Triana 1

Adan Triana-Doyal
Kelley
English 2 Pre-AP
12/7/18
The Neverending Story

The Call to Adventure:

“She’s sending you into the unfathomable to look for the unknown… No one can help you, no
one can advise you…” (Ende 39)
Atreyu, the protagonist to this story, who is a mere child, has been asked to go out into
the unknown and look for a cure for a deathly ill Childlike Empress. Atreyu is a small hunter that
belongs to a tribe of hunter gatherers and has been asked by the Princess herself in her last words
before falling into a coma, to save her by doing the impossible. Ende uses foreshadowing to
emphasize the importance of the mission. The author makes Cairon, the centaur, very vague and
has Cairon tell Atreyu that he will have no help from anyone. Cairon also tells Atreyu that he
will not be told in which direction to go, which Ende uses the literary device of theme to help
foreshadow. Throughout the whole novel, Atreyu has almost no idea of where to go and what to
do, but somehow still manages to keep on going.

Supernatural Aid:
“AURYN gives you great power… AURYN will protect you and guide you” (Ende 40)
Auryn is the magical amulet worn by the Childlike Empress that grants her immunity and
the power to commandeer anyone and anything, although it is not to be used like that. Cairon, the
centaur, has been entrusted to deliver AURYN to Atreyu so that he may have at least some
guidance on his quest. Foreshadowing is used again in the passage and can be seen in Cairon
saying it will guide Atreyu but he must not use it’s overwhelming power. All throughout the
novel, Atreyu uses AURYN and multiple times it is the only reason Atreyu was still alive. At
one point in the book, Atreyu loses the amulet and the loss of his immunity and power is
instantly seen with him feeling depressed and hopeless when he loses the amulet. Without this
amulet, Atreyu would have to had accomplished the impossible.

Crossing the Threshold:

“Now we know why they are called the Swamps of Sadness. It’s the sadness that has made me so
heavy, that’s why I’m sinking… You must carry on the quest without me” (Ende 52)
Atreyu started his mission with his horse that he has had since he could remember and
when they both crossed the Swamps of Sadness to further complete the mission, Artax, the horse,
couldn’t handle the burden. Artax ends up dying of sadness while Atreyu can’t because he has
the amulet on him which grants him immunity to these types of things. Since he couldn’t save his
favorite horse and only friend now, Atreyu spiralled into despair and sadness. With no more
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strings tying him to his past life, he can now go forward with the mission with one less
distraction, attachment. The obstacle Atreyu had to cross to enter this “new” world was
overcoming the sadness of his best friend dying, which made Atreyu leave his old world and
enter the new one. Some literary devices that Ende uses are mood and diction. Ende sets the
scene by making the whole setting sad and depressing and uses very particular words to make the
audience feel some sort of sadness when Artax dies.

The Ultimate Boon:

“She needs a new name… then she’ll get well… Where can she get a name? Who can give her
one? Where can I find the name?” (Ende 55)
For the first 50 pages of the book, Atreyu is looking for an actual cure for what seems
like an actual illness. When he comes and finds the turtle in the tree, he finds out that what he
had been looking for was all wrong. What he should have been looking for was a person who
could give the Empress a new name. This is the realization of his actual quest and starts him on
his journey to find the Empress a new name. A literary device used by the author is
personification. The author uses personification in making a mountain into a talking animal. The
author uses this device to add more interesting and wild factors to the Neverending story.

Road of Trials:
“How can I possible get through?... But if I succeed after all, will I then be in the Southern
Oracle?” (Ende 85)
Atreyu has to accomplish many goals while on his mission, from outsmarting a talking
turtle mountain to convincing a poisonous spider to grant him one wish. After learning where to
go from the turtle he found and having the one wish granted to him by the spider, Atreyu was led
to the Oracle, which was one his final goals in his mission to find a cure for the Empress. To
reach the Oracle, Atreyu has to cross three gates, all of which are seemingly impossible. The first
is a test of mental endurance and luck, the second is acceptance of thine self for what you truly
are, and the third is a test of pure will power. After all of these trials, Atreyu ends up at the oracle
and finds out exactly what he needs to know. The author uses diction and dialogue as literary
devices to help the reader envision what Atreyu was going through when crossing all three gates.
The wording of the dialogue between Atreyu and the Oracle added the effect of everything being
worth it in the end.

Meeting With the Goddess:

“I’m Uyulala… The Childlike Empress is sick, And with her Fantastica will die… The Empress
needs a new name To make her well again… Uyulala is just a voice, she can only be heard.”
(Ende 96-102)
After Atreyu finishes the majority of the trials, he meets Uyulala, the female Oracle who knows
everything. Atreyu asks her all sorts of questions while she heals him and rids him his fears. She
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proceeds to tell him what he must do to save Fantastica. Uyulala, the motherly figure that Atreyu
never had, gives him warmth and literally rids him of all of his fears. She nurtures him and gives
him all the information just a motherly goddess would. Ende uses setting as a literary device to
help the audience envision the scene. He describes Uyalala’s temple as very calm and
comfortable while having the most peaceful breeze to exist.

Belly of the Whale:

“He reached for the amulet, it was gone. He had lost the gem. ‘Falkor!’ he shouted as loud as he
could.” (Ende 112)
When Atreyu fell off of his luck dragon Falkor and into the sea, he lost the only things guiding
him in the right direction, AURYN. This is the lowest moment for Atreyu because he has no
guidance and is stuck on an island where he’s never been. After he explores for a while, he is
found by Falkor, his luck dragon, who managed to find the amulet. While he was on that island
alone and had accepted death, Atreyu was reborn. He felt after this he had to do everything in his
will power to save the Childlike Empress. The author uses mood to convey the feelings of
Atreyu during this dark passage.

The Return:
“And when the pale dawn came, they glimpsed the Ivory Tower on the Horizon.” (Ende 137)
This is an example of the magical flight in the sense that the journey back was much
quicker than the journey to find the information. Ende describes the scene as one moment they
are across the world not knowing where they are and the next they are at the Ivory Tower. The
Ivory Tower is the Childlike Empress’ tower. There isn’t a way to describe the magical flight
other than the fact that Fantastica has no borders. As described in the book, anywhere can be
right around the corner or 50 miles away. The literary device that Ende uses in this passage is
diction and dialogue. This is shown in the dialogue between Atreyu and Falkor when they both
see the tower and are left dumbfounded and confused. This added a little bit of comedic relief
and allowed for easier return travel for Atreyu.
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Adan Triana-Doyal
Kelley
English 2 Pre-AP
12/7/18
Pacific Rim
Belly of the Whale:
Raleigh is piloting a Jaeger and his brother gets killed, very traumatic. (00:13:51)
Raleigh is at his lowest point in the very beginning of the film. This is a technique used to
establish backstory and show his past hardships so that the rest of the movie can be uplifting.
While these are the first few years piloting for Raleigh, his brother is much more experienced
than he. The first few scenes paint a picture showing the older brother as Raleigh’s mentor,
making his death all the more sad and depressing. When Raleigh’s brother died, he swore to
never pilot a Jaeger again. This moment was a “rebirth” moment because before this incident, he
loved piloting Jaegers, afterward, he never wanted to see one again. A cinematic device used by
the director during this hero cycle step would be camera angles. The camera zooms into
Raleigh’s face and shows him crying and screaming to add more emotion to the scene.

Call to Adventure:
When Marshall visits Raleigh at his current workplace, the wall, and offers him another job as a
jaeger pilot. (00:23:08)
After losing his brother in the beginnings scenes in the giant robot (jaeger), Raleigh
decides to never pilot a Jaeger ever again. This is when Marshall comes into play and tries to
convince Raleigh that it would benefit everyone greatly if he came back. The scene takes place at
the massive wall that the world is trying to build to keep the kaiju (aliens) out. Raleigh, after
losing his brother, went to work at the wall to attempt to forget his major loss. The director uses
CGI graphics and camera angles to emphasize the hardship that Raleigh has with coming back to
the Jaeger Program. For Raleigh, going back to piloting a Jaeger is the hardest thing he’s had to
do.

