Gaijin

Summary 

 Jack meets the girls of his dreams, she is called Akiko, and she helps him understand a little more their laguage, by pointing objects and things and saying its Japanese names. He is summoned to meet Masamoto, the  undefeated samurai that helped him, he also meets Father Lucius, a portugese priest, which is there to teach Jack more Japanese, and he also is the one to give Jack`s belongings back, including his father`s rutter.  Both with the help of Father Lucius and Akiko, he learns their language in a really small amount of time. Father Lucius asks Jack questions to know where he is from, why is he there, and what happened with the rest of the crew that was with him. Jack tells him that all of his crew were killed, except him, and that he remembers the man that killed his father. He describes the men that attacked his ship as shadows, and a man with one green eye. He learns that the man with the green eye is know as Dokugan Ryu, or Dragon eye, and that he is responsible of the death of Masamoto`s first son, Tenno, two years before Jack got there. Masamoto believes that Jack is a gift from the gods, and that he may be the one to replace Tenno, to defeat Dokugan Ryu. So Jack is basically adopted by a samurai lord, even though he is not from there, even though some people call him a gaijin (foreigner, or barbarian). Later, Masamoto  presents Jack to his second son, a black haired boy called Yamato. He watchesYamato training with a wooden sword they call bokken, and tries to talk with him, and they practice together, by having a fight. Hiroko is really scared and worried about Jack fighting Yamato, but Jack isn`t.  Jack wonders why Yamato wants a real fight but with wooden swords and not actual swords, but when Jack hold one he realizes that it is really heavy, and that with that bokken he coulld kill someone. Jack is defeated, because he does not have the skills Yamato has with that kind of sword. A couple dayd later Jack is told Father Lucius is really sick, at the point where he is going to die. He goes and visits him, and he says that " he had to tell them" and he asked for forgiveness. Jack didn`t know what Father Lucius ment, but just before he could explain, Father Lucius exhaled his last breath and died.

Quotes

"Akiko quietly applauded and then began pointing at other objects, giving Jack their Japanese names. She seemed pleased to teach him her language, and Jack was relieved, since this was the first time that anyone had attempted to communicate with him properly." (70)

  This quote show how Akiko tried in a way to communicate with Jack, and show him Japanese. This is very important to the story because Akiko rapidly starts to become Jack`s best friend, even though she is also the girl from his dreams. The fact that Akiko tries to help Jack learn Japanese is very important because she is one of the only people trying to communicate properly with Jack, like Father Lucius did. 

"The warriors immediately acknowledged Akiko`s arrival with a low bow. Akiko returned their greeting then began to converse with a samurai who seemed to be Jack`s age. He had chestnut brown eyes and spiky black hair. The boy threw Jack a disdainful look before turning his head" (72)

  This quote is very important because it shows Jack`s first opinion about Yamato. Yamato is very cold to Jack since he has much pressure in his shoulders, because he will need to surpass his dead brother, and avenge him, by killing Dokugan Ryu. Yamato thinks that Jack`s arrival is really bad for him, because he thinks that Jack will only be a obstacle to accomplish his mission. 

Conclusion

We can see how Jack is learning a lot in a small amount of time, an tries to get back to her sister, the only family he has left. To go to her sister, he needs to find a way to escape and find a boat, then sail with the help of his fathers rutter, that has information about how to survive in the sea, and has infomation of the routes that can lead Jack to get back to England. 

Jack Fletcher

Summary

         The story is about Jack Fletcher, a 12 year old boy, who is in a trip in a ship called Alexandria, an English ship. The mission was to be the first English men to get to the Japans. John Fletcher, Jacks father, is the pilot of the ship, and guides himself with a "diary" or rutter that he made himself. The rutter has information of all the seas and oceans, it shows where he has traveled. He told Jack it was very important for him, and that anyone who has it would rule the seas. Jack is in that ship because he earned a job as a rigging monkey. The ship got to the Japans, or the "land of the rising sun", when they got there, some people saw another ship approaching them, with the flag of the wakou. The wakous are the Japanese pirates, so they were allert and ready to attack the Alexandria. They realized that the wakou where actually ninjas, so they attacked the ship, and they killed everyone, including Jack´s father. Jack gets injured, his arm broken, and left for dead. He wakes up in a house, and he is told he was saved by one of the greatest samurais of Japan: Masamoto. Jack has to start to follow the rules that everyone followed there, and learn how to dress like them. When they give him food for the fisrt time, Jack eats everything and smiles to show that he enjoyed the meal, but they were upset because he was eating with his hands, and not using chopsticks. Jack doesn`t want to make that mistake again, so he needs to learn how to use the chopsticks or he will starve to death.

Quotes

"Jack dragged his friend into the cabin, ripping bedsheets from his father`s bunk to stem the bleeding. Then he heard his father cry out in pain. Foced to leave Christiaan where he lay, Jack stepped out to confront the shadows in the darkness." (37)

This is a moment of suspence in the book because we can see and imagine how Jack must have felt while experiencing that moment, watching all the crew in his ship being slaughtered by the unknown enemy, and he couldn`t do nothing, but still tried.

"John Fletcher spun the ship`s grappling hook in circles around his head, fighting with the ferocity of a lion. The shadows, clad head to toe in black, a single slit for the eyes, couldn`t get near." (39)

This shows how John was doing everything to survive and help his friends abord the ship,  and he didn`t have any fear while fighting an enemy he had never fought before, showing his courage.

Conclusion

    We can see that Jack is a very smart boy, and that he is that kind of person that can do anything to do the right thing, even though it affects him negativelly. He is also very brave, because he had to go through a moment where he saw people die in front of his eyes, and couldn`t do nothing, I really like this book until now.