“The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind”Author: Ray Bradbury

Published in 1953

Trisha Kagalavadi, Esther Kim, and Claire Yu

Ray Bradbury

● Born in Waukegan, Illinois on August 22, 1920

● Published 500+ works● Attended Los Angeles High

School● Has won many awards● Established reputation of a

writer with Martian Chronicles● Four daughters and eight

grandchildren http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Ray_Bradbury_(1975)_-cropped-.jpg

Other Works● Farenheit 451● Martian Chronicles● The Illustrated Man● Something Wicked This

Way Comes● Dandelion Wine● Dark Carnival● Farewell Summer● Death is a Lonely

Businesshttp://litstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/fahrenheit-451-book-cover1.jpg

Setting

● Takes place in Ancient China

● In this time, people believed in omens

● Specific time and place not given

● Setting adds a competitive mood to the piece http://aldoublewhistory.wikispaces.

com/file/view/ancient_china_map.jpg/282992246/ancient_china_map.jpg

Characters● Mandarin He is the ruler of his town, and is rivals with the Mandarin of Kwan Si, another important character● The Mandarin’s DaughterShe is a main character in the story, and she gave the clever suggestions which helped the Mandarin. ● The Mandarin of Kwan SiHe is the ruler of the Town Kwan Si, which is “rivals” of the other Mandarin’s town

http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00d6-bc78-796b

Characterization● Mandarin

Flat and static● Types of Characterization

Character’s action and opinions● Mandarin’s Daughter

Round and dynamic● Types of Characterization

Character’s actions and other’s thoughts on her● Mandarin of Kwan Si

Flat and Static Types of CharacterizationCharacter’s actions, other’s opinions on him, and effect on others

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Summary● Neighboring town Kwan-si changes shape of their walls to

resemble a pig● The Mandarin was furious - the shape of the neighboring town

could be interpreted as a pig eating an orange.● The Mandarin makes the wall’s shape to resemble a club, and

then Kwan-Si changed their walls into a bonfire. The Mandarin rebuilt the wall to a lake.

● They changed their walls over and over again to “beat” each other’s move

● Sickness and famine struck. Both Mandarins were sick. ● The first Mandarin’s daughter said they should rebuild their

walls one last time to make a kite and wind because those two support each other.

Plot Diagram

Point of View● Point of View - The position of

the narrator in relation to the story

● Third Person Limited Omniscient● Enhances story because it

shows the character’s thoughts and feelings

● Writer brings to life a world of characters

● Readers learn how the main character changes

Mandarin’s Daughter

http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1185726&t=r

Technique

● Simile - “Sickness spread in the city like a pack of evil dogs” (181). “Their breaths fluttered like winter winds in their mouths” (181).

● Irony - ○ The relationship of the main characters and the fact

that the two towns were competing over the shapes of their walls.

○ In this story, the daughter dominates her father by giving him advice and orders, instead of the other way around.

○ The two towns competed over the shapes of their walls, instead of for wealth or image

Symbol● The golden kite and the silver wind -

represents unity

● "And with this lake of water," said the whisper and the old man, "We will quench the fire and put it out forever.”

Theme● People work together and

improve one another by what we do

● By working together, we are all stronger.

● The kite can’t fly without wind, and the wind/sky is not beautiful without the kite.

● They have to work together to support one anotherhttp://www.gograph.com/stock-photo-

images/helping.html

Rating

● We give “The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind” a 2 out of 3 stars.

● The symbols used in the story were very helpful visually, but the plot was repetitive in the rising action.

● The events that occurred were that the towns kept rebuilding their walls to “out-do” the others

● The symbols showed to us how they are resembled and portrayed in accordance with another

Citations

Weird Facts

● Ray Bradbury had a moon crater andasteroid named in his honor

● Ray Bradbury was a descendant of a Salem Witch sentenced to hang

● Kite flying was banned in China during the Cultural Revolution

● The Chinese name for kite is Fen Zhang

http://mail.colonial.net/~hkaiter/asteroidbelt.html

Quotes from Ray Bradbury