Understanding Key Themes and Characters in Literature
Vocabulary:
- Unconquerable: (inconquistable) = unable to be defeated.
- Indomitable: (indomable) = bravely or stubbornly unyielding.
- Dominating: (dominante) = rising high above; towering over.
- Transcendent: (trascender) = traspasar los limites de algo; ser más alto a más grande que algo.
- Luminous: (luminoso) = glowing; shining with its light.
- Elemental: (elemental) = basic; necessary; as found in nature.
- Purblind: partly blind.
- Talus: slope made of rock fragments.
- Incoherent: (incoherente) = not understandable; confused.
- Piebald: covered with patches and spots.
- Perplexity: (perplejidad) = confusion; being in a puzzled state.
- Delusions: (delirios) = false beliefs.
- Chimney: narrow column of rock.
The author of the story View from the Building is Helen Keller.
Questions:
- How does Nuñez end up in the Country of the Blind? A: He turns out to be in the Country of the Blind.
- What unusual qualities does Nuñez notice about the village houses? A: The houses don’t have windows or sources of light.
Oedipus the King Characters: Oedipus, Priest of Zeus, Jocasta, Tiresias, Creon, Messenger, Ismene.
- What question is Helen Keller answering in her letter? Helen Keller is answering what she thought after her trip to the top of the Empire State Building.
- Who accompanies Keller to the top of the Empire State Building? Helen Keller was accompanied by her friend who is also blind.
- According to Keller, how does a Frenchman describe the way Americans imagine themselves? The Frenchman describes Americans as imagining themselves as demigods or gods. He says this because only gods never think of extraordinary things.
- What symbolic meaning does Keller find in the Empire State Building? Helen Keller believed the Empire State Building symbolized poetry and inspiration.
Questions about the Poem:
- According to the speaker, how does the poem’s main character (