How To Create Suspense

In the book Trash, Andy Mulligan uses many techniques to create suspense.

One technique he uses is to make the reader follow a trail of clues.  An example of this is…       Raphael, Gardo on page 8 found a key in a bag and slowly Rat tells us what the key is for on page 25-26(the key is for a locker in the Central Station) but we don’t know what’s in the locker and want to make the reader kept on reading to find out what’s in the locker. An another example to make the reader follow a trail of clue is a ID of Jose Angelico,

Another way that suspense is created is by creating conflict between characters.  Examples of characters in conflict include there is a conflict between police and Raphael, when Raphael was getting tortured by the police. Corrupted police against Jose Angelico, Gabriel Olondriz, those characters were in conflict by Corrupted police, Senator trying to arrest Jose Angelico and Gabriel Olondriz for something that didn’t happen and Jose Angelico and Gabriel Olondriz tried to let the world know that the police here are corrupted and Senator steals money from the poor.

Furthermore, in Trash, we don’t always know if a character is good or bad.  Examples of this include Jose Angelico because in the early book the police told that Jose Angelico stole 6 million dollars but later the dumpsite boys finds out that the police/government were hiding the truth blaming the stolen money to Jose Angelico. Also we didn’t knew if Marco is good or bad because when the three main characters met him he was nice and trustful but later after they hand over the bible he tries to arrest Raphael, Gardo and Rat/Jun-Jun

In addition, Mulligan also creates suspense by having the characters work against a deadline.  If the boys don’t discover the mystery fast then Raphael and his mates will get caught by the police, get killed and the Senator will continue to steal money from the poor people

Moreover Mulligan also has different characters telling the story.  He does this so, to tell the readers what things are happening in each character’s view and what that character is going to do. Also doing this make the story interesting because it’s unique. And to know how each characters are feeling

1. Blog post title: Characters: Discuss the character traits that allow Raphael, Gardo, and Rat to ultimately persevere. How are these characters similar to each other? In what ways are they different? Which character are you most like?

All these three characters are were grown in the same environment, but each characters are different but also similar to each other. Rat is a smart boy, who knows many things about the city, for example when he knew what the key in the bag was for at (page 26 “You don’t know what that is! said Rat slowly. He was teasing us. “I do. I’ll raise you to a hundred”) he was very confident about what the key was for. Raphael is one of the most brave characters in the book Trash because when the corrupted police were torturing him and asking him for information, he told the police nothing other than (“I didn’t find a bag, sir, please believe me.” – page 65). Gardo is a very honorable friend, because he prays (“praying to God that both my friends were safe, and shaking all over” – page 152) which means he cares about his friends a lot. Gardo is also a character with good leadership, even though Raphael is the same age as Raphael because (“He’s taken more beatings than me so maybe he’s grown up faster.” – page 8).

1. Blog post title: Empowerment: By the end of the novel, Rat states, “Jun – no longer Rat. My name is Jun-Jun” (p.217). What can be inferred about Rat’s new sense of self? How have Raphael and Gardo enabled this transformation?

By the end of the novel, Rat states, “Jun-no longer Rat. My name is Jun-Jun (pg.217). In my opinion Jun-Jun says this to himself because before Jun-Jun met Raphael and Gardo he was always alone and had nobody to take care of him, he had no respect and no friends so he was even called Rat but after all these troubles with Jun-Jun’s new mates Raphael and Gardo he got some strong confidence. Raphael and Gardo made this happen by caring Jun-Jun, helping each other and being friends with him. After this transformation Jun-Jun must have felt proud, happy and gained confidence because, he now has real friends and someone to take care of each other.

1. Blog post title: Climax: In the last section of the book, the boys tell the story together, why does the author make this happen? What does this do to the story? (pace, excitement etc.)

In the last section of the book, the trash boys tell the story together. Andy Mulligan makes this happen because all the other each chapters of this book are told by a character but in the last section more than one character tells us the story, when the reader reads this they will probably think that the story is near the end. Also by doing this it makes the reader get interested into the book more, because it is different to all the other chapters and the unanswered question gets answered.

1. Blog post title: Style: At the end of part 4, Andy Mulligan uses newspaper stories to reveal further information about senator Zapanta and the mystery. What information is revealed? Do all of the papers share the same view? How is this effective way to reveal the story?

Andy Mulligan uses newspaper articles to reveal further information about senator Zapanta and the mystery. All the newspaper articles have different information. The first newspaper story tells us that Zapanta did not steal any money and it was a member of the senator’s domestic staff. But the second article is different because it tells us bad things he did like

 “He also made famous by a dramatic poster campaign aimed at the illiterate, featuring laughing orphans holding placards that spelled out his name – the children received no fee for their services.”

The third article tells us that why was ten million dollars doing in the Senator’s house? This article tells us that Senator was hiding something and he got all that money unofficial. I think this article is the article that is the most less bias, because it doesn’t really say that he didn’t do anything wrong or correct it just asks what were all the money doing in his house?

The fourth article is very bias because it only says that Vice-president Senator is a bad man that keeps millions of dollars of cash in his home, suggests that he is part of a corrupt other world – and should not be re-elected, but a new, better person named Charuvi Adarme should be elected.

