組長 :~ 張佳寧 組員 : ~ 冉光瑜 ~ 林妙頤 ~ 張嘉凌 ~ 陳佳吟 ~ 陳美玲 ~ 蔡雅雯 ~

1. 組長:~ 張佳寧 組員: ~冉光瑜 ~林妙頤 ~張嘉凌 ~陳佳吟 ~陳美玲 ~蔡雅雯~

2. Author John Grisham is now widely considered to be the world’s number one best-selling author. He was born in 1955 in Arkansas, in the United States. Though his family was poor, he went to Mississippi State University and later started his own law firm. He gave up his law practice immediately. Motivated by the unexpected success and bored with the legal profession, John Grisham chose to retire from the law and write full time. John Grisham never intended to become an author. John Grisham served in the state legislature from 1983 to 1990. He started to write in 1984 and his first book was A Time to Kill. Though this was not successful at first, he sold his next book, The Firm, for $200,000 and the film rights for $600,000. He now owns a large farm in Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and two children in a specially built Victorian-style house.

3. Role Darby Shaw the student of the law school at Tulane University. She wrote the pelican brief. Gavin Verheek Thomas's old friend, now a legal adviser in FBI. Khamel A killer Rosenberg ; Glenn Jensen two of the judges of the Supreme Court. He was killed. Thomas Callahan A popular teacher in the law school at Tulane University. He and Darby are lovers Gray Grantham A person worked in Washington Post Victor Mattiece the tycoon who created a lot of companies and had plans

4. Eric East Denton Voyles the head of FBI Alice Stark Darby's best friend the person in FBI, who is in charge of the murder case. Croft A photographer Edwin Sneller the man who hired Khamel

5. Chapters 1 ~ 9 The story begins with the murders of two supreme court justices in Washington. Supreme Court Justice Rosenberg and Justice Jensen were both murdered on the same night and by the same guy, Khamel, the most famous and most feared killer. Both murders were perfectly executed crimes, and the murderer left no evidence. After Darby and Thomas heard about the murders, Darby was interested in this and decided to do some investigating. She spent four days trying to find some clues and she put together a theory on what she found. But she didn't thought it was worth anything because she thought it was proved false. Thomas Callahan, a professor at Tulane University, falling in love with Darby takes her theory to an old friend named Gavin. Gavin thought the brief was ingenious and worth considering, so he showed it to the FBI. However, not only the FBI but someone outside of the FBI had read the brief.

6. When Thomas returned to Tulane, Darby and he went out to eat. Thomas drank too much that Darby was angry and refused to ride with him. Thomas , stubborn as he was, wouldn't let Darby drive and got in the car. Suddenly, when he started the engine, a bomb went off.Darby was knocked out by the explosion. While she was regaining consciousness, she realized that they were hunting her and she had to hide. Then she told Gavin that Thomas died, and she called up a Washington Post reporter, Gray Grantham. But she didn’t know that Khamel was ready to kill her……

7. Chapters 10~14 On Sunday morning, after a few minutes of waking up, Darby felt hungry so she left by the back door to buy some food to eat. When she reached Burgundy Street, she was found and followed by Sneller’s man, and she noticed that and lost him in the football crowds. At night she called Gavin and made an appointment with him the next day. After the call, Khamel killed Gavin. The next day Darby called to Grantham’s office and talked with him for a while. After the phone Grantham went in to see his boss, Smith Keen and explained the situation to him. Khamel disguised himself as Gavin Verheek and met Darby at around 12:00 on Riverwalk. Khamel pretended to cough so that Darby didn’t find that he was not Gavin. When they walked in the crowd, suddenly, Khamel was shot and died. Someone in the crowd said that Khamel was Egyptian, so Darby understood that he was not Gavin. So she left Riverwalk to Baton Rouge on taxi right now.Many people had kept dying because of the Pelican Brief. The FBI had started suspected.

8. Mattiece of the murders. Darby called Grantham as she had promised. In the phone they decided to meet each other and talk immediately. They met in her room in the St Moritz Hotel in New York and she told him lots about the truth about the murders. They thought that Garcia maybe worked at one of the two firms who did some work for Mattiece. That night she asked him to sleep on the sofa in her room, so that she could get a good night’s sleep for the first time for days. Darby worked in the library reading lists of the members at both the Washington law firms that worked for Mattiece; there was no one called Garcia on either list. As she rang Grantham with this information from a pay phone in a café on Sixth Avenue, she saw the short man who had been looking for her in New Orleans. She knew she had to leave. Matthew Barr and Coal discussed that Barr would connect Mattiece and get his trust. Then Coal would let the President to get the FBI to start an official investigation into Victor Mattiece what if the Pelican Brief was true.

