TOPIC(S) and EVENT(S)
2. George Hooper, the author of the book, was a reporter for thirty years and was a feature writer and editor for various California newspapers. It is no surprise that he chose to write about Black Bart. He also wrote Bacon & beans From a Gold Pan, a gold country classic. You can tell that Hooper really enjoyed studying and writing about classic stories in history about the 1800s.
3. I chose this book because the mysterious nature of Black Bart interested me. I came across it when I was at the library looking for the book called Zodiac. I found the book but I also found this book and I really wanted to learn what times were like back then and how he robbed so many stagecoaches. The mystery of it all is what made me want to keep reading it. Through the whole book I was anxious to know if he would get caught or not.
4. The book was realistic in my opinion. It is factual and all of the events really happened. There is nothing too extreme that seems like it couldn't be real. The only thing I could really relate it too would be other robbers such as Jesse James and outlaw Billy the Kid. Any "old western" movie or book could easily resemble the events in this book. Since there were stagecoaches and gun fights and California wasn't as populated, it really resembles the the movies, books, and TV shows.
PEOPLE
1. The author described the characters the best he could to match how they were in real life. He told stories that were actually true and said exactly what the characters said according to reports. I can honestly see these characters being real in the way he described them. The authors choices show that he likes Black Bart and probably wishes he could have met him. You can tell by the authors tone that he cared about Black Bart as if he wasn't a criminal. He almost admired his work and how he was polite when robbing the stagecoaches. He knew he was a criminal but I think the fact that he was so interesting made him focus on what he did and not realize how bad it was.
2. The main character in the book, Charles Boles aka Black Bart, is a fit man. He was in the civil war so he knows how to handle his own and how to camp out in the wilderness for long periods of time. He is tough and he had to be for he went great distances to rob stage coaches then went back to San Francisco where he lived. He had a mustache that was thick and long. When he wasn't robbing stagecoaches he was a well dressed man who enjoyed living a comfortable, luxurious life. However when he was on the road, he was known for wearing a tan duster and having a flour sack with holes in it over his head to cover his identity. He eventually switched to a handkerchief with a slit in it and eventually even not wearing a mask at all. I think the cockiness of never getting captured caught up with him and gave him a false sense of invincibility. If I were to write them as fictional characters I would probably make it so he shot more people because in the real world that wouldn't happen and it didn't.
3. The fact that he had so many distinct characteristics about how he robbed the stagecoaches made him an interesting character to write about. How he was almost always polite when asking for the safes and mail bags was something no one else did. Especially no one else tried to rob someone with an unloaded shotgun but he did. He also left poetry at some of the crime scenes and that's how he gave himself his nickname Black Bart. No one else did this at the time and no one was more notorious than he was.
MORE ON CHARACTER/PEOPLE
1. One example of direct characterization is how nice the author made Black Bart seem even though he was an armed robber. Another example is how polite and well dressed he was when in San Francisco. He said that he liked living a clean, stylish life opposed to how is life was during the civil war. An example of indirect characterization was how Black Bart soon didn't like camping out after robbing stagecoaches. You could tell he was becoming too accustom to the rich life in San Francisco. Another example of indirect characterization is how the author said that Black Bart traveled forty to fifty miles through mountainous turain after a robbery. It shows that he is a very skilled woodsman and survivor. The author does a good job of letting the reader connect the dots for themselves. The author uses both approaches to directly tell the reader what Black Bart does and to let the reader figure it out for themselves and make obvious assumptions. This helped me understand the character better and I just asked myself what I would do in certain situations.
2. No, the authors syntax doesn't really change when focusing on the main character. It is almost the same throughout the whole book and he describes all of the characters with the same amount of detail.
3. The main character, Charles Boles, is a dynamic character. You can see how he changes through the book. An example would be how as the robberies went on he stopped asking politely and started rudely demanding the safes and mailbags. Even though demanding the money was to be expected from a robber, it wasn't how Black Bart worked at first. He also stopped wearing a flour sack over his head and started wearing a handerchief with a slit in it that revealed his eye color.
4. I kind of feel as though I met the person after finishing the book. At some parts I felt like I was just reading a character. I felt like I was reading a character when he was robbing stagecoaches because I couldn't relate and it was mysterious.
STYLE
1. The author used a journalistic style. The author was a journalist so it seemed like he was reporting on Black Bart and studying him. He used actual newspaper articles and police reports to help write this book. He also sought out to solve the mystery of where he went after he stopped his crimes.
2. The author used somewhat lengthy descriptions when describing the crime scenes and different detectives and of course the main character. He also focused on the action for a big part of the book because the chases and robberies are all exciting. This makes the book informative while still exhilarating. He did a good job at combining the two.
3. The author uses mystery to create an abnormal tone. In a way he uses foreshadowing to show how he was an outdoorsmen and ironically dies in the outdoors while on the run.
4. I think the authors attitude towards the subject was compassionate. It was easy to tell that he enjoyed writing about the mystery of Black Bart and that he enjoyed his work before writing books. He really enjoys informing the readers about the history of this very interesting character. He also studied Black Bart and uncovered the very possible truth of what happened to him. You can tell because he is one of the only people to have this theory about what happened.
5. The author just used articles written at the time of Black Barts crimes and he also used police reports. He probably used the police reports because those would be the most accurate accounts of what actually happened. This made me trust that he actually knew what he was writing about and how accurate it probably was. I would have no reason to doubt the information in this story unless he messed up on his findings or the police reports were false.
ENDURING MEMORY
Something that will stick with me for a long time is how Black Bart robbed the stagecoaches. He had this kind evilness to him. He was polite, never robbed the passengers or stagecoach drivers and he used an unloaded shotgun. He didn't want to harm anyone and he was only robbing banks and stealing the money from mailbags. It really intersted me. Another thing that will stick with me is how poetic he was. He left poems at some of the crime scenes and again it was a peaceful evil that is difficult to describe. I don't know how but it will stick with me for years to come.
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