Voodoo island

voodoo island

plot

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Author

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characters

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personal opinion

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themes

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favourite part

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author

michael duckworth

Michael Duckworth is a teacher and author who has worked in schools in Africa, the Far East, and Europe. He has written a number of successful courses, including several aimed at preparing students for, or leading up to, Cambridge ESOL examinations. He wrote some books for the Oxford Library: "Grammar and practice", "Business grammar and practice" and "Voodoo Island", as well as some workbooks, and he's also co-author of other books.

plot

chapter ii

chapter i

Karen goes for a walk on the plane. While she's away, Conway opens her book and he sees and image of a native old man named Baron Samedi, who was said to be the strongest voodoo houngan(wizard). The plane arrives at Port au Prince, the capital city. We see and old man in a small house staring at the window. He said that someone bad was coming.

The story starts on an airplane directed to Haiti. A woman named Karen is sitting near a business man named James Conway. They talk to each other about their job and the reason they're there. Conway wants to expand his big company to this island and Karen, a doctress, wants to study voodoo to understand it better for her book about voodoo. She thinks that voodoo can actually work. After hearing that, Conway laughs at her.

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plot

chapter iv

chapter iii

The old man named Kee was sad about his village. Once it was a quiet place but now there were a lot of cars and lorries. A woman visited him. She was Karen. She said she heard that he's a good person and the current strongest houngan. Kee talked about how his homeland changed a lot trough time and people only think about money. He wanted to show Karen a graveyard, that turned out to be the one Conway talked about.

After nine months, a lot of people knew Conway's name on the island. He was building a new town near Port au Prince. He needed some land, but the only possible place to build was on an old graveyard. He decided to check if the stones were old or if someone still went to this graveyard.

plot

chapter vi

chapter v

Kee took her to the graveyard, where he could see all the lorries working there. He said he can't do anything to stop them. He showed her his grandfather's stone. It was the newest one in the graveyard, because they built a new one. Kee told her that they called him "Baron Samedi". She was really scared when she heard that. Karen thanked the man and went away. Kee saw two men. They said they wanted to build on the graveyard. Kee got angry and asked who their principal was, so he went to talk to him.

He went to Port au Prince to meet Conway, the principal. He was accepted into his office told Conway to don't build on the graveyard.

plot

chapter viii

chapter vii

When Kee dicovered it, he was very angry. He started a voodoo ritual calling the spirits. He had to give Conway what he wanted, but he also wanted something bad to happen to him. After the ritual, Conway could see for a moment a face on the window. He went to bed and he dreamed all night about the spirits of people who were in the graveyard. He woke up and went to the office. The telephone rang and he woke up. It was a dream. He went to the office again. He saw an old man entering the office. The man said he was Kee's grandfather. He was laughing and screaming. The telephone rang and he woke up. He went to the bathroom and saw a face in the mirror with no eyes or nose with a snake on it. He recognised the old man, Baron Samedi. He woke up again.

Kee told Conway that he was a good houngan and could give him everything he wanted. Conway said he would like to live in a big house, with lots of rooms and people who cleaned his rooms and brought him food. Kee promised to give him those things if he didn't build on the graveyard. Conway pretended to accept his request. He was angry to her segretary for bringing the man in his office and ordered to build on the graveyard.

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Chapter IX

A few weeks later Karen went to Kee's house and asked him if he could help a man at the hospital. He was Conway. She said he was mad and he was afraid of spleeping and telephones or bells ringing. Kee respected the voodoo law, because now Conway had a big house with lots of rooms and someone who cleans the rooms and gives him food, the hospital, so he gave him what he wanted. When Karen asked Kee to help Conway, he sad he couldn't do anything.

characters

baron samedi

James conway

kee

karen jackson

Karen is a young doctress who's really interested in voodoo and she's a polite person that cares about other people.

Kee is an old man that doesn't like the new world, because people only care about money. He's a powerful voodoo houngan and likes to help good people. He also loved his family.

Conway is a business man whose only goal are getting rich, without caring about other people. He's also arrogant.

Baron Samedi (Tim Atty), was a powerful houngan and was feared by everyone. He appears to Conway as a spirit.

themes

The themes are the loss of traditions, young people that only care about money and don't care about their family, the modernizzation of old lands, a new world where old people can't adapt theirselves. In the island of Haiti, Kee was sad about the loss of tradition, the modernization of his village, the loss of the traditional quiet place that the village was.

personal opinion

I enjoyed this book because i like reading about horror stories, that's why i choose this book. i think this book succeeds in his intent to scare people. something i didn't like about the story is that it's not a really original story.

my favourite part

My favourite is about Kee's ritual effects, because it was a scary part and the only part where we see voodoo powers. I liked the fact that Conway continued to wake up constantly because it felt scary and disturbing.

Thank you for your attention!