9. Gray stayed at the Marbury Hotel. The next morning he met Keen for they had to talk about something and after that he came back to his room. An Asian cleaning woman told him that someone had left his room just now. He knew he had to find Darby quickly. Gray left a note to Darby and waited her in the garden. She went to meet him and knew that he had been found, so she decided to find him another small hotel. The next morning she rang the Georgetown law school and pretended to be from White and Blazevich so that she got smoothly the seven names of the students who had worked for White and Blazevich last summer. Then Darby and Gray managed to find the seven students, but no one knew Garcia except for one, Linney. They found him at a hospital; he told her that Garcia’s real name wasCurtis D. Morgan.

10. Chapters 15~18 Larry took Matthew Barr to meet Mattiece by a small, fast boat. A man who called himself Emil led him to a sun-room. And then Victor Mattiece who was extremely thin, and had long grey hair and a beard came in the sun-room. Barr talked with Mattiece and Mattiece thought Coal was the problem. After that Mattiece went out and let Larry simply break Barr’s neck. Darby and Gray reached the building where White and Blazevich’s offices were before five o’clock. She told the secretary that she had an appointment with Curtis Morgan, but Jarreld Schwabe, one of the partners of the firm, told her that Morgan was mugged in the street. Then she left. Edwin Sneller found that Grantham and Darby were together and she was in Washington. Gray found Curtis D. Morgan’s address in the suburbs, and they drove out together to the house. Mrs. Morgan’s father refused to let them in to see her, so Gray left his business card, so that she couldcall him if she wanted to. Then they leaved.

11. Beverly Morgan called Gray at four o’clock the next morning, she asked him to look in the lock-box at First Columbia Bank for her, and he agreed. The next morning he and Darby went to the bank and took away the thin envelope inn the box. In the document Morgan described who he was and where he worked. He said that he often worked for one of the firm’s clients who was called Victor Mattiece. Morgan explained the Louisiana case and how important it was to Mr. Mattiece. It was important to White and Blazevich too, since Mattiece had promised them a share of the profits from the oil. About 28 September, the document continued, when Morgan returned to his own office, he found the note from Marty Velmano on Wakefield’s desk by mistake and he had joined a copy of the note on to his document. After he found that, Rosenberg and Jensen were killed. Darby Gray went into the Post building. After Smith Keen and the Post’s lawyer, Vincent Litsky, read through Morgan’s document, they decided to print Darby’s story. When Keen and Litsky had left the room, Darby told Gray that she noticed that a man outside were just waiting for them to leave the building.

12. Gray called his friend, F. Denton Voyles at the FBI and Voyles came to his office for a meeting. Then Gray called Coal and Marty Velmano and threatened Velmano with the copy of a note he sent to Sims Wakefield. Voyles and Lewis entered the room with Smith Keen. Voyles read them something official that the FBI began a full investigation into Victor Mattiece. He said that the President asked him not to investigate Mattiece. At last he asked to speak to Darby alone, and she agreed and Grantham stayed. Voyles brought it up that they, the FBI, could help her. Then Darby thought it was time to trust someone, so she accepted the FBI’s protection. Mattiece were in Cairo and never came back over here. After knowing that, Sims Wakefield shot himself in his office of White and Blazevich.After eight days in the Virgin Islands, Darby was waiting for Gray. He arrived when it was almost dark. They walked along the beach and talked with each other.

13. Afterthoughts ~妙頤~ After reading 〝The Pelican Brief〞, I have many ideas. Darby is a brave and wise woman. When she knew the murder on TV, she took her action immediately. She went to the library and gathering pages and pages of information. And then she spent much time playing detective. I think, as a student, when we get stock in trouble, we should emulate her. Searching all of information, trying every way we can and solving problems with determination. And the story mentions about environment problems, many enterprises only think about their profits. Even if they pollute environment, they still ignore them. I think the story give me a deep thought. Those bosses should take environment-protected as their first responsibility. Everyone should be more concern with environment and rare animals. The book is worth reading. Its plots go ups and downs make readers as if were Darby. I like it.

