Blog 12: prewriting

In this blog, I will be using the book "The Vampire Assistant". It starts out with a boy, named Darren Shan, who goes to school, has a normal life, but doesn't really likes it since it is boring and planned out. In the story, Darren looks for a new life which he can enjoy( call for the quest). He and his friend Steve go to a freak show, where Steve get spooked and Darren goes completely numb and watched it without hesitation. There was a performance of Mr. Crespley, who was really a vampire, but no one knew about it, except Steve. Mr. Cresley had a dangerous spider, which he controls with his telepatic powers and with the flute. After the show, Steve goes to Mr. Crespley and asks him to turn him into a vampire. Mr. Cresley refuses after tasting Steve's blood and tells him that it's bad. It also has a connection of hero's quest, since Darren is the one that should have the quest, and not Steve. After the show, Darren bumps with Mr. Crespley and he gives Darren a choice, to become a vampire. Darren agrees and tries to live a life of a vampire.

At first, he lives as he can, but not for a long time, since he almost bitten his sister in order to get some blood. Before this happened, Mr. Crespley tells Darren that he has to disappear from the human world in order to be a full vampire. Darren refuses that since he can't just leave or disappear immediately, because his parents would start looking for him. That would be the second part of the hero's quest. When Steve gets injured by the spider, Darren is given a choice: first one is that Steve dies and Darren loses a friend and another one is Steve lives and Darren leaves the world of humans. Steve's only hope for survival is if Darren makes a deal with Mr. Crespley to become his assistant. Steve lives, but Darren is turned into a half-vampire and is pulled into the dark world of the vampires.

The Belly of the Whale would be when Darren has to fake his own death by using a potion, given by Mr. Crespley. It's like death and rebirth into a new life. In order to free Darren of all previous bonds, including family, Mr. Crespley helps his apprentice fake his own death by perfectly simulating an accidental but fatal fall. Following Darren's human body's funeral, Mr. Crespley digs Darren up, which would be like death and rebirth. Darren begins his new life as a vampire, ending his days as a human by encountering Steve who vows on his blood to track him and his mentor, Mr.Crespley, down to the end of the Earth as the world's best vampire Hunter when he grows up. When Steve is like that, there is some connection between good and evil. Since Steve will become a vampire hunter and then a vampeneze, he and Darren will strike unto each other, like the collision of evil and good. In this story, there are two kind of vampires. Vampeneze would be a violent kind of vampire, who needs blood in order to survive, but this kind kills his victims. Vampires, in this story, do not. They cut a small incesion on their victims legs, or where the vein is in the leg and drink from there. Then, they close that up with their saliva, so the person would never realize they were bitten by a vampire when they wake up.

Although Darren is stronger than any human, he is still finding it hard to adjust to his new life. His unchallenging strength causes him to be alone as he can not make any human friends without breaking their arms. There are many challenges that are in his way.Those are the struggles that he had to overcome. In order to be a full vampire, Darren had to go through different tasks. First, is his super strengh, which gives him trouble. Second, he refuses to drink human blood even though his mentor, Mr. Crespley tells him to. Eventually, Darren learns the lesson after he grows weak. Then, Darren tries to live amongst humans, but eventually decides to join Mr. Crespley after nearly attacking his sister.
Third, he was given a task of destroying or killing Steve in order to prevent blood shed between vampires and vampeneze.

Work Cited

Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirque_du_Freak
Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth