Book Report on The CORAL ISLAND
《THE CORAL ISLAND》 was the fiction that brought the English author robert micheal ballantine his first renown. The story was happend to three main characters named :JACK MARTIN 、RALPH ROVER 、 PETERKIN GAY in the mystery coral island of the southern pacific .The three young boys have landed the shore of coral island after their ship had fallen into the angry waves and thus they have been through much difficulties as well as wonterful things on the desert island and around:a fierce shark、water garden、diamond cave、pig sticking、man-eaters......at the end ,they left the rememberable island and made their way home.
As I mentioned it at my first paragraph ,there were three young boys as the main characters of this fiction .Let me tell you what they exactly look like and the personality of each of them.first ,"I" —RALPH ROVER .RALPH was a 15 years old boy who was fond of wandering very much,he used to be quiet and listen to his companions ' talk ,he has good insight and got along patiently with the troublesome.As I see it ,he was the most ordinary one among the three .But anyhow,the writer needs someone to stay quiet thus describeb everything in his heart to readers ,to let them know the plots of the whole fiction instead of being busy with showing his own opinions and charisma.Therefore, no description about RALPH 's appearance has been found in the fiction.As for PETERKIN who was a cheeky boy for me,he was little(the youngest boy ,only 14-year-old),quick、funny,but his fun was almost always harmless,such as making exaggerated facial expressions,I guess that's why everyone fancied to have him.He was just childish,sometimes couldn't be thoughtful ,also lack of observation ,sometimes made some stupid mistakes or asked some questions which everyone knew the answers .On the other hand,he always in need ,helpful .His jokes could ease his companions' pain,his positive emotion could light up his fellows' gray world .That he was:looked foolish, smart inside.The last one—— JACK MARTIN,was my favourite.he was a tall、broad-shouldered youth of eighteen, with a handsome ,pleasant,firm face.he was well-educated 、clever and wild in his actions,but mild and quiet by nature.undoubtly he was the leader of their,for his consideration、courage、mature thought、intelligence、insight、kindliness、bondless knowledge about the coral island ,he should be a perfect captain as well as a promising young.I was impressed by the experiences that he saved his fellows' life from hopeless circumstances many times ,I appreciated his courage and intelligence .He should be a hero ,I love him .
There are several climaxes in the fiction,and thus several conflicts made them .I am going to tell you which type of conflict they were.The first conflict was man versus the force of storm.The second conflict was man versus a shark.The third one was man versus man--eaters.And the next three paragraphs I will show you more details about how the climaxes rise and down with the plots run.
THE FIRST CLIMAX:On one night,soon after we entered the tropics,an awful storm burst upon our ship ,the storm lasted five days and the ship was damaged by a
great wave ,and the crew on the ship were bound to die.At that point,jack guided peterkin and "I" to keep hold of the oar till it was driven oven the waves for us to reach the shore while others decided to crowed with a little boat which couldn't afford so many people,we succeeded in reaching the shore at last while the boat turned over and all the sailors swallowed by the angry waves.That's how the survivors ended up the coral island.
THE SECOND CLIMAX:we three got on a jack-making log boat with rude oars for fishing in deep water,a shark appeared a few yards away from us unexpectedly ,was closing to us and tring to attack us.Although we did our best to make for the shore,but we couldn't make it in time.At that critical moment,jack commanded the other two fellows to stop doing anything but keep quiet like a log. when the shark was going to attacking us,diving into the water ,in the act of rushing towards jack's foot which was into the water.in a moment that shark rose ,opened its huge mouth,into which jack instantly pushed the oar instead of his foot,and drove it down its throat.we fell into water due to the act that jack rose to his feet forcefully that let our log boat rolled completely over.But it did not matter,cause we could swim and survive again.
THE THIRD CLIMAX:Two canoes reached our island unexpectedly.We quickly hide into the woods ,and witnessed a bloody and cruel battle between two race of natives as well as a scene of man eating.We could no long stand it and decided to help the prisoners."I" and peterkin cut the ropes that bound the prisoners and set them free while jack made a cover for us by fightting with the chief of the party of man-eaters.
A dozen clubs flew high in the air ,ready to descend on the head of jack after the man-eaters found their chief had been knocked down by jack.As smart as jack was ,the moment he struck down the chief ,the moment he used the faint body to covered him completely,so the natives could not moved the died body immediately to killed jack.That moment saved jack's life .We two ran to help jack ,the natives who we had rescued followed us to help.We won ,saved the natives and knocked down others.
The fiction made many good plots as well as excellent climaxes, I love this it ,it is just much better than I expected .I am not fond of adventure books,but this one is special,it impressed me a lot.I love the descriptions of those beautiful、peaceful scenes ,so vivid ,and imaginary .Expecially for the water garden,one of their amusement parks,the author described it so careful ,almost wrote about everything wonderful under the water,offered me endless space to imagine .Actually,they are still alive on my mind by now---clear water、lovely seaweed plants are dancing elegantly、a huge but mystery rock was overhung the water、great reefs are busy with building their new houses ,carefree boys are diving through the colourful tropic fishes with joy......sometimes I imagined myself as one of the boys ,and enjoyed that moment diving in the water,I love that much.However,there is no perfect in the world ,the fiction is no exception.I found a obvious mistake in the fiction---the main characters found a penguin island in the tropical area! Nowadays,it is a general knowledge for human race that penguins exist at the Antarctic continent,no anywhere else on the earth,even the 3-year-old know that！How can the author made that mistake?! I was speechless when I realized the ridiculous mistake,but I found the reason sooner,it was wrote in 1885,over a century away from my era,the author's year is filled of mysteries and the
unknown .therefore,the mistake is acceptable. In general,I love both of the story and characters,it's worth reading,especially for the realistic and the practical.