History of Human

American Gods, a fiction fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman, concerns Shadow Moon, who is in prison. The warden tells him his wife Laura died. Shadow is released and takes a plane to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man named Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow a job. He knows about Laura, which unsettles Shadow, so he gets off the plane and rents a car. Mr. Wednesday tracks him and offers him a job to be his assistant and Shadow accepts. Wednesday's associate, Mad Sweeney, tells Shadow that he is a leprechaun. The next day, Shadow wakes up in a car with Wednesday. He finds a gold coin from Mad Sweeney. Shadow goes to Laura's burial and throws the gold coin into the grave. At a motel, Shadow wakes up in the night and sees Laura. She tells Shadow the gold coin brought her back, but her body is still dead.
Shadow and Wednesday go to the House on the Rock for a meeting. They meet two men, Czernobog and Mister Nancy. Shadow sees that Wednesday, Czernobog, and Mr. Nancy are gods who came to America when the people who believed in them came to America. Wednesday is the Norse god Odin. Wednesday tells the other gods that the new gods hate the old and he wants to band together against the new gods. The new gods are what people worship now, like internet, media, and drugs. Wednesday tells Shadow he is going to live in Lakeside between trips. In Lakeside, Shadow meets Hinzelmann who tells him about a raffle to guess which day an old car will fall through the ice on the lake. When Shadow returns to Lakeside, Chad Mulligan tells him a girl is missing.
After some trips with Wednesday, Lakeside policeman Chad Mulligan arrests Shadow for parole violation. While Shadow is in prison, the new gods manipulate the television and show Wednesday get shot. Czernobog and Mr. Nancy pick Shadow up. They arrange to pick up Wednesday's body. Shadow recognizes one of the new god's men as Low Key Lyesmith, a friend from prison, who is the god Loki. Shadow performs a vigil for Wednesday's body by being tied to the World Tree for nine days, and dies after three days. The gods assemble at Rock City for the war. Laura stabs Mr. World, one of the new gods' men, with a stick from the World Tree. Shadow arrives, and Wednesday tells him that he and Loki, who was Mr. World, were behind the war so they could feed off of the power expended during the battle. Shadow tells the gods that Loki and Wednesday have tricked them. The gods leave the battle. Shadow takes the gold coin from Laura and she dies. Shadow returns to Lakeside and finds the missing girl's body in the car on the ice. Shadow confronts Hinzelmann, who is a mythical creature, about killing children as a sacrifice to keep the town prosperous. Chad Mulligan comes into the room and shoots Hinzelmann in the head.

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (/ˈɡeɪmən/; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.

Shadow has spent the last three years in prison, biding his time, teaching himself coin tricks. He is waiting to be reunited with his beloved wife Laura, and planning to settle back into his old life working for his best friend Robbie.  But Shadow’s life is soon to change forever: he receives the news that he is being let out of prison early, but his wife Laura has died in a tragic car accident.
Travelling back to Eagle Point to attend his wife’s funeral, Shadow meets the enigmatic Mr Wednesday who is keen to offer Shadow a job.  Despite Shadow’s initial reluctance Mr Wednesday, displaying uncanny and supernatural abilities, pursues him and eventually persuades him to accept the job: he is to transport Wednesday about the country, run errands for him and protect him from any potential dangers.
As Shadow unwittingly seals their bargain by drinking three rounds of mead, he is swept up in an adventure with Wednesday, a self-proclaimed hustler and Old God, the incarnation of the Norse All-Father Odin. Wednesday is on a mission to recruit other Old Gods for what he sees as the inevitable war brewing between the Old Gods and the New Gods.

