Outside Reading, The Big Finish

This is the last section of The Bourne Supremecy by Robert Ludlum. In this section Bourne finally captures his mysterious imposter and now thinks that his wife, Marie, will be returned to him from the "buisness" man who took her away. Bourne's mysterious imposter turns out to be an ex- British army oficer who had a great carrier going. Unfortunatley, after the death of his wife along with this mans terrible drinking problem, he slipped into a crazed state of rage where he became this imposter that Bourne had been chasing. Bourne is shocked and angry when he learns that the government has used him yet again for their secretive purposes. While assured he would be compensated for his efforts to help his country as well as the rest of the world, Bourne and Marie decide to just fall off the grid and hope that the government wont find them and force any more of their evils onto the two of them.
The character Jason Bourne aka David Webb definatley grows the most throughout the novel. While the main conflict of the story is Bourne trying to find his wife, a smaller ongoing conflict is Bourne trying to find out about his past. Bourne knows next to nothing about himself except for that which was told to him by the government which has betrayed him so many times before. Bourne learns that even though he may be a killer, it doesnt mean he must kill. Bourne comes to associate himself by two things, the killer Jason Bourne, and the husband David Webb. While he would rather get rid of his Bourne side he learns that he needs to just deal with it like when he is talking with Marie and says "'What do you do when there's a part of you that you hate?' said Webb. 'Accept it' answered Marie" (Ludlum 640). Bourne grows the most in that he may not know that much more about himself and his past, but he now accepts it for what it is.
This novel is very similar to our summer reading book Extremley Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathan Safran Foer because both are really journeys of self discovery disguised in other objectives. Oskar from Extremley Loud is in search of a lock to which he believes will contain information about his father in some way. Oskar is really looking to find out more about himself which he accomplishes without even realizing much like how Jason Bourne finds out more ab out himself in his journey to find Marie. Both characters' greatest discovery is that they can live with the way they are and don't have to change in order to deal with the things that happen to them. The final quote of The Bourne Supremacy shows that maybe the things we hate the most, are things that are the most important, "'Everyone has a dark side. Yours is a legend called Jason Bourne, but that's all it is.' 'I loathe him.' 'He brought you back to me. That's all that matters'" (Ludlum 646).

The Return of Outside Reading

In the latest section of The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne foils his imposter's plot to kill the crown governor of the Peoples Rebuplic of China. The crown govenor is going to give a speech and after talking with the frenchman, Bourne learns that his imposter has recently taken a contract to kill the crown govenor. Bourne is in a time crunch to figure out how his imposter plans to kill him in such a high security location without getting caught or getting killed himself. Pretending to be an anti-terrorist expert, Bourne blends in with the security at the air port where the speech will be takiong place. Bourne is flabergasted by all the security and thinks that attempting a kill would be almost impossible like when Bourne says, "The odds were overwhelmingly against. Suicide...Yet it was these same heavenly negative odds that the imposter-killer found irresistible" (ludlum 509). Bourne goes on to realize that maybe the imposter intends to kill not only the crown govenor, but his close staff that will be attending the speech too. Bourne gets to the arriving limo with them in it in just enough time to evacuate them before the explosion. Bournes only objective now is to find his imposter in order to save his wife Marie.
Marie's friend Staples is captured by the American embassey in the beggining of this section. The embassey explains to Staples that they had no intention of hurting Marie and that they only used her to get to Bourne. As amoral as this plan was, they are using Bourne to catch this imposter because he is the only man fit for the job. The government pleads to Staples to bring in Marie because if Bourne does his job and the word gets out that Marie is no where to be found, Bourne will come after those in charge of the operation, most likeley leaving none alive. Even with realizing the gravity of the situation, Marie is outragged by the situation that she and her husband are being forcibley put through like whe she says, "Have you any idea what you've done to us? It's barbaric and i mean that in the full ugliness of the word" (Ludlum 523). However, even with her outrage, Marie decides that she will stay with the American embassey until this imposter is brought to justice and her husband can return.

Outside Reading Strikes Back

In the latest section that I read from The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne is as close as he has ever been to finding his imposter. Bourne follows his leads to a contact of the mysterious Frenchman, and after a quick bout, the contact is forced to tell Bourne what he knows. Going off the contact's tip, Bourne heads to a clearing in a forest outside of Shenzen where the Frenchman and Bourn's imposter are supposed to meet. As Bourne observes the meeting about to start, gunfire rains down upon the men and chaos errupts. Not wanting to let his prey escape him, Bourne chases down the Frenchman who turns out to be a mna that Bourne had met in Paris and in his mysterious workings in Medusa, "D'Anjou! I am d'Anjou! Medusa! Tam Quan!" (Ludlum 395)D'Anjou informs him that Bourne's imposter is actually his creation. Controlling him at first, d'Anjou made a fortune off the contracts of Bourne's imposter untill the imposter started to rebel thinking he no longer needed this guidence. The gunfire in the clearing that Bourne encountered was his attempt at killing Bourne's imposter, his failed attempt. So Bourne is again faced with the conflict of tracking down his imposter so that he may save his captured wife Marie.
Unknown to Bourne, Marie has escaped her government capters and is on the run. Marie's first objective is to search for help which she finds from an old friend at the Canadian consulate. Marie's friend is Catherine Staples. After hearing Marie's story, Staples is determined to help her and her husband. Staples seems to be driven by loyalty and by repaying a debt of kindness to an old friend. As the two of them look for any leads on where Bourne might be, the American undersecratery McAllister finds out that Marie was in contact with Staples and the manhunt for the both of them begins. Marie and Staples are now both on the run from the American embassey as well as the local Hong Kong police. Marie goes through many hardships while in hiding. Marie is attacked by some boys who said that she was tresspassing on their territory, "This is a forbidden road, a forbidden part of the shore" (Ludlum 416). Marie barley escapes an attempted rape and falls into unconciousness at the end of the section.

