DQ prologue

1. How were you affected by the novel’s prologue? What did you discover about Arthur and Jake in this scene?

====Right from the start Arthur was my favourite of the two brothers. I have little patience with kids who 'for weeks on end pestered Arthur to play the game he called knives'. Arthur is the conscientious one, Jake the troublemaker.

2. How would you answer the questions that conclude the prologue?

a. Was Jake surprised because he had never considered the possibility that he might be a less-than-perfect shot? Did he have that much confidence in himself, that little self-doubt?

b. Or was he merely surprised at how easy it was to give in to an impulse, and carry through the thought that lay in your mind? Simply to do whatever you wanted to do, and damn the consequences.

====I don't think Jake thought about having enough confidence or not. He felt like throwing the knife, so he did.

3. What accounts for the differences between those who follow the rules, like Arthur, and those who defy them?

====Arthur gives in to get it over with. Just from the introduction we cannot yet understand why this is so, but later we get to know that Arthur 'knows' he has to appease Jake for their mother's sake. Very very sad, IMO.

4. Which came more easily for you as an adolescent: obedience or defiance?

====until age 14 I was sickeningly obedient, and then changed overnight. I had to stand up to my overprotective mother, and I did! But I never relished in getting my brothers into trouble. This was about my own freedom, and I never used others to obtain my goal. Can you tell that I hugely dislike Jake?