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Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Who could read and write in Ancient Rome and how did they learn?
3. Conclusion
4. Bibliography

Introduction

There are two widely held views of literacy in Ancient Rome. Some such as Longfeld believe that literacy was widespread due to graffiti being written by the common man, to quote H. H. Tanzer, “everybody could read and almost everybody could, and apparently did, write”. This however doesn’t appear to have been the truth as it has been estimated that less than 15 per cent of the Roman population was actually literate, and even fewer were literate in the way the word is used in the modern sense. Semi-literacy was more common, with basic understanding of reading and the ability to write in capitals being a skill that was boasted of by those in the lower classes. Who could read however, largely depended on class as the quality of education a Roman citizen could receive was decided by the tutors they could hire, or their family being educated already.

Who could read and write in Ancient Rome and how did they learn?

The emphasis on being literate, and therefore education, was not huge in the late republic. This was in the time where the oral tradition still reigned, those who were scribae were not a class of workers but rather referred to only poets and clerks. Artisans did sometimes sign their work with their name and who the object was for, there was a degree of understanding of reading and writing among the tradesmen. For the large part however, literacy was confined to the upper-class patricians and those who wanted to move up the social order. This shows the connection between literacy and influence, this is further corroborated by the difference in literacy levels in urban areas versus rural. As the urban population grew, literacy was required for the increasing complexity of commercial and political dealings. The work of clerks was often done by slaves or freedman. The lack of profit in these work fields didn’t provide enough initiative for many to learn how to read and write. The rural population on the other hand was largely illiterate due to the more casual business dealings and lack of a need for records.

The lack of widespread literacy among the common man was largely due to the costs of equipment. Papyrus was expensive in Rome itself and only became more rare and costly as you went further north in the territories. Writing was not used in everyday transactions as they were on a small scale and public announcements often included instructions that they were to be read aloud in the forum (Harris 161), clearly for the benefit of those who were not literate. This was most likely done by those in political positions as by the 4th century BC, council members were required to be able to read to properly convey new laws or upcoming changes in the political sphere.

As has been previously stated, whether a person could read or write was largely dependent on their positioning in the class system. The running of an upper class household required at least some slaves to be literate in order to interpret the instructions given by the master (Harris 197). The overseer of slaves was literate and on a more elite level as a result. This is not to say that slaves were routinely taught to read and write by their masters, literacy was varying depending on the family they worked for. Slaves often taught the children of the house to read and write, many were fluent in multiple languages, but it was Greek and Latin that were taught. Greek prisoners were often targeted specifically to be forced to tutor the children of higher Roman families. The freedman who were previously teachers or tutors often continued on with the same job, many of the higher up jobs in the education sector were held by freedman.

Plebians had the lowest literacy. The rich had easy access to education and there was no profit in the expansion of education and therefore no need to educate the masses. This is not to say that semi-literacy was not a skill among the common people. When written ballots came into use, around 130BC, the initials of the vote were needed. Some ballots included the answers and one merely needed to be crossed off while others had to be filled in by the voter completely. The existence of this meant that either the majority of the common Roman people were literate, or the elite were using the lack of literacy to limit the say of the people, we know that it is the latter.

There is evidence of working people being able to write, during the building of the Tarentum aqueduct a man recorded the names of his co-workers present on specific days. Letter writing was also used by those in the lower class, especially as the empire began to expand. Legionaries wrote letters to their families while they were away on duty, though it is not truly known if they were written by the soldiers themselves or dictated. Literacy was recognized as a way to rise up in the social sense, “Habet hacc res parem” translating to This thing has bread in it was referencing the fact that there was money to be made by those who could read and write (Harris 202). It is clear that few used writing heavily in their day to day lives, there was a basis of understanding to do with reading but cost and standardised education remained a barrier to anything further.

The army functioned largely without written instructions but still often incorporated it in various ways. Night guards in urban areas were required to memorise a written password but this is not evidence for literacy among the basic soldiers, the officers and centurions who came from wealthy families were often the ones who used writing. Literacy in the army corresponded to military rank almost exclusively (Harris 255). In both urban areas and army stations literacy was more used than in most areas due to the mix of classes and the rich serving as something to aspire to. Specifically in the army there was a need for a communication network that stretched over miles, oral orders were still given but plans were conveyed in writing.

Tradesmen and skilled workers used writing to a varying degree. The everyday shopkeepers had no need to keep records of the goods sold. Trade carried out over long distances commonly had the sending and receiving of letters involved (Harris 202). It was recommended for architects to be literate to convey designs and put in orders for building materials. 153 wax tablets were recovered from the house of a financial agent name L. Caecilius Iucundes. They were preserved by the 79AD eruption in Pompeii and record large transactions. There is also evidence of him writing receipts for some of his clients. Graffiti written on wood has also been recovered from Pompeii, which would’ve been lost otherwise. There was a social function of writing employed by the rich, or at least those who influenced the popular culture of the time. Advertisements for chariot races and other entertainments were often employed, so there an emphasis on appealing to the people through the written word, another way to exercise influence.

The rich were expected to be literate. A patrician man without the ability to read and write would’ve been considered almost barbaric. It was not an actual necessity to be literate as a wealthy person but rather a social necessity, they had slaves to do any writing they needed but them being literate was a display of their wealth and background. The guardians of families had to be literate, even if others in the family were literate if they themselves were not they could not legally be the head of the family. In was within the family that the children of the rich were taught, whether by slaves or tutors or their parents. Both boys and girls were educated, an educated woman was a sign of a good background and therefore more appealing. However they also married early, often in their early teens and this combined with the lack of standardised education meant semi-literacy was again more common. Literacy was a prestige and this attitude prevented it being encouraged to spread, in schools for the wealthy the different patrician classes (sons of equestrians and senators for example) were educated together.

It wasn’t a guarantee that everyone with wealth was educated, the more newly wealth probably weren’t educated to the same degree as those from older families.

Books were written by the elite due to their extreme cost and also the way in which they were workshopped. Books often drew on Greek sources and were for small social circles, not the wider public.

The way in which a Roman was taught was entirely dependent on class position. Within the elites there was a range of options, private tutors, taught by parents or sent to private schools. Cato taught his son himself, not wanting his son to answer to a slave. This was rare however as fathers were often serving their military service at the time where the children would be taught, multiple children also called for a larger number of tutors. If the father had died then the mother was in charge of the education of the children, Cornelia daughter of Scipio Africanus personally hired the tutors for her children but also took part in teaching them. This shows her own level of education (Bonner 15). The tutors themselves were sometimes scholarly poets, employing their own texts into their curriculum but this was the exception rather than the rule, many tutors simply interpreted the works of others rather than creating their own.

