eng iv midterm

This portion of your exam will be a combination of multiple choice, identification, and true/ false style questions. You can expect to see questions related to our Summer Reads, The Color of Water, and Man’s Search for Meaning/The Purpose of Life unit Elements of stories - major plot events Characters - who’s who & which book do they go with Major themes/ big idea topics You can expect to see your vocab words from Lessons 1-5

Brusque

adj

blunt

Decadence

noun

luxurious self-indulgence.

Fledgling

adj

beginning, developing

Indefatigable

adj

Tireless, lots of energy, restless

Opulence

noun

riches

Parsimonious

adj

stingy, frugal

Progeny

noun

offspring

Sagacious

adj

intelligent

Surreptitious

adj

kept secret

Voracious

adj

greedy

Brevity

noun

briefness in speech

Dearth

noun

a insufficient amount

Frivolous

adj

lighthearted

Jargon

noun

technical language, humor

Lampoon

verb

to make fun of by using sarcasm

Meander

verb

to wander

Reproach

noun

disapproval

Substantiate

verb

to prove

Torpor

noun

drowsiness, mental inactivity

Vacillate

to hesitate, indecisive

James McBride

Ruth's son, and the narrator of The Color of Water. He wrote this volume in order to discover himself.

Ruth McBride Jordan

Born in Poland in 1921, was a Jewish immigrant to the United States. Her family traveled around the country as her father tried to capitalize on his distinction as a rabbi. The family could not make a living this way, and eventually settled down in Suffolk, Virginia, and opened a general store. They lived above the store, which was located in the mostly black section of town.

Tateh

Ruth's father, was racist, and overcharged his black customers. Ruth resisted her father's prejudices and sympathized with the black people in her town. She recognized that the Ku Klux Klan, and the white population in general, fostered a tense, violence atmosphere. As a Jew, Ruth found herself excluded from the white world of the South, and felt she could partially identify with the hardships of her black neighbors.

Andrew Dennis McBride

She married a black man, and became a McBride. She had eight children with Dennis, who died while she was pregnant with her son James. The family lived in Harlem together for years. In Harlem, she lