The Last Girls of Pompeii
Noah North
3rd block World History
October 12, 2014
Characters of the book:
Julia- main protagonist
Sura-main protagonist
Herminia- main antagonist
Cornelius Petreius- protagonist
Cornelia- antagonist
Marcus- protagonist
Main idea:
The main idea of The Last Girls of Pompeii is the lives of a girl and her slave who live in Pompeii with their family.
Summary:
The book is about the lives of Julia, a daughter of a very wealthy magistrate, and Sura, Julia's personal slave. Julia has a deformity with her arm which makes it a lot smaller of an arm. In Julia's religion most times people born with deformities they are either killed or left on the desert horizons to be killed because it is a sign of the god of like the underworld or death, which brings horrible luck to not only Julia but her entire family. So Julia has two older sisters, one had just been married before the book had began and Cornelia, her second sister is very cruel to Julia after her first marriage went wrong. So they end up having a problem with Cornelia and when they'll be able to have her wedding because after August 24 or so Cornelius, their father, leaves to go on some journey, and before that it is either too close to the day that takes place. So they have like a week time period that they could have the wedding. The wedding gets decided by the Sibyl of Sarnus who says that is okay to schedule the wedding on the day that the gates to the Underworld open; which is a horrible day in their religion. Everything as planned but while all this is taking place Cornelius and Herminia, husband and wife, find out that they'll need some extra money for the wedding. They decide that to come up with the money they're going to sell Sura to a wicked man.
Sura finds out that they're going to sell her and then also give Julia to the damiatrix from the Temple of the Bona Dea. To stop this Sura talks to Julia's cousin, Marcus, about it and they talk about how they're going to stop it all from happening. Marcus then replays this to Julia and they both want to run away and get married together. Well while the wedding is going on is when Julia and Marcus were supposed to run away but instead the Earth begins to shake and then "snow" is coming down heavier and heavier. Julia and Sura find out that the "mountain;" Mt. Vesuvius is actually a volcano and it has started to erupt. This brings Julia back to sense when the Sibyl had said, "When snow comes in summer, that is the time to leave." So as it is "snowing" Julia and Sura race as fast as possible to the cave of the Sibyl of Sarnus so they could find out what is to happen next...
The book is about the lives of Julia, a daughter of a very wealthy magistrate, and Sura, Julia's personal slave. Julia has a deformity with her arm which makes it a lot smaller of an arm. In Julia's religion most times people born with deformities they are either killed or left on the desert horizons to be killed because it is a sign of the god of like the underworld or death, which brings horrible luck to not only Julia but her entire family. So Julia has two older sisters, one had just been married before the book had began and Cornelia, her second sister is very cruel to Julia after her first marriage went wrong. So they end up having a problem with Cornelia and when they'll be able to have her wedding because after August 24 or so Cornelius, their father, leaves to go on some journey, and before that it is either too close to the day that takes place. So they have like a week time period that they could have the wedding. The wedding gets decided by the Sibyl of Sarnus who says that is okay to schedule the wedding on the day that the gates to the Underworld open; which is a horrible day in their religion. Everything as planned but while all this is taking place Cornelius and Herminia, husband and wife, find out that they'll need some extra money for the wedding. They decide that to come up with the money they're going to sell Sura to a wicked man.
Sura finds out that they're going to sell her and then also give Julia to the damiatrix from the Temple of the Bona Dea. To stop this Sura talks to Julia's cousin, Marcus, about it and they talk about how they're going to stop it all from happening. Marcus then replays this to Julia and they both want to run away and get married together. Well while the wedding is going on is when Julia and Marcus were supposed to run away but instead the Earth begins to shake and then "snow" is coming down heavier and heavier. Julia and Sura find out that the "mountain;" Mt. Vesuvius is actually a volcano and it has started to erupt. This brings Julia back to sense when the Sibyl had said, "When snow comes in summer, that is the time to leave." So as it is "snowing" Julia and Sura race as fast as possible to the cave of the Sibyl of Sarnus so they could find out what is to happen next...
Historical References:
1. An explanation of this book compared to what we've learned and done in class is that religion is a very important thing in everyday life for this family living in Pompeii. The religions are changing and new religions are being introduced to the people and everyone is put into social classes.
2. Another explanation is that everything in life is done for others with a higher class. Meaning the slaves are doing the work for their owners. Also most of the slaves, and even the gladiators are taken from Africa and are bought for different reasons. Also the woman in this time didn't have much say and couldn't do the same things that the men could do on a day to day basis.
Quotes:
1. "Well, take care, my dear, and remember as hot as it is now, when snow comes in summer, that is the time to leave." This is important because it basically foreshadows what is going to happen later on in the book.
2. "Praised be Vulcan in all your names. In the name of Vulcan the all-powerful god of fire, in the name of Quietus the allayer of fire, and in the name of Mulciber, who charmed the fire from the sky, I offer you the only thing I have that I can call mine." This is important because it describes how the people of Pompeii and other parts of the world believe in other Gods, and how they're religions are shaped. It also shows who and how they praise these Gods.
Stats of the author and book:
Kathryn Lasky is the author of this book. She is also the author of many fantastic books for children which include The Night Journey, which has won the National Jewish Book Award, and also Broken Song. She's the author of other books like Newberry Honor Book Sugaring Time, on which she wrote with her husband, Christopher Knight. This couple lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If you'd like to see more about Kathryn Lasky or other books she has written visit her website at www.kathrynlasky.com. The book was published by Penguin Group in New York, New York. The Last Girls of Pompeii was first published in 2007 by Viking, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Review:
This book was a very good example and explanation of how life was lived during this time period for a young woman, her slave, and the rest of her family. It is a great book to read if you would like to know more about Pompeii and what happened leading up to the Volcano exploding and how life was for people then and their. It also shows how people were looked at for having deformities or problems with their body or even how they are mentally; like mental illnesses. Even if we haven't talked about Pompeii or Mount Vesuvius erupting this book describes it exactly how I would've pictured it and how things seemed to happen just fell in place exactly how I figured it. If you're interested in knowing more about Pompeii this book is a great way to understand and know more about it.
Hello Noah, The Last Girls of Pompeii seems like a very fascinating and interesting book. It seems to give good information on the religious and social views during that time period. It really shows how badly the slaves were mistreated during that time as well.
ReplyDeleteAs Dalton said, I feel as if this book gave very good information on religion and society during the time period that we studied in class. I also feel as if you did a wonderful job of summarizing the book and the characters along with tying in actual history to it.
ReplyDeleteJust as Dalton and Alex said this book gave very good information on the society of that time period, your summary was very informative on that time period and what happened in your book
ReplyDeleteI think that this looks like an interesting read. It includes romance and even some adventure, too. I think the story of Pompeii is quite interesting as well. I also thought it was kind of funny how the girls thought it was snowing when in actuality, it was a volcano.
ReplyDeleteHey Noah,
ReplyDeleteThis book looks very interesting and informative. I would love to find out more about Pompeii and the culture of the people living there. I would also like to find out more about their religion. It's very strange to me that they people with disabilities are left to die.