All These Bodies By Kendare Blake Essay

Literary Analysis for Independent Reading Book People wonder if someone can really believe someone that is standing in the middle of a crime scene. Kendare Blake’s All These Bodies is a novel set in the summer of 1958 in a small town in Minnesota. Micheal Jensen wants to find the murderer of the town, but a girl showed up mysteriously at one of the crime scenes, so she took up all of his time pretending to help him when really she was just delaying her execution. Kendare Blake’s use of imagery, point of view, and conflict make her novel intriguing to the reader. The imagery in this story really makes it feel as if it is real life. In this novel there is one certain part that uses a good amount of imagery that gives the reader the best descriptions

Micheal Jensen is the only point of view that is used but is all that is really needed to understand. “ ‘No, sir. I only want to tell Michael what happened’... ‘He’s the sheriff’s son. He was there when I was brought in and he visited me a couple times’”(84). During Marie’s first trial she chose that she wanted to only tell Michael what happened. In this situation the point of view really comes in handy. The reader not only gets to hear Marie’s side of the story but also his thoughts on what she says happens. Right before the first interview Michael’s teacher stops him before he leaves the school. “ ‘It isn’t for you to judge her guilt or innocence. It’s only for you to uncover the facts’ “(94). After Micheal is stopped in the hallway by his teacher he makes sure that Michael knows it isn't all resting on his back. If Michael wasn’t the point of view the reader wouldn’t understand what is to come. He really is the life of the story. She needs me, they need me, without me she wouldn’t have the chance to live much longer. Without Michael she would have been toast literally. Michael is the only one Marie will talk to and if he doesn't get what the people need from her she will get the death penalty in her home state Nebraska. In Nebraska the death penalty is the electric chair. The thoughts from Michael are really what he is going through with becoming an interrogator at the age of 17. Michael’s point of view is the key

The conflict of this novel is an internal conflict. “Marie and the murders ha[ve] taken over my entire life and I don’t know how much longer I can go”(164). These very intense murders have taken over everyones lives but Michael mostly. Marie in a way has gotten in his head and it’s definitely not in a good way. She has taken over the way he thinks and almost has it as she is manipulating him, but he doesn't know that. Michael feels that every single one of the people that were killed are resting on his shoulders for revenge, but really he can't do anymore then listen to what she says. “I tugged Marie out of the cell. She [i]s going to need a coat and better shoes and I ha[ve] no idea where to get them…She still ha[s] a hold of me, so steady. I was trembling like a leaf. ‘I can’t go’ ”(261). Michael snuck out of his house in order to try and sneak Marie out of the holding area. He is doing this because he doesn't believe that she should get executed with her being ‘too young’. The day she came into the station they both just had some sort of connection where Michael felt as if he had to protect her. I need to get more time to help her, I can’t just sit around while she might be about to get executed, she’s a 15 year old girl (55). These are some of the thoughts of Michael Jensen when he had to deal with the internal conflict of trying to help Marie. Every day the constant thoughts run through his head like a hot