We finally get to the scene where Sethe murders Beloved. Sethe describes acting purely out of instinct:
And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged [...]
Posts Tagged ‘ethicsandlit’
Morrison Questions, 11/20
Kurt’s Faulkner Questions 10/28
In As I Lay Dying, the character Darl stands out to both the reader and the other characters in the book as the head of the family by being educated and perceiving. Although he is qualified to be assume the leading role in the family, often other characters are put off by Darl’s assuming leadership, [...]
Faulkner Questions 10/23
In this section, Faulkner gives us two of the most structurally odd chapters that we’ve seen yet. One is Vardaman’s statement that his mother is a fish. The second is Cash’s logical list regarding the construction of Addie’s coffin. What does the structure of these two sections tell us about their respective characters? Is Cash’s [...]
Faulkner Questions 10/21
As Addie is dying, all of the characters respond differently to her. Jewel seems to be the character closest to Addie. He expresses angered that her coffin is being built in plain sight of her and calls it a “goddamn box” (14). Darl proclaims that the trip is worth making even though they might not [...]
Sam B. Faulkner Discussion Questions
1) Addie Bundren is on her death bed and her dying wish is to be buried with her family in Jefferson, even though she has her husband, Anse Bundren, and five children who love and care for her at home. Why does she decide that it is necessary for her to be buried in Jefferson? [...]
Colin’s Questions for 10.9.08
Question 1
On page 31 of our Forche text, Carolyn Forche raises the point brought up in class that “a situation of extremity cannot be judged by simplistic notions of ‘accuracy’ or truth to life’. It will have to be judged…by its consequences, not by our ability to verify its truth.” This can be applied to [...]
Group 1 Beah Discussion
Folk remedies play a large role in chapter 8. On page 51, Beah tells of when his grandfather used to give him a certain type of medicine that was supposed to make memorization easier. Beah claimed that this medicine allowed him to have a photographic memory even today. This mention of the remedy is important [...]
Ch. 8 Connection between folk remedies and past life
Beah says that he has “an excellent photographic memory that enables [him] to remember details of the day-to-day moments of [his] life” (51) due to the natural medicine his granfather gave him as a boy. This power can be seen as Beah’s gift and/or curse. Although this lets him fondly remember his innocent childhood with his [...]
Chapter 8
In this chapter, Beah makes the reader sympathize with his situation. He remembers so much from his childhood, but now everything from his old life is gone. All he has are the memories of who he once was. On page 54, he writes, “When I was six, my grandfather had inserted a medicine into my [...]
Beah’s Questions 10/2/08
In chapter twelve, Beah catches the lieutenant reading Shakespeare, and it takes Beah back to his old life for a few moments. From the play, Julius Caesar, the line he chooses to recite, “Cowards die many times before their deaths” (104) is interesting in relation to Beah’s story. Do you think he was trying to [...]
Carly’s BEAH Discussion Questions 10/2
A Long Way Gone Discussion Questions:
1. After Beah and his friends are seized by the government army and forced to serve as boy soldiers, they are taken to a banana farm, where they are to practice stabbing their enemy with bayonets. On page 112, the corporal repeatedly tells the boys to, “Visualize the banana tree [...]
Mythology and Beah’s Solitude, Ch 8
Chapter 8, in which Beah is isolated in the woods all alone for a month, serves as a transition into dehumanization. We are able to see the shift in him between unstable human companionship to truly relying on himself for survivial. His innocence takes a constant battering from the first day the war touches him, [...]
Chapter 8
One part of Chapter 8 that particularly struck me was “the old man who got left behind” (56). The two main purposes this section serves is to foreshadow the futures of the boys in this terrible war, and to provide the reader with a hint of emotional relief in the humanity of the old man. The [...]
Group 3 Discussion of Ch. 8
We discussed the role communal stories and mythology plays in this chapter, where Beah recalls his grandfather’s memory medicine and his grandmother’s tale regarding the wild pigs and the hunter. These stories act on one level as a distraction for Beah. Since he is afraid of thinking, directing his thoughts toward folk tales allows him [...]
Sam B. Beah Questions
1) The burning of the imam on page 44 was a horrific scene. Beah describes the events as if there was nothing anyone could have done about the situation. “The imam was oblivious to what was going on until it was too late…once the prayer had started, no one was allowed to say anything that [...]
Sam B. Beah Questions
1) The burning of the imam on page 44 was a horrific scene. Beah describes the events as if there was nothing anyone could have done about the situation. “The imam was oblivious to what was going on until it was too late…once the prayer had started, no one was allowed to say anything that [...]
Lila Littman’s Discussion Questions, Beah
1. On page 67, Beah and his group are captured by townspeople while staying in a strange man’s hut. When the Chief finds his mixed tapes, he asks him to perform: “‘Now you show me how you, your brother, and friends did it,’ the chief said. I rewound the tape, mimed and danced to ‘OPP’ [...]
Beah Questions
1. On pages 16-17, Beah takes a break from his explanation of carnage and political corruption in Sierra Leone to give an incredibly beautiful description of his grandmother’s village. Amid the “golden sun” and people walking to and from their various chores, there is an old man telling the villagers that they “must [...]
Beah Questions from Sam W.
1) On page 29, Beah describes the boys’ hunger and what actions they take to satisfy it. They try to buy food after risking their lives to retrieve money from Mattru Jung. However, the vendors no longer want to sell anything. “Things changed rapidly in a matter of seconds and no one had any control [...]
Discussion Questions 9/23
1. On page 86, Wiesel considers letting himself die, however he lives for his father. “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist… to let myself slide to the side of the road… My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next [...]
Carly’s NIGHT Discussion Questions- 9/23
NIGHT Discussion Questions:
1. On page 88, Wiesel’s father tells him that, “it’s dangerous to fall asleep in snow. One falls asleep forever.” Wiesel questions his father, saying, “Get up? How could I? How was I to leave this warm blanket?” It is interesting how Wiesel refers to the snow as a “warm blanket”; snow is [...]
Night Questions from Sam W.
1) Reichsfuhrer Himmler, who stole during the air raid, is hanged in front of the entire camp. He is supposed to be an example to the rest of the camp of what happens when one disobeys the SS. Juliek then comments, “‘This ceremony, will it be over soon? I’m hungry…’” (Wiesel 62). Then Wiesel writes, [...]
I was worried that one of my comments today came out wrong (my inability to speak coherently prevails again …) so I just thought I’d clarify. When we were talking about personal responsiblity of people during the Holocaust, I was trying to say that victims of the Holocaust cannot be blamed for not rising up [...]
Nazi “Doctor” I mentioned in class…(Manda)
nbsp;http://news.aol.com/article/israeli-agen…
Questions for Night - - 9/16
1. In Night, the main character, Eliezer, says, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever…. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (page 34). Yet, in the foreword Francois Mauriac responds that, “…what had been a stumbling [...]
