The+Pact+by+Jodi+Picoult

**__The Pact__** **by Jodi Picoult** Week 1:

Summary: The Pact starts off just as intense as it seems. The good thing about this book is that it isn't just another slow start. From the first page, there was action. In the 1/5 of the book that we read this week, both children already end up in the hospital. Em, the girl, does not make it. However, the son does. The first scene in the book is when the parents of these children are all out to dinner. When they arrive home, they see that neither of their children are waiting there for them. It wasn't past there curfew, so nothing to worry about right? In the middle of the night both parents rush to the hospital, after an unexpected call, to find a dead daughter, and a horrified son.

Questions: 1. Do you think Mrs. Harte is doing the right thing by hiring a lawyer? Why or why not? Yes, because even if Chris didn’t do it, the other lawyers could twist the truth and make it so Chris did kill Emily. 2. Was it right for Mr. Harte to kill Charlie the dog? Why or why not? No, he should respect his wife’s wishes and not do it behind his family’s back. 3. With the information given, why do you think Emily and Chris wanted to die? The pregnancy would have forced their parents apart and their lives would have changed so much that it just wasn’t worth it. 4. Did growing up together positively or negatively affect their relationship? Positively: They already knew each other so well, they could skip stage. Negatively: if something bad happened, they’d feel too pressured to tell the parents. 5. With the information provided, who do you think shot whom? Why? We think that Emily shot herself, and Chris was trying to stop her so he hit the gun.

Week 2

Questions: 1. Do you think Chris's attitude will change now after Em is dead? We think that Chris's attitude will change drastically and he will become very shy, guarded and depressed. 2. Why do you think Chris is so anxious to get out of the hospital? Is there something he is hiding? We think that there are two reasons Chris wants to get out of the hospital so badly. The first reason is that Chris wants to get away and figure things out, and be alone. The other reason is that Chris killed Em and now needs to get away from where she is because he's feeling guilty. 3. How do you think the parents' relationships are now affected? We think that the parents' relationships are negatively affected now because one of the families lost their child and the other still has two children. 4. Do you think Em's parent will move away? Yes, we think that Em's parents will move away, probably close t family, for support. 5. With the information provided, who do you think shot whom? Why? We think that Em shot herself because of what the doctors said about the bullet angle, and Chris loves her too much to do anything to hurt her.

Summary: The beginning of the novel, __The Pact__, started off with a very intense storyline that pulled in the reader with its setting and character descriptions. As the story progressed, Jodi Picoult kept up the illustrative language that paints a picture in the readers mind. She uses just enough detail to get her point gets across, but not so much where it could be considered overpowering details. The way Picoult words her sentences when describing each memory of the past or excerpt of the present allows the reader to feel as though he or she is experiencing what the characters in the story are.

Week 3:

Questions: 1. Why do you think Em made the watch for Chris? We think that Em made the watch for Chris just because she loved him. 2. Do you think she had intentions of giving it to him before they committed? Yes, we think that they might have planned on committing later than they actually did and she would have given it to him on his birthday. But because they did it earlier, they were unorganized and Chris wasn't able to do it. 3. On Chris's birthday, how do you think Kate, his sister, felt? We think that she felt depressed and neglected. 4. Do you think its fair that he was charged with first degree murder? No, they don't have enough evidence. It isn't fair to him and his family that they have to go through their lives with their son in jail and not being able to see him all the time. 5. With the information provided, who do you think shot whom? Why? We think that Em shot herself, even though Chris was not planning to kill himself that night. Chris loved her so much and was going to try to talk her out of it. We think he was too late and pushed her hand away to late to save her life.

Summary: Everyone had a lot to say this week, after we ate our snack that Allison brought in. This part of the book was mostly about when Chris is in jail and parts of it were Chris and Emily's past together. The information about their past shows how close they were and how hard it must be for Chris now that he best friend/girlfriend is gone. The mood of the book is very depressing. Sadness is the overall emotion of this book. I find myself having to stop reading because it gets so sad. I think that Jodi Picoult wants the reader to feel the emotion of the characters in the book. During this section, Chris has a hard time making a "friend" in jail. He gets bullied by the older inmates, which ends up causing him to have to stay in his cell 23 hours a day. Another sad part is when Chris tells his mother he doesn't want to talk to neither her or his father. Both parents feel very upset, but then Chris eventually talks to his mother. He wouldn't talk to his father because he thought his father wanted him to be perfect. So far, the book is really good, but very emotional and sad. We think that Em made the watch for Chris just because she loved him.

Week 4:

Questions: 1. Do you think it was a smart move for Chris to make a new friend in jail, Steve? Yes, because if he didn't then Chris would just sit around thinking about Emily and the situation. With his new friend, Chris can express himself, because he can't do that with his parents. 2. Do you think Chris is right to say that he doesn't want to see his father? No, it's not fair for his dad because James never actually said that he wanted Chris to be perfect. Chris might think that but if he does its best for him to confront his dad about it rather than denying him from seeing son. 3. How do you think Katie and James are effected by not being able to see Chris? Katie: People at school are most likely are bullying her and making fun of her and she may be getting stressed and overwhelmed by the intensity of the situation. Now she probably does not what to see the person who is causing her to feel these ways. James: He feels unwanted, unneeded and like crap. His own son doesn't want James visiting him in jail. This is probably taking a toll on his career too, because everyone at his office probably knows about it and the awful state him and his son's relationship is in. 4. Do you think there's a deeper meaning behind the carousel? Yes, Emily probably got pregnant on the carousel and the pregnancy started all of the problems which lead to her death, suspected suicide or murder. 5. With the information provided, who do you think shot whom? Why? We still think Em killed herself. There is not evidence that is **only** murder, all of the evidence the police has can go either way.

Summary: The theme of the story is to keep believing in yourself, never give up. Chris believes he didn't kill Em, neither do his parents or Em's parents. If they just keep believing and supporting that Chris isn't guilty then eventually so will the police. __If he knew he was guilty, he would have killed himself already.__ Chris wouldn't want to live without Em, knowing that he killed the one person that truly understood him and loved him. An example of an image in the story is that there are two doors in Chris's psychiatrist's office. One of them is for entering, and the other is for exiting. This could relate to his life as how he enters as one person and leaves as another.

Week 5:

Questions: 1. Do you think it is a good idea for Gus and Michael to have lunch and discuss their situation? Yes, so they can vent to somebody and their spouses pretend it didn't happen. 2. Why do you think Michael told Melanie? We think that Michael told Melanie about lunch because he felt guilty about going behind her back when she is in such a emotional state. 3. Why do you think that Chris is now wondering why his father hasn't come to see him? We think Chris is finally realizing how much his father really does care about him and doesn't care about perfection. 4. How do you think Chris felt when hearing the news about Emily being pregnant? He was obviously shocked, and he might now feel like he was cause of her death because he was the one who impregnated her and that's the reason she wanted to die. 5. Do you think that Emily's last painting has a deeper meaning? We think that Emily's portrait is very symbolic. Everything outside of the skull is hell, and she hates it. But everything inside her head, that you can see through her eye sockets, is happiness and she wants to be there forever, but the only way she can stay there forever is by killing herself. And because she named in "Self-Portrait", it proves that she was suicidal.

Summary: Week 5. This was the last week of book club. In the end, Chris was not guilty, they discovered Em shot herself because of the writing in her diary, which proved that she was suicidal and Chris didn't want her to die or kill herself. //The Pact// was a book which made you see life differently and how a death of a child impacts not just one family, but more. I would recommend this book to teenage girls. Boys wouldn't be interested in this topic and younger girls wouldn't understand what is happening. It contains inappropriate content for girls of the age of 12 and under. This topic of loosing a loved one was discussed more effectively in this book than in other books I have read. The characters of the book reacted very differently to Em's death. Two parents chose to avoid the fact that she was dead, the other two parents talked to each other about the situation. It showed both points of view which made it interesting. I would not recommend this book for the curriculum because it would not interest all of the groups of people. All in all, I thought everyone learned about the reality life from reading this book.