, except for the sounds of static. Craig believes this sound is the sound of the Langoliers  and goes crazy and stabs Dinah, thinking she is the one who is in charge of them. He runs off hoping that the Langoliers won't get him. They start up the plane to go back to Los Angeles hoping that the time warp would still be open so they could go back to their time. The static sound gets louder and the Langoliers are a mile away. As captain Engle starts to take off they see Craig getting eaten by the Langoliers, and everything underneath them turns black. Everything underneath them ceased to exist, including Craig. As they slowly arrive to their destination they realize they need to be sleeping in order to still be alive once they enter the time warp. Nick decides to give up his life by taking charge of the plane for the rest of the people to go through alive. When the surviving passengers awaken they land in Los Angeles, at last they are back into their own time.  

Quote: 

"The place where life is freshly minted every second of every day; the cradle of creation and the wellspring of time." (King 232)

Reaction:

This was my favorite quote because it described the whole story of The Langoliers. I like how it describes that time is where life is "freshly minted". It shows how life is made every second and the past is either forgotten of or not remembered. Time is created all the time. This quote basically illustrates the main point of the story, that  life is made in every second. This is also a personification because life cannot be freshly minted, but it can be made. Overall, I think this quote fit the whole story perfectly and commented on the theme of this story.

Movie: Secret Window

Reaction to a review of the film:
"'Secret Window' dramatizes the plight of Mort, who is suffering from writer's block." I believe that this is somewhat correct. The movie always showed Mort sleeping, in real life I do not believe a writer would be at home most of the time. I think they would be out exploring the world, hoping to get inspired by what they see. The review goes on to say "Much of the plot turns on Mort's getting his hands on a copy of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine to prove that he published his story before Shooter wrote his version." I also agree with this. It seemed like the whole movie was about Mort trying to find the proof to show Shooter that it was it book and that he didn't plagiarize it from Shooter. I felt like the whole movie was going in circles, sleep, proof, sleep, proof. 
"It's the kind of thing that's fine for about 20 minutes, before your attention kicks in, or nods off." Lastly, I agree with this 100%! I was tired of the movie for the first thirty minutes, it was so predictable. It also was hardly scary, it was very similar to other movies I have seen. Overall, I think that this review, from New York Times, shows exactly how I feel about Secret Window. It didn't not seem like anything new, it wasn't scary, and it was very predictable. 


Mitchell, Elvis. "The Secret Window (2004) FILM REVIEW; Beware of Amish Hitmen And the Anxiety of Influence." The New  York Times 12 March 2004. Movie Review. 23 January 2011 <http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A07E5DB133EF931A25750C0A9629C8B63>.

Movie: Secret Window

Reaction to the film:
Secret Window started with the main character, Mort Rainey, in a car, unsure if he should drive back. It's an extreme close-up of his face, but when he drives in reverse we see the setting, he's at a motel, an establishing shot. He steals a key from the lobby of the Motel and goes into a room that has a woman and a man sleeping in bed, it shows a reaction shot when he storms into the room. Then there is a bird's eye shot and it shows where Mort Rainey lives, which is in a wooden cabin in the middle of the forest. Then there is a close up to a little open window leading into his attic. Scary music starts up and there is a high angle shot of Mort sleeping on the couch. That is when the sound of someone knocking at the door awakes him, and when he answers the door a man named John Shooter points a finger at him, accusing Mort of stealing his story. A reaction shot of Mort's reaction is shown, and he slams the door on Shooter, Shooter then leaves his copy of his story on Morts porch and drives off. Mr. Raineys maid comes to clean his house and finds John Shooters story, Sewing Season in the trash and puts it on the kitchen table. It starts to get dark and rainy and  Mr. Rainey goes to the attic to finish his story, but he does not know how to end it. When he goes downstairs to get a drink, he sees the story on the table & takes it with him to the attic. When he observes it he sees that his story, Secret Window is the exact replica of Sewing Season. Once the maid leaves Mort goes back to sleep on the coach. When he wakes up his phone starts to ring. Amy, his ex-wife calls to ask if he's alright, she felt like something was wrong.  When he hangs up he goes for a hike in the woods he sees John Shooter again. Another extreme close up is on Mort's face.  Shooter says he's from Mississippi and that he wrote Sewing Season in 1997, 7 years ago. Mort rebuts by saying that he wrote his story, Secret Window in 1995. Now Mort has 3 days to prove to Shooter that he wrote the story or people would get hurt. Mort goes home and goes to bed, but when he wakes up he can't find dog anywhere, and that's when he finds his dog, killed with a screwdriver, another reaction shot is displayed. The next morning he buries his dog and goes to the police to tell them about John Shooter and his accusations. When he returns home John Shooter is there, he tells Mort to "fix the end of his story." Mort refuses and Shooter threatens that he's going to kill Amy if he doesn't. The next day Amy calls and says that he house has been burned down. Mort goes back to sleep. When he goes outside he finds Shooter hat on his porch and his car door open, with the keys in the engine.  He gets in the car and goes into town and goes to the post office to get the proof that the story was written by him. When he gets home he starts to talk to himself and puts on Shooters hat. His conscience tells him "There is no John Shooter, you invented him." Mort screams back "LEAVE ME ALONE!" and his conscience says "you are alone.." John Shooter appears and goes on, "Everything that you're doing is wrong. I exist because you made me, you told me everything you wanted me to do. I did those things because you did not want to. Fix the story. Fix the ending." Then there is an establishing shot outside, his ex-wife Amy parked in his driveway. She knocks on the door, no one answers. She knocks again, and decides to enter. She calls out his name and goes into the attic, when the door slowly closed in on her. The whole attic has the words "SHOOTER" and "SHOOT HER" engraved on the walls. Mort has scissors in his hands, and talks like Shooter, with a Mississippi accent, he tries to stab her  but she escapes and tries to start he car. He puts his scissors down and picks up a rock and throws it onto her car window, drags her out of the car, and stabs her with the screwdriver. Her fiance, Ted comes to the house looking for Amy but Mort hits him with a shovel and cuts it off with the shovel. After he kills his ex-wife. He has finally fixed the ending. He goes to the attic to finish the ending and says "The only thing that matters is the ending, and this one's very good, this one's perfect." The camera zooms into the small window in the attic, the secret window that outlooks the garden behind his house. Mort thinks to himself, "Every bit of her will be gone and her death will be a mystery, even to me." Mort buried his ex-wife Amy in the garden, the perfect ending to his story.

