Essay



My <u>Soulforge</u> essay


My in class essay on The Soulforge by Margaret Weis

A note: As I said before, please don’t copy this, or at least warn me if you do. The essay has a description of the book as well as say how long it took me ((We had to put the former in to prove we read the book, thanks to all the idiots in my English class who don’t even read the assigned books)). I had about fifty minutes, one class period to do the whole thing, and I got an A-. It’s not the best essay I’ve ever written and, had I done it at home, or been able to do more than one draft it would have been much better, but I brought my The Soulforge quote page printed out and a pen and filled just over four pieces of paper, getting the comments “good, clear thesis”, “watch redundancy”, and “good, Megan”. So read and tell me what you think.


I feel the need to add one more warning before you read this- this is from sophomore year of high school, and it’s not my greatest work from way back then.


The Soulforge, by Margaret Weis is the story of the often painful childhood of the mage Raistlin Majere, a key character as an adult in both Chronicles and Legends. This is also, in some ways, the story of Raistlin’s twin, Caramon.

It begins when Raistlin is a child of six and tells of his going to magic school, hoping to escape the problems of his frail body through the magic he loves. The book ends with Raistlin’s Test, Raistlin being the youngest mage ever to take the Test. The Test can prove fatal and it almost does for Raistlin when the great archmage Fistandantilus tries to take his soul. Raistlin escapes, however, weakened in body, but strong. The head of the conclave states this, “‘The metal withstood the fire,’ Par-Salain replied gravely [to Antimodes] ‘and came out tempered and true, with a fine cutting edge.'”

I read this book days, it would have been two, but I stopped in the middle to put half my quotes on webpage number eight ((This one)), Luna’s Dragonlance Review. I began reading this book for two reasons, the first being that Raistlin’s awesome, the second being that my best friend got it two days before me and was mocking me about it so I tried to finish it first to annoy her.

((The actual essay part of the paper))

This book is about a man, Raistlin Majere, but it is really about more than that. When we look at the twins, Raistlin and Caramon, we see Raistlin’s jealousy of Caramon’s strength and good looks. We also see Caramon’s need for approbation, especially from Raistlin, his need to feel needed.

Everyone loves Caramon, he’s everybody’s friend, yet he’s almost no brain to all his brawn. He’s open, honest and amiable. Raistlin is smart and very talented, yet weak and frail, nicknamed “Sly” and “Sneak” and thought calculating. This book tells us about society; it tells us how people view those different from themselves. The Soulforge tells us people fear and loathe what they do not understand.

Caramon, Raistlin’s twin, does understand Raistlin better than most people, because he spends time with him and does not look at him one-sidedly. When Caramon sees Raistlin tending to their sick mother, he thinks about this and wishes he could tell people to look beyond what they see. “You think you know my brother, Caramon said talking silently to a line of faces. You, Master Theobald, and you, John Farnish, and you, Sturm Brightblade, and all the rest of you. You call him ‘Sly’ and ‘Sneak’. You say he’s cold and calculating and unfeeling. You think you know him. Caramon’s eyes filled with tears. I know him. I’m the only one.“(101) Caramon is commenting on how people distrust what they do not understand, and how people must understand others to make judgments on them.

Raistlin himself understands that people think this way. In the note he leaves Astinus he points this out. “…I break the silence now because I want the facts known. If I am to be judged by those who come after me, let me be judged by the truth. I dedicate this book to the one who gave me life. Raistlin Majere”(348) Raistlin’s comments are really the author’s comments telling us society will judge us without knowing us.

Humans judge unknowingly often with biased opinions based on appearances. The unfairly judged Raistlin as people always judge in society, blindly.



Main Page | Quotes | Characters | Events | Races | Places | Items
Songs | Dictionary | Timeline | Mistakes | Authors | More
Mail me!


Last modified on October 18, 2009