Louie Parizeau

Louie Parizeau
The Stand
Stephen King
Sci-Fi
Challange
940

1. Right now in The Stand, Mother Abagail has just come back from her trip that she said she had to do for God. Because she is so old, she came back in very bad shape, starving and out of shape. The night right before she died, Stu, Frannie, Larry, Lucy, Glen, and Ralph came to her because Mother Abagail said she had a message for them. She said that Stu, Larry, Ralph, and Glen should go west that day without food or water. They have to walk to Las Vegas by foot to meet Flagg, and make their stand and fight him. Soon after, Mother Abagail dies, and The four men decide to go. They start their journey west, before the story cuts to Flagg's side of the story. On the "dark" side of  the story, Flagg somehow knows that the "good" side has sent people to spy on their side, and wants them killed. So the border control men, Dave and Bobby, follow their orders to look for a bald man driving a blue jeep. From earlier in the book, these details let us know that this man is the judge, one of the wisest men that the "good" side has, and they sent the Judge to spy. Flagg's orders are to kill his man, but to not shoot his head, only the body, so that they can cut of the head and send it back to the "good" side as a threat. As the judge pulls up to the border line control men, after a long journey, he steps out of his jeep with a gun in hand. Dave comes to greet him nicely, while Bobby stays behind to secretly get a good shot on the Judge. But the Judge sees him taking aim at him just as Bobby takes a shot, hitting him in the mid-section. Then, Dave stands over the Judge to finish him off. Unfortunately for Dave, Bobby takes another shot, meaning to hit the Judge, but it plows through Dave's neck instead, and he fell dead. Quickly, the Judge grabs his gun, with the bullet still in his side, and prepares to take a shot at Bobby. In a panic, Bobby runs away and carelessly fires three bullets at the Judge. They tear the Judge's face into pieces, and he dies. Bobby takes a deep breath, before he realizes that he killed the Judge, but also ruined his face. The chapter ends with Bobby trying to run away before Flagg can terrorize him for ruining the Judge's face. 
2. So far, this book is very interesting and exciting. I think that it is cool to see the "dark" side's point of view in the story, because it gives you a feel of what their side is like, and it makes it easier for me to make predictions about what will happen in the book later. For example, now that I know the "dark" side wants to kill them, because they killed the Judge, I can predict that when the sides meet, a gory and violent battle may happen. I also think that throughout the book, there is a lot of exciting parts to keep me interested. Mother Abigail coming back, bombs exploding in the town, and the Judges death keep me wanting to read. Lastly, I think that the characters in this book are unique in their own way. There is a secret evil side to some of the characters, and some characters are behaving differently now that the community has gotten so big. This is because they feel like they can over power the unstable government the "good" side has created.
3. One of the themes in The Stand is hope. Hope is a theme because the "good" side has to stay strong and keep moving even though their leader, Mother Abagail, has died. For the "good" side, Mother Abagail was their symbol of leadership and honor. So now the community has to be optimistic and see hope in the future.
4. My favorite character so far is (or was) the Judge.  He is a very brave man and was willing to go out to the "dark" side to be a spy.  Also, he contributed a lot to the "good" side and their government because he was wise and help them establish the system of government. I think that he is brave and willing because many other people were not brave enough to do that. He new how dangerous it would be, and he also didn't want to do it, but did it because it was for the better of his community. He is also brave because before he died, he kept fighting. I think that this  is an important part of the story because that was the first of the "good" side the "dark" side had seen, and he stood for the good side as a symbol of bravery and and courage.
5. My least favorite character is Dave, the border control man. He was very mean to Bobby before the Judge came, and was swearing at him to not mess it up when the Judge came. Once the Judge came, he was very sneaky and heartless. He pretended to act nice to the Judge, but once the Judge was wounded, he was stepping over him to kill him. I think that this is heartless because even though he was following his orders, he was still going to kill a man without any hesitation. This makes me believe that he has killed many others, since he was about to kill the judge very swiftly.
6. I predict that the four men, Stu, Larry, Ralph, and Glen will successfully make it to Las Vegas. Once there, I think that they will make a stand against Flagg, and defeat him. But I think that the battle will not be between the two communities, just Flagg against Stu. I believe that Stu will fight Flagg because he is one of the major leaders of the community, and also Mother Abagail told Stu to lead the four men.