Everyone loves an exciting conspiracy theory, whether it be the government created HAARP satellite that is actually used to trigger natural disasters and mind-control humans, or of the staging of the Apollo moon landing to cover up some mishap that might have happened during the actual landing. The Da Vinci Code, a worldwide bestseller by author Dan Brown, supports one of the most popular and controversial topics in civilized history, the authenticity of Christianity. I was first introduced to this book when I watched the movie version with my family, and found the story’s clue-hidden-in-plain-sight concept to be very intriguing. In addition, my mom kept telling me about how riveting the Chinese version of The Da Vinci Code was, and I plucked up enough courage to start this dark adult novel. Ten words into the Prologue, and I had already become inseparable from my paperback version of The Da Vinci Code.
In the beginning, the dead body of Jacques Sauniere, curator of The Louvre Museum, was found, killed by a bullet wound to the stomach. Right after the bullet was shot, Sauniere knew if he died, a secret he had protected all his life would be lost forever. With his life force seeping out, he had fifteen minutes to pass on the secret to the only person he could trust, his granddaughter, Sophie Neveu. Using his own blood, he wrote out seemingly meaningless clues on the floor of the Louvre, left Sophie with the key to the discovering the secret, and also wrote “PS Find Robert Langdon.” It was this last part that got the story’s main character involved, who is a Harvard symbology professor and acts like a fatherly figure to Sophie throughout the story, giving her the necessary guidance in order to find the truth. As the duo tackle clue after clue on the treasure hunt, they meet new people, some of whom help them tremendously, but still betray them in the end. As the story progresses, Langdon and Sophie learn of the truth about Sophie’s grandfather. He was the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, a society charged with the guarding of a secret concerning the whereabouts of explosive documents pertaining to the truth behind Christianity. It tells of Jesus as a prophet, and of his relationships as a mortal. The Roman Catholic Church covered all this up, including the relationship of Jesus with one of his apostles, Mary Magdalene, in order to make Jesus the deity of Christianity and gain power. As Langdon and Sophie get nearer to locating these documents, the odds become more and more stacked against them. However, they must push through all adversities to protect this information, and for Sophie to discover the ultimate truth about her family.
Although this novel is filled with totally unexpected plot twists, the most interesting elements were the riddles left behind by Jacques Sauniere. The answers were always hidden within the text provided, although many techniques had to be used to derive the correct answer. Anagrams, which rearrange letters of one phrase to form another, were used frequently to prevent authorities from knowing the true message. For example, Sauniere wrote with his own blood, the phrase “O, Draconian devil! Oh, lame saint!” which is the repositioning of the letters of the original message, “Leonardo da Vinci! The Mona Lisa!” (Brown 128) The symbology aspect was also intriguing, like the placement of Sauniere’s nude corpse in a pentacle form, which was a subtle hint to Da Vinci’s famous sketch, The Vitruvian Man. However, the most stimulating element was Sauniere’s use of Da Vinci’s notoriously illegible mirror writing technique. The mirror writing was shown in the book, leaving an even stronger impression for readers.
The Da Vinci Code is an extremely engaging book that requires one to ruminate as the plot progresses, and is one that is not appropriate for younger teens. Not only are there many technical terms of traditional architecture and some religious terminology, but also many applicable vocabulary words that require some dictionary surfing. One such word is euphoric (Brown 38), which refers to a feeling of intense happiness or excitement. Another example is doctrine (Brown 37), a unique set of beliefs and rituals supported by certain churches, political groups, or other organizations. One term that can be inferred with some context, but is still a good word to know and understand is mortification (Brown 55), meaning a serious embarrassment, although in The Da Vinci Code, it refers to subduing one’s bodily desires. Ciphers (Brown 101), a big part of how the riddles within the story were solved, refers to an encoded message, or a disguised way of writing. The last high quality term to prove my point that The Da Vinci Code is an intricately written novel that is sometimes difficult to comprehend is trepidation (Brown 26), which is a intuitive fear of some event in the future that may happen.
Despite the controversy behind The Da Vinci Code and its topic, I would still give it a five-star rating. Since I am not Christian, my point of view analyzed the novel without any bias, and judged the book for its amazing plot twists, detailed character composition and accurate historical context. Based on some of the reviews that I read online, were it not for the controversial topic that is the central point of the novel, there is no reason why anyone would give it anything less than a five-star rating. The Da Vinci Code is truly a work of art unto itself, and I definitely recommend this book to any young adult looking for an exhilarating novel.
*read this out loud to the class.....hehe
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