Alliteration In The Promised Land

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In this essay, I will break down this passage from Antin’s book, The Promised Land, into its components. I will explain how those components fit together and discuss their possibilities of meaning. Antin’s discourse will be reviewed and the fit of this piece into her discourse will be evaluated. In doing these steps, it will put the meaning behind Antin’s words that the attempts of the Gentiles to break and convert the Jewish people of Russia brings them closer together and to God in the face of the tyranny of the Czar. This passage is composed of two dependent clauses connected with a semicolon. The first independent clause contains 26 words and the second clause contains 17 words. Both clauses are complex. The first clause contains an appositive and the second is a combination of an independent clause followed by a …show more content…

The alliteration in “this wall within the wall” is used to bring attention to the complexity of the barriers between the Gentiles and the Jews. Taken out of context, there really would be no need to build a wall if a wall is already created. It seems redundant. But the outer wall erected by the Gentiles is also controlled by them, giving them access to the interior whenever they may desire. In building the second wall, the Jewish people empower themselves to prevent the Gentiles’ contact. It is a wall that cannot be broken into or sabotaged at the Gentiles’ desire. When repetition is used again in the phrase “prisoners of the Pale”, its purpose is to reaffirm the connection between the two. In doing so, it also gives the Jews of the Pale a sense of belonging as well. Yes, they are prisoners. But they are prisoners of the Pale and they have erected their own wall in defiance of their captors. They have set their boundaries and in a way, imprisoned themselves to keep their distance from the

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