History Comes to Life

Michelle Correia

Author: Ken Follett

Title: The Pillars of the Earth

Have you ever noticed how your life has little connections to everyone else’s? In the book, The Pillars of the Earth, this is a very common theme. The story is told in multiple points of view and each main character has an interaction with every other main character. The story starts with a thief being hanged for stealing a jeweled goblet. The story then turns to Tom and Agnes, two peasants trying to find work for the winter. However, Tom is determined to work on a cathedral which raises some problems for the family when there is no work to be found. The first part of the book is based around this family and their struggles as they all deal with hunger and poverty, especially after someone steals the pig they were planning to sell. They must join together and deal with their struggles, specifically when Agnes dies, “she lay flat on the ground. Her face was ghastly white” (70). Thankfully, they receive some help from an outlaw who lives in the woods named Ellen. Every part ends on a cliffhanger which is something that compels me as a reader because I want to know how things get resolved for the characters I’ve grown to love. I haven’t finished the second part quite yet but it’s about a monk and the stories slightly intertwine when he comes across Tom and Ellen in the forest, noting that, “This builder was definitely the penniless kind, although his wife looked well enough” (111). One thing that slightly bothered me was when I got to the second part, and immediately it was about all new characters and was a completely different story. However, I didn’t mind it once I got used to the new characters and storyline, and realized I would be seeing more of Tom and Ellen in the future.

I really like this book because the characters have many difficult decisions regarding money, but specifically morals. Each character has their own personal dilemma and backstory. These are all dilemmas that occur and are solved in ways that one might not expect, and even the backstories all seem to connect somehow. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m excited to read the rest of this series. I recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in movies like Valentine’s Day because the characters are all connected like they are in that movie. I also recommend this book to anyone that enjoys history, specifically European history because this book talks about everything from royal families, to peasants, to the corruptness of the Church, specifically when an old monk has to, “suffer pain and cold for the sake of a farthing or two a day” (123). This book covers a broad range of topics, and connects a lot to what we’re learning in AP European History. Reading about something that I’m learning and being forced to think about what the people in this time thought about the events going on makes me really eager to read more.