1. Tomorrow when the war began<br />Diane Guo<br />Have you ever imagine surviving in a war without any fighting skills? In the book “Tomorrow when the war began” by John Marsden, a bunch of teenagers went camping in a nearby mountain called “Hell”. However, when they returned back to home, they found out that all the people in town were missing, later they knew that their country had been invaded. The teenagers started their war life. “If you live among wolves, you have to howl like a wolf”. They started to get self- defended; they had to fight, to kill to do anything for their own survival. <br />The story took place in Wirrawee. Ellie and Corrie planed to have a camping trip with their friends: Homer, Lee, Robyn, Fi, Kevin and Chris. They had a great time in Hell, but when they returned back to Wirrawee, all of their families were missing, soon they found out all the people in Wirrawee were caught by the invaders. They decided to rescue their families, so they became guerilla fighters and fought for their lives. They fought, they killed, and they did things that they had never done before. Why they had to do that? It is because they wanted to survive, and to safe other people. At the end of the story, they stole the petrol tanker from the enemies, and blew up the bridge. They succeeded, but Corrie got shot while they were escaping. Kevin stayed with Corrie, and rest of them went back to Hell, and prepared to become soldiers. Month ago, they were just regular teenager, studying for school; now they are soldiers, fighting for their country, for their own survival. <br />One of the plot in the book where Ellie burned the garden and killed three soldiers, showed that be able to survive, you have to sometimes do something extreme, usually extremely bad. Ellie, Corrie and Kevin went to the showground to check what was happening there, but they got chased by a bunch of soldiers. Soldiers were shooting towards them; they had to run in to a garden. While they were hiding in the garden, Ellie came up with an idea, to blow up the mower, that way they can kill the soldiers. When the soldiers came in to the garden, Ellie soaked Kevin’s shirt in the fuel, lighted it and threw it on to the mower. The mower exploded, same times burned the three soldiers to death. Ellie sure didn’t kill them on purpose, but in her subconscious, she did it to survive. <br />The characters in the novel had to survive; the only way was to kill people. Ellie had to pick up Lee and Robyn in town. Lee got shot in his leg, so he couldn’t move carefree. In the truck that Ellie used for picking then up, Lee had to sit in the shovel that was in front of the truck, because it was difficult for him to climb up to the seats. When Ellie started to drive, the truck made a thunder noise, and brought the soldier’s attention. There were enemy cars chasing after the truck, shooting at the same time. One bullet nearly killed Ellie. Out of no choice, they “smashed in to one of the cars really hard, and ran right over the top of it”, Ellie even saw bodies in the car. How many people was it okay to kill, in order to keep her friends and herself alive? She was really struggled with the fact that she had to kill other people in order to ensure her own survival. <br />To survive is a person’s instinct; you can’t control the instinct, even the person himself. If you have a gun in your hand, and the enemy is coming, you wouldn’t even think, and you will shoot at them. Ellie and Fi stole the patrol tanker and blew up the bridge, killed hundreds of people. They had to survive in the environment, hey had to kill to be able to survive. Survive took very important place in the development of the novel, without those killing and struggling, people wouldn’t really understand the meaning behind the novel----- which is to fight for living. <br />