How To Write An Essay On Gregor The Overlanders

Ramsha Adnan
March 20, 2013
Mr. RG
Language Arts
The World Underneath
"Beware, Underlanders, time hangs by a thread. /The hunters are hunted, white water runs red. /The gnawers are sent to extinguish the rest. /The hope of the hopeless resides in a quest.” So begins the tale of Gregor, an 11-year-old boy who lives in New York. The book, Gregor the Overlander, was written by Suzanne Collins, the author the ever-popular series The Hunger Games. This 308 page book was published in September 1, 2003. It was voted for the Kansas William Allen White Children's Book Award. Also it was chosen for the Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s Choice Award, as well as the Volunteer State Book Award. In addition it won the Young Hoosier Book Award. It also gained the Garden State Book Award. Likewise, it was the winner of the Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award. Lastly it was the first runner-up for the Texas Bluebonnet Award. I really admire the way
Suzanne Collins is good at characterization. In the following essay I will describe 5 characters and explain what makes them seem so real. First I will describe the protagonist, Gregor.
It is hard not to feel what this character is feeling. At the beginning of the tale he is very troubled. His dad mysteriously disappeared two years ago. His grandmother is sick and has Alzheimer’s. His family is quite poor. Gregor wants to do something special that might make his family rich. When Gregor falls through the trap door into the Underland, he suddenly wants his wish back. As the prophecy said he was the “Warrior”, and it made him sick to even hit anybody. Gregor is stuck; he does not want to fulfill his part in the prophecy. But, unfortunately, Gregor must help save the Underland, or all his friends from the Underland will die, and he will never go back home. Finally Gregor agrees, after he hears his father is held captive by the rats. I think what made this character seem so real was the fact that he is as normal as possible, and the fact that the author gave a lot of description of him. Also I think he seems realistic because he reacted the way most people
would. The second character that seems extremely realistic is Gregor’s 2-year-old sister Margaret, more commonly known as Boots. She earned this nickname by stealing people’s boots in the winter. Boots is a hyper girl who isn’t afraid of anything. For example when she and Gregor fall into the Underland they meet giant beetles, generally known as Crawlers. While Gregor is terrified out of his mind, since the beetles are big enough for him to ride on, Boots squirms out of his hands and pets the “Beeg Bugs”. She is very energetic, and innocent. When she does something bad, it is hard to feel mad at her. Gregor feels especially responsible for her, and would do just about anything to protect her. There are many things she doesn’t understand and Gregor doesn’t explain, for instance when a rat died she asked if it was “napping”, and Gregor told her it was. Boots is proved useful, because the “Beeg Bugs” love her to the point that they worship her, and because of that the Crawlers will do anything she asks them to. What makes Boots seem so real to me is that she, like Gregor, is described a lot. Also she has a distinctive personality. You can always guess from the context what she may do. The third character is Luxa. the future queen of Regalia, the land of the humans. Luxa has a grudge against all Gnawers (rats), good or bad, since they killed her parents. She and her cousin, Henry, are very close and seem to be able to read each other’s minds. She is a very arrogant, and serious, unless she is with her cousin. She sounds exactly like a princess, though she is not such a girl. She loves to fight, much unlike Gregor. She has very pale skinned, almost translucent, with silver hair, and has violet eyes just like all the other Regalians. Luxa is extremely stubborn and disobedient, seldom minding the council, the group of people in charge until Luxa is queen, and as Ripred said "impossible to lead anywhere." She is always doing something rebellious, but never gets in trouble, since she is the princess. Although she is a huge rebel, she never sneaks out of the castle, in fear of running into Gnawers. What makes Luxa seem so real is the fact that she acts exactly as she looks, proud. The fourth character I am going to talk about is Ripred, a Gnawer on the human’s side. Ripred is a strangely large rat and proficient fighter. He is an essential character in all five of the books in the series'. Ripred is what many people and creatures in the Underland call a "rager", or a natural born killer. Even though he is a Gnawer he often battles alongside the humans in the Underland, who are every so often opposing against the other rats. Ripred is usually sarcastic, mean, and bossy, but he has occasionally shown sympathy and compassion, especially with the Gregor's younger sister, Lizzie. He is kind to her because she felt sorry for him, and she thought he was lonely. The book describes him just as large as the other six-foot rats of the Underland, with shaggy gray fur, and clearly notable by a scar across his face. Ripred, like Luxa, loves to fight, and he once said to a rat who was fighting him “Oh, stop it. I’m bored, and when I get bored, I get dangerous.” What makes Ripred seem so realistic is the fact that even though he may seem to have only a horrible side, there is also a nice side to him; the side that made him realize that the rats were crude. The fifth and last character I’m going to talk about is a Flier (bat) named Ares, just like the Greek god of war. Ares was one of the strongest bats in the Underland. He was bonded to Henry, and then later to Gregor. If you are bonded to any animal in the Underland you must save them as you would save yourself, and vice versa. Ares chooses to let Henry die and saved Gregor instead. He is put on trial for betraying his bondmate, and Gregor bonds with him because he knew Ares was only trying to so the right thing. Ares is proved very useful in war; he can dig his claws in a huge Gnawers back, lift it up, and make it fall to its death. What makes Ares seem so real to me is the fact that at the beginning of the book it is clear that Ares would only do the right thing, and at the end of the book it is proved right. Had he chosen to save Henry instead the story would have been ruined. Everything in the story seems to fit together like a puzzle. Suzanne Collins is one of the most successful children authors. What really impresses me most is the fact that she did a lot of research on the animals to make it seem more realistic. You can almost believe that it actually happened. It really held my interest; I couldn’t put it down until I was done! I have already said the strengths, but I wish the author used more conflict between characters on the same side, that might have made it more fun. I most definitely would recommend this book to others. This book affected me because I learned not to be to close to a friend, the person may one day become my enemy, and not to be a great enemy, one day that person may become my friend. The only thing I wonder is what happens next. Because as Cornelia Funke once said “Stories never end; even though books like to pretend they do”.