Lit-Circle and Non fiction blog

EQ: How is the outcome going to change?


The Year of the Hangman is a What if scenario. It's the outcome of America losing the revolutionary war. However, the main character Creighton was meant to change the fate of America. The reason that this EQ stands out is that the answer isn't clear. The outcome itself is obvious that America loses the war, but it's unclear on how they lose the war. On the book preview on the back it says “Creighton must decide where his loyalties lie. . . A choice that could determine the fate of a nation.” His choice however doesn't seem to affect the nation at all because America already lost the before Creighton even went to the colonies. So this EQ made all the other people who read this book, go back and read it again and again to find the answer.

Nonfiction article

The topic that both my book and the article have in common is the events before and during the revolution. The article I chose was “American symbol returns from obscurity: Boston’s Liberty Tree”. The article states that “Throughout these early years before the revolution, the ancient elm tree across from the distillery became Massachusetts’ most important symbol of revolt. In the decade before the Revolutionary War, images of the Liberty Tree, as it became known, spread across New England and beyond.” This tree is a major part of the revolution because it's a part of what starts the patriots to rebel against the British.

Paragraph 14 states “In August of 1775, four months after the first battles of the Revolutionary War, British troops and loyalists cut the tree down. After the British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, revolutionary Bostonians tried to reclaim the site. They erected a “liberty pole” there, and in the following years newspapers occasionally mentioned the site of the Liberty Stump.” The battles that happened during the war were all in my book, which gave it more accurate detail. Although, you never see Boston or the Liberty Tree itself, there is a newspaper called Liberty Tree which was printed by Benjamin Franklin. Liberty Tree still makes an impact on Creighton and it pushes him to finish the decision on where his loyalties lie.

Blackwood, Gary L. Year of the hangman. New York : Turtleback , 2004. Print.

"American symbol returns from obscurity: Boston's Liberty Tree." Newsela | American symbol returns from obscurity: Boston's Liberty Tree. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2017.