These New Gods of television, radio, the internet, credit cards and various other facets of modern culture, hate the Old Gods and systematically hunt them down one by one. But Wednesday has a plan involving all the Old Gods from ancient pantheons, brought to America through the belief of immigrants travelling to the New Land hundreds of years ago: he wants them to unite in one desperate last stand. But finding these often forgotten Gods, whose power has diminished over the ages, is no easy task; persuading them to join Wednesday’s cause is harder still.
Shadow and Wednesday set out on an epic road trip, taking in roadside attractions which Wednesday claims are great sources of power, and meeting Old Gods, culture heroes, leprechauns, dwarves, genies and gorgons from a multitude of pantheons.  All the time they are fighting to stay ahead of the powerful New Gods, who have all of modern technology and belief on their side. And Shadow is searching for a way to bring his wife Laura back to life; she is not quite as dead as she should be.
Shadow’s odyssey will also uncover the secrets of his own mysterious past, as he learns how to take gold from the sun’s hoard, is granted the freedom of the moon, finally learns the identity of his father, and finds and loses his true name.  His ultimate sacrifice on the World Tree reveals facts long disguised to him as he walks the path of Hard Truths and learns to be truly alive.

A. Settings

a. First part

The first Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration Thespis, or The Gods Grown
Old built on this conceit. Thornton Wilder’s debut novel The Cabala
also found inspiration in this same concept of grumpy old gods. But
Neil Gaiman adds a new twist by setting his story
in the New World. Yes, these are American Gods,
in his novel of the same name.

b. Second Part

Along the way, readers of American Gods get a double dose of
mythology. But don’t throw out your Joseph Campbell books quite yet.
Neil Gaiman isn’t interested in telling you the old myths and folk tales.
He wants to create some new ones of his own. And I can’t think of a
contemporary writer better suited for the job.

B.Characters

• a.Protagonist
• b.Antagonist
• c.Supporting Characters
• d.Victim (protagonist)

Characters

Shadow Moon – An ex-convict who becomes the reluctant bodyguard and errand boy of Mr. Wednesday, an incarnation of the Old Norse god Odin. It is revealed in the short story The Monarch of the Glen that Shadow is the reincarnation of Baldr, the Norse god of light.
Laura Moon - Shadow Moon's wife who died in a car crash at the beginning of the novel a few days before Shadow is due to be released from prison

OLD GODS:

1. Mr. Wednesday – Odin, the Old Norse god of knowledge and wisdom, aspects which he usesto his advantage as a confidence artist. He spends most of the story trying to get other old gods to join him in the inevitable war. 
2. Czernobog – The Slavic god of darkness, twin brother to Bielebog, the god of light. 
3. The Zorya Sisters - The Zorya Sisters, relatives of Czernobog, are sisters representing the Morning Star (Zorya Utrennyaya), the Evening Star (Zorya Vechernyaya), and the Midnight Star (Zorya Polunochnaya). In Slavic lore, they are servants of Dažbog who guard and watch over the doomsday hound, Simargl, who is chained to the star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor, the "little bear". If the chain ever breaks, the hound will devour the world. 
4. Mr. Nancy – Anansi, a trickster spider-man from African folklore. He often makes fun of people for their stupidity, a recurring aspect of his personality in his old stories. 
5. Mr. Ibis – Thoth, the Ancient Egyptian god of knowledge and writing. He runs a funeral parlor with Mr. Jacquel in Cairo, Illinois. He often writes short biographies of people who brought folkloric beings with them to America. 
6. Mr. Jaquel – Anubis, the Ancient Egyptian god of the dead and mummification. He is an expert at preparing bodies for the wake at funerals. 
7. Easter – Ēostre, the Germanic goddess of the dawn. 
8. Mad Sweeney – Shuibhne, a king from an old Irish story. Though not portrayed as such in his story, he calls himself a "Leprechaun," perhaps referring to how Irishmen are seen in America: a foul-mouthed, frequent drinker, who is taller than expected. 
9. Whiskey Jack – Wisakedjak, a trickster figure of Algonquian mythology. He lives near a Lakota reservation in the badlands with John Chapman, where he is mistaken for Iktomi, a trickster of their culture. 
10. John Chapman – Johnny Appleseed 
11. Low-Key Lyesmith – Loki, the Old Norse god of mischief and trickery. 
12. Bilquis - Queen of Sheba, as mentioned in the Bible. Also, believed to be half-jinn. She plays a prostitute who devours men via her vagina.
13.  New Gods: 
14. The Technical Boy – New god of computers and the Internet. He is adamant that the new gods should prevail over the old gods. As the personification of the internet, he resembles the stereotype of a fat, arrogant, basement-dwelling internet poster, who dresses like characters from The Matrix because he thinks it makes him look cool. He still looks like a teenager with bad acne, because he is young even compared to the other new gods (though he has quickly become one of the most powerful of them). Other characters derisively call him "the fat kid". 
15. Media – New goddess of television. 
16. The Black Hats – Mister World, Mister Town, Mister Wood and Mister Stone exist out of America's obsession with Black helicopters and the Men in Black. They work as spooks for the new gods. 
17. The Intangibles - New gods of the modern stock market, the personification of the "Invisible hand of the market". They would prefer not to directly confront the old gods, because they "are pretty much in favor of letting market forces take care of it."