Master Photographers

Outside Reading Part Dos

In the section of The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum that I just read, the plot thickens as Bourne continues his adventure to find his wife. Bourne is now hunting for a mysterious imposter of himself. This imposter has taken on the role of the killer that Webb wanted to forget. After confronting Yao Ming, the captor of his wife, Bourne learns that his only hope of getting her back is if he finds and captures his imposter, "'Bring him to me Jason Bourne!' The banker breathed deeply, then added quietly, 'Then, and only then, will you be reunited with your wife'" (Ludlum 161). Ming wants this mysterious copy cat brought to justice so that he may continue with his rather sketchy buisness plans that the imposter has been disrupting. Unknown to Bourne however, Ming is actually an american government agent. Bourne is being secretly employed by the american government yet again to save the world from an unknown threat. Through out this conflict, not only is Bourne learning more about how to save Marie but he is also learning more about his two different identities, David Webb and Jason Bourne. He realizes that even though Webb is who he truley is and wants to be, he must become Bourne in order to save his wife Marie.
One of the characters who develops a lot in this section is Marie. Marie really grows in this section because we are able to see her struggle of living in the captivity of the government. We are able to see how smart Marie really is like when she tricks everyone into thinking she is mentaly ill, "'I've ordered a CAT scan in the morning,' Oh, you're doing exactley what I wanted you to do" ( Ludlum 172). Everyone including her captives is expecting Marie to be an innoccent, fragile girl who can't fend for herself when in reality she is very strong of character and has been planning her escape for quite some time. Marie does eventually escape and is on the run at the end of this section, something the frail girl that everyone thought she was couldn't do.

Outside reading sectin one

For my outside reading book this quarter I'm reading The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum. One of the obvious main characters of this book is Jason Bourne. Jason Bourne is a secret identity for the real man David Web. Bourne is motivated in this book by his love for his wife Marie. Marie was kidnapped in the beggining of the book and Bourne will do anything to get her back including follow her trail to Asia, "'It's done,' said the diplomat' He's on the plane to Kowloon" (Ludlum 111). Nothing will stop Bourne from getting his wife back. Another character is Alexander Conklin. Conklin is now a retired CIA agent who now seems to drown himself in boose to forget his past mistakes. Conklin is confronted by Bourne and Bourne convinces him to help him in his quest. Conklin is motivated by his guilt, wanting to repay for his past prejudice against Bourne. These are the two main characters so far but many more will surley develop in the near future.
The major conflict in this book is that Marie is kidnapped and Bourne must save her. Bourne first finds out about Maries disapearence when returning home from his teaching job one day, "Then he saw it. a note lying on the pillow on her side of the bed" (58). This note said that they had taken Marie but were very vauge about what they had done. Bourne praying that Marie is still alive follows the trail to Asia with the help of his old enemy, Conklin. Bourne is now hot on the trail of an arms dealer that he believes might be in contact with the kidnappers. The arms dealer may be Bourne's only hope. Not only does this adventure help him find Maire but it helps Bourne discover more about himself. Because of the amnesia that Bourne sufferd he has trouble remebering his past but as he travels to Asia, images of his past reappear in his head. This adventure will definatley help uncover Bourne's mysterious past.
This novel so far is similar to Extremley Loud and Incredibly Close becuase both of these have similar topics. In both novels the main character is trying to find the one that they love the most, eather their father like in Extremley or thier wife like in The Bourne Supremacy. Both main characters are also looking to discover more about themselves. Oskar from Exremley is looking to discover more about how he can survive the loss of his dad while Bourne is looking to remeber his past that he lost during the amnesia he suffered about a year ago. Basicly both characters have the same basic goals, Bourne's adventure is just more action packed.

Why a Memoir?

I think that people write memoirs to express their feelings. Similar to a painting, a memoir is what the artist or author is feeling. When someone writes a memoir its becuase the have something inside them that they want to tell the world or maybe just someone that they're writing the memoir for. A memoir is a way for people to express themselves.
I think that the power of a memoir comes from the emotion that it's created from. If you're writing a memoir to express what you feel you're memoir will portray that feeling and will make it a stronger piece of writing. Memoirs are also made stronger because they are much more realistic and often times more descriptive because the event actually took place. A lot of writing will be filled with passages where the reader will think that can never happen, but in memoirs the event actually took place so the reader can relate a lot better. Basicly a memoir is a pure form of writing that lets an author express themself in whatever way they want.

What does Richard "hunger" for?

When the question what does Richard "hunger" for is asked the obvious thing that pops into my mind is food. Richard's family is very poor so they are in a constant struggle for enough money to feed everyone. Being a very poor family Richard is always hungry so it makes sense that food is something he is "hungry" for.
Digging deeper into the true meaning of the question though, i think that Richard hungers for freedom. Richard is forced to live in many unfortunate places like a foster home or his grandma's extremley religious house, both of which Richard wants nothing more than to gain the freedom to leave as is represented when Richard runs away from the foster home. Richard doesnt think that it's fair to have to go to a religious school taught by his aunt that he doesnt get along with and wants the freedom to go to the school that he wants. Richard also wants the freedom to work on saturdays, something that all the other kids can do but because of his grandma's strict rule Richard isn't allowed to. Richard eventually does diffy his grandma much to her dismay and takes a job finally reaching a certain level of his freedom.