NaimExplain

Authors use imagery to establish tone and purpose in literature. Write a well-organized essay that discusses Elie Wiesel's use of imagery and how it helps establish tone and purpose in Night. Answer: imagery --> tone

In your opinion, does Night offer readers a message of hope or despair? Compose a well-written essay in which you argue for one or the other. Refer to details from the book to make your argument. Answer: hope & despair - from timed write

Describe how Elie's faith in God is challenged throughout Night. Refer to specific moments in the story and how these relate to his struggle of faith. What is the overall message you take away from his struggle with faith? • Elie is curious about his faith; meets Moishe the Beadle, who helps him learn Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism; Elie is very devout • Moishe emphasizes the importance of asking God the right or real questions • The evil of the Holocaust confuses him: how could a good God allow this? • Rabbi Eliahu's son leaves him behind; Elie prays, let me never do that to my father; Elie feels that in the end he fails his father • When he first arrives at the camp, he sees babies being thrown into a pit of fire; wonders how God could allow this • The "sad-eyed angel" is hanged; some asks, "Where is God?" Elie responds, "He is here on this gallows."

Explain Dickens' use of symbolism at the beginning of Book 1, Chapter 5 of A Tale of Two Cities, when the wine cask spills in the streets of Paris. Topics to consider include the following: what the spilled wine symbolizes, what the description tells us about the French peasants, and how the scene creates foreshadowing. • Wine cask breaks in the street; peasants eagerly drink it up off the ground, revealing that they are oppressed and desperate • Gaspard, "the tall joker," dips his fingers in the wine and write "blood" on a wall; Dickens says "that wine" too would stain the streets and hands; creates foreshadowing: the bloodshed of the Revolution • Dickens emphasizes that it is red wine • Dickens is suggesting that the peasants are willing to resort to violence (reveals their bloodlust) • The peasants' celebratory spirit foreshadows the communal spirit of the violent revolutionaries (example: when they killed Foulon)

Some works of literature contain one or more objects, which as symbols, are crucial to an understanding of the themes of the work. The Guillotine is such a symbolic object in A Tale of Two Cities. In a well-organized essay, discuss the symbolism of "La Guillotine" and its importance to the development of one or more of the novel's themes. Do not merely summarize the plot. • When the revolutionaries killed people and put their heads on pikes (emphasizes their irreverence towards death) • Dickens portrays the guillotine as a death factory/machine by describing how many people it can kill in a day • The guillotine replaces the cross (seen as a symbol of justice, the solution for other troubles); many people joke about the guillotine • The executioner is named Samson (allusion to biblical Samson; who was blinded), the executioner is also "blind" (blind to the morality of his actions). He destroys God's temple (human beings) everyday. • The sacrifice of...

Discuss the role of Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. How is this character central to the major themes of the novel? • Similar question on the Tale of Two Cities test • Same as 2 • But also emphasize how he is like Christ (and thus represents theme of redemption/resurrection)

Explain the concept of the double and what message Dickens conveys with this motif. • Carton sees Darnay as everything he could have been • They look the same; Darnay is accused of treason and Carton's similarity of appearance saves his life • Doubleness of appearance emphasizes contrast of character: mainly that Darnay is virtue; Carton is vice • Carton attempts to change for Lucie and in the end makes the ultimate sacrifice for Darnay; thus he rises in virtue, perhaps even surpassing Darnay (Christ-figure)

Discuss Dickens's attitude toward the French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. Does he sympathize with the revolutionaries? If you believe so, identify and describe at least two characters or incidents that prove his sympathy for the revolutionaries. If you think not, identify and describe at least two examples that prove his disdain for them. Dickens doesn't sympathize with Revolutionaries • Dickens portrays Lucie as a light in the darkness whose family suffers because of the revolution's indiscrimination • The woodcutter jokes about executing a family (child included) • The guillotine replaces the cross (seen as a symbol of justice, the solution for other troubles); many people joke about the guillotine • The executioner is named Samson (allusion to biblical Samson; who was blinded), the executioner is also "blind" (blind to the morality of his actions). He destroys God's temple (human beings) everyday. • Guillotine being described in diction of...