Character Analysis Essay

            When I was seven, my brother and I walked over to my neighbor’s house.  His backyard was getting remodeled, so there was a pile of rocks in the corner of his yard.  He and my brother decided that it would be fun to throw rocks at the wall.  My brother eventually got bored and chose a new target, me.  With an evil grin, he drew back his arm and chucked a rock the size of a softball at me.  It hit me square in the face and he just stood there and laughed while I ran into the house, blood gushing from the gash on my face.   Steven, a character from Pictures of Hollis Woods nothing like that.

            Steven is extremely nice, although he tries to hide it. For example, on pg. 40, Steven quickly divided his Hershey bar and gave Hollis a piece. He didn’t want Hollis to know that he gave her the bigger half, but she noticed anyway. He does lots of small acts of kindness for Hollis which leads to his love for his sister. 

Hollis has a caring brother.  His love for her is obvious on page 78 when he has to blink back tears. He knew he loved Hollis as soon as she let him win their second checkers game when Hollis was first introduced to the family.

Steven shows his sister around her new home and shows her Old Mans mountain instead of throwing rocks at her. He is the ideal brother. 

Character Analysis Essay

Pictures of Hollis Woods- Henry's Point of View

      When I first met that girl, I hated her.  She thought that she could just walk into my life and replace me as Josie's favorite, but I wasn't going to let that happen.  I watched her, constantly.  She thought I was sleeping on her bed because I  was starting to like her, but really I was just continuing my non-ending watch.
    I thought like that for quite a while, but then I realized that Josie loved Hollis and I equally.  Josie needed Hollis and so did I.  When things were forgotten, like turning off the stove, Hollis took care of it.  A cat couldn't do that.  We were a family.
     When she took us to that house that was surrounded with a substance called snow, she was trying to keep our family together.  But it wasn't meant to be.  Hollis went to the family that she was always meant to be with and so did Josie and I.
      Hollis visits every month.  Sometimes Josie doesn't remember who Hollis is, but she always remembers that she loves her even if she doesn't know why.  I wink at her before I yawn and close my eyes, and I know that she understands me.  We speak the same language, that girl and I.

If

            If I hadn’t been sent to that house, I would have had a normal eleven- year-old's life, but in that house, there were no ifs allowed.  There were also no ands, buts, or whys.  A full list of rules hung on the inside of my bedroom door, just to remind me that in that house, I had no freedom and my opinion was worth as much as the scum on the side of the road.  The insane psychopaths actually thought that I was going to obey them.  Yeah, they knew nothing about me.

Conference Piece

Sabrina turned towards Amy.  “Do you hear that?” she whispered.  

            “Hear what?” Amy mumbled, as she looked up from her book. 

“It sounds like...”  Sabrina tilted her head to one side “…footfalls,” she decided.  “It’s unsteady though, like limping from an injury.” 

“Yeah, I hear it too.  It’s coming from the front of the house.”  She got up and gently set her book down on the chair.  Approaching the window, she extended her hand and drew back the curtain a fraction of an inch.  Her eyes grew big as she shook her head in disbelief.  “He’s back.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sabrina bolted out the door, Amy right behind her.  There he was, on the edge of their property, limping towards the house.  “Daddy!” Sabrina cried.  The girls ran to him and slowed down only to make sure they didn’t cause him pain by hitting his injured leg by accident.  Sabrina was as happy as she could be.  Amy, however, was quite troubled.  She knew she should be thrilled, but something just wasn’t right.  That’s when it happened.  One moment her father was in front of her, looking at her sister with blue eyes full of love, the next a horrid demon stood looming over her, glaring at her with red eyes full of hunger and spite.  Then the demon turned back into her father.  The demon had only been there for a second, but it was enough for Amy to confirm her suspicion. 

She grabbed her sister’s arm and spun her around.  “Sabrina, don’t trust him.  It’s not dad.  We get as far away from him as possible.”

Sabrina looked at Amy as if she had just slapped her in the face.  “What do you mean, it’s not dad?”

If only she had just ran when she had said they had to get away from him.  She would have been confused, but at least she wouldn’t have had to lose hope.  Now I’m going to have to tell her the truth and she’ll be heartbroken.    Forcing the words out of her mouth, she told her why they had to run.  “Sabrina, it’s a shapeshifter.” 

The little girl blinked tears out of her eyes.  “That means dad’s…”  She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Amy nodded.  “Dad’s dead,” she said, finishing her sister’s sentence.

Shapeshifters were horrible creatures that fed on humans and animals. Most of them just ate animals for they didn’t dare to make themselves enemies of the human race, but there were a few like this one that didn’t care who their enemies were.

  Shapeshifters are able to turn into an exact replica of any of the humans that they had eaten.  They are able to have the same voices as the person, but they do not get any of that person’s knowledge.   The only way that you can tell if it’s the real person and not a shapeshifter is to ask them a question that only they would know the answer to.

Amy couldn’t help herself, she had to ask him.  It was her only hope.  “Dad, what is my name?”

“Why, it’s Amy of course,” he responded in his deep voice.

Amy turned to her sister.  “Run.”  It was a command. 

Her dad was the one that had told her of shapeshifters.  They had then agreed that if a situation like this ever occurred, she would ask him what her name was.  It was a trick question.  Her mother had wanted to name her amethyst, but her father refused to have his daughter named after a rock. Her mother won the argument, but when Sabrina came along, she was too little to say the big word, so she called her Amy and the nickname stuck.  If that had been her dad, he would have said her name was Amethyst.  So they ran.

Inside the house was a secret passageway that lead to an underground tunnel.  The tunnel ended outside a cave next to river in the middle of the woods.  They were in the tunnel now, still running, fueled with adrenalin and fear.   After a half an hour, they emerged from the tunnel, but they hadn’t been fast enough.  The shapeshifter was waiting for them, as soon as they came out, he ran to them, this time in his true form.  Paralyzed with fear, they stood there and stared as he ran at them, and all Amy could do was watch in horror as it scooped up Sabrina and ate her whole. 

The shock of her sister dying right in front of her unfroze her.  She sprinted through the woods and searched for a supply tower.  Amy threw open the door and grabbed a sword off one of the shelves.  Her sister walked in then and called for her.  When Amy didn’t come, she started to cry.  No, it’s not her.  It’s the shapeshifter.  It is trying to trick you and if you fall for it you will die just like your sister, she thought repetitively. Mustering up all the courage and strength she could, she sprang out from behind the door and thrust the sword through the monster.