Entry Five

This section begins with Dr. Quigley and Victor attending a human body dissection together at Dr. Crumm's mansion. This was Victor's first time seeing a dissection, so he was very excited. He was fascinated by the human anatomy. As he took a closer look at the body, Victor was quick to realize that this dead body was his friend, Nico's. He had died from cholera. His curly brown hair and the hat that Victor previously gave him made it obvious, leaving Victor in absolute shock.

After this traumatizing experience of seeing Nico's dead body, Victor had a horrible dream. He had dreamt of Rebecca's best friend, Mary who had disappeared many days ago. It was strange because Victor had never even spoken to her. Victor could not shake the strange feeling off, so he went back to Dr. Crumm's mansion. This mansion was the one where Victor had dropped Rebecca off. When Victor saw Rebecca strip down naked for the doctor before, he had seen them disappear behind a secret passageway in the wall. Victor snuck into the home, and found the secret passage. He quietly pressed the button, and a staircase appeared before him.

As he was walking down the stairs, he could hear loud yells, and a foul smell was creeping up his nose. He discovered where the howls were coming from, and he was shocked at what he saw. In a small room, there were small children locked in cells. The cells consisted of straw and black water for the children. The children were barely more than bones, and most of them had bloated blue lips from cholera. Like his dream, Victor saw Mary in one of the cells. Victor heard Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tipple coming into the room, and Victor immediately knew that they were the masterminds of this horrible scheme. Victor hid in an occupied coffin out of fear that he would be found. After they left, he got out and tried to open the cells. Regardless of his attempts to allow the children to escape, the cells would not budge. He promised to return later with help.

Victor quickly returned back to Dr. Quigley's home, and declared that Dr. Crumm was a murderer. Victor tried to explain that he was keeping helpless children in a secret room, leaving them there to die for his studies. However, Dr. Quigley was hesitant about believing Victor. He explained that he cannot alert the police without any hard proof.

Victor asks Dr. Quigley to take off his cast. Although it is too early, it is a risk that Victor is willing to take. He had a weird sensation that Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tipple were after Rebecca. After getting his cast taken off, he set out to find Rebecca. Despite all the pain his leg was giving him, he was willing to suffer for Rebecca's safety. As soon as Victor found Rebecca, he saw the two men lift and stuff Rebecca in their carriage. 

When it got dark, Victor snuck over to Dr. Crumm's mansion. Once again, he opened up the secret passageway and descended down the stairs. He was desperate to save the children, but most importantly, Rebecca. With all his might, he smashed the padlock with his crutch. Eventually, the padlock was broken and the children were free. 

While the children were in a hurry to leave the house, Dr. Crumm appeared in front of them. Dr. Crumm tried to say that he was doing this to find the cure for cholera, and the children he was using don't matter because they are merely beggars, and nothing more. Victor calls him a ghoul, and they get in a heated argument. Victor also calls him out for molesting young girls, which he did. Dr. Crumm eventually allows the other children to go, but Victor and Rebecca remain. 

Dr. Crumm had a carousel in his living room, which is where they currently were. Previously, Dr. Crumm had forced Rebecca to strip down naked and ride the carousel while he watched. Rebecca rode the carousel, and Victor and Dr. Crumm began to fight. Dr. Crumm tried to come at Victor and attack him, and he believed he had an advantage because Victor was a cripple. However, after many missed swings, Dr. Crumm was getting sucked into the middle of the carousel, where the spindle and gears were. Slowly, Dr. Crumm's jacket got sucked in, then his legs, then his upper body, and the last thing that could be seen was his demented head.

After the police came and asked questions, Victor checked to see if Rebecca was alright. Dr. Quigley said that Rebecca should come and live with them, showing his warm and loving heart. Victor and Rebecca were both delighted.

Since the beginning of the novel, Victor has travelled a long way to reach this point. His journey tells the readers that with perseverance and a positive mind, anything is possible, and there will be a happy ending.

Overall, I thought Resurrection Men was a fantastic read. I very much enjoyed reading it. It definitely kept making me want to continue reading it, because of all its suspense and intensity. However, this book was very descriptive and gory, and it got a bit disgusting at times. The topic itself of stealing corpses from graveyards is creepy and eerie to think about. Because of its in-depth descriptions, as a reader, I was able to visualize everything that was going on, and most of it wasn't pleasant. The interesting plot kept me hooked, and I felt like I was able to feel what the characters were feeling, because of the descriptiveness of this novel. I believe I did a great job in choosing Resurrection Men to read as my independent reading novel. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in reading an intense, suspenseful, thrilling novel.

Entry Four

It was a beautiful day out, and as usual, Victor was standing in the corner of the street with a bird, trying to entertain the pedestrians. After some time, an old man approached Victor. He was amazed at how Victor's bird's wing was skillfully wrapped. Victor explained that he did it himself, and the old man was appalled.

This man introduced himself as Dr. Thomas Quigley. Victor and Dr. Quigley began talking about Victor's bad leg, when Dr. Quigley said that he wants to help Victor be able to walk again. After a bit of hesitation, Victor agreed and followed Dr. Quigley to his mansion. After walking around for a long time, they came to a small office.

After examining Victor's leg, Dr. Quigley said that he would have to break Victor's bones to re-align them into the correct position. Although he said it would be painful, Victor quickly agreed to the surgical process, in hopes of walking again. Because of the lack of anesthetics, Victor was able to feel the pain very well. However, Rebecca had come with him, and in the midst of his screaming, she kissed Victor's lips.

Victor woke up in a very soft and big bed, something which he was not used to. He heard a weird noise downstairs, so despite all the pain from his leg, Victor got himself up and hobbled down the stairs. To his shock, Victor saw Dr. Quigley sawing a human leg! Victor was so overwhelmed with what he saw that he fainted. When Victor woke up, Dr. Quigley explained to Victor that he was doing this for the benefit of Victor. To exactly understand how to heal Victor's leg, Dr. Quigley said he was dissecting a human leg for more knowledge, which came as a big surprise to Victor.

After residing in Dr. Quigley's home for a little while, Victor found out about Dr. Quigley's family. Both his wife and young son had drowned in a lake, but he still had a daughter who was currently engaged. When Victor joined the family for a delicious dinner, Dr. Quigley's daughter and fiancee were subtly mocking Victor's poor background. Dr. Quigley however, stood up for Victor, showing his loving and fatherly character.

After dinner, the whole family except Victor had gone out. He was resting in bed, when two beggars climbed in through his window. They beat Victor so bad that his face was not recognizable. They also stole much of the jewelry, gold, silver, and money from the mansion. Rather than sending him off to the cops, Dr. Quigley said that Victor would work at his home to re-gain his trust and the stolen goods. Victor was content with this deal.

While living with Dr. Quigley, they were able to form a close and loving relationship. Dr. Quigley treated Victor like his own son, providing him with love and care. Victor was able to do things that he had never done before, such as visit interesting museums. While living with him, Victor began to grow a deep interest for the study of the human body. He diligently read many books on it, and was absolutely fascinated by it.

In this section, we discover the strong friendship that Rebecca, Nico, and Victor shared. While Victor was getting beat up, Nico was also there. He tried to take the hits for Victor, showing their true friendship. We are able to delve deeper into Rebecca's affection for Victor. In the last section, Rebecca shared her hard past with Victor, showing her ability to trust in him. In this section, Rebecca is there for Victor while he is getting the painful surgery, and even kisses him. This kiss may symbolize the love that she had always had for Victor, but had been too shy to ever tell him.

Before meeting Dr. Quigley, Victor was living a very hard life. For a young teenager, he had gone through many hardships. However, Dr. Quigley seems to symbolize a new lifestyle for Victor. He was able to eat full meals, rather than small pieces of bread. Rather than sleeping out in the cold streets, he had a warm bed. He was able to study subjects that fascinated him, rather than spend his whole day begging out on the streets. After meeting Dr. Quigley, Victor's life changed a whole 180 degrees.

However, Victor couldn't make the cake and eat it, too. While Victor was living a wonderful lifestyle, he and his friends were growing farther and farther apart. They began to have less in common, and had less to talk about. They began to speak less and less, and they eventually cut off their connection entirely. Victor was forced to choose between living out on the streets with his friends, or living with a wonderful, loving, man in a magnificent home. In the end, Victor chooses to live with Dr. Quigley.

Throughout this section, we see the many choices that Victor has to make. Should he enter Dr. Quigley's home? Should he get the surgery? Should he continue living with Dr. Quigley, or go back to begging? Unfortunately, the choices he made cannot satisfy everyone. However, in living with Dr. Quigley, Victor is getting closer and closer to living his dream as a doctor. 

