March+31-+Kavalier+and+Clay+Part+I+-+Taylor+H

__Scribe Post__: **Kavalier and Clay Part I** **by Taylor Hayes** ** Comparisons of Figurative Language: ** **Quote:** - “He had never seen the streets of Prague so empty, the housefronts so sunken in gloom, like a row of lanterns with the wicks snuffed” (pg 40) ** Discussion: ** - The city would be much gloomier at night. When people shut of all of their lights everything looks darker, scarier. - Author takes two things (lanterns and housefronts) that are normally colorful and cheery and makes them ominous. ** Why it works-- ** à This sentence conveys that Thomas is scarred. Thomas is lost and alone in the dark. The darkness of the section sets up the notion that something bad is going to happen. The escape goes wrong and Josef does not get to prove himself to other magicians. Thomas jumps into the river to save his brother.

** Quote: ** - “He had thrown his brother into the river, drowned him like a litter of kittens” (pg. 35) ** Discussion: ** - Josef was in a sinking burlap sack, just like a sack of drowning kittens. - Sad comparison ** Why it works -- ** à this conveys a frantic moment, it adds tension to the scene Thomas feels like he drowned his own brother. He feels guilty and needs to do something. He runs away from the scene because he feels so bad.

** Quote: ** - “That did it; with a sharp intake of breath, like a man leaping in terror from a burning deck into a frozen sea” (pg 18). ** Discussion: ** -Josef’s family has put all their money and all their hope into Josef’s safe voyage to America. He was turned away by the officials. ** Why it works -- ** à the idea of jumping from the fire to the frying pan (intensity of Josef’s frustration) Josef made it out of one bad situation, but then was put into another. It seems like he can’t escape a troubled future. Josef knows that his family will be crushed if they find out his escape to America wasn’t successful. This also relates to the desperation that many Jewish people were feeling at this time. They were stuck even when they tried to leave.

** Moments of Escape: ** **Ex. 1.** “Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier’s greatest creation that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York” (pg. 1) **Ex. 2** “It was the drawing of Harry Houdini, taking a calm cup of tea in the middle of the sky, that Thomas had made in his notebook during his abortive career as a librettist” (pg. 66) ** Other moments of escape: ** -Escaping in the Gollum’s coffin -Escaping from the river with Thomas.

**Connection:** The many moments in Kavalier and Clay got me thinking about some of the situations people are stuck in that force them to find an extreme way to escape. When reading about Josef's escape in the coffin I remembered something I had read about people attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. Similar to the many people going to great lengths to escape from the Nazis these people were also desperate for freedom. I found a really interesting article online about some of the more memorable great escapes. One story was even made into a Disney movie. You can read the article [|here]

The next scribe is Lexie Sparrow