14. Afterthoughts ~美玲~ After reading this novel “The Pelican Brief”, I was deeply touched by the story. She was so determined to make the truth public that she made herself in danger. Even if she underwent so many hardships before she told the truth to the public, she still kept going even if someone wanted to kill her. Through this novel, I see the essence of determination. I understand that no matter how dreadful plight I am in, I still have to keep working and stick it out, not give up. And I know that everything won’t always be in the shadow, the sun will always rise.

15. Afterthoughts ~光瑜~ I was really excited when I read this novel, I guessed what would happen, and what would Darby do. She made effort to do some investigating in order to find the chief instigator. And I was touched by Darby’s determination because I sometimes cannot determine to do what I should do. I seldom read those detective novels , but I think this is an very attractive novel. I think the author, John Grisham wanted to show us different sides of human nature, and let us think about it.

16. Afterthoughts ~雅雯~ In this story, I feel that the judge Rosenberg is so brave that he is not afraid of death. He handles the law case in justice, not being controlled by bad guys. However, he’s killed by Khamel, his behavior gives me a good example to learn. As any Darby, I think she’s very brave and pull of justice. She takes efforts to search for any details about the murders, putting all the clues she gets into a brief. Though she pays a lot for it, losing her love she still keeps looking for the murders. Finally, she succeeds and she also regains a love. After reading the story, I have experienced that the society in full of danger, we may get killed. So the best way to protect our lives is that never do bad things with people. In this way, we can protect ourselves but also others.

17. Afterthoughts ~佳吟~ I couldn't’t understand well when I read the novel first time. While I read it again, I knew the whole story better. Perhaps the novel is boring for some people, I think it is exciting! Darby was brave. She finished the pelican brief and she made some people read it one by one. It threatened mastermind. So she started to have an escape. She is afraid to die one day, but she still tried to find the murderer. It is such a big belief! Perhaps that is because the killer killed her boyfriend. If I were Darby, I will not let the brief appear in the open. I’ll investigate each suspect with my reliable people in secret. Finally, I will find the mastermind and have a happy ending.

18. Afterthoughts ~嘉凌~ After reading this novel, I am appealed to its compact and shocking actions, the nervous atmosphere let me feel not only excited but also interesting. The protagonist that is called Darby, who is a powerful girl with a large of bravery and justice, she has the justice that she wants to tell the truth to anyone that the killer from “The Pelican Brief” framed two justices. Although her boyfriend and most of the religionists has been died, even if it’s dangerous about her own life, she still insists to catch the killers by FBI’s help. She is such a great person that I feel admired to her. On the other hand, I am moved to the emotion that it is sincere between Darby and Thomas, also for their friends and FBI. They tried hard to let Darby safely and they do their abilities to help her for the truth. I think it is a very impressive book that the story is not boring and the characters for the role are clearly. The novel also taught me that how the importance from being a justice girl and how to foster bravery. People who done the wrong thing will have the sanction someday.

19. Afterthoughts ~佳寧~ After reading this novel, I still feel very excited. I don’t know how to say, but there is an excellent atmosphere around me in deed. Trust me, if you read the novel or see the movie by yourself, you will have the desire to keep on reading without putting it down. The author is good at writing this kind of novel, which is composed of stimulating and secretive elements. Darby, being the main character, is the one I like most in the story. She is a pretty woman, who has high wisdom and courage to deal with such a thing that can make her be killed because of its confidentiality. As I mentioned, the situation she faces is the secrets of the government. Actually, she didn't’t have the obligation to solve the fatal problem, but to my surprise, she wrote it down as a brief. Well, I think I should learn from her; that is, I hope I will become a person who has a sense of brave just like her in the future. Another thing I want to say is that I can see the black side of the government throughout this novel. I really don’t know there are so many things that can’t be divulged about the government. So after reading it, I have some deep feelings and make one conclusion－the world of adults is too terrible.

20. 影片欣賞 http://www.tnt.tv/Title/Display/0,,18773,00.html 參考網站 http://movies.yahoo.com/mvc/drv?mid=1800201352 http://www.tnt.tv/Title/View5/0,7222,18773|2617|2675|7023|1|~~~,00.html http://www.georgechen.idv.tw/bookclub/pbrief.html ~謝謝觀賞~