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The Lie Kurt Vonnegut Character Analysis

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In the stories, "The Lie," by Kurt Vonnegut and "Barn Burning," by William Faulkner, the main characters, Eli Remenzel & Colonel Sartoris (Sarty) Snopes, both mature from childhood into adulthood. This growth and maturity develops from having family support and a stable upbringing or perhaps their growth happened within their own self-consciousness. The main characters, in both these stories, use their inner maturity to be strong and courageous and make good decisions as they are growing up.

In the story, "The Lie," Eli matures into adulthood. At the very beginning, Eli’s parents' have a lack of understanding of his individuality causing Eli to deny his own feelings. When Eli receives a rejection letter from his high school, Whitehill, he keeps this a secret from his parents to avoid their ultimate disappointment. From the very start of the story, Sylvia believes her son is just another Remenzel among all the past Remenzel’s who have been on the honor list that will be attending Whitehill. Whitehill has been the high school for generations in the Remenzel family history. …show more content…

When Eli’s parents find out that Eli has not been accepted into Whitehill, the headmaster has helped her realize that maybe Eli, despite being a Remenzel, is not suited for Whitehill.. It is at this time that Eli opens up and expresses his feelings to his father for trying to get him into Whitehill.This allows Eli to open up and express his feelings comfortably. We see this when Eli expresses his feelings of anger at his father for trying to get him into Whitehill. At this point he is recognized as an individual, he is ultimately able to mature through his new ability to express himself without being intimidated. Sylvia, eventually recognizes her son’s individuality and allows him to grow and be independent which assists in Eli’s growth and

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Eliezer’s best traits come out and allow him to survive his terrible ordeal, which are adaptability, determination, patience, and perseverance. Elie uses his father as his reason to persevere and keep on going through. For example, whenever Eliezer’s father dies, Eliezer loses all function and does not even want to recount how empty and lonely he felt. On page 32, Eliezer describes how great his fear of

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the idea of equality was taken to the extreme. Satire is also used to exaggerate how awful equality is to persuade readers to believe that total equality will violate human rights. Kurt Vonnegut also uses symbols such as handicaps which make everyone equal and Harrison Bergeron to display the lack of freedom present in a world of total equality.

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During all of the struggles Elie gains a bit of life knowledge, and learns more emotions about himself. If this journey never happened Elie would still be focussing about his studies and not about his family. A fact Elie acquires during the holocaust is always to stay positive in hard times. An example of this is when Elie is running for miles and notices men giving up just makes Elie think about when he can sleep and eat at the next camp. When news comes that the Russians will save the prisoners, Elie keeps this as a positive and keeps thinking this horrifying journey will be over.

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Eli fixates on this concept and, after spending time around his dad, works towards becoming the good man he had always hoped to be. Upon getting to know his dad, Eli wasn’t impressed, despite August staying resolute in the fact that he was good. It wasn’t until later when he really took on the paternal role in their lives that Eli even considers forgiving him and participates in his attempts to bond, knowing

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Elie started out as a very happy Jewish boy with a loving family and a happy home. Towards the end of the holocaust Elie feels little to no emotion. On page 48 he writes, “I want to stay with my father.” Elie is desperate to stay with his only family member he has contact with. This soon changes.

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1120 Words | 5 Pages

He starts to ask himself questions of why this is happening to him and that if there’s even a God that exist in this world. Lastly, his Father dies from the weather, and he couldn’t even cry because Elie was so empty inside. Also, he gets an infection and went straight to the hospital, but he notice when he looked himself that he wasn’t the same person anymore. There was nothing in his mind but remember what he looked like. So, this is the reason why I think Elie change from the beginning to the end of the book called

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Eliezer and his father rely on one another to survive through the Holocaust. Together they encounter the cruelty of the Nazis, the lack of compassion from the prisoners, as well as the difficulty of simply surviving. They remain strong together unlike other father-son relationships seen in the novel. A majority of the prisoners gravitate towards self preservation while Eliezer chooses to remain with his father. Eliezer does exhibit ambivalence in continuing to help his father because the conditions of the Holocaust continually make it harder to make others a priority than oneself.

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731 Words | 3 Pages

This is important to the book as a whole because it connects to the theme of optimism. The change is apparent when life isn’t going in Eli’s favor, and the life of his father is taken away from him. Deep inside he feels a sign of relief but guilt at the same time. Eli spends a lot of time praying showing that he is religious.

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575 Words | 3 Pages

Elie Wiesel did not meet the final stage of acceptance throughout the book he did have anger and depression that conflicted him throughout, however when he got older he started accepting it more. In the book it explains the horrible childhood he had moving from camp to camp and losing a lot of friends and family along the way . Elie was a boy who had to learn and accept how to live on his own and take care of himself at a young age, acceptance is a hard process and it takes time to go through, therefore Elie started to accept but did not meet the final stage in the book. Angry is a stage of grief you have to experience before acceptance and In the book Elie mostly feels angry for what was going on in his life, it would make him angry seeing all the bad that were happening and especially when they would hurt his father. Many times Elie had to accept that this may have been his last day alive, he would think to himself why was he in this place.

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In the beginning, Elie and his father serve as a source of support and empathy for each other. At this point they don’t yet know the full devastation of what’s going on, and possess a sense of hope. They spend a lot of this portion confused, and only progressively become more fearful. After arriving at the camp, however, the real fear sets in.

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This was very emotional for Eli because he was his best friend and he was thought to be dead. This had a huge impact on Eli because it made Eli depressed. Eli was also depressed because he was the person that he looks up to because he was smart. This was internal because it hurt Eli’s emotions the most. This the internal and External conflict of the

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737 Words | 3 Pages

Enduring the weight being lifted off of him, relieved not being able to worry about his father anymore and can now help himself. All of this doesn 't mean that he doesn’t feel any regret either, the whole night his father wept for him to get achieve some water but soon silenced from a violent blow to the head by an officer’s truncheon. The last moments in chapter 9, Elie described his emotions that he gave a small distress that everything has stopped- but has nothing. “I had nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered.

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

and exactly what he has grown up doing and reading. “Eli was enabled to participate in ways similar to his brothers’ and sisters’, making him a reader like them” (Fishman 240). Fishman goes into detail about Eli Jr. and the way his world has portrayed reading to him. But yet again, her focus shifts after this. She puts the reader in an Amish school setting and describes the events going on.

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When the two arrive at Birkenau, Elie clings to his father so he does not lose him. When Chlomo is picked in selection he gives Elie his inheritance. When Elis 's father died, Elie grieved deeply for him. Because of that, Elie begins to lose his fight for life. The death of Chlomo had changed Elie and scared him for life. "

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695 Words | 3 Pages

Think of a circumstance where you were so hungry and thirsty, that you did not even care to think about your father anymore. That circumstance goes against common father-son relationships. The common father-son motif is where the father looks out and cares for the son. In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he explains why the circumstances around a father-son relationship can change their relationship, whether it 's for the better or the worse. Since the book is about the life of Elie in a Nazi concentration camp, the circumstances were harsh and took a toll on multiple father-son relationships.

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