Angels and Demons
Robert Langdon, a Harvard Professor in Symbology, and was first introduced in the book Angels and Demons as the main narrator. Maximilian Kohler was a famed scientist and director of CERN (an organization dedicated to science). Vittoria Vetra, another brilliant scientist who was working on a revolutionary concept with his father, anti-matter. That is, until Vittoria's father was killed and branded with the Illuminati symbol and a devastating amount of anti-matter was stolen. Throughout the book Angels and Demons, many characters were introduced and their origin was thoroughly explained in unconventional ways. For example, Maximilian Kohler was first introduced within the first 100 pages of the book as a cold and unnerving person. For the next 400 pages, he was barely mentioned at all. However, within the last 100 pages, he was revealed to be a much more important character than previously thought, which surprised all readers alike. Before I continue, the readers of this essay should know that Angels and Demons tells a story about how Robert Langdon and his partner Vittoria attempt to decipher clues laid out by the now revived satanic cult called the Illuminati. Simultaneously, a hidden bomb is slowly ticking down in one of the holiest places on the planet, Vatican city.
The characters in Angels and Demons stood out because of the author's refined use of 'show and don't tell' in combination with 'imagery'. For instance, within the first chapter of the book, it was obvious that Robert Langdon was an expert on symbology. Instead of directly stating that Robert was a professor of religious symbology, the author stated the fact in more of an indirect way. "A knowing groan escaped Langdon's lips. This has happened before. One of the perils of writing books about religious symbology was the calls from religious zealots who wanted him to confirm the latest sign from God." Another more discrete approach the author used to show that Langdon was truly knowledgable about the subject of symbology, is by showing Langdon's thought process when he sees obscure symbols throughout the book. For instance, when Langdon had seen a fax of the 'Illuminati' symbol branded on a dead body, the author wrote ' It can't be ..., In slow motion, afraid of what he was about to witness, Langdon rotated the fax 180 degrees. He looked at the word upside down. Instantly the breath went out of him... Barely able to believe his eyes, he rotated the fax again, reading the brand right-side up and then upside down.' One of the first reactions of a reader after reading this paragraph is the sudden inclination to also observe the symbol upside down, and unsurprisingly Langdon's knowledge of the symbol proved to be right.
One interesting concept of Angels and Demons was that the author had introduced many characters throughout the book, but had never fully delved into the characters' background until the end of the story to give more room for sudden plot twists. To illustrate, one of the first characters that had been introduced at the beginning of the book was Maximilian Kohler. The readers learned that Kohler was the leader of a scientific organization that discovered new 'miracles' every day, but Kohler himself was a 1-dimensional character. He had basic characteristic traits, a crippled man who was always serious and gave an overall tense mood. Beyond that, not much was known about him. However, within the last 100 pages, Kohler's whole origin story was described in a way to make him a much more favorable character. It also took the readers off guard as no one would have expected Kohler's importance in the story.
Overall, the author uses many writing techniques to develop characters intriguingly. As a disclaimer, the literature devices explained in the paragraphs above are just a small fraction of the multitude of devices used throughout the book. Angels and Demons is an amazing book due to the tense situation, the characters' realisticness, and ultimately, the author's uses of literary devices provided that extra 'cherry on top'.
This post was very comprehensive! I really liked how you mentioned the characters' development throughout the book but didn't spoil the ending. The use of imagery and the descriptive tone the book seems to have makes me want to read it. I was a little confused by the beginning few sentences of your blog, which were just character introductions, but I still really enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you spent a lot of time writing this blog post. I noticed how you made sure to use an example for every topic you mentioned, although the example for a few was the same person which made it a little repetitive. Other than that, I do believe you put thought into the post and it shows with the in depth description that you provide.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post because you were able to break down the book into important parts that you enjoyed and went into great detail about them. Thanks to your great summary and your break-down of defining characteristics of the book, I was able to get a good sense of the story and the author's writing style. I especially liked how you talked about how some characters are only important towards the end, as this is an interesting method of developing a character. Great job.
ReplyDeleteGood one champ. This review captures the essence of the book, talking about the style of the author. Specifically, you emphasize his style of fleshing out the characters about 100 pages left to the end. You also talk about the stakes during the book, such as the insane amounts of antimatter stolen. Pretty solid review, Hozaifa.
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