Monday, May 13, 2013

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Title: The Egypt Game
Author: Zilpha Keatly Snyder
Job: Literary Luminary
Description of my findings in the perspective of my job:

"Elizabeth's ponytail pulled her hair back away from her face and neck; and there was certainly something about her delicate, slender-necked profile that was very like the statue of Nefertiti."
Snyder 66

 I chose this sentence because in the book this is the moment when Melanie and April resolve to include Elizabeth on the Egypt game. In previous pages they were clearly charmed by "the carved perfection of her face that made her smile seem like magic- an enchanted ivory princess warming suddenly to life." Snyder 63 but her resemblance of Nefertiti confirms Elizabeth as a main character and member of the Egypt game.

"A little girl in the neighbourhood had been killed. She had been on her her way to the drugstore-the very one where April had purchased her eyelashes-in the early evening, and she had never returned. The next day her body had been found in the marshland near the bay." Snyder 70

I chose this paragraph because it introduces conflict. I can tell that this is what the story will be about and that most likely in the end the Egypt gang will discover who, or what, killed the little girl. This is known as the "inciting event" of a story.

"It had happened before. Almost a year before, a little boy from the same area had disappeared in almost the same way; and the police were saying that it looked as if the guilty person was a resident of the neighbourhood." Snyder 70

I chose this paragraph because it adds a chilling new dimension to the plot. If it has happened before, it might happen again. The mere thought a person who has supposedly murdered two children living in the neighbourhood is enough to make shivers run down your spine. The pattern might even be a peace of the puzzle. The reader can't help thinking, "Does this have anything to do with Egypt?".

"The gods of Egypt struggled with the gods of conscience, and Egypt won." Snyder 85

I chose this sentence because it shows that "when their imaginations were tuned in" Snyder 85 there was no stopping Melanie and April, even the "downright and disobedient" Snyder 84 and "even deadly dangerous" Snyder 84 consequences. It shows the power of their creativity and the power of Egypt. 

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