The Amber Spyglass
Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass is the third and final part of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, a story in three volumes which began in Northern Lights and continued in The Subtle Knife. This final volume moves between our own universe and several others. The novel opens with Lyra Belacqua being kidnapped and hidden with her mother, Mrs. Coulter, within the hills of the Himalayans in a dark cave above a village. Lyra and her demon, Pan, are forced to take a drug that makes them sleep. They get food from a village girl who brings them supplies and has no idea that Lyra is there against her will. She just thinks that she is really tired all the time or sick. Will Parry tries to save Lyra from Mrs. Coulter but does not realize that the church and Lord Asriel are all trying to get to Lyra because she can read the alethiometer. Will finally manages to get Lyra away from Mrs. Coulter. They escape to the ghost world where they meet all souls of dead people. Lyra and Will decide to free the souls so that they can be at rest. To do this Will cuts a window into another world where the souls vaporize from the sun which sets them free. Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel die because they fall into a giant pit whilst fighting an angel. Lyra and Will discover that they are in love but just as they realize this they have to go back to their own worlds to live out the rest of their lives, never to see each other again because Will must destroy the knife to save both their worlds.
The authors use of diction in this novel is designed more for teenagers but this does not mean that older audiences will feel that the novel is not flowing. This novel can connect with young and old readers because of the use of the many different types of characters. An example of this character connection is a thirteen-year-old girl can connect to Lyra Belacqua and a fifty-year-old man can connect with Lord Asriel. The dialogue between characters in this book is exceptional, it makes you feel like you are not reading what they are saying but are there and listening to it.
“My child! My daughter! Where is she? What have you done? My Lyra – you’d do better to tear the fibres from my heart – she was safe with me, safe, and now where is she?” Ch.16 Pg. 210 ph.1. This passage is appealing to me because it is showing Mrs. Coulters motherly affection towards Lyra even though she had kept her in a cave under forced sleep and had put her in harms way before.
“He said to Lyra. ‘The alethiometer’s in my rucksack, there.’ ‘Oh, Will – I did so hope you’d find it – whatever happened? Did you find your father? And my dream, Will – it’s too much to believe, what we got to do, oh, I daren’t even think of it… And it’s safe! You brung it all this way safe for me…” pg 172 Ph. 2 – 3 This passage is appealing to me because it shows how much the alethiometer and Will mean to Lyra. She wants to know everything that has happened to Will since she had left but she is fascinated that Will kept her alethiometer is safe all that time.
“I have been the worst mother in the world. I let my only child be taken away from me when she was a tiny infant, because I didn’t care about her; I was concerned only with my own advancement. I didn’t think of her for years, and if I did, it was only to regret the embarrassment of her birth.” Pg 216 This passage is appealing to me because it tells the reader that Mrs. Coulter regrets the actions that she has taken in the past about the lack or affection she has given to her daughter.
No comments:
Post a Comment