Up A Road Slowly

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BOOK REPORT 1. Genre: Novel 2. Title: Up a Road Slowly is a story about the life of a young girl as she experiences the death of her mother. The central character, Julie Trelling, is sent to live with her spinster aunt following her mother¡¦s death. The story tells of Julie¡¦s life as she grows into an adult. The author¡¦s descriptions of the many stages of the main character¡¦s life are passionate and real. The reader can easily feel the experiences and are often inspired. Julie progresses in her learning and knowledge from a youngster into a teenager, and from the stage of puberty blossoming into maturity. In the very beginning, the readers can tell from Julie¡¦s actions and speech that she is still an immature little child. As she grows older, her wise decisions were evidences showing that she no longer walks on the earlier section of her life.

3. Author/Date written: Irene Hunt finished writing Up a Road Slowly in 1965. Irene¡¦s father died when she was only seven years old, an event that formed the basis of this book. Irene Hunt worked as an English and French teacher after she graduated from the University of Illinois. So Irene Hunt was much like Julie Trelling who loved poetry and wanted to become a great writer.

4. Setting: Mostly in Aunt Cordelia¡¦s large American farm when Julie was seven years of age until she was eighteen. The time is probably in 1950¡¦s or 60¡¦s.

5. Protagonists: Julie Trelling The main character and narrator of the story, which was based on her life. The story starts out with her being an eight-year-old girl and ends with her becoming an eighteen-year-old woman.

Aunt Cordelia Julie¡¦s aunt who took care of Julie. The family thought it best for Julie to live and learn from a woman instead of her widowed dad, who was a man. Aunt Cordelia played an important, perhaps the most important, role in Julie¡¦s life as Julie grew up.

Uncle Haskell Julie¡¦s uncle who sometimes played the role of a mischievous fairy (somebody like Puck in Shakespeare¡¦s Midsummer¡¦s Night Dream), and other times as a wise elder who gives advices to his beloved niece. He trained Julie in her writing with very strict advices and grading.

6. Antagonists: Brett Kingsman Julie¡¦s first boyfriend whom she did all the giving to and received nothing from. When they broke up, Julie was heartbroken, but she knew she did the right thing.

7. Supporting characters with their functions to the whole of the story: Laura Trelling Julie¡¦s older sister who helped her mature as Julie grew older. When Laura got married Julie was jealous of Laura¡¦s husband, Bill. Later, Julie and Laura worked their way through and they developed a closer relationship.

Danny Trevort A next-door neighbor boy who liked and supported Julie since childhood and at the end he finally became Julie¡¦s trustworthy and loving boyfriend.

Aggie Kilplin A dirty smelly girl whom Julie and her friends rejected and loathed. When Aggie died, Julie felt extremely guilty and regretted her attitude towards Aggie.

8. Conflicts: Internal conflicts- Julie Trelling had a number of internal conflicts. She had a hard time overcoming the her mother¡¦s death, forcing her to leave home and to live with her Aunt Cordelia. She didn¡¦t understand why she wasn¡¦t in the ¡§number one¡¨ spot in Laura anymore after Laura got married. Aunt Cordelia hoped for Julie to be friends with Aggie, but Julie couldn¡¦t help to avoid and hate her.

External conflicts- Brett Kingsman is a slacker in school who never does his work. He is never embarrassed to ask Julie to do all his assignments for him. Julie later figures that this relationship isn¡¦t going anywhere since she is always doing the giving and Brett is always doing the taking.

9. Climax/Turning point: There are many little climaxes throughout the book. The book is written in many chapters and each chapter has its own little conflict and climax. One of the climaxes is when Julie broke up with Brett. She was miserable for several days and Danny, her next-door playmate since childhood, was going out with another girl. There were a few misunderstandings between Julie and Danny. Then they made up and they became boy and girlfriends. Another climax was when Julie started writing papers because of Uncle Haskell¡¦s encouragement and critics. Immediately after she finished her papers, Uncle Haskell died. That again is another climax where Julie continued her works and made a speech to the public.

10. Awakenings: Julie Trelling has a few awakenings. In chapter 3, Julie went to visit Laura and she felt miserable when she was isolated in a room all by herself instead of sharing a bed with her sister. An old conductor on the train back home gave Julie a wise word of advice that made her realize that she can no longer be in the Number One position or the center focus of her sister Laura anymore.

The second awakening Julie experienced was in chapter four when Julie realized how mean she had been towards Aggie Kilplin. But when she did it was too late, because Aggie had died and it was impossible to make up for her guilt.

11. Falling actions: Again, there are many falling actions throughout the story because of the many different ¡§mini-episodes¡¨. The resolution to the ¡§break-up¡¨ of Julie and Brett was that Julie ended up going out with Danny. The falling action of Julie¡¦s papers ended up with her being successful and Aunt Cordelia becoming extremely proud of Julie.

12. Themes/Philosophy: The theme of Up a Road Slowly revolves around the growth from a young naughty girl to a mature loving woman. Walking up a road is not that easy as it looks sometimes but there are a lot of stuff you can gain from it too. Along the way, Julie learned many lessons that are needed in life. She learned that in a relationship where you only give but don¡¦t receive, there is only pain and hurt. She also learned that home is not with the people you have closest genes to, but with people whom your inside is closer to.

Also, love yourself as yourself. Julie forced herself to be someone who Brett would like. But that is not something right. We should love ourselves as who we really are.

13. Symbols: The title of the book, Up a Road Slowly, is a symbol itself. Walking up a road slowly is compared with growing up. You walk slowly slowly up a hill and watch your surroundings. You might face some obstacles along the way but if you keep on walking, you¡¦ll eventually reach your goal. Same way with growing up; you can look at your surroundings as you grow up and you face problems in your life. Eventually, you will reach your home too. Either success or failure, you¡¦ll end up at the end of the road ¡V death.

14. Narrator: First person. The narrator of the story is Julie, who is also the main character of the story. The story is mainly revolving around her and her growth from a girl to a woman.

15. Style: The author uses symbolism in the title to relate to the whole story. She wrote this book in a way that even young readers can easily understand what is happening and going on.

The book basically is told in dialogues and in Julie¡¦s vivid thoughts. There are no hard literary devices used in the book.

Hunt used ¡§retarded¡¨ dialogues in the book when Aggie talk. It emphasizes that Aggie wasn¡¦t educated. This is also a technique Charles Dickens uses. The end of the book was also tweaked into romance.

16. Two or three significant quotes: "Loneliness could be dangerous in creating so strong a need as to make a shoddy relationship seem beautiful." Julie was referring to Brett and her relationship when she said this. She realizes how desperate she was; desperate enough to make her blind temporally.

"You're not going to live here anymore, are you?" This quote is REALLY significant because Irene had the experience of a little girl asking her that when Irene¡¦s dad died. Irene added this in this story probably of some reason, possibly relating Julie to her ownself.