1. Blog post title: This story is about…”: Using the phrase, “This is a story about…” Supply five words or phrases to describe Trash. Explain your choices

This story is about friendship because without friendship in between Gardo, Raphael and Rat they wouldn’t have gone all these troubles and mysteries. Friendship in this story is important because without friendship Rat wouldn’t had any friends and Gardo, Raphael wouldn’t get any help from Rat, so friendship connects people together, and able to work as a team. This story is about poverty, it means that you are extremely poor and very hard to live and this story begins at few boys living in a dumpsite and in poverty, working in the dumpsite picking up “stupp”. This story is about police corruption, police in Trash are all corrupted, they do not care who’s right and wrong they only care about the money and bribery. This story is about hope, there are many hopes in Trash two of many characters that give hope to these kids in poverty are Sister Olivia or Ms Olivia, she volunteered to help a small school in Behala for the kids in poverty. Also Jose Angelico gave hope to the poor people because he tried to stop the Senator stealing money from the poor people.

1. Blog post title: Multiple Perspectives: Throughout the novel, Raphael, Gardo, and Rat take turns recounting their story. How does hearing the multiple perspectives of this story benefit you?

Not like other books Trash has multiple perspectives like every chapter a different character tells the story,  doing this benefits the reader because, when just one person tells the story, the story becomes bias, but if the story is told by other characters the reader can find out what is the truth and what is going on easier. It also makes the book different and many people like to try different things. Also few is always better than one, it makes the story interesting so it doesn’t get boring. Lastly using multiple perspectives for this book Trash was a good idea because there are many actions and mysteries in this book and multiple perspectives keep this going fast.

1. Blog post title: Family: Using the phrase, “In this story, family means…” Discuss the issue of family in Trash. Explain your choices.

1.       Blog post title: Family: Using the phrase, “In this story, family means…” Discuss the issue of family in Trash. Explain your choices.

In this story, people that live in the dumpsite they all are “families” with each other even they are not true family with each other. They want to be families because firstly they are orphans most of them doesn’t have mums, dads or any other relative families. In this story families mean trust, friendship and teamwork. Family means trust in this story because like Gardo, Raphael and Rat calls Ms Olivia, sister Olivia they call Ms Olivia like that because they trust them like a family (quote). Families in the dumpsite mean friendship and teamwork because Raphael calls Gardo his brother at (quote) and family is teamwork because if you live in the dumpsite you would probably sorting out rubbish all day and you would want to work/co-operate with other people. Rat didn’t have any family but after he had started to help Gardo and Raphael he got a new “family” that he could stay with. Family could mean different to different places but all the families are important.

Is it OK to lie? (Draft)

There were many lies in the book Trash, and it was mostly told by the boys that live in the dump site, for example Raphael told the police that he didn't find a bag but found a shoe and Rat lied about that he had no money but actually he had full box of it and he was saving it for the faire to go to his city. Also dump site boys lied to Father Juilliard about using computer, they have told Father Juilliard that they are solving a newspaper puzzle but they were actually searching information about Jose Angelico.

Boys in the dump site lied a lot, but the police lied as well as them. The police lied about the promising to give reward to the person who finds the bag the police lied about giving reward because if there is a reward many people will try to find it.

Is it ok to lie? In my opinion it’s ok for the boys to lie that live in the dumpsite because they have nothing much, all they have is them self and they need to survive. Surviving with only truth is really hard

Trash Part 1 summary

Book "Trash" part 1 by Andy Mulligan is a story about three boys that live in a dumbsite at Behala sorting out rubbish. The main characters of "Trash" are Raphael, Gardo and Rat.
The mystery began when Raphael and Gardo found a small leather bag. In the bag there was a wallet, map, a key, picture of a girl in a school uniform and a ID card. Soon as Raphael and Gardo found the bag the police came to the dumpsite in Behala and asked the workers in the dumpsite to help find the bag. Raphael and Gardo straight knew that that bag was something very important because the police were paying the person who finds it , a large amount of money, and give money to every family in Behala. Raphael is a smart boy, he knew that you cannot trust the police in Behala, so Raphael told the police that he haven't found anything but a lady shoe. Rat is a boy, and his real name is Jun-Jun but he is called Rat because he lived with the rats and became like them. Raphael and Gardo took the bag to where Rat lives because they thought that place is the only place that the police wouldn't look and they were afraid that the police would find the bag if they kept it. Raphael and Gardo showed Rat what they found and what was in it. All three boys were trying to figure out what the key was for, and Rat knew what the key was for, it was for one of the locks in the Central Station, Rat knew because before he lived there nearly a year. The next day boys just pretended to look for the bag that they already found, so the police doesn't suspect that they already found it.

In "Trash" part 1 there are two main themes. One of them is "dangers of poverty". One of an example of a "danger of poverty" is "I knew a boy lost an arm that way" (page 7, 10th line), poverty is very dangerous because you could lose a arm while working in the trash. Another example of "danger of poverty" is "You can get caught in a fall, and it's heavy stuff. I've never known anyone killed, but one kid broke bones, falling badly. When Smoky went down, there were nearly a hundred killed." (page 21-22). This example tells us that you could get squashed by rubbish or when you fall on the rubbish you would break your bones.

Second theme is "police corruption". One of an example of "police corruption" is " Boys like us opening luggage lockers? It wouldn't have to be police. It would be anyone who noticed. They'd assume right away that we were thieving and thieving boys get no mercy from anyone" (page 40, 1st paragraph) and if someone reports them to the police they are more likely going to get arrested and put in jail. Another example of "police corruption" is "But everyone knows not to trust too far" that is Raphael talking about the police. This tells us that you cannot trust the police in Behala.