SilverWing (Novel) by Kenneth Oppel : English Reading Log # 3

Oh, no you don’t!” He beat his wings and climbed swiftly, gaining. But another bat suddenly flashed in front of him, snapping the tiger moth into his mouth. “Hey!” cried Shade. “That was mine!” “You had your chance,: said the other bat, and shade recognized his voice instantly. Chinook. One of the other newborns in the colony. “I had it,” Shade insisted. “Doubt it.” Chinook chewed vigorously and let the wings flutter from his teeth. “This is fabulous, by the way.” he made exaggerated smacking sounds. “Well, maybe you’ll get lucky one of these nights, Runt.” (Kenneth Oppel, Page 5) I believe that the importance of this example is that it shows how Shade has encountered the fate of being teased and mocked all his life practically by the families in the colony.(background information) In the story SilverWing, Shade is a very small/weak bat, while other bats in his colony mock him and take pride in their size/strength.

"Yeah," said Chinook, not even glancing at him. It was as if he wasn't even there. Shade was used to being ignored. He wondered why he bothered talking at all. He hated having to watch Chinook hold forth and act like a king. (Kenneth Oppel, Page 7) I think that the importance of this excerpt from the book SilverWing is that it shows how Shade has been treated badly just because of his size and actually does have attributes that the others don't have and it doesn't have to do with size that makes you a useful and strong bat. That in real life too, people may be good at things, and bad at other things. As long as there is some meaning in what you do in life, then that is the best to enjoy for yourself. Sort of how Shade finds the best in himself later on in the book. Shade begins to find some understanding of himself in the next part of the book, finding that he can create illusions of sound and understand a world beyond his physical world.

In the distance, Shade could hear the mothers, calling their children back to Tree Haven. And then his mother, Ariel's, unmistakable voice: "Shade... Shade..." He felt a quick tug at his heart. She would worry. And he was already in trouble from a few nights ago when he landed on the ground (breaking another rule) just to get a closer look at a glistening spider's web. Just for a few seconds, but he'd been caught, and scolded ferociously in front of the other newborns. (Kenneth Oppel, Chapter 1) The importance of this part from the text is that it shows how Shade has curiosity and that it has led him to get in trouble, but means that his mind is open to the world around him, or wants to be. Shade breaks rules all the time and later on in the story, the owls attack and destroy his home because he broke a rule of being out when it was daytime. The rule is that bats cannot see the sun, the bats are secluded to the darkness because of a treaty between beasts and birds after a war from long ago.

"My father's wings," he told them now, "go from here to that tree over there, and he can eat ten thousand bugs in one night, and he's faster than anyone else in the colony. And once he fought with an owl and killed it." "No bat can kill an owl," Shade snapped. It was the first thing he'd said in a while, and the anger in his voice surprised him."My father did."(Kenneth Oppel, Chapter 1) This example means that Chinook the bat who is always showing off and lies just to get compliments or is mean to Shade, can be over the top sometimes. It shows his personality and urgency to want to get others to like him because of his mere strength, but his downside is always being very stupid or slow. Shade is very different from him in many ways, being smaller, quick thinking, curious, and smarter. Later on in the story, Shade encounters a bat from the species Vampyrum Spectrum that feeds on whole creatures and can kill owls, which defeats Shade's theory of bats not being able to kill owls. Goth is his name, much like a cannibal that also eats his own species while also feeding on meat of others such as birds, rats, owls, and pigeons.

"My name's Zephyr." Hanging from a wooden struts was the strangest bat Shade had ever seen. He was of normal size, but his fur was a brilliant white. His wings were place and completely translucent, so you could see the dark outlines of his forearm and long, spindly fingers. Even the latticework of his veins stood out. "It has nothing to do with age," the bat explained, as if aware of Shade and Marina's amazement. "I'm an albino - my fur and flesh lack pigment. Even my eyes, when I still had use of them." (Page 96, Kenneth Oppel)An excerpt from the book showing how characters that Shade meets along the way help him like Zephyr, a bat that is blind yet a fortune reader. He helped heal him, and is different just like him while Marina/Shade are very accepting to anyone different from them unlike others. The background of this is that Shade/Marina begin to show an understanding that other bats do not when it comes to finding the meaning of bands that other bats just jump to conclusions about just to rid of others different from them.

"Wings," Shade breathed in amazement. "You can see why my brother thinks of me as a freak," Romulus said to him, I'm scarcely a rat at all." Shade turned to Marina. "I had a feeling... on the raft I was looking at the guards and I thought, really, with wings, we'd look sort of the same!" And maybe that explained Romulus's voice too, that strange bat like shriek of his. (176, Kenneth Oppel)This part of the story tells how bats and other animals aren't really that much different from one another

Shade nodded. "those big bats you saw. The ones chasing us. They really are from the jungle . They're the ones who've been killing rats. We can't stop them." "Somebody must," said Romulus, "Before they start a war between all creatures." "Might be too late for that," said Marina (Kenneth Oppel, 177) This example shows an importance of how the order or survival in nature is the cycle of life; predators and prey. The weaker animals have to fend for themselves while the stronger carnivores shred meat in their mouths. The cycle of life is hard to deal with, but that's how overpopulation and who lives is dealt with in the long haul. The background later on is that one of the jungle bats named Throbb dies in a thunderstorm and Goth continues living on, surviving while still hunting after Marina/Shade.

"It's not right," said Shade frowning. "I mean that the owls don't let use see the sun. Do you think it's fair, Mom?" She gave and exasperated sigh, and closed her eyes for a moment. 'It has nothing do with fair or right or wrong. It's just the way things are..." she broke off in annoyance. (Page 17, Silver Wing, Kenneth Oppel)I believe this excerpt is important because it shows how Shade feels that things are unfair when it comes to the treaty of birds & beasts. Shade begins to want to become powerful and 'strong'. Later on he realizes what he must do -that he has a destiny that requires his clever and smart demeanor with illusions and echo vision.

"The law makes no exceptions ." "Let the owls take him!" It was Bathsheba, flying out from the forest and landing beside Frieda. "Brutus is right. The law has been broken and the boy must pay the price." (Page 37, Kenneth Oppel) In this part of the book, it means that the owls and the other bats are saying that they should sacrifice Shade because he broke the law. It shows how uncivilized the owls/birds are when it comes to imprisoning the bats in the darkness. The background of this scene is that Shade starts find some kind of meaning through the bands that are place on bats through human scientists/men and meets a gray wing colony bat named Marina who joins him on his journey.

With a terrible shriek, forty owls plunged toward Tree Haven, fire burning in their claws Shade saw Freda and Bathsheba flying themselves clear as the owls hurled their sticks at the tree, flames leaping as they struck bark. (Page 38, Kenneth Oppel) This part of the story tells about how the owls are very supposedly righteous when it comes to prosecuting bats through force and threatening. It is wrong to threaten and to imprison others when they have done nothing wrong, while the world works where people wish for some sort of retribution for the crimes that are nonexistent in their minds. The background on this is that the birds and the beasts have a treaty where there is a law that birds can kill bats that are out during daylight, and must stay int he darkness of caves/trees/ their homes.