How does Philip Reeve create an effective character with Shrike? (Part 1)

Philip Reeve creates an effective Shrike character by using what I would say is the two face treatment or aspect. In other words Reeve has made two sides to Shrike. In these essays I plan to discuss with you on how this effect creates an effective character. As the title suggests there are two parts to this essay. This essay will specify with the first side of Shrike introduced to us.I think it would be a good idea to clarify what I mean by Two Face effect. If you read a lot of fiction then the chances of you reading about the villain Two Face has been introduced to you. If it hasn’t and you like a lot of fiction I suggest you read about him. Back on topic when somebody refers to Two Face they mean there is more than one side to someone or something. This is exactly the same with Shrike. Now let’s look and think about his two sides. These sides are a very scary, terrifying Shrike. The second is an unexpected caring, helpful Shrike.

The first side of Shrike that is introduced to us in the dangerous, terrifying Shrike, followed by the caring helpful Shrike. Reeve has implemented five different aspects to this Shrike which all help complement each other to create an effective Shrike character. These five different aspects are; what he says, how he says these things, his appearance, his actions and his effects on others. As I said all of these aspects create an effective character,and this essay is all about explaining this to you. Therefore I will explain all of this to you.

Firstly, lets look at what he says as his scary side. Shrike as we found out is a Stalker. Stalkers were created long ago by the nomad empires. They would drag dead soldiers and wire old tech into their nervous systems, before they were fully dead. So Shrike had been human which would make you think that his vocabulary would be very wide considering that he was human and other the centuries he would have spoken many different languages. However when we meet Shrike the first time round all he seems to know is his employer, the Lord Mayor, the name of his targets and ‘Kill’. I know this for a fact and have even found quotes to support this statement. “hester shaw’ it said ‘thomas natsworthy” Followed shortly by, “I WORK FOR THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON NOW.” The last quote for now is “he has sent me to kill you.” The way he uses these words creates a massive amount of effect for Shrike only. Reeve obviously has taken great care with Shrike and he knew what type of person he wanted Shrike to be. This makes the word selection crucial. How does this create an effective character? Well it makes the reader want to find out more about Shrike. Reeve makes his readers think hard to try to guess what happens next and only by one character’s word selection. All of this creates massive effect. However you realize this when you think about it in-depth. Reeve makes his readers think about the text and keep the reader on the edge of their chairs.

Now lets look at how he says those things as his scary self. There are two ways to look at how he says the things he says. Here are the breakdown of these two ways. Reeve has done a necessary amount of research on sounds that many people really don’t like. The sounds that make you shiver and all you want at that moment is for that sound to stop. That is what Shrike sounds like as we are told in the text. These quotes are my examples straight from the text to strengthen that statement. ” replies a voice from darkness.” Before we continue exploring other quotes let’s think about this quote. It says a voice from darkness. This does nothing other than strike the reader with fear. This all helps with adding to the effect of not only Shrike, but the scene as well. Next there is this quote, “screeched a voice like a saw cutting metal.”  This quote talks of scraping two materials that are incompatible creating sound waves. It is so irritating you barely call it a sound but more of an annoyance. This makes the reader think about how Tom must feel. Shrike’s voice alone is enough to end the life of the faint of heart. This paragraph is only half of one of the ways Reeve creates an effective character in this mini topic which is how he says what he does. These descriptions are like the best paint that can be found.  Reeve uses these tools to paint a highly detailed painting in the readers head. As this is a fiction book this technique also increased your use of  imagination and this makes reading the book all the more fun.

The second part to that previous point is that Shrike is incredibly blunt yet sharp at the same time. Shrike is as sharp as a Swiss army knife when it comes to fear. However he is extremely blunt and straight forward with his speech. Shrike does not have a range of options when it comes to speech as I mentioned earlier on in the essay, however one thing that I didn’t mention was his use of sentences. Shrike only uses simple sentences that barely exceed six words. This makes Shrike seem all the more robotic however his word selection eliminates all thoughts of the nice helpful robots, and replaces them with killing machines. An example of these short, simple sentences is, “he has sent me to kill you.” He delivers these sentences simply and without any hesitation. Shrike does not beat around the bush but tackles it boldly. This part of how Shrike speaks could possibly be the most subtle yet most effective. It creates the most activity in your mind.