The standard education in primary schools was more rigid, catering to the children of the working population the Latin and Greek taught was very basic. There was a concentration on recognizing letters this was done both visually and audibly, mixing sound and shape but not written (Bonner 166). This repetition as a form of teaching also related to passages from texts such as law texts like the 12 tables, the group attitude of this form of teaching encouraged competition among the students. Syllables in poetry passages were marked out to aid with pronunciation and speaking.

As for writing, students were started off by being given a wooden tablet, without wax, on which to trace the letters already carved on it (Bonner 167). The shapes were to be recreated and spoken aloud, this was done many times and then the students moved on to writing the letters themselves on wax tablets. Once the form of capitals was known, they students were moved onto cursive, there was a record of a lower citizen boasting about knowing his capitals, showing that even though this education seems basic it was something of rarity. Important abbreviations to do with political figures were also taught, likely to aid with voting.

Both girls and boys were taught to read and write Greek and Latin but were not taught grammar to do with either language, after primary school students would have to enter a grammarian school to continue their education (Bonner 178). However, many children from working families would end their education here, only the more well-off sons of tradesmen would continue (the girls likely being prepared for marriage or already married by this time).

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Conclusion

In conclusion, though literacy was largely confined to the elites of Roman society it was not absent completely among the common man. It was only as the Roman empire expanded that the need for written correspondence was necessary for keeping control and even then, it was the elite who needed literacy to employ it. And yet despite the education being for and controlled by the rich it was the slaves who shaped the education system in Rome, employed as tutors. It seems that despite the overestimation of literacy among the people of Ancient Rome and its clear majority in the rich, literacy was not confined to the elite. Romans in all classes have left evidence of their literary achievements, from the literature of the elite, to the epigraphs of the prosperous, to the graffiti of the common.

Bibliography

• Bonner, S. F. Education in Ancient Rome. London, 1977.
• Harris, W. V. Ancient Literacy. Massachusetts, 1989.
• Woolf, G. 'Monumental writing and the expansion of Roman society in the Early Empire.' The Journal of Roman Studies 86 (2005).

Principal Cannon: “The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the smarter you will grow.” My Elementary school principal repeated this quote every morning after the announcements. While most kids where talking and playing while she uttered those words every day, me on the other hand, I was absorbing those words and living by them. Reading, growing, learning, and gaining more knowledge by the day. Even as a 17-year-old college student that quote that she repeated still sticks with me and I and still living by it just the same as I did as that Elementary school student. Personal literacy narrative of my past as a reader and writer is long and detailed, mainly because I can feed my mind as much as I want, and it will never get full. The uniqueness of my personality has created a filtration system for all the things I have read and the style of my writing. As I have grown up over the years my abilities in literacy have improved immensely. From the first book that I have read down to this very course have an impact on my relationship and experience with literacy. There is a range of different emotions that I have gone through, but in a short, I can describe it as a love-hate relationship, with ups and downs and twist and turns. Overall, I can say the reading and writing involved in literacy has given me so much; an outlet to express myself, means to improve myself, and material to entertain myself.

At this point in my life, I recognize that I am not as avid a reader as I had once been. All through middle school I always had a book in my hands, always waiting for Wednesday “Library day” to check out my next read. My friends would always ask me “Why are you always reading those big boring books.” They were not boring to me though, the young adult fiction books had me enthralled; for example, my favorites were The Twilight book series and The Hunger Game book series. The fictional lives of the characters gave me an escape to live in their world and to avoid my own where nothing exciting seemed to happen as it did in there’s. It would take me no time to read a book and be on to the next. As of late my relationship with reading is rocky, to say the least. I feel that reading is inescapable in a sense, whether it’s reading a Facebook post or a road sign, but as far as reading things with substance or pages, for that matter, come far and few unless it is necessary. At this stage in my life reading books is not a simple pleasure for me anymore, I now tend to gravitate towards news articles to read about the “Donald Trump’s latest crazy tweet” and local papers to see what is happening in my community. Although I do not read as much as I used to, I will say that reading has exposed me to different styles, genres, vocabulary, and thus has made me a better speaker and a stronger writer.

Writing is very important; it is a way of life and essential to all people in all walks of life, including my own life. Writing is a means of communication and connecting with those around us and has helped me to do just that. When my cousin Bredon went to basic training last year, writing was the only way me and my family could as he would say “keep eyes on him” while he was away. I love to write, once I get a flow going it just becomes so easy to be captivated by the process. I gained most of my knowledge on the process of writing formally as a junior in high school where I completed the Advanced Placement Language and Composition course taught by Mrs. Hairston. On the first day we had 15 students in the class, by the end of the week there were only three of us. From that point on, Mrs. Hairston would always tell us “Your class is small, but not obsolete, there is still work to be done.” Which is exactly what we did, worked and worked and got better and better by each passing day. Before that class, I didn’t really know much about writing examples of a solid narrative essay, let alone a synthesis essay, a rhetorical analysis essay, or an argument essay, but by the end of the course, I could do all these things and so much more. I truly feel I was a stronger writer at this point in my life. Even though most of the material I write are formal discussions and essays, I still find pleasure in the process and even more so in my finished product. I do sometimes find it difficult to get the motivation to begin writing, but I think that is all a part of what writing is. Writing is a long process with several layers to it and it can be difficult at times, but is still worth the effort in the end.

To conclude my literacy narrative essay, I can say there is not an exact moment or just one single person that I can pinpoint that has helped me on this long journey through my relationship with literacy, because there are just too many, but somehow along the way of my 17-year existence, I gained much information, which has landed me here. I am confident in my literacy abilities, but I know there is still so much to learn in this area, so much that a lifetime might not be enough time to learn it all. As Mrs. Hairston would many times say, “This is just the beginning, it may be hard, but in the end, you will be a better.” Literacy is much deeper than just reading and writing; it has given me the tools to be the person I am today with thoughts, opinions, and views and the means to convey them through reading and writing.

Works Cited

1. Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2007). Reading for information in elementary school: Content literacy strategies to build comprehension. Prentice Hall.
2. Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2011). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. Carnegie Corporation of New York.
3. Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). The number of words in printed school English. Reading Research Quarterly, 19(3), 304-330.
4. National Council of Teachers of English. (2018). Writing as a tool for learning. Retrieved from https://www2.ncte.org/resources/positions/writing-as-a-tool-for-learning/
5. Pappas, C. C. (2014). Literacy narratives and the teacher education classroom: Exploring the potential for transformative learning. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 10(1), 44-61.
6. Powell, J. (2018). An Introduction to Education Studies. Sage Publications Ltd.
7. Rappleye, J. (2017). Essential study skills. Cengage Learning.
8. The International Literacy Association. (2019). The power of literacy. Retrieved from https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/resource-documents/2019-ila-power-of-literacy.pdf?sfvrsn=9da89fc2_2
9. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). U.S. Government Printing Office.
10. Wilkinson, L. (2018). The essentials of academic writing. Sage Publications Ltd.

