User talk:Peytonmoore1

The Beach House, by James Patterson is a novel about a young man, named Peter, who gets murdered, the crime scene investigators claim that Peter commited suicide and drown that night in the ocean, but Peter's brother, Jack, knows all too well that Peter would never kill himself, and now it's up to Jack to solve Peter's murder. Like many authors, James Patterson uses many symbols throughout the whole novel to help the reader understnd a greater meaning of the book.

James Patterson uses alot of symbols on the night of Peter's death. When Peter arrives on the beach, he sees flashing lights, which Patterson uses to symbolize death. Patterson tells us that Peter knew right away that the lights meant that his life would soon be coming to an end. The dark figures who appear on the beach soon after flashing lights, and commit the murder represent mystery, and death. They represent mystery because their faces never show, they're just described to you as the dark figures. That leaves you wondering about who they could possibly be. They also represent death because they're dark shadows and dark symbolizes death. The night of Peter's murder, ther is a terrible storm. Patterson uses the storm to represent that something bad will happen. When Peter is murdered, it takes place at night. The dark of the night also symbolizes Peter's death. The end of Peter's life, and a new beginning for everyone is represented by Peter's murder taking place on a beach. Where the sand ends and the water begins, which is also where Peter's body is lying when Jack arrives, represents the end for Peter and a new life for Jack and the rest of Peter's close family and friends.

Patterson continutes to use many symbols throughout the novel. The morning after Peter's death, his body is found washed up in the waves. The water he is in symbolizes change. The change that is being symbolized is the change that Peter's family and friends have to adjust now that Peter is taken out of their lives forever. Peter bought a brand new motorcycle for himself before he died. Jack soon figures out that Peter had paid for the motorcycle all at once and still had plenty of money in the bank. By this, the author is trying to tell us that Peter did not, in fact, kill himself. Nobody who lived such a happy life would commit suicide like this for no reason. Jack starts to wonder after finding out about Peter's financial status if he had done something to piss someone off enough that they killed him that night, or if it was really a random murder like he had originally thought.

James Patterson used many different symbols in the novel to represent greater meanings to the reader. Like in many novels, all symbols don't always stand out right away, such as Peter's new motorcycle, while others are universal symbols that every author knows and uses, such as night time, or water.

Peytonmoore1 (talk) 19:10, 14 March 2010 (UTC)