What My Mother Doesn't Know (207-260)

Summary:

Sophie starts to dream about her future, and Murphy is part of her future. She now starts to look at peoples personalities, and not just their looks. Murphy is always on her mind and she soon is invited to meet his parents. When she meets Murphy's mother she finds out that she is also Jewish, and they connect instantly. Sophie finds out that Murphy's name isn't Murphy, it's actually Robin. People only called him Murphy  because they thought he was loser. After she spends the day at his house, they make another date, they are going to the movies. They continue to make dates. One of their dates is at the Charles River, they watch the sunset go down and talk about how they feel about one another. Winter slowly arrives in Boston and the first snowfall brings a foot of snow. Sophie and Robin spend a day building snowmen and going sledding.  As school vacation begins to end Sophie does not know how to tell her friends that she loves Robin, she's afraid of how they'll react. In the end Sophie shows her friends who she loves, she runs to Robin and holds his hands, smiling at him. She finally grew  out of  the fear and she realized that she needed to grow up and think about what really mattered to her, her happiness.

Quote:

"I come to the sudden and very startling realization that all I want for Christmas is Murphy."  (Sones 223)

Summary:

This quote truly shows the growth that Sophie has gone through. Children tend to want toys for Christmas, but Sophie wants Murphy. She is capable of understanding what someone could mean to her. This quote also shows that what she wants for Christmas is not a material, but actually something that she could have forever. Overall, Sophie has grown a lot and she makes decisions based on her thoughts, not from what she sees. She does not mind what the rest of the kids at her school have to say about her, all that matters now is her happiness. Sophie has grown from being a judgmental girl, to a thoughtful young woman.

What My Mother Doesn't Know (156-206)

Summary:

Sophie starts to obsess over finding the boy that danced with her at the Halloween Party, that is the only thing that has been on her mind. Since she has no clue who it could have been she starts to believe that maybe he was just a jerk anyway, just to make herself feel better for a while. Zak, Sophie's  best guy friend asks her out and she says yes. In the back of her mind Sophie wishes that she didn't, so a couple days later she tells him that it would be better if they just  were friends. Hanukkah is celebrated in Sophie's family, but  this year it's not the same, it's not celebrated with as much love. Sophie misses being able to celebrate her culture, a sign that she is growing up. This shows that she knows what is important to her, religion. For Christmas Break all of Sophie's friends are going on vacation, but Sophie isn't. She decides to have a vacation of her own, she roams the city of Boston.  As she is exploring the Museum of Fine Arts, Murphy, the biggest nerd at her school, see's her and talks to her. They end up going out to get pizza and they go ice skating afterwards. When Sophie gets home she hopes that Murphy will call her, and when he doesn't she gets worried that he might never call. He calls the next day and they set up another date, one that Sophie looks forward too. During the date everything feels perfectly normal for Sophie and she loves that she can be herself with him, everything just feels right. This shows that Sophie is not childish anymore, and how she does not care about looks anymore, but she cares about personality.  

Quote:

"This door was opening up inside me that had never been opened before, and his soul was walking right in." (Sones 158)

Summary:

This quote shows how deep Sophie felt about her mystery man. Sones uses a personification, describing Sophie's feelings.  Sophie has grown a lot since the beginning of the book because she now looks at people's personalities instead of their looks, usually grown people do this. Her mind is not only thinking about one thing, boys, but instead of her art and her setting around her. She has made an effort to grow up and she has chosen to make Murphy a part of it, unlike before. Since Murphy was a geek at her school she never wanted anything to do with him, fearing her reputation would be ruined. Though now she realizes that it does not matter what people thought of her or Murphy, all that mattered was her happiness.