Mary Busby’s Reviews > The Da Vinci Code > Status Update

Summary: Robert, Sophie, Leigh, Rémy, and Silas are now a boarded a plane flying out to France to London where they believe the Holy Grail is. Silas is bound up and is lying still (probably praying) and Rémy is watching over him. The others try to decipher some writing, so they can open the keystone and get the directions to the Holy Grail.

Vocab: “In terms of prophecy... we are currently in an epoch of enormous change” (Brown 267). Epoch means a period of time that is very important in history. So in the context of this sentence, the character in the book have an important/ life changing event that will occur.

Themes cont: Basically, Da Vinci’s interpretation of the Holy Grail is that it is not a cup (consider he didn’t paint any cups during the supper), but rather a person. It is Mary Madelene’s womb, because he believed that she carried Jesus’ child and was suppose to lead the church. There a lot of clues left in Da Vinci’s paintings that help Robert and Sophie understand the Priory of Sion and the codex.

Themes: Brown includes a lot of Da Vinci’s work, and you find out some of the hidden messages Da Vinci was trying to convey, which shows the presence of symbolism. Within the Last Supper painting, Da Vinci paints Mary Magdalene next to Jesus in the center of the table. The spacing between them looks like a V, which is the original icon for female.

Predication: Silas has found where the keystone is, which it with Robert and Sophie at Sir Leigh’s Versailles home. I think that Silas will end up killing another person (Sir Leigh), because he has a gun and is not afraid to use it. This will complicate matters further as the police have also been tipped off where Robert.

Ask: Why did Bishop Aringarosa need twenty-two million euros? What will he do with the money (bribe the Vatican)? Is the “teacher” the mastermind behind the pans and Bishop Aringarosa and Silas are the puppets?

Favorites: Brown mentions that there are various meanings for a rose. It connects to womanhood, navigation, and secret, which I didn’t know. When I think of a rose, I just think of how it symbolizes beauty and love. I also learned that back during Roman times that they hung roses on doors to imply that one should not be disturbed, instead of locking the door.

Themes: The author mentions how the Knights Templar had found a secret under the ruins of Solomon’s Temple in the 1300s. And with that they gained massive power and wealth with the Vatican’s support. This shows how power is so influential, especially if you have the right connections and a lot of money. Brown depicts power here as morally wrong because it is abused.

Visualization: Sophie is driving away from the cops with Robert in it, so they can uncover what the key means. Sophie drives recklessly, fast, and aggressively in order to get away. This is a video of a smart car running away from the cops, which can help picture what Sophie was doing.
https://youtu.be/Uk_3melRmhc

Vocabulary: “The Da Vinci she had grabbed, much like the Mona Lisa, was a notorious among art historians for its plethora of hidden pagan symbolism” (Brown 134). In this sentence, plethora means having an abundance of something (more than needed).