Refusal of Call:
Raleigh originally denies Marshall’s request to coming back. (00:23:36)
Raleigh, because of his past, refuses to go work as a pilot. Raleigh starts to walk away
when Marshal makes an extremely convincing argument: the world is ending, where would you
rather die, fighting in a massive robot or die building a wall that doesn’t work. Raleigh is still
questioning his return when Marshall says this but then ultimately accepts Marshall’s request to
return. The director uses a form of imagery to spark up a fire in the audience in the form of
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motivation. This device is very effective in keeping the audience interested all throughout the
movie.

Mentor:
Marshall is the mentor to both Mako and Raleigh, he trains both of them and acts like the father
to both of them. (00:26:10)
Marshall, although originally portrayed as very strict and heavy, has a side to him that is
solely for training the next generation. He uses his past experience in a Jaeger to help Raleigh in
his struggle to run to piloting. Not only is he a mentor for Raleigh throughout the film, he has
been a mentor to Mako, the second pilot, her whole life. Without Marshall, the call to adventure
wouldn’t have occured in the first place. Marshall plays the role of a strict parent who only wants
the best for his children. The director, in this portion of the movie uses a lot of music and CGI to
make the scene look and feel real.

Road of Trials:
Raleigh has to go through multiple challenges to find his secondary pilot when Mako steps up to
challenge him. (00:42:58)
When Raleigh arrived at the Jaeger location, Marshall immediately told him to start
searching for a partner. Marshall then set up practice fights with eligible candidates to fight
Raleigh to see who could be his pilot. When Raleigh beat each and every single candidate with
ease, he decided to let his surrogate daughter fight him. Mako was a worthy opponent of Raleigh
and made for a good fight. Afterwards, Marshall let Mako be Raleigh’s secondary pilot, making
all of the waiting worth it. The director uses camera angles zoomed in on Mako’s face when she
has Raleigh pinned to the ground to foreshadow that Mako will be Raleigh’s co-pilot.

Atonement:
Mako and Raleigh have to accept that they let Marshall blow himself up(01:57:06)
When Marshall, Mako, and Raleigh are all fighting at the bottom of the ocean, Marshall
decides to blow up his Jaeger next to the Kaiju to create a path. This does work indefinitely as
most of the Kaiju are dead. This is the moment where Mako and Raleigh accept who they are
and what has happened and decide to move on. This acceptance/atonement allows for the
invincible state that the two feel directly afterward. The director, Guillermo del Toro, uses
effective moods such as inspirational to allow for quality fighting scenes and to allow emotion to
really be portrayed throughout the movie.

​ potheosis:
A
Mako and Raleigh have killed off three kaiju almost single-handedly. (01:53:38)
Mako and Raleigh courageously fend off all 3 of the category 5 Kaiju. After they
slaughtered the first Kaiju underwater near the portal, they realized they were much more
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powerful than imagined. This scene portrayed the Jaeger to be almost invincible in being able to
kill 3 Kaijus. There is no doubt that Raleigh felt the same way about surprising him. The
dialogue between him and Mako suggest that they do feel invincible. The director, like earlier in
the movie, uses music and dialogue to inspire the audience and keep them interested.

The Return:
Raleigh and Mako use the escape pod to escape the nuclear blast. (02:04:35)
After Mako and Raleigh blow up the portal between the alien world and the human
world, the ride back is much quicker, making it a magic flight. It took an extreme amount of time
to figure out how to get into the portal the first time, but the second time, within a matter of
minutes, they had gone through it again. They didn’t need an alien corpse to pass through the
portal with them for it to work. They both floated to the top of the ocean almost instantly.
Guillermo del Toro uses dialogue from the characters back on shore to add suspense to the scene
where both Mako and Raleigh float up to the top to add a little bit of surprise at the end.
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Works Cited

Ende, Michael. ​The Neverending Story​. Royal N.S.W. Institute for Deaf and Blind Children,
1993.

Toro, Guillermo del. ​Pacific Rim​. Warner Bros., 2013.