C. Plot

The central premise of the novel is that gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them (a form of thoughtform). Immigrants to the United States brought with them spirits and gods. However, the power of these mythological beings has diminished as people's beliefs wane. New gods have arisen, reflecting America's obsessions with media, celebrity, technology, and drugs, among others.

Shadow is a taciturn convict who is released from prison early when his wife, Laura (McCabe) Moon, and best friend die in a car accident, leaving him alone in the world. Bereft, he takes a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious conman called Mr. Wednesday, who seems to know more about Shadow's life than he lets on. Shadow and Wednesday travel across America visiting Wednesday's unusual colleagues and acquaintances until Shadow learns that Wednesday is in fact an incarnation of Odin the All-Father (the name Wednesday is derived from "Odin's –Wōden's – day"), who in his current guise is recruiting American manifestations of the Old Gods of ancient mythology, whose powers have waned as their believers have decreased in number, to participate in an epic battle against the New American Gods, manifestations of modern life and technology (for example, the Internet, media, and modern means of transport). Shadow meets many gods and magical creatures, including Mr. Nancy (a manifestation of the spider god/trickster figure Anansi), Czernobog (here an elderly East European immigrant), and a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney, who gives Shadow the gift of a magical gold coin. Shadow tosses the coin into his wife's grave, inadvertently bringing her back from the dead as a semi-living revenant.

Shadow and Wednesday try to rally the Old Gods to fight the new, but most are reluctant to get involved. The New Gods abduct Shadow (utilising a group of shadowy Men in Black (MIB) led by the mysterious Mr. World), but Laura rescues him, killing several MIBs in the process. For his protection, Wednesday hides Shadow, first with a few stray Egyptian gods (Thoth, Anubis, and Bast, here as Mr. Ibis, Mr. Jaquel, and a common brown housecat) who run a funeral parlor in Illinois, and then finally in the sleepy Great Lakes community of Lakeside. Shadow meets many colourful locals in Lakeside, including Hinzelmann, an old-timer who spins tall tales, and Chad Mulligan, the workaday local chief of police. Lakeside is tranquil and idyllic but Shadow suspects something is not quite right about the town: While neighbouring communities turn into ghost towns, Lakeside is mysteriously resilient. The town's children seem to disappear with unusual frequency. But he cannot investigate further, busily travelling across America with Wednesday, meeting the likes of Johnny Appleseed and the goddess Easter to solicit their help in the brewing conflict. They are pursued all the while by the Men in Black, particularly Mister Town, a jaded MIB who blames Shadow for the death of his friends (actually murdered by Laura).

