Plot and Theme of “A Knight of the White Cross”

          Yesterday, I finished the book, A Knight of the White Cross by G. A. Henty. It has been one of my favorite books and I am so excited to write about it. In this essay, I will be writing about the plot and theme of this book.

          The plot of the book is basically what the book is about. It is made up of several parts: the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. I will talk about each of these in the book separately.

          First is the exposition, which is the beginning of the book. It usually introduces the main character, the setting, and other characters. In A Knight of the White Cross, the exposition introduces Gervaise Tresham, the main character, and some other characters, like the queen, and Gervaise’s family.

          The rising action is everything leading up to the climax. The rising action in this book includes Gervaise dressing up as a slave for a few months, stopping slave rebellions, tracking down the Muslims, getting captured, escaping, and receiving the amulet from Claudia, and more. Usually, the rising action takes up most of the book, which it does in this book.

          The climax of the book is the big, main part, the part that the whole book has been leading up to. In this book, it is when the Muslims attack Rhodes. Gervaise and the other knights help fight them off, and they are able to make the Muslims run away. Gervaise is wounded in the battle, but he quickly recovers.

          The falling action is everything going back down to almost the same level as the beginning. It is usually pretty short. In the falling action of this book, King Edward gets back on the throne, and gives the Tresham family their land and money back. The Tresham family and King Edward, were not always on the same side, so Edward took everything away from them. But when he realized what all Gervaise had done, they respected each other.

          Gervaise also went to visit Claudia (who was now a young woman, rather than a girl) and he received many presents. One of these presents was the hand of Claudia. He and Claudia got married, moved to Gervaise’s home, and lived happily there.

          The resolution, or the ending of the book, in A Knight of the White Cross tells about when the Muslims finally overthrew Rhodes, which was later in history. Both armies, the knights and the Muslims lost a great amount of soldiers, but the knights eventually had to form a peace treaty and move somewhere else.

          The theme of a book is what message you think the author is trying to portray. In A knight of the White Cross, I think that the theme is to stay focused on your goals and to never give up. No matter what Gervaise faces, he still moves on ahead to complete his mission. Of course, the theme could be something else, and it could be different for everybody, but this is what I think.

          This has definitely been one of my favorite books this year. It is so adventurous and exciting. I think it portrays something that everyone needs to do. I hope that this book will be able to help me in my life.