My book is called "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson. One of the two main characters is the legendary diver Bill Nagle. He is an alcoholic who runs his own diving business. He had his own diving boat named Seeker, which he takes tourists out to famous ship wrecks. As a diver, Nagle always feels the need to do what nobody elves before him has done. For example, when he recovers the bell from the ship Andrea Doria. This was an amazing thing for a diver of his time to do, having to dive to over 200 feet to recover it. John Chatterton is the second character worth mentioning. His father was a Yale-graduate and mother was a newly retired fashion model. The ideal pair of the time. John grows up to admire his mother's father, who was a retired naval Admiral. John becomes more and more attached to the ocean and farther away from his father. The narrator explains, "At home, he would push his T-shirts against his face and smell the salt water, and that also gave John his feeling" (Kurson, 68). Eventually he meets Nagle, he had heard stories of Nagle and wanted to see him in action. After awhile they became great friends and always dove together.
John has his own conflict because he doesn't want to grow up to be like his father. He idolizes his grandfather and wishes he could be more like him. As a child John was different from other kids in his own way, for instance when John was a child he was in the school play, he was Brave Prince. Though he didn't mind that he wasn't Prince Charming even though Prince Charming got the girls and the Brave Prince died in the end. He still prefered the Brave Prince, at the time John says, "Being the Brave Prince is better than being Prince Charming because I get to have courage" (69). The book doesn't descirbe Nagle's childhood though I would imagine it could not have been the best. He struggles with his inner self wanting to explore the rest of the ocean for great wrecks so that he could go down in history. The book describes how he loathes the tourists that come onto the Seeker with their neon green flippers only wanting to go to the boring wrecks that had already been scavenged by previous divers. This eventually fueled him into becoming an alcoholic which in turn deteriorated his health.
I feel that his is only slightly similar to other books we have studied or read in class. This book does not have to do with racism or WWII or anything like that. This is about a group of men diving for places that no man has ever been before. They have the common theme of struggle and conflict. But i still feel that this struggle/ conflict is different form previous ones we have studied. Shadow Divers is about struggle from a life or death perspective. Books like Black Boy have struggle but that is from things like racism and getting a better life for yourself. Shadow Divers is about making a better life for youself but in a different way, by doing what no other man has done, going where no man has gone. The things in life that make life worth living.
John has his own conflict because he doesn't want to grow up to be like his father. He idolizes his grandfather and wishes he could be more like him. As a child John was different from other kids in his own way, for instance when John was a child he was in the school play, he was Brave Prince. Though he didn't mind that he wasn't Prince Charming even though Prince Charming got the girls and the Brave Prince died in the end. He still prefered the Brave Prince, at the time John says, "Being the Brave Prince is better than being Prince Charming because I get to have courage" (69). The book doesn't descirbe Nagle's childhood though I would imagine it could not have been the best. He struggles with his inner self wanting to explore the rest of the ocean for great wrecks so that he could go down in history. The book describes how he loathes the tourists that come onto the Seeker with their neon green flippers only wanting to go to the boring wrecks that had already been scavenged by previous divers. This eventually fueled him into becoming an alcoholic which in turn deteriorated his health.
I feel that his is only slightly similar to other books we have studied or read in class. This book does not have to do with racism or WWII or anything like that. This is about a group of men diving for places that no man has ever been before. They have the common theme of struggle and conflict. But i still feel that this struggle/ conflict is different form previous ones we have studied. Shadow Divers is about struggle from a life or death perspective. Books like Black Boy have struggle but that is from things like racism and getting a better life for yourself. Shadow Divers is about making a better life for youself but in a different way, by doing what no other man has done, going where no man has gone. The things in life that make life worth living.
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