Reasons why Jace is the most endearing yet annoying character

In the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare she follows the story of Clary Fray who is a young girl who discovers the magic world her mother has been hiding her from. As the readers follow Clary they get to meet a character that they won’t forget; Jace Wayland. Jace is a character that readers want to forget but don’t have the ability to, here are five reasons why Jace is unforgettable.

1. He is uber annoying.

Throughout the whole book he spends his time hiding his emotions and pretending he doesn’t care about anyone. When he comes to Clary’s room and Simon is already in there he pretends as though he doesn’t care about Cary at all. Throughout the book he also makes vain comments about his appearance to hide how he really feels.

2. He’s extremely heroic.

When Clary finds Jace she learns about shadowhunters and their fight against demons, throughout the book Jace saves Clary endlessly. Not only does Jace save Clary but also the people Clary cares the most about including her best friend Simon and her almost-father Luke. Doing all of this while remaining humble.

3. His language.

Because in the book the shadow hunters are isolated from humans, or mundanes as they would call them, they speak in a more formal dialect. One which Jace pulls off very well. When Jace speaks to Clary it’s almost as if he is speaking down to a child trying to dumb down his elevated vocabulary, “I use tools that are magical. And just to be able to do that, I have to undergo rigorous training. The rune tattoos on my skin protect me too. If you tried to use one of the seraph blades, for instance, it’d probably burn your skin, maybe kill you.”(p.101)

4-  His brokenness.

Throughout the book Jace slowly revealed parts of his past that have scarred him. In the book the readers learn that his father snapped his bird’s neck in front of him and was also murdered in front of him. All of this is seen through Clary’s perspective which makes it much more heartbreaking. On page 463 it described how Jace’s father looked at him through Clary’s eyes, “A spasm of fury twisting his features, Valentine looked at his son. She would never forget that look-it made her feel a sudden wild longing for her mother. Because no matter how angry her mother had been with her, Jocelyn had never looked at her like that.”

5- You can never figure him out.

Jace is known to be temperamental. When things don’t go his way he just ignores everything and acts as if he doesn’t care, while really later in the story you learn that he cares a lot. He is broken yet he is the strongest person in the story, he is hard to talk to yet he always listens. He’s very truthful yet he ignores his feelings, he is just a whirlwind of contradictions.

Blog #5

•         How true does a book have to be in your mind to be considered non-fiction?   Why?

 

I think that for a book to be considered non-fiction 99% of the facts have to be true. As Seth Greenland said if the things within a memoir aren't true then the book is not really a memoir. I think that it's important for non-fiction books to follow this guidelines because people may relate to the stories and see the struggles that people in memoirs have overcome, but if these things were made up it makes that relationship with the reader fake and may disappoint the reader into not being able to relate.

•         Are half-truths okay if it’s still a good story? Does it matter if Frey or other memoirists bent the truth to tell their stories?

I don't think that half truths are ok, if you're going to write a memoir stick to the guidelines. If not then write a fiction books. Authors like Frey that make up facts within their books and call them a memoir really take away from other memoirs credibility and may damage the genre for the rest of the authors who wrote authentic, factual memoirs. Of course I think that writers should have a little flexibility with conversations they can't remember word for word, but if they're big events that they make up that's when I don't think it's ok.

•         Is David Shields right?  Do we need lines between genres—do we need to label something fiction or non-fiction?  Why does it matter?

 

I think we do need to label things fiction and non-fiction, I agree with Aimee Bender when she said that it's exciting what people are able to do with the mixing of genres but if the authors do this I think they need to let their readers know. My main problem with blurring the lines of genres is that the readers lose a sense of trust with their authors, because they don't know whether to think that the events are true events or if they are just figments of imagination. I think it is very important for the author to be faithful to his readers and say, 'hey guys in this piece I wrote it is a story of fiction and non-fiction' instead of lying to them saying it is all non-fiction like Frey did. I know I would have a lot more respect for an author and would want to support them more if they were honest to me instead of lying, this should allow authors to play with the genre lines while still remaining faithful to their readers.