What makes one literate? What is literacy to you? Is it through reading a bunch of books? or…. Is it a product of our schooling? Learning that after the letter A is the letter B, after B is C and so on… or finding out this word is a verb and the other one is a noun; and that this sentence is grammatically correct and the other is not. Going through pre-school, kindergarten and on to high school to get a diploma, and then pursue a degree in college. Literacy can’t be just a product of schooling or the books we read. Can it? No. Literacy is a journey. A journey that is affected by every aspect of our lives. Where we’re from, what we’ve done, and who we associate with.

My name is Noora, and this is my personal literacy narrative. Like most people, my literacy skills grew with me at a very young age. It all started when I was born. I can’t remember a lot of things in detail, but I do know that I was brought to a place where soon I had to remember things. Things like recognizing faces, like my parents, siblings, and the rest of my family. A place where I had to remember things like my house. 

My first exposure to books was the children’s books that my sister would read to me and ask me questions about. Questions like “which one is a tree?”, then she would ask me to point the picture out. My very first two words to say were “daya”, and “baba” (Mom and Dad in Kurdish). I called everyone who took care of me and fed me daya and baba, until I realized I only had one daya and one baba. When I was around three years old, my sister would read me fairy tales and princess stories. I was obsessed with them. I wanted to be a princess. She showed me the different characters in the book. I was astounded by how beautiful they were. I began learning colors and started remembering what color each of their dresses and hairs were. Then I was at the age where I could speak and ask questions, for example: “what’s this?”, “why is this..?”, “why?”. I began to learn about new objects and was able to identify things. My mom then took me to pre-school. This was the first time I’ve seen school. I was so excited. I felt like I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was like my older sisters who were in high school at that point; finally grown and old enough for school! I began looking at books on my own and trying to identify the letters I saw. I learned to make friends and communicate with my peers. I started knowing which actions are right and which ones are wrong. This was the base of my academic and social skills. I then started memorizing my favorite songs and singing to myself in my room. I opened my closet, chose a gown, and wore my gown without my crown. I danced around my room and imagined the life of a princess. But this joy and excitement did not last very long. My family decided to move to Dubai, a city in the Middle East. They took me to school and put me in first grade. I truly hated it. The rest of the kids in my classroom spoke Arabic. It was incredibly difficult for me, a very social and active kid, to sit in a classroom not knowing a lick of Arabic. 

My very first exposure to Arabic literacy was in my Arabic learning class. It was me and five other foreign students who spoke French. They constantly spoke French to each other. So not only I was alienated from my Arabic classmates, but also from my Arabic program classmates. I was a social butterfly, an extrovert; without being able to speak Arabic, I just felt lonely and devastated. On the second day of school, I cried and said to my mom, “don’t take me to school today, don’t leave please.” I begged her to not take me to school, but she did and she left me there. Soon after I had forgotten about it, it taught me how to be independent from my mom and how to handle things on my own which is a huge part of who I am today. This motivated me to learn Arabic and as many other languages that I can possibly learn. It showed me the importance of literacy at a very young age. I then moved back to the United States and was able to see all my friends again and start the second half of the school year. I was happy again until my parents this time decided to move to Kurdistan. I was a little bit more educated and knew how it is going to be. It wasn’t as much of a surprise as it was the first time. Yet it was still very hard to learn the alphabet in a new language all over again. I started third grade in Kurdistan. I luckily already knew how to speak in Kurdish, but I was not as successful as the other kids in my class because of my lack of ability in writing and reading in Kurdish. I was a refugee in my environment because of my inability to write and read in Kurdish. I started falling behind. I felt like I was the only one struggling and that upset me because I’ve always had high expectations for myself. This just affected my relationship with any language or writing class. Until this day, I hate reading and writing, and it is always something that I don’t enjoy. This was like a road bump of my journey. However, my mom always told me to remember this quote, “the bumps in the road make the journey worth it.”

Once I moved back to the United States, I had almost perfected my Arabic and Kurdish speaking and writing abilities. I had learned how important literacy is. When I wasn’t able to speak the same language as my surrounding, I was incredibly lonely. I felt like I was barely part of the community. Now that I am literate in English, Kurdish, Arabic and Turkish, I have a lot more doors open to me and I can communicate with so many different people from different places. 

As seen from my literacy narrative essay, these events are only a few of the thousands that have shaped me as a learner, a reader, a writer and the individual that I am today. What events have shaped your literacy narrative? 

Works Cited

1. Alexander, P. A. (2017). Reading into literacy: An exploratory investigation of literacy events experienced by early readers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(1), 39-47.
2. Gee, J. P. (2015). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Routledge.
3. Heath, S. B. (2015). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Bloomsbury Publishing.
4. Luke, A. (2017). Critical literacy: Foundational notes. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(6), 611-615.
5. Lunsford, A. A., & Lunsford, K. J. (2008). "Mistakes are a fact of life": A national comparative study. College Composition and Communication, 59(4), 781-806.
6. McLaughlin, M., & DeVoogd, G. L. (2004). Critical literacy: Enhancing students' comprehension of text. Scholastic.
7. Paulson, E. J. (2015). The virtual library: A gateway to literacy for adolescents. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 88(2), 56-61.
8. Street, B. V. (2015). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge University Press.
9. Wagner, T., & Combs, M. (Eds.). (2017). Content area literacy: An integrated approach. SAGE Publications.
10. Zipes, J. (2016). The irresistible fairy tale: The cultural and social history of a genre. Princeton University Press.

Jean Rhys novel Wide Sargasso Sea is one of the most important post-colonial works that examines the effect of colonialism on Jamaica. Part of this examination is the exploration of how the aftermath of slavery affects Antoinette’s relations with the Afro-Caribbean people in general and in particular with two prominent Afro-Caribbean characters in the novel Tia and Christophine. Rhys examines how slavery has both beneficial and destructive effects on her relations with the Afro-Caribbean community.

Rhys demonstrates how the exploitation, suppression of the Afro-Caribbean people and their lack of compensation and lack of improved living standards has generated racial tensions and fostered the development of mutual hate. Moreover, Rhys illustrates how this atmosphere of mutual hatred caused by slavery impacts Antoinette’s relationship with the Afro-Caribbean population of post-colonial Jamaica. Rhys also exhibits the effect of figurative slavery on Antoinette’s marriage with her husband, whose name is not initially stated, but implicitly identified as Rochester (from Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre). Jean Rhys explores the after effects of slavery on Jamaica by looking at the relationship between Antoinette and the island’s native Afro-Caribbean population.

