Reading Log Week 13

Book: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Friday 1/27
Pages Read: 237- 257
Minutes Read: 20

Changes Over Time

Students are now killing each other and are showing signs of paranoia. This happened when Kazushi attacked Takako.

"Suddenly, Kazushi made a move. He came forward, swinging the nunchucks down!" (Takami 248).
"Undoubtedly this guy was mentally disturbed. He had no qualms about beating a girl to death. In fact, he was enjoying it," (Takami 249).

In the past, all of the students were absolutely revolted at the thought of having to compete against each other in a killing game. To them, it was a sick government game that their class was forced to go into. They were scared and did not want to harm anyone. Now, the students are doing whatever it takes to stay alive, even if it means killing the opponents in the game. Kazushi had no second thoughts about trying to kill Takako, even though at the beginning of the game, he was one of the shocked ones to hear about the game. I predict that most of the students will start to become mentally disturbed and start killing whoever they come in contact with. I also think that they won't have any emotions of regret after killing their classmates.

Saturday 1/28
Pages Read: 258- 284
Minutes Read: 30

Sunday 1/29
Pages Read: 285- 305
Minutes Read: 25

Patterns

Kazuo tricks Sho by making him stay in the forbidden zone by making him think that he's there.

"As Kazuo disappeared beyond the shrubs, Sho heard a thud," (Takami 305).

Kazuo tricked Sho into thinking that he was still in the outhouse, but instead he sneaked out, making Sho believe that he could kill Kazuo by surprise. The pattern that I noticed throughout this story so far is that the students are very good at manipulating one another. The students throw each other off guard verbally or with their actions. Then, they attack them and make sure that they are killed off. What happened between Kazuo and Sho is an example of this pattern. I think that the relationship between Shuya, Shogo, and Noriko will end up harming them in the end. Someone is manipulating the rest of the group and they only care about winning the game

Monday 1/30
Pages Read: 306- 344
Minutes Read: 40