BOY blog

BOY blog
 #16
Boy of the Painted Cave by Justin Denzel has 158 pages of action, adventure, and tragedy. In the book Boy of the Painted Cave, a young hunter-gatherer named Tao dreams of becoming a cave painter. Tao draws in the dirt on rocks and in his mind, he sees images of animals in the sky and in the world around him, he is very artistic. Unfortunately, it is against the law of his clan, and other clans to draw or paint, unless you are a chosen one. Tao wonders about his mom and dad, if they were important he could have a chance at becoming a cave painter, but he has no proof or trace of parents, he is just Tao a boy with a bad foot. Tao wanders off and finds a place known as the slough, it is also a taboo to visit the Slough, but Tao thinks that is wrong, for there is plenty of game on the Slough. In the Slough Tao meets a wolf dog who he helps and names Ram, it is also a taboo to hunt with wolf dogs but Tao does it anyway. Tao lives alone until he comes across a man watching him, for it is Graybeard, the wise, old, shaman of all the clans. Tao draws in private and receives lessons from Graybeard as the three of them, Tao, Ram, and Graybeard have many adventures. One day Tao is caught with Ram and they run off in to the forest, where Tao goes to get Ram and he discovers Graybeard, sick and dying. Graybeard gives instructions to Tao to draw in the secret cavern, which is another taboo. Tao is caught in the secret cavern and is forced to face Saxon, the sacred bull, those who survive are not liars and those who die are believed to have lied, no one has survived… Tao uses Graybeards techniques to defeat Saxon and is declared the new cave painter of the clans, and Volt admits he is Tao’s father, after Graybeard is found dead in the forest. The story would not be the same about the ever so beastly Ram.


     Ram is a Vicious fighter, and a main character in Boy of the Painted Cave. The story would not be the same without Ram because Tao might have starved to death, or been trampled by mammoths. Tao would have never found Graybeard and would not have become the cave painter without Ram. Ram is a beast because he takes down a mammoth and a bull and proves to Volt that wolf dogs are not pure evil. Ram is definitely a main character in Boy of the Painted Cave.


     Huge literary elements in Boy of the Painted cave are the conflicts. One of the largest conflicts is a character vs. character conflict between Tao and Volt. Tao and Volt have many different opinions, Tao thinks wolf dogs are great to hunt with and are good friends too, and Volt highly disliked them. Volt thinks it is wrong to hunt in the slough because he was attacked by a hyena thinking it was a wolf dog, there. Tao thought Volt is a jerk and too strict and mean. Volt disliked Tao because Volt thought Tao was forgetful and thought he was just slowing him down with Tao’s bad foot. For most of the story the main conflict was between Tao and Volt, they disliked each other very much.