Below is a Scrapblog that I personally made. This Scrapblog was created in hopes of assisting my readers understand what is going on in Resurrection Men in an easy, fun, and creative way. I hope this Scrapblog adds unto your further knowledge about this novel in an interactive way. Feel free to ask me any additional questions you have about this Scrapblog, and enjoy!

http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=2911088

Entry Three

In this section, we discover what the two men that took Victor away did to him. They squeezed Victor into a coffin and took him to London. Although he was still alive, he was stuffed into an occupied coffin, meaning he was in the tight coffin with a rotting body. After being in the coffin for several days, Victor was dropped off at an unknown home in London. In this home, there were many other children and animals being housed there.

Victor soon discovered that he was being housed with children who acted as beggars out on the streets, to receive sympathy as well as pocket change from pedestrians. The animals were used to entertain the adults, in hopes to gain more money. Competition among the begging children was very fierce, with more than thousands of children out on the streets every day. Most of these children had a harsh background and they were kicked out of their homes to fend for themselves and make money.

Considering this to be the time period where the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, the population in London was dramatically increasing. Families were in need of homes, which were low in supply. Not enough jobs were available, which was the reason for the young children out on the streets begging for money.

http://charlesdickenspage.com/dickens_london.html

This website clearly describes the time period that Victor was living in. With children running around and begging for money on the crowded streets, this website goes into full detail about life in London during the chaotic 1830’s. It explains the change that London was undergoing, as well as the roles that children held in society during this time. Many were forced to work, just as Victor and his friends were.

One day, Victor had to drive his blind friend, Rebecca to “hell.” She would not say more about where he was driving her. After she entered an unknown home, Victor was waiting for many hours. He stepped out of the carriage and decided to explore this mansion that he had come to. He went to the back, and saw the most shocking sight of his life. He saw Rebecca, stripped down naked for the guest in the room, who happened to be the master of the house that houses the beggars and animals.  

Rebecca would not mention anything that happened in the house after she had come out. However, she told Victor all about her past. Her mother had been a prostitute, and before she died, she had introduced Rebecca to the current master of her house. Ever since she was twelve, she had been residing in the master’s house, roaming around the streets, begging for money.

Later, Victor was ordered to drive Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tipple around because of his skills in driving the carriage. We find out that these two men are indeed resurrection men, who steal corpses for a living. Victor was offered to join in on their body-snatching schemes, where they were paid a working man’s yearly pay for just one dead body. While Victor was driving them around, he was able to see the dead bodies stuffed into small laundry hampers. The two men even stole the bodies from funerals that were being held in church. These men were people who dug up bodies from graveyards to sell, which was a sickening thought to Victor.

In this section, Victor takes on as a hero. After seeing that a mentally retarded boy is getting bullied by others, Victor rescues him. He gives him his hat and makes sure the two bullies stay away. Victor was also able to befriend the kind, blind girl named Rebecca, and the young, mentally retarded boy named Nico. Nico is constantly guiding and helping Victor, giving him helpful tips about the dangerous streets of London. Although all the children have some sort of deformity, Victor soon discovers that most of them have very kind and willing hearts. The warm and close friendship between and Victor, Nico and Rebecca was very pleasing and touching to read.

However, we also get to see the corrupted side of this book. The fact that a young teenage girl was forced to strip down naked for an old man is morally wrong. She was blind and obviously an easier target for the master. The things that a young girl would do to be able to stay in a home greatly shocked me. The old man’s irresponsible and sickening behavior was also very disappointing to see.

Although Rebecca does go through tough hardships like these, she was able to open up to Victor. She was able to do something she had never done before; she was able to talk about her hard past. With a prostitute as a mother that died too young, Rebecca’s childhood was only filled with difficult times. However, she was able to overcome this and meet trustworthy and reliable friends, like Victor.

Even though Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tipple were persuading Victor to assist them on their body-snatching schemes, Victor strongly does not want to join them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nL0-aSre7E&feature=fvsr

This video shows the damage that stealing corpses can do to families. Obviously, corpses are still stolen to this day to be sold. Although people are making money by selling these dead bodies, much harm and damage is done to their families. Imagine how the friends and family of the deceased felt when Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tipple barged in and stole the body away. Victor disapproves of what Mr. Biggs and Mr. Tipple do to earn money, and he finds what they do to be horrible and morally wrong. This video shows the effects that stealing corpses has on people, present day. Even though body snatching is not as common as during the 19th century, the harm done is nevertheless the same.

