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American Gods Themes

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My fantasy novel, American Gods by Neil Gailman, is one full of many themes and historical events. This fantasy novel includes many characters that appear to be God-like and those of previous stories heard around the world. Gailman does an amazing job taking you through a story where you learn that in order “To survive, you must believe,” (page 217). The main plot of American Gods is that there are many gods across the world that were brought to america at the beginning of time, however the main conflict arises when New gods begin to replace the ways of the old gods. The main Character in this story is Shadow, who was just released from prison after learning his wife and best friend had died in a car accident. On his way home Shadow meets …show more content…

The death of Odin sends the Old god community into shock and they decide to start a war on the new gods. However before this happens, Shadow killed himself on the World Tree as stated in the contract. The contract said that if Odin dies Shadow must die too, which was signed by Shadow before he began work with Mr. Wednesday. During his after life Shadow learns that Mr. Wednesday is actually his dad and his whole life he was conceived as part of the deity's plans. He also learns that his old prison cell-mate Lowkey Lyesmith is actually the God named Mr. World. Mr. World and Odin have been working together to stage Odin’s death, the meeting of Shadow and Lowkey in prison and the death of Shadow's wife, Laura. Shadows also learns that part of this stage act performed by the two men was the war that would follow. After learning this Shadow was later brought back to life by the god, Easter. Arriving just in time to Rock City, the location of the War of the Gods, Shadow stops it. He does so by saying that both sides have nothing to gain and everything to lose. He finishes by saying “This land is no place for gods,” (page 217) which is also stated several times throughout the book beforehand. As Odin fades and the gods depart, Laura kills Mr. World by impaling him on the World Tree; Laura later dies after shadow takes away the gold coin which gave her spirit,

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