The relationship explored by Rhys is characterized by racial tensions. One of the ways this conflict is portrayed by Rhys is the use of derogatory terms. Throughout the exposition of the book, which is set on the island of Jamaica, characters of both races use racial slurs to refer to each other. One example of this is when a native Afro-Caribbean girl says, “’Go away white cockroach, go away’” (Rhys. p.7) to Antoinette on her way home. The term "white cockroach" is a term used by the Afro-Caribbean people to describe Antoinette and her family, as they are white but due to their lack of wealth not part of the white elite of Jamaica.

The use of the term “cockroach” demonstrates how antagonistic the relationship is as the term cockroach connotes vermin. Furthermore the fact that it happened on Antoinette’s way home shows the ordinariness of the situation. The racial tension is also conveyed through the violence of the natives towards Antoinette and her family. This violence begins with small incidents such as violence against animals that are owned by Antoinette’s family. For instance the reader is informed by Antoinette that “they killed our horse” (Rhys. p.18). This violence then spirals into the forceful eviction of Antoinette and her family from their estate “Coulibri” through a riot by members of the Afro-Caribbean community that set fire to their home. Antoinette’s use of a hyperbole to describe the scenery reveals the momentousness of the situation.

She says, “[the] flames [are] shooting up to the sky” (Rhys. p.20). Rhys also uses a hyperbole to mirror Antoinette’s young age, as children often use exaggerations in their language. These racial tensions portrayed by Rhys seem to portray the Afro-Caribbean population in a bad light, but in the historical context of the novel, one might argue that the anger of the Afro-Caribbean community is justified and understandable, as they suffered tremendous horrors, during the period of slavery.

The negative effects of slavery on the relationships between Antoinette and the Afro-Caribbean community are also shown by Rhys through Antoinette’s interactions with Tia. Tia was Antoinette’s only friend until an argument drove them apart. The abrupt ending of their friendship and the disappointment it caused is later outdone by Tia’s betrayal of Antoinette. Antoinette’s early relationship to Tia, after their first encounter is characterised by their mutual friendship. Antoinette says, that “Tia was my friend and I met her daily” (Rhys. p.7).

The daily routine of their relationship illustrates their close bond. However, this bond later breaks up over a petty bet of whether or not Antoinette could “turn a somersault under water” (Rhys. p.8)[6]. A disagreement about whether or not Antoinette actually completed this somersault spirals out of control and results in the end of their friendship. This is significant as both express their feelings using racial slurs Antoinette calls Tia a “cheating nigger” (Rhys. p.8)  and Tia refers to her former friend as a “white nigger” (Rhys. p.8).

The use of those very strong and pejorative racial slurs informs the reader about both of the girls’ upbringing and the social acceptability of racism in post-slavery Jamaica, as it is highly unlikely that the two girls used those terms without having acquired them from their surroundings. The racism expressed by Antoinette and Tia highlights how saturated Jamaica was with race-related hate and this hate can be directly linked to slavery.

In contrast to Antoinette’s relation with the Afro-Caribbean community and her interactions with Tia, which illustrate the negative effects of slavery on relationships, the connection between Antoinette and Christophine is not dominated by mutual hate and distrust, but rather by genuine affection and maternal love. Their relationship is Rhys description of a relationship that many female slaves and children of plantation owners experienced.

Christophine, just as many other female slaves was forced to function as Antoinette’s surrogate mother, as it was seen as inappropriate for upper class women, like Antoinette’s mother once was, to take care of her own child. Even though their relationship was forced upon them it resulted in a mother like bond. Rhys demonstrates the amiable aspects of their relationship especially through to what great extent Antoinette feels secure with Christophine by her side. Antoinette says that without Christophine next to her at night the “safe feeling left” (Rhys. p.18)her. This highlights Antoinette’s dependency on Christophine and her trust in her. Rhys uses Antoinette’s relationship to Christophine to examine how slavery can lead to a mother like bond between two people from different social standings.

Wide Sargasso Sea does not only explore the impact of literal slavery as a result of colonialism but also the concept of figurative slavery in the form of a woman's childlike dependence on her husband. The relationship between Antoinette and her husband Rochester is a vivid example of figurative slavery, as Antoinette is subordinated towards her husband who has the power to rob her of her freedom, by which he transforms Antoinette's figurative slavery into literal slavery. This metamorphose intensifies Antoinette's reliance on her husband. This dependency expresses itself primarily as an economic dependency. The reader is informed of this financial need through the dialogue between Antoinette and her surrogate mother Christophine.

Christophine suggests Antoinette to leave Rochester to re-start her life however Antoinette tells Christophine and thereby the reader that: "’I [Antoinette] am not rich now, I [Antoinette] have no money of my own at all, everything I had belongs to him…that is the English law’” (Rhys. p.68). The interaction between Christophine and Antoinette portrays the subservience of a woman on her husband and how this impacts a marriage by equipping the husband with supremacy and by entrapping the wife. A further example of Antoinette's entrapment and figurative slavery is her name being subsumed to “Bertha”. Her husband, Rochester refrains from calling her Antoinette as it reminds him of her crazed and deranged mother.

This name change is an act of dominance and demonstrates his power in the relationship, as he possess the power to alter another human beings identity. The name "Bertha" is of importance as Antoinette is robbed not only of her dignity through the loss of her last name, but also of her Creole heritage. Antoinette's Creole heritage makes her unique and exotic and distinguishes her from her husband. The changing of Antoinette's name to Bertha demonstrates Rochester's inability of dealing with the exotic and different.

In conclusion, Rhys vividly examines the results of the abolition of slavery in Jamaica and how it affects the protagonist’s relationship with the local Afro-Caribbean community, especially with Tia and Christophine. Tia and Christophine portray the two different possible outcomes of slavery's impact on Antoinette’s relationship with the Afro-Caribbean population of post-colonial Jamaica. Whereas Tia represents the destructive impact of an environment drenched with hate generated by slavery and Christophine embodies the positive impacts of a relationship forced upon by slavery. Rhys further examines the effect of figurative slavery on Antoinette’s marriage with her husband Rochester.

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My fellow Ithacans, I have come a long way to get to where I am now. I have traveled for the past 10 years, and have learned a lot about other lands and cultures. I have met new people, and I have formed alliances with them. I am a smart explorer and have shown leadership in many situations along my journey. I have lived in Ithaca almost all of my life, and I know that there are many things I need to change. I will make sure there is enough wealth and jobs for Ithacans. I promise Ithacans will stay healthy and be educated. I will have wealthy citizens pay more taxes than poor citizens. I have experienced being a beggar and I have realized that it not pleasant. Ithacans will get more opportunities than they have before. I will trade our goods with my allied neighbors to increase our economy. I will help Ithaca grow and flourish. Vote for me for a new method of government.

