The Earth Dragon Awakes - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

A fiction text refers to writing styles that are based on a fictional while non-fictional text is based on real-life and facts. Examples of non-fiction texts include argumentative, expository, and opinion pieces and essays (Friend, 2008). The functions of fiction and non-fiction texts include entertaining, educating, and informing. The paper focuses on selecting a fiction text as well as selecting matched non-fiction text that is content-specific. Also, the paper outlines an overview, excerpt, quantitative, and qualitative analysis of the text. Besides, the paper provides a justification for the selection of the specific text to the original chosen fiction text.

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Overview

The Earth Dragon Awakes is an interesting historical fiction set in San Francisco and based on actual events about the great earthquake, the fire, and the fire-fighters. The author Laurence Yep switches between a Chinese and a white narrator as they both struggle to survive after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (Evans, 2010). The novel brings out two multi-cultural family's perspectives on events of a factual tragedy. Told from the viewpoint of two juvenile friends; eight-year-old Henry (Caucasian) and nine-year-old Chin (Chinese- America), The Earth Dragon Awakens Chronicles is a thrilling narrative of the destruction of a city and the conquerors that emerge in its wake. In addition, historical and scientific events surrounding the eminent earthquake are also vividly detailed in short chapters. The novel is an opportune reminder of a historical tragedy that leftover two thousand acres of the city as wasteland.

Excerpt of the Rext

The ubiquitous narrator adjusts from Travis' family, their houseboy, and his child- Ah Sing and Chin, the earthquake, the fire, and the fire-fighters. The book not only portrays what happened but also describes how adversity brings out the best and the worst in people. In actual fact, the novel demonstrates ordinary people doing selfless and extraordinary acts to salvage others. On the contrast, there are always those people who view disaster as an opportunity to riot and loot property (Evans, 2010)."Trouble brings out the worst in some people, grumbles Mr. Travis. "Trouble brings out the best in people too," Mrs. Travis adds.

The novel also brings up the theme of bravery and courage, indicating that one does not have to be special in order to have courage and brave. The omnipresent narrator talks about the furry grey carpet behind the people, which was a rat also trying to escape from the fire. The rat small and weak as it may seem was brave enough to attempt escaping from the fire, a symbol of strength and bravery from those considered as weak.

Moreover, cultural differences between English and Chinese speakers are clearly highlighted in the novel. Chin comes across a twisted up cable-car tracks and compares the shape with a "dreadful" word. This is a representation of a scary environment created by the differences that existed between the Chinese and the English.

The twisted cable-car tracks look like the strokes of a mysterious, dreadful word. Further, the novel describes how Americans segregated the Chinese by ethnicity and class. It did not matter to them that unity was critical in such a disastrous situation, but the Americans objected to living next to Chinese forcing the Chinese survivors to live in special camps (Friend, 2008). The prejudice against the Chinese was so bad that the Americans tried forcing the Chinese out of the Chinatown in the rebuilding process.

In addition, the novel has such a nice ending where survivors started sorting through the wreckage and collected the good bricks. They did not just sit feeling horrible and self-pity; rather, they picked up the broken pieces and started over.

Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis of the text includes features in a text that can be counted or quantified. Some of the considerations made include the number of syllables, the length of the sentence, word frequency as well as other features that can be calculated on a computer system. Some of the readability calculation methods that can be used in the text include Lexile, Fleisch-Kincaid, and SMOG.

Qualitative Analysis

Some of the considerations that a teacher may need to make in order to teach the content include the structure of the text, levels of meaning, clarity, knowledge demands, as well as language conventionality and clarity. Some of the important themes include earthquakes, fires, and firefighters. The novel brings out two multi-cultural family's perspectives on events of a factual tragedy.

Justification of the non-fiction text to the chosen fiction text.The justification of the non-fiction text to the chosen fiction text includes demographics, such as the intended audience, their age, and their specific interest. Besides, other factors considered in the justification of the non-fiction text include legibility, web, print, and other media as well as special features.

References

Evans, J. (2010). The Dragon-Lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse Tradition. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, 89, 21-38.Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=The+Earth+Dragon+Awakes+story+book&btnG=#d=gs_cit&u=%2Fscholar%3Fq%3Dinfo%3AqytscW3bxE0J%3Ascholar.google.com%2F%26output%3Dcite%26scirp%3D0%26hl%3Den

Friend, S. (2008). Imagining fact and fiction. In New waves in aesthetics (pp. 150-169). Palgrave Macmillan, London.Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=FICTION%2FNON+FICTION+TEXT&btnG=#d=gs_cit&u=%2Fscholar%3Fq%3Dinfo%3Ai3hwygoyoqsJ%3Ascholar.google.com%2F%26output%3Dcite%26scirp%3D5%26hl%3Den