Entry Two

Victor is a young Italian boy. He is tall, strong, handsome, obedient, honest, and kind. However, he suffered a traumatic loss by becoming an orphan at the age of fourteen. His parents were publically shot and killed by soldiers because of their different religious beliefs. They were caught attending illegal, secret meetings of the Carbonari. The Carbonari was a secret revolutionary society during this time who took part in the Italian Unification and the development of nationalism in Italy.

After questioning the identity of the young boy, an Austrian soldier took Victor to the chief mate of the boat, Ceres, Antonio Fabrizzio. A pudgy and straightforward man, he unwillingly took Victor into his boat to work as the cabin boy, who runs errands around the boat.

Victor faced big problems once he saw the tall, Russian man named Rubicon stealing food while everyone else was asleep. After the chief mate discovered that Rubicon was the burglar, they gave him a harsh beating and made the whole crew watch. Rubicon held a strong grudge against Victor for unintentionally exposing him to the chief mate for his crime. Rubicon was chasing Victor around the boat, so Victor began climbing a rope high off of the ground, while Rubicon was only several feet behind him. Victor fell from a large height, and his leg was completely shattered. He was told he would never be able to walk again.

Peter Smith is the kind, old, English man who found Victor floating on a stick for several days after being thrown overboard off of the boat. Peter personally made a crutch for Victor's damaged leg, as well as helped him learn to walk again, fed him, and took care of him. Victor got along quite well with Peter, as well as Tatters, his border collie. After several months of convenient and calm living, three strangers barged unto Peter's land one day, stealing his sheep, as well as beating Tatters and Victor. These men were able to flee with most of Peter's sheep.

The section ended on a mysterious note with Victor seeing two men handing Peter money, and Peter nervously taking it. I predict that these two men are paying Peter to buy Victor from him. Because this book is about "body-snatching," I believe that these two men are interested in Victor to murder him for the study of anatomy. The summary of Resurrection Men revealed that two men were beginning to grow impatient because of the lack of dead bodies where they could be sold for extreme prices for doctors' studies. I predict that these two men are those resurrection men, and they have come to Peter because of their interests in Victor to kill him and send his corpse to growing schools for anatomy.

I found it difficult to read parts of the book at times because of the gory details, as well as the cold and harsh things that Victor is forced to endure. All the characters in this book seem to be very merciless. The fact that soldiers ruthlessly killed Victor's parents in the wide open greatly shocked me. The public was able to witness their unfair death, and it must have been a traumatizing sight for the bystanders, but especially their son, Victor. The mariners on Ceres were able to throw a young boy into the ocean to die without second thoughts. Most of the characters seem to be very brutal and coldhearted, which may be because of the hostile time period where body-snatching was common.

However, I was glad to find out that not all the characters in the book were cruel. Peter Smith is a beautiful character in this book so far. Although Victor and he speak different languages, he set out to take care of him, feed him, and always watch out for him. Peter was the one who saved Victor from dying out in the ocean, and he almost takes a father figure on the young orphan. His caring and thoughtful character allows him to be the perfect role model for Victor.

Entry One

Resurrection Men is a historical fiction book written by T.K. Welsh. This book is based on the body-snatching trials during the 1830's in London. Body snatching is the act of secretly stealing corpses from graveyards. The stolen corpses would then be sold for dissection or the study of anatomy to medical schools. Those who secretly took the corpses were often called "resurrection-men," hence the title of this book.

As the demand for corpses grew due to the increase in medical schools, resurrection men were determined to acquire the corpses more quickly. The price for corpses was slowly rising because of the need for human dissection. Resurrection men were growing so desperate for money that their tactics in stealing corpses from graveyards soon turned to plain murder. They were paid more for very fresh corpses. Often, these corpses were worth more than nine guineas, or one thousand dollars!

The summary on the back of the book describes Victor, a young orphan, who is determined to risk his life in order to track down the murderer who is at the heart of London’s body-snatching trials. Mr. Tipple and Mr. Biggs are two characters in this book who are beginning to grow impatient because of the lack of deaths. They are aware that once a child is dead, it's paradise for them. I can predict that this description of these two men may possibly be foreshadowing that they may be the resurrection men. Based on the settings and summary of this book, I predict that it will reveal a story where the body snatching activities are a mystery and the murderers are being pursued by one boy.  

My reading schedule will be as follows: 
1. 5 - 58
2. 59 - 112
3. 113 - 166
4. 167 - 214