Lehane, Dennis. Shutter Island. New York, New York: Harper Collins. 2003.
Reason, Type and Setting:
I choose this book because it caught my eye as I quickly scanned the spines of Fehrenbacher’s small library. This book is about a psychiatric patient who is lost in his mentally insane brain. He lives a life thinking he isn’t who he really is. It takes place in the 1950s, on an island off the coast of Boston, Massachusetts. I picture the island a lot like Alcatraz.
Plot:
Edward “Teddy” Daniels, the main character, is a patient at a mental hospital. As a part of his rehabilitation, this elaborate scheme put on by the hospital, tricks him into thinking he is investigating this island as a U.S Marshall. He thinks that the patients on the island are being drugged and tested by some illegal government experiment. His partner Chuck, who is really his psychiatrist, acts as his partner investigating the mental hospital. Teddy also thinks he is going to get revenge by finding the man who killed his wife, Andrew Laeddis. The reason he is a patient at the hospital is because his wife, who was also mentally ill, killed their three kids, and in revenge he killed his wife. Throughout the book he convinces himself that they are drugging him with psychotic drugs and he tries to stop taking them, unfortunately these drugs are what are keeping him sane. So as he thinks he is become sane he is actually hallucinating most of it. At one point he wanders off into the forest, thinking up all these theories and when he makes it back to the hospital he is told he has no partner, that Chuck doesn’t exist. He has always thought these lobotomy treatments take place in the lighthouse, so he decides to venture there in search of Chuck. Once he gets there, he only finds the hospital administrator, Dr. Cawley sitting in a seat. Dr. Cawley tells him he has killed his wife and that he is Andrew Laeddis. In disbelief Teddy grabs a gun hanging on the wall and tries to kill Dr. Cawley, only to find out it is a toy water gun. After that Chuck walks in, revealing his true identity. Teddy finally realizes he killed his wife and his U.S Marshal days were long ago. The next morning, Teddy and Chuck are talking, Teddy says something implying that they are still are U.S Marshals and Chuck replies agreeing. Chuck then signals to Dr. Cawley that the recovery was unsuccessful and Teddy is taken away. Either Teddy to die, or could not except the fact that he killed his wife.
Character:
Andrew Laeddis was a rugged man who was determined to find the truth, unfortunately it might have not been what he wanted. His best quality was determination, he was determined throughout the entire story, until he found the truth at which point he gave up. Andrew Laeddis plays the role of a U.S Marshal and the role of a mentally insane patient. I chose this character because the whole story was based around him. Andrew Laeddis was a crazy character who took you on an adventure throughout the story, leaving you to almost believe in his theory against the government. The ending of the story changed Andrews whole perspective on life, on who killed his wife, that is why he decided to give up and just let them take his life.
Evaluation:
I found this book intriguing and a good read. Although it was not that informing, it entertained me throughout the entire read. This book was an example of how you can believe something with all your life but it could still be false. I would recommend this book to others as a mysterious, adventurous book, that is a little challenging to follow.
In real life there are mentally insane people who live at hospitals, maybe not on islands but they do exist. This book reminds me of crazy people who have a conspiracies against the government, not trusting them, thinking they are using us. I feel this book is more for entertainment than for educational purposes but everyone can use a good mystery.
If I was Andrew Laeddis, I would be terrible lost. I would believe they were drugging us, I would believe that I was right and I definitely would have acted the same. I thought the book might have ended with Andrew being correct, and they were actually doing experiments on them. I probably would have preferred the book to end that way, it would have given me satisfaction.
Author, Context and Trivia:
Dennis Lehane has written many other books, which I have not read, but I did some research and a lot of them involve the early 1900s, corrupt cities, and Boston, Massachusetts. It seems he likes writing about adventurous characters and their journeys. This book was not like anything else I’ve read - keep in mind I haven’t read very many books - it was something I enjoyed but I probably won’t read something similar just because of it’s individual style.
Reason, Type and Setting:
I choose this book because it caught my eye as I quickly scanned the spines of Fehrenbacher’s small library. This book is about a psychiatric patient who is lost in his mentally insane brain. He lives a life thinking he isn’t who he really is. It takes place in the 1950s, on an island off the coast of Boston, Massachusetts. I picture the island a lot like Alcatraz.
Plot:
Edward “Teddy” Daniels, the main character, is a patient at a mental hospital. As a part of his rehabilitation, this elaborate scheme put on by the hospital, tricks him into thinking he is investigating this island as a U.S Marshall. He thinks that the patients on the island are being drugged and tested by some illegal government experiment. His partner Chuck, who is really his psychiatrist, acts as his partner investigating the mental hospital. Teddy also thinks he is going to get revenge by finding the man who killed his wife, Andrew Laeddis. The reason he is a patient at the hospital is because his wife, who was also mentally ill, killed their three kids, and in revenge he killed his wife. Throughout the book he convinces himself that they are drugging him with psychotic drugs and he tries to stop taking them, unfortunately these drugs are what are keeping him sane. So as he thinks he is become sane he is actually hallucinating most of it. At one point he wanders off into the forest, thinking up all these theories and when he makes it back to the hospital he is told he has no partner, that Chuck doesn’t exist. He has always thought these lobotomy treatments take place in the lighthouse, so he decides to venture there in search of Chuck. Once he gets there, he only finds the hospital administrator, Dr. Cawley sitting in a seat. Dr. Cawley tells him he has killed his wife and that he is Andrew Laeddis. In disbelief Teddy grabs a gun hanging on the wall and tries to kill Dr. Cawley, only to find out it is a toy water gun. After that Chuck walks in, revealing his true identity. Teddy finally realizes he killed his wife and his U.S Marshal days were long ago. The next morning, Teddy and Chuck are talking, Teddy says something implying that they are still are U.S Marshals and Chuck replies agreeing. Chuck then signals to Dr. Cawley that the recovery was unsuccessful and Teddy is taken away. Either Teddy to die, or could not except the fact that he killed his wife.
Character:
Andrew Laeddis was a rugged man who was determined to find the truth, unfortunately it might have not been what he wanted. His best quality was determination, he was determined throughout the entire story, until he found the truth at which point he gave up. Andrew Laeddis plays the role of a U.S Marshal and the role of a mentally insane patient. I chose this character because the whole story was based around him. Andrew Laeddis was a crazy character who took you on an adventure throughout the story, leaving you to almost believe in his theory against the government. The ending of the story changed Andrews whole perspective on life, on who killed his wife, that is why he decided to give up and just let them take his life.
Evaluation:
I found this book intriguing and a good read. Although it was not that informing, it entertained me throughout the entire read. This book was an example of how you can believe something with all your life but it could still be false. I would recommend this book to others as a mysterious, adventurous book, that is a little challenging to follow.
In real life there are mentally insane people who live at hospitals, maybe not on islands but they do exist. This book reminds me of crazy people who have a conspiracies against the government, not trusting them, thinking they are using us. I feel this book is more for entertainment than for educational purposes but everyone can use a good mystery.
If I was Andrew Laeddis, I would be terrible lost. I would believe they were drugging us, I would believe that I was right and I definitely would have acted the same. I thought the book might have ended with Andrew being correct, and they were actually doing experiments on them. I probably would have preferred the book to end that way, it would have given me satisfaction.
Author, Context and Trivia:
Dennis Lehane has written many other books, which I have not read, but I did some research and a lot of them involve the early 1900s, corrupt cities, and Boston, Massachusetts. It seems he likes writing about adventurous characters and their journeys. This book was not like anything else I’ve read - keep in mind I haven’t read very many books - it was something I enjoyed but I probably won’t read something similar just because of it’s individual style.