The next aspect, of the killing machine named Shrike, is his appearance. We know from looking at his speech altogether that Shrike is a killer. This makes us think, but what is needed is a picture to be perfectly painted with the finest paint across the world, description. Philip Reeve has already created quite an effective character. However he needs to fine the picture in our minds to match the words on the page. The quotes following are actually one big quote that I will break down and explore. “It was seven feet tall.” Reeve uses the word ‘it’ instead of the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ This refreshes our memory with how little human Shrike really is. “beneath his coat shone metal armour” This description describes his torso. Which makes you think if his chest was pure metal where was his body? Again this adds a great amount of effect. “Its mouth was a slot full of metal teeth.” This description tells us Shrike was designed to kill in any way it sees fit. As for the rest Shrikes description in terms of appearance it would be best for you to read it yourself and interpret it yourself, as this will help you understand how Philip has created an effective character. Explaining this through an essay is quite hard to do and therefore reading it yourself will be better, in terms of you altering or interpreting this yourself. 

The second last point on Shrikes dark side is his actions. We, as readers don’t really know how Shrike acts until chapter twelve in the book Mortal Engines. Even though we don’t know too much on how he acts Reeve introduces them to us in quite an aggressive, yet interesting way for the reader. Reeve has really thought about his target group of readers. If you aren’t into violence then this next part is not for you. “it smashed the man aside with a sweeping blow of one huge fist not even bothering to look back.” From reading the book you’d know that Airhaven is mostly populated with aviators and aviatrixes. This means to that there must have been a great amount of strength, a long with the arrogance of not bothering to look back. This action sends a direct message saying that Shrike is a lethal weapon and one that would not hold back. Evaluation needed here

The last aspect on Shrike is his effect on others. Shrike had a major effect on Tom and Hester. Lets look at Tom before Hester. Tom is a very timid character ever since we met him in the museum. He was afraid of Pomeroy and Mellipant. “had no friends to stick up for him” Obviously ‘him’ is taking about Tom. However Shrike struck him with the most amount of fear he had ever experienced and then some. I know this as in the text it says “Tom jumped up and his chair fell backwards with a crash” Shrike had made Tom so scared he wanted to run before he even stepped in the room. “He realized he had wet himself.” Tom felt so threatened he wet himself. That is serious fear. Now lets look at Shrikes effect on Hester. We already know that Hester is a very brave, fearless girl. Although when Shrike is in play, you wouldn’t be able to tell if that was true. These quotes can be used as support for that statement. “There was an edge of panic in her voice that Tom hadn’t heard before.” And Tom and Hester have been through a lot together. That must mean Shrike is a character not to be messed with as he is able to make even the toughest of assassin’s fear him.  Reeve was expecting this to happen because it helps emphasize Shrike to a massive extent. It turns a detailed picture to a detailed picture in excellent high-definition. Though that’s not the only effect it has. Reeve has written the book in such a way that you imagine that you are in the scene at the time.

In the book Mortal Engines there is a recurring theme of technology. Examples of this is how Tom and Hester are living in the Traction Era, cities move on tracks and individual towns have the technology to devour towns as we know from the text. Due to this theme there is a possibility that Reeve has actually sending a message through the interesting book Mortal Engines. Now you might have a different opinion to me however this is mine. Philip Reeve is telling us that technology is amazing and I gather this information from the fact that technology has progressed to the point that while towns can actually travel through different means. Although I believe there is an additional message. This is that no matter how much technology progresses there is always a limit. This is shown through Stalkers and Shrike. The ancient Nomad towns should have never revived the dead soldiers. This itself creates an unpleasant picture in your mind. Further on we are told Shrike is a killer and only because of the Technology. This is my evidence to my statement that Reeve has used the constant theme Technology and that it is great but to a certain extent.

Reeve did not just stop there. In fact he has sent another message through the text. This is the aspect of environment and how we treat it. In the world that Tom lives in, that environment has been torn in peaces and has suffered so much damage that there is no way for it to be repaired. I believe this because in the text there are specific times when Reeve has implemented this thought. An example of this is at the very beginning of the book in the very first sentence. ‘across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.’ As the quote says they are in the sea however the environment has been damaged so much that there was no water allowing people to cross the sea bed. That was only one of the examples in the book. We also know that this world is in the very far future as in centuries. However I think Reeve is actually using this book to send the message that we should take care of our environment, before we reach the point where there is no return.

I’ve covered quite a lot in this essay, and therefore will now conclude it. Reeve knew what type of character he wanted Shrike to be. And has thought in-depth to how to create a good character like every author does. By doing this he has been able to create a good well planned out character. However this is not all from me as there is another essay on its way explaining the other side to Shrike. Thank you for taking the time to read this leave comments below and I will reply when I can. I hope you look forward to my next piece of work as I do.