My primary concern is our economy. Living as a beggar, I have experienced what a poor citizen in Ithaca has to deal with. I was disrespected, kicked, and not given the same opportunities as the rich. I thought that it was unfair and I will let all people voice their opinions, no matter their economic background. My opponent wants to cut taxes but we need to give the people necessities. I will tax everybody on what they own, to make the rich pay more than the poor. I will create more jobs by planting crops for trading. This will get beggars off the street to give them work and money. A vote for me is a vote for a better economy.

Along with my opponent I have met with Joelemachus the plumber and he has had tough time getting money for retirement. I promise everyone will have a retirement plan because not everyone marries into a wealthy family. My rival has never needed to work a day in his life and is not going to help the people in need. I am not egocentric and I will bring real democracy to Ithaca.

After traveling and exploring new lands, I have made alliances with Gods and leaders. I know who me can and cannot trade with and where we can and cannot go. I will trade with foreign lands to support our economy and people. If we trade with foreign countries, it will widen our possibilities for farming growth. We can create more jobs and get the beggars off of our streets. I am open to immigration because it is important to learn about other means, and methods. I realize that immigration could end up with a loss of jobs but if we control the amount of people who immigrate, everything will be okay.

It is important to educate the youth of the country as for they will be the future of it. Every child will be taught no matter the economic class of the family. The children will learn together so they have different perspectives of other economic backgrounds. I think having people from other countries come will help give students new ways at looking at the world. Students will travel and explore new environments and languages. So many people are capable of being intelligent; As President, I will give them all that opportunity.

Religion is important to me and unlike my opponent I will allow my citizens to believe in whatever they choose. I will respect their religion as they are to respect mine. It is important to see other religions because it will help people understand why people say and do the things they do. If you vote for me your beliefs will be respected.

Finally, I will make Ithaca’s economy better, while I advance foreign relations. Our children will be educated in a diverse environment. Our elders will be taken care of with a new retirement plan. I promise to make a better Ithaca with a true democracy. Great Ithacans, vote for me, a new system of government, and a bright way of life.

ATTWN Literary Analysis

Homosapiens are the most psychologically complex organisms on Earth. We have governments, languages, arts, music, and technology. Each person on the planet is so incredibly unique that it would be easier to find two identical snowflakes than finding two identical people. However, we do have some things in common, despite what most think. The 10 homicidal characters conjured up by the famous magician of an author, Agatha Christie, are invited to a seemingly-innocent millionaire’s island by the mysterious U. N. Owen in the award-winning novel, And Then There Were None. Each person is invited by different people for different reasons: an old army-buddy reunion, an undercover investigation, and a secretary position. Then, they’re all accused of heinous felonies by a recording and are assassinated one by one until there were none remaining alive. The characters from And Then There Were None represent humankind’s self-preservation, fear, and predictability.

Humans have a knack for blaming others to redirect accusations on themselves. If a student, for example, decided to cheat on a test, they’d probably get a good grade, but they’d be breaking a rule. So, they wouldn’t admit it because it benefits them. This is similar to how the 10 characters from And Then There Were None committed murders and got away with it. They wanted to protect their own well-being and avoid getting in jail. For example, on page 191, Detective William Blore and Philip Lombard are having a heated discussion about Blore’s crime. Blore is continuing to defend himself against Lombard’s accusatory animadversions until he starts challenging Lombard’s rationale for bringing a revolver. They continue to do so in order to preserve themselves. Earlier on, Lombard admits unmitigatedly that he killed twenty-one men that were part of an east-African tribe. He says, “Story’s quite true! I left ’em! Matter of self-preservation. We were lost in the bush. I and a couple of other fellows took what food there was and cleared out. Not quite the act of a pukka sahib, I’m afraid. But self-preservation’s a man’s first duty. (pg. 67)” Similar to Lombard’s arrogant actions, the other characters eventually stop caring about the others’ fates; they just worried about their own futures on the diabolical island they were trapped on. The victims all obstinately say that they did not or will not ever perform any kind of illegal activities, much less murder.

Fear is another drive for the things we people do. On page 265, Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard are in a predicament. After the discovery of Detective Blore’s death, the list of suspects was down to one: each other! Vera finessed Lombard’s revolver, while he was distracted with his back turned to her, and shoots him dead out of fear that he would slay her. Overall, humans don’t want to die. Believe it or not, some people are even terrified of the prospect of dying! Who would’ve thought? So in order to shield themselves from dying a premature death, they do everything in their power, sometimes, to do so. This shows how similar fear and self-preservation really are.

Our species are so intellectual that we can also predict each other’s actions. Sometimes, it doesn’t even have to be people who are very close. At the end of the harrowing tale, the murderer, Justice Lawrence Wargrave, explains why he imprisoned 9 other people on an island, executed them one by one, and ended his own life (pgs. 285-300). He was incredibly adroit and was able to foresee how each person would act in a specific situation. He meticulously plotted his ” fantastical crime. (pg. 287)” down to a tee. Wargrave correctly forecasted that Dr. Edward Armstrong would gullibly ally himself with Wargrave and help fake Wargrave’s death and ” rattle the murderer (pg. 295). ” He also knew that the remaining survivors would trust Armstrong’s verdict: “He’s been shot. (pg. 223)” Of course they would assume that what Armstrong said was true because he was a doctor! But, in fact, he was lying. If a man dressed in a police officer’s uniform with a badge with a told you that you were under arrest, put handcuffs on you, and told you to get in his car, you would wouldn’t you? But what if he wasn’t a police officer, but a kidnapper that would steal you for ransom?

This book, however, stole the hearts of people around the globe with over 100 million copies sold, placing it as the sixth best-selling title. Although humans, collectively, are the smartest species on the planet, we still have strengths and weaknesses as everything has; we have powers and flaws such as selfishness, despair, and uniformity. But, in the end, that is what molds us into the remarkable species that we are.

Works Cited

1. Christie, A. (1939). And Then There Were None. HarperCollins Publishers.
2. Knapp, R. H. (1995). A study guide for Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Gale.
3. Spoto, D. (1993). The complete films of Agatha Christie. Citadel Press.
4. Thompson, L. R. (2000). Agatha Christie: An English mystery. Headline Book Publishing.
5. Smith, J. A. (2015). The murder mystery in literature. McFarland.
6. Doležalová, J. (2014). Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None in the light of postmodernism. Brno Studies in English, 40(1), 83-100.
7. Guntern, G. (2008). Detecting a detective novelist's use of psychology. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 5(2), 117-123.
8. Wan, Y. H. (2017). An Analysis of the Classic Detective Story Elements in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 25(2), 65-77.
9. Simaika, M. S. (2017). The Concept of Justice in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Journal of the College of Languages and Translation, 2(2), 93-102.
10. Selinger, E. (2012). And Then There Were None: A Comparative Analysis of the Different Endings of the Novel and the Play. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 54(2), 167-184.

Fredrick Douglass depicts his own style of writing in his memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass, one of the most famous American slaves, has a writing style that is more old-fashioned, intimate, and direct. He belives that slavery should be should be abolished and he illustrates to the reader by telling his story. He shares how he tolerated being a slave and working for several slaveholders. Also how he overcame slavery and how he was able to become his “own master.” By clearly establishing his credibility and connecting with his audience, Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices to argue the atrocity that slaves experienced; he uses ethos, parallelism, and tone.

Frederick Douglass uses parallelism when saying “I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial”. This is one way that Douglass shows why slavery should be abolished; mothers could not care for their own children. Children were also not allowed to attend their mother’s burial and show respect. No mother wanted to give up their child, but they were forcefully separated. Douglass had no knowledge of where and when his mother was buried.

Another way Douglass uses parallelism is when he says, “No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose”. This explains how their master had no heart or empathy for what he was destroying or who he was harming. He may have owned them, but did not care about them, he could do what he pleased, and there was no law prohibiting that. To imagine how his aunt felt is unbearable, it is sad to think about the unnecessary misery many slaves went through. No person regardless of skin color should ever go through what slaves went through. In Chapter 5, he uses ethos when he says “in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me…”.

Douglass is expressing to us that he believes that he will be free one day, he will be the one to tell his own story. It is a fact that not every slave was able to be free, many slaves died as slaves. Douglass was apart of the group of free slaves that were able to recollect the experiences of what they went through. Another way he used ethos is when he states “The more I read, the more I was lead to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery”.

Douglass experienced slavery first hand during his childhood, and remembered his old desire for knowledge and education in his youth; he valued education and knowledge as power. He is letting the reader know that there will always be a part in you that knows where you came from and what you dreamed your life would be. He knew that he was not meant to be a slave forever, even though some people died a slave they were free once they died. Douglass believed that slaves should have the right to learn. He knew that there were white, educated people who could teach him how to read, and also believed he would meet those people, and so he did. When he use to work for Mr. Auld, Mrs. Auld taught him the alphabet and how to read, but that did not last long once Mr. Auld found out. Douglass took advantage of the time he had, and shared it with other slaves. He felt that with all the hard work they did, learning how to read should be their reward. Throughout the narrative, Frederick Douglass has several different tones.

At some points he is reserved; Other times, he’s angry, or emotional. In many parts, when he is sharing the different beatings him or another slave received, his tone is somber. Douglass did not have many whippings but he witnessed and heard of many of them. The way he explained the whipping was reserved but reading it may have disturbed the audience. He explains it in a way the reader can visualize it (imagery). Douglass’s angry tone begins to surface when he fights Mr. Covey in Chapter 10. Douglass was not going to put up with how Mr. Covey was handling him. His tone was kind of proud and angry because he got into several fights but was rarely whipped. Douglass was more furious that he still had to work for Mr. Covey after their confrontation. Also in Chapter 10 his tone became emotional when he was at Chesapeake Bay.

“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swifted-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! Alas! Betwixt me and you the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could O but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am let in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it…”. Douglass started to lose faith and was making a plan to run away. At this point he did not care if he lived or died, he just did not want to be a slave anymore. But he pushed through and eventually at the end of the story he was a free slave. In conclusion, Frederick Douglass, an American slave, told the story of his life and how he became a free slave. By using parallelism, ethos, and tone he showed why slavery should be abolished. In using these rhetorical devices, Frederick Douglass makes an effective argument against slavery. His tone was the most effective in emphasizing the cruelness of slavery. Douglass and many other people are the reason black people are free today.

Works Cited

1. Douglass, F. (1845). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
2. Andrews, W. L. (1991). To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. University of Illinois Press.
3. Blassingame, J. W. (1979). Frederick Douglass: The Clarion Voice. Yale University Press.
4. Foner, P. S. (2018). Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Simon & Schuster.
5. Genovese, E. D. (1974). Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. Vintage.
6. Levine, R. S. (1997). Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and the Politics of Representative Identity. University of North Carolina Press.
7. O'Meally, R. G. (Ed.). (1995). The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. W. W. Norton & Company.
8. Quarles, B. (1960). Frederick Douglass. Oxford University Press.
9. Stauffer, J. (2008). Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Twelve.
10. Sundquist, E. L. (1991). To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature. Belknap Press.

The literature in the 19th century was divided by modernist and traditionalist. These two sides divided society into sectors with different ideas. These different viewpoints created conflict in the United States in the 1920s. Modernist influenced literature in the way that, they spoke about the social issue with their own personal viewpoints. In the story “Cat in the Rain”, Hemingway uses symbolism and personal experiences to respond to the social concerning women’s rights movement act.

Ernest Hemingway who was recognized with a Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1952 and a Nobel Prize in the same year, has become one of the most famous American authors of all time. This was due to his experiences, shaping him up to develop a new writing style which became an inspiration to many writes of the past and modern day. Hemingway’s early life, a far apart from being an author. He was drafted into going to the First World War, however, he wouldn’t go in as a soldier, but as a driver. Tragedy, Hemingway was severely injured in his legs and had to have immediate surgery, which at that time wasn’t very effective. Yet, the surgery actually resulted perfectly. While he was in the hospital, he used to tell of the stories that he had lived through his time in the war. This was how the great Hemingway got into storytelling. His usual style is reflected in personal storytelling like it was in the hospital. Hemingway’s work usually wrote about problems that society faced, he usually proved his masculine and sexist attitudes through characters in the stories that he wrote. He used imagery as a technique that he used to address death. The usage of death was high in his stories due to his background of being a soldier of the First World War. Hemingway’s style was fundamentally shaped in reaction to his experience of world war one. After world war one, he and other modernists lost faith in the central institutions of western civilization and started using their original and profound personal experiences to convey a much bigger message in their tale.

The use of a unique writing style used in this story makes an impactful remark in the way that this story is processed by the reader. Therefore, Hemingway helps the reader to perceive the meaning and purpose of the cat through his use of setting, writing style and character. Hemingway sets the setting to be as unpleasant and grey as possible. He does this to convey the setting and state of 1925. This grey day of age was situated around 7 years after WW. During these times many arguments such as the prohibition of alcohol, the “KKK”, immigration, communism and much more were created. The creation of such outrageous ideas divided the population into usually two or more sides which would be in conflict and created social chaos. Hemingway uses rain as a symbol of paralysis. In the story, the use of “it was raining. The rain dripped from the palm leaves”, give the reader the idea that the hotel must not be active on a rainy day. The fact that “[there] were only two Americans stopping at the hotel” gave the story an eerie feel, as well as being in an unknown country with few resources to their demand. Ernest also uses his signature writing style in this story. He uses his own point of view, this is a typical writing style that Ernest and other authors used due to their complaints with the literature at that time. These authors ended up creating a new technique that leads the author to state his point of view and use different personal experiences in their writing. The personal ideas that Hemingway uses in the “Cat in the Rain” are extremely sexist. Hemingway clearly exhibits his sexist thoughts thought out the story as in the character of George. This is clearly seen when George, compliments her wife saying how she “[looks] pretty darn nice”, contrasting his next thought by telling her wife to “shut up and get something to read”. Hemingway is globally known for his sexism attributes. He is also known to use little descriptions in his stories but depends confidently on the dialogue. Hemingway uses symbolism to capture the details of the portrayal of sexism. In the story the reader sees how the wife spots a cat stuck in the grey rain across their empty hotel, this causes the wife to get sentimental and start connecting with the poor helpless cat. She can connect to the poor cat because the piteous state of the cat is a perfect reflection of what the wife’s feelings of loneliness and vulnerability are. The desire that the wife feels for the cat also personifies her lack and desire for comfort and loving contact. Succeeding this event, the wife returns upstairs and starts telling George that she wants a cat to “comfort her and to sit on her lap”. This vision and ideal state are what women were trying to achieve during these times, to get equal treatment and for them to be dependent. The cat describes the spark that starts the fire, this is the connection that women felt, which motivated them to fight on what was right.

To conclude, the modernist Ernest Hemingway uses symbolism and personal experience to address social issues. This new style of writing, helps the author to express his thoughts with an artistic touch. In the case of Hemingway, he usually takes on a character to show his thoughts and to communicate his ideas within the story. Today we can see this text as a reference for the drastic change that our society has taken through the conflict that has come upon different ideas. 

Works Cited

1. Benson, J. (1989). Ernest Hemingway: The life of a literary genius. Viking Press.
2. Fetterley, J. (1978). The resisting reader: A feminist approach to American fiction. Indiana University Press.
3. Hemingway, E. (1925). "Cat in the Rain." In Hemingway, E. (Ed.), In Our Time. Boni & Liveright.
4. Hemingway, E. (1952). The Old Man and the Sea. Scribner.
5. Jones, L. (1991). Hemingway and women: Female critics and the female voice. University Press of Mississippi.
6. Leff, L. (2017). The Modernist Response to Chinese Art: Pound, Moore, Stevens. University of Virginia Press.
7. Martin, L. A. (2002). Ernest Hemingway: A literary reference. Carroll & Graf Publishers.
8. Reynolds, M. J. (1990). Hemingway: The Paris Years. W. W. Norton & Company.
9. Stein, G. (1933). The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Harcourt Brace & Company.
10. Wagner-Martin, L. (1987). Ernest Hemingway: A life story. Palgrave Macmillan.

Table of contents

1. Semantics
2. Sentence Structures
3. Discourse, Formality and Metaphor

Semantics

Eva’s emotional journey is protrayed in Kindertransport, during her evacuation. Semantic field of fear is clearly demonstrated when Eva arrives to England, when she doesn’t understand what the organiser is on about. “Who will look after me?” clearly this suggests that she is afraid of being alone showing connotations of loss. Another semantic field of fear is presented by Eva, is when her identity is trapped. Eva is being dehumanised by the organiser, “will you look after me?”. . . “no. no. You stay where you are (barking at her as if to a dog) sit!”, humour is being presented by the organiser by forcefully showing his authority towards Eva, this gives him more status so that the children would conform to him. This also gives him an advantage as he is embodies the character of the Ratcatcher, but his disrespectful actions towards her makes him unaware of the fear as a young child, discrimination is shown towards her because he is not unconscious of her different background and her emotional journey of separation with her mother. This creates dramatic irony, as he is uneducated, through the use of interrogatives.

Eva is afraid of the Ratcatcher, that he embodies everything that frightens her, in different male characters. The emotional presence of the Ratcatcher terrifies Eva, “I will take the heart of your happiness away” the semantic connotations of the ‘heart’ symbolises the children because this is what keeps them alive, his dark mysterious figure is ironic because he personifies Eva’s fear of separation and loss. Also another semantic filed of fear is illustrated through the loss of valuable possessions “my gold watch is in there. . . and in the other heel are two rings, a chain with a star of David and a charm bracelet for you. All made of gold”, connotations of identity is presented by Helga, she passes on precious family possessions for the fear for losing Eva. By giving her the star of David that consists of the Jewish identity of religion and to remind Eva of her religion through times when she struggles and feels frightened. The connotations of time is presented through the gold watch Helga gives to Eva, that represents their time together, so Eva receives memories.

Sentence Structures

In Samules play, separation is seen throughout the play. Eva faces separation with her mother (Helga) at the start of the play by showing a cold approach to Eva. The war has effected their relationship by separating them and the declaratives used by Helga “Eva, sew on your buttons now. Show me that you can do it” this illustrates the lack of warmth and a sense of no feeling towards her daughter, just because she wants her to be independent even though she is a child. Eva refuses to listen to her mother by being stuborn when she is leaving her home, “can’t I do it later. . . there’s no ‘later’ left, Eva. . . now” this suggests a sense of an end, the imperative ‘now’ used is to instruct Eva by telling her to do it now as there is no future for them together. The noun ‘later’ suggests that their future together is being broken apart because of the separation. Eva is seen to be naive about what she is going through, the use of exclamatory sentence “Mutti! Vatti! Hello! Hello! See. I did get into the carriage. I said I would. See, i’m not crying. I said I wouldn’t” shows how she is trying to communicate with her parents through the use of childlike impression shows her as a young child. Here, she is presented as innocent, the amount of repetition she uses shows the confusion she is at, and even though her parents sent her away she is still trying to please them. This suggests that Eva has no understanding of what is happening, it seems that her parents haven’t told her what is actually happening to her. There is a clear barrier that has separated her from her parents that is seen as a sign of pain. Her mother has successfully changed her daughter’s thoughts about being independent when she says “There’s no point in crying”, this suggests how Eva is putting her emotions away, the audience views her painful situation as bravery as she can survive the separation made with her parents at a young age.

Another symbol of separation is used in Kindertransport is the Ratcatcher, this character in the play is Eva’s fear, he is hidden in Eva’s thoughts and increases the tension of separation. Whenever he comes to her thoughts she feels unsecure and this is when her anxiety about leaving her parents effects the structure of her sentences. “The Ratcatcher music weaves around the train’s chugging”. . . we’ll see our Muttis and Vatis soon enough” this declarative statement suggests how she is hoped, using childlike thinking shows her affirmation behaviour. Bowlby’s idea of maternal deprivation supports the idea that Eva has psychologically changed during the separation because of the confusion she has experienced during the transport.

Discourse, Formality and Metaphor

Eva shows interest in her religion as her identity through tag questions, “What is an abyss Mutti?” this shows their time together is temporary, also shows that the relationship between Helga and Eva is short. Through this question, Eva is presented as innocent, her mother is seen to be independent so that she can help Eva with her intelligence by answering her naive question, so that she can grow. This is ironic because the abyss is where everything changes, where she loses her mother and her Jewish identity. As a result to this change, war effects Eva, as she has lost everything she had in Germany including her mother and identity. Evelyn (or Eva) blames her confusion of her identity to her mother, “(EVEYLN) You threw me into the sea with all your baggage on my shoulders…(HELGA) you can never excuse yourself… (EVEYLN) how could I swim ashore with so much heaviness on me? I was drawning in leagues and leagues of salty water…(HELGA) I have bled oceans out of my eyes”. Turn taking in this extract is seen as traumatic, the idea of guilt is presented in both characters showing how their relationship has changed over the past years. In her emotional journey, ‘I was drawning’ this shows that as a young child she has suffered.

The use of her metaphorical language, there is a sense of being a drift, not belonging anywhere, she can’t change her identity becuase of her mothers responsibilities she had given her, suffering and experiencing pain because she doesn’t know who she is, sense of loss. Her mother also shows her suffering, ‘bled oceans out of my eyes’ this metaphorical language shows her pain, as she just wanted the best for her daughter, but it wasn’t expected of her daughter to change her identity. The war has effected the Jewish children in their adulthood by making them change their identity, “You admit that you were Eva Schlesinger then?. . . No I didn’t. . . did I?. . . No… Evelyn goes blank”.

Faith uses past tense ‘you were’, suggesting she is no longer Eva Schlesinger. Eva tries to get rid of her identity by changing her name to Evelyn, through Evelyn’s non-fluency sentences, she uses ellipsis to show confussion as she struggles to face her daughter with the truth. The ellipsis also creates tension because she is unsure about her identity herself. She has to ask herself about her past and who she was before answering her daughter. By using a tag question ‘did I?’, shows how much she refuses to accept her Jewish identity because of the pain she suffered from separation. She wants to remember but struggles to accept what it was like to be a young Jewish girl, Lil transforms Eva and presenting a negative image in her mind about her Jewish side.

Analysis of the poem

In the poem “Fire and Ice,” by Robert Frost readers learn of his thoughts on how the world might terminate. The emotion he conveys seems to convey is remorse and disgust, as shown in line five, “I think I know enough of hate.” Frost’s persona of his voice is exposed in line five as being wise. The tone he uses throughout the poem can be understood as serious. The tone can be shown in lines one and two where he says, “Some say the world will end in fire / Some say in ice.” He is discussing the perishing of people and all other life in the world. It can also be shown in line five when he talks of perish, “But if it had to perish twice.”

The form Frost uses in this poem is a single nine-line stanza. It is an example of an epigram as explained by Kirszner and Mandell, “a short poem that makes a pointed comment in an unusually clear, and often witty, manner” (Kirszner and Mandell 510). In line four Frost says, “I hold with those who favor fire,” but in lines seven, eight, and nine he says, “To say that for destruction ice / Is also great / And would suffice.”

This seems to be a little bit puzzling as to readers not perceiving precisely where Frost stands. Also equally important, “Fire and Ice,” is a single line stanza. The only punctuation used in this poem is at the conclusion of specific lines. Additionally, Frost also uses end-stopped lines such as at the end of lines one and two when he says, “Some say the world will end in fire / Some say in ice.” He uses a comma to continue line one into line two with a period to end line two.

The word choice Frost uses in “Fire and Ice,” is conveyed as abstract in lines one and two. This is presented by him trying to express how some people believe the world will end. It is also shown in line three when he says, “From what I’ve tasted of desire”. Another illustration shown in line three is connotation by his understanding of desire, and in line six when he refers to hate. He uses poetic diction throughout the poem. Frost also uses some figurative language in lines three and six when he mentions desire and hate. He is referring to the lust and hatred of humanity in the world. Frost also uses a metaphor to compare fire to desire and ice to hate. He also uses repetition when he says some say in lines one and two.

Frost uses rhyme at the ends of lines three and four when he says, “From what I’ve tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire.” He also uses it in lines five, seven, and nine when he says, “But if it had to perish twice…………………To say that for destruction”, then lastly in line nine, “And also would suffice.” The meter he uses is an iambic meter. An iambic meter is also called a rising meter due to development from unstressed to stressed syllables. This is expressed in line four when he says, “I hold with those who favor fire.” Frost also uses alliteration in line four when he says “…favor fire.” An example of rhythm is how he uses eight syllables in his lines. This begins in line three, “From what I’ve tasted of desire.”

The overall theme Robert Frost aspires for readers to interpret is that the hatred and desires of the world is what will ultimately be the destruction of it. “That hatred and indifference are equally destructive'. This is expressed by his use of figurative language when comparing fire to desire, and ice to hate, “From what I’ve tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire…………I think I know enough of hate / To say that for destruction ice”. He believes that these will sooner or later consume humanity and destroy the world. Anna Banks says, “and we could say that fire consumes solid elements, represents passion and danger'. Passion and desire can be considered similar reactions.

Baron Wormser also believes that Frost is speaking on human behavior, “In 'Fire and Ice' one encounters the typical Frost posture—that of someone's entertaining notions about human behavior”. The human behaviors are what affect the world in great and numerous ways. Frost is indicating that he believes people should change for the better, and along the way saving humanity will also save the world from peril.

Works Cited

1. Banks, Anna, and Stephen Banks. Fiction & Social Research: By Fire or Ice. AltaMira Press, 1998, p. 13.
2. Kirszner, Laurie, and Stephen Mandell. Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Cengage Learning. 2016, p. 510.
3. Wormser, Baron. Meeting the Agony: Three Poems of the Twentieth Century. Sewanee Review, vol. 116, no. 3, Summer 2008, pp. 411–427. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/sew.0.0065.