Finally the New Gods seek to parlay with Wednesday–but in fact they murder him. This act galvanises the other Old Gods into action, and finally they rally behind a common banner to face their enemies in battle. Shadow is bound by his compact with Wednesday to hold his vigil by re-enacting Odin's time hanging from a "World Tree" while pierced by a spear. Shadow dies and visits the land of the dead, where he is guided by Thoth and judged by Anubis. Easter later brings him back to life, obeying orders that she does not fully understand. During the period between life and death, Shadow learns that he is Wednesday's son, conceived as part of the deity's plans. He realises that Odin and Mr. World have been working a "two-man con", and Mr. World is secretly Loki Liesmith, his former cellmate who he knew as "Low Key Lyesmith". They orchestrated Shadow's birth, his meeting of Loki in disguise in prison, and Laura's death. As part of the con, Loki had ordered Odin's murder so that the battle caused between the New and Old Gods would serve as a sacrifice to Odin, restoring his power, while Loki would feed on the chaos of the battle.

Shadow arrives at Rock City, site of the climactic battle, just after the battle had started but in time to stop it, explaining that both sides had nothing to gain and everything to lose, with Odin and Loki the only winners. America is a "bad place for Gods", Shadow tells them, and recommends they go home and make the best of what they can get. The Gods depart, Odin's ghost fades, and Laura impales Loki on a branch of the World Tree, and finally dies after Shadow takes the magical coin from her.

In the aftermath of the climax, Shadow returns to Lakeside, where he finally stumbles on the town's secret: The missing children are abducted by Hinzelmann, who is in fact a kobold, an ancient Germanic household god. Hinzelmann blessed and protected the town, making it prosper despite the hardships plaguing the rest of the region, in exchange for the town's unwitting sacrifice of their young. Shadow brings about Hinzelmann's demise, even though he knows this may doom the community.

In Iceland, Shadow meets another incarnation of Odin, who was created by the belief of the original settlers of Iceland, and is therefore much closer to the Odin of mythology than Wednesday was. Shadow accuses Odin of Wednesday's actions, whereupon Odin replies that "He was me, yes. But I am not him." After a short talk, Shadow gives Odin Wednesday's glass eye, which Odin places in a leather bag as a keepsake. Shadow performs a simple sleight-of-hand coin trick, which delights Odin enough that he asks for a repeat performance. Shadow then performs a small bit of real magic, pulling a golden coin from nowhere. He flips it into the air and, without waiting to see if it ever lands, walks down the hill, away from the god and out into the world.

The book also features many subplots and cutaway scenes detailing the adventures of various mythical beings in America: The Queen of Sheba works as a prostitute, staying young and powerful by preying, succubus-like, on the men she sleeps with; a salesman from Oman meets a cab-driving Ifrit; the first Viking explorers to come to America bring their gods, including Odin, with them; a Cornish woman turns fugitive in the new world, inadvertently populating it with the pixies and fairies of her native country; slaves from Africa populate the Caribbean Islands and America with their tribal gods; even going back all the way to 14,000 BC and the gods of the very first American immigrants.

D. Conflict

• Man vs God

E. Climax

But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter -- all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does. 

F. Denouement/ Anti- climax

Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.  

G. Finding

c. Irony

H. Moral of the story

There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.

I.Vocabulary build up

Thousands of high school teachers have wracked many a student’s brain asking the question
He has woven a contemporary myth
He has also written a farcical novel
Shadow a job as an errand boy, he has no reason not to accept.
He is but one of countless many, as Shadow quickly discovers as he travels middle America with his enigmatic employer
Shadow’s dreams of burial and death
His attempt to grasp the peculiarities of American life resulted in a story that presented its own journey for meaning
American Gods is the manner in which he is able to express and comment upon his experience with America through wildly fantastical elements

J.Recommendation

American Gods is almost impossible to describe or summarize, but this much is true: it is a fairly balanced mix of fantasy, mystery, and even ghost story, and it most definitely is a commentary. It also, however, contains other, harder-to-classify, complex elements, and that’s what makes it so hard to put into words. Neil Gaiman included a few multi-layered subplots within the main plot, crafted an extensive cast of strikingly distinctive characters, and sprinkled various mythic traditions throughout. The end result is that American Gods is atmospheric and transportive. Reading this is like taking a dizzying trip around the world in a single month.

K.Personal Comment

“I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.