Idea of Cold

It struck me throughout the rest of the day about the concept of cold within the novel. It brings about many different ideas and meanings. 

The novel begins with death and death is normally represented with cold. As the novel progresses Boku's character in general seems to be rather cold personality wise not wishing to give names to anything and seems extremely detached from the surrounding world. However, as the temperature/climate around him begins to freeze he seems to become more open to ideas and seems to develop as a character. This creating a strange type of balance in his life that was never before felt or noticeable to the reader. 

Growing up as a Christian and later converting to Catholicism the religion itself deals with the idea that in order to find anything within this world one must come to terms with oneself and look for a greater power. Boku seems to be on a quest to find this "sheep" but he is also on a quest to find himself. The cold illusions created within the book can show his journey from a detached young man, to a man that is more in touch with the surrounding world. Obviously since I have not finished the novel I could be completely off base. However, up to this point I find it interesting how it begins with death and his own detachment from the surrounding world, moving into a journey/quest for something he cares little about, to growing to actually becoming interested in the subject matter and the things around him. Climate wise it began warm and cools down as his journey goes on, yet he does the complete opposite creating a strange balance that only adds to the numerous opposites within the novel. 

Blog #3

In The Sheep Chase, the character that made actually the most sense, and one that I connected most closely to was the stranger. I have a very possibly unhealthy addiction to Science Fiction and one of my favorite movies/TV shows is called Serenity (show called Firefly). Within the movie there is much that is untold yet clues are dropped often. One of the main characters named River, even though she doesn't say much, holds a secret that could unravel the new found Alliance (made to keep the peace amongst the planets). She is a psychic that suffers from insanity due to the secret that she is not meant to know. Within the chase there is an Alliance assassin. The stranger within the story reminded me greatly of this assassin. He is given no name, no identification and merely is doing the work of The Boss. As I read more of the story I see more and more of the two characters as one in the same. The assassin within Serenity knows well that once his work is completed there will be no room for him in the newer world, I see the stranger possibly seeing the same thing. They are merely doing the biding of a higher power without question and pure alliance to something that they may not fully believe in. It may seem that they are naive in their thoughts, but part of me feels that this would be the correct life for some. Not having to ask any questions, and truly knowing your place within the world. 

Within novel thus far I find many similarities between it and the movie, but this the strongest comparison. The first moment the stranger entered into the novel, the assassin immediately came into my mind. Neither one seem to want to know the secret, their job is simple-making sure that the secret is kept and never unearthed. To make comparison such as this I feel is crucial to understanding and looking for different things in both the novel and the movie. It tends to add more to each character and allows a clearer picture of possible movements and thought patterns of the characters.