Une raison d'écrire
Federico Fellini once said, “A different language is a different vision of life ("Federico Fellini"). Jonathan Safran Foer’s use of language is an important theme in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It is simple and easy to read the language one knows and skip over words one doesn’t understand. There are many ways to communicate ideas, language is one of the most important. Language can be reflected in pictures, actual words and phrases, different languages, etc. Through hidden language, one can interpret the basic ideas of a novel or go deeper into the all-encompassing meaning of the novel. Language is powerful to communicate but is also a way to express personality. Rather than limiting the characters and plot, the
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Oskar’s grandparents grew up in Germany and even though the grandmother was not the grandfather’s first love they came together after the Dresden bombing. The grandparents never use German again, which is a weird thought, considering that is the language they grew up with (Foer 85). They may not speak it fluently after this point in their lives, but the German language shows up throughout the rest of the novel. The Grandma says they [Oskar’s grandparents] “...never used German again” which helps both grandparents to distance themselves from their families, who died in the Dresden bombing (Foer 85). The grandmother keeping the grandfather’s last name with the German spelling Schell shows that even if she is distancing herself from her lost family, she is not willing to give up all ties to the familiar. The German meaning of the word Schell is loud and noisy. This goes with the meaning of Oskar, which is a divine Spearman. Oskar Schell has a name that captures his personality, he may not be a literal Spearman, but he is loud with all his questions and curiosity, which leads him to be excellent in receiving what is needed (like a spearman receiving the prey). If the grandmother had not kept the German background of their family name, the story could change who Oskar is. Schell is pronounced like “Shell” in English. A shell in English is used to protect and hide …show more content…
A picture is said to be worth a thousand words. Foer uses photos throughout the novel to document the journey Oskar is taking. It is unusual for a novel to include many pictures, but Foer uses these pictures to speak to the readers. These photos all represent part of Oskar’s journey in a physical way, but deep down they contain a hidden message of who Oskar is and where his expedition will take him. One picture that reveals the most about Oskar is the photo on page 67 of Jean-Pierre Haigneré. He was “the French astronaut who had to be carried from his spacecraft after returning from the Mir space station…” (Foer 243). This photo tells the reader that Oskar has felt like Jean-Pierre Haigneré, especially since he placed it in his “Stuff that Happened to Me” book (Foer 243). Oskar has felt that he is unable to walk, at least on his own, and that sometimes if we fall down, we have people who are there to pick us up. The next picture that portrays Oskar’s character is on page 53. This is a picture of a wall filled with keys. This picture captures the essence of the novel. The novel follows Oskar on his journey to find a lock to, what he believes to be, his father’s key. The picture shows the amount of keys which all have their own lock. Oskar has one key and there are thousands upon thousands of locks. This shows Oskar has an infinite number of possibilities, but he is determined to find the
This story goes on talking about the past in the concentration camp all of a sudden. Hannah is back at the dining room table and notices the tattoo on Aunt Eva's arm and recognizes it. She says the numerical significance of the number to Aunt Eva, who says that when she was young she was known by another name, Rivka. After coming to America, many of the survivors changed their names. Grandpa Will, Eva's brother, was known as Wolfe before.
His grandfather, Thomas Schell Sr., is mute and collects stacks of daybooks in which he writes what he needs to say. His first love, Anna, died in a bombing while pregnant with his child. Shortly after starting his new life in the United States, he runs into Anna’s sister, they get married, and he leaves her after he finds out his wife is pregnant. His wife, Oskar’s grandmother, lives across the street from Oskar and his mother, who helped raise him. Some of the major themes in this book include death, mourning, and trauma.
The two pictures, both mentioned together at the end of the novel, but taken at different points of Robert's life, display the extreme transformation that has taken place in his life. It makes you look back over all that has happened to Robert and determine what took place for him to have gone through such a change.
...n image of desolate grief that the lone brother feels for his lifeless sibling. Image is truly the most important element in the style of this story.
...oreover, Hugo’s eager acceptance of Sara’s father and his cultural traditions draws Sara full circle into reconciliation with both her father and the traditional Jewish culture he personifies.
Words have the power to affect people in many ways from empowerment or to taking upon action. Words are able to make huge changes in the lives of many and can make good or bad changes. In history, people used words in both good and bad function from making a promise to a nation or even manipulating multitudes of people within a nation. Words definitely have the ability to take situations a far distance but despite the fact that evil can manipulate the majority of people, individuals too can realize the true actions and evil buried inside the perpetrator. People can be both ugly and beautiful at sometimes with weapons along their sides. A novel called The Book Thief illustrates the power of words in a multitude of ways, showing the potential
Mrs.Johansen is Annemarie’s mother, she is a very strong, determined, and smart woman “Friends will take care of them. thats what friends do. ”she helps the roses by hiding ellen and pretending that she is their daughter. Mr. Johansen is Annemarie’s father, he is the same as her mother but more courageous and brave. ” we don’t know where the germans are taking the jews and we dont know what that means we only know that its is wrong, and it dangerous and we must help”.
How does language impact each character from our readings, and what is the significance? A common theme within our various texts this semester was that of the importance of language. Not only is language a basis of verbal and written communication, but a deeper symbolic aspect of one’s own true identity. This piece will discuss include the significance of language to each character, what it personally means to them, as well as the conflicts they face with their specific means of communication.
During WWII, when Jakob Beer is seven, his parents are murdered by Nazi soldiers who invade their Polish village, and his beloved, musically talented 15-year-old sister, Bella, is abducted. Fleeing from the blood-drenched scene, he is magically saved by Greek geologist Athos Roussos, who secretly transports the traumatized boy to his home on the island of Zakynthos, where they live through the Nazi occupation, suffering privations but escaping the atrocities that decimate Greece's Jewish community. Jakob is haunted by the moment of his parents' death the burst door, buttons spilling out of a saucer onto the floor, darkness and his spirit remains sorrowfully linked with that of his lost sister, whose fate anguishes him. But he travels in his imagination to the places that Athos describes and the books that this kindly scholar provides. At war's end, Athos accepts a university post in Toronto, and Jakob begins a new life.
Liesel’s mom leaves her with foster parents because she wishes to protect her from the fate she is enduring. The words Paula, Liesel’s mom, uses go against Hitler because she is a communist which resulted in her being taken away and Liesel to lose her mother and experience the loss of her. This shows Liesel experiences unhappiness because of her mother’s disappearance which is caused by the words she openly uses that contradicts Hitler.
The language used portrays the characters thoughts and emotions for example she goes into great detail about her surroundings (her life) and the events which had taken place there .She talks about her environment as if she is closely connected with the associations to which she describes.
Sophie was a Polish women and a survivor of Auschwitz, a concentration camp established in Germany during the Holocaust in the early 1940s. In the novel we learn about her through her telling of her experiences, for instance, the murder of her husband and her father. We also come to learn of the dreadful decision she was faced with upon entering the concentration camp, where she was instructed to choose which one of her two children would be allowed to live. She chose her son. Later we learn of her short lived experience as a stenographer for a man by the name of Rudolph Hoss, the Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. During her time there, Sophie attempted to seduce Hoss in an attempt to have her son transferred to the Lebensborn program so that he may have been raised as a German child. Sophie's attempt was unsuccessful and she was returned back to t...
language can allow us to communicate an exact idea or to persuade others to one
The use of multiple images to propel a narrative allows the audience to learn something through the characters that are there. Bloomer (1990)’s study on visual perception also draws upon Newton (1998)’s concern, as he explores the multiple perspectives and views of the event. By using a series of images, the characters mood and tone can be established throughout different elements of what we see. This may be the people, the place itself or the items within the place. By having a narrative of photographs, the audience has an even deeper understanding of the reality of that moment or event as they see more than just the ‘big picture’ as
Literature is rarely, if ever, merely a story that the author is trying to tell. It is imperative that the reader digs deep within the story to accurately analyze and understand the message the author is trying to portray. Authors tend to hide themselves in their stories. The reader can learn about the author through literary elements such as symbolism, diction, and structure. A good example of this is Robert Frost’s poems The Road Not Taken and Nothing Gold can Stay in which he uses ordinary language unlike many other poets that became more experimental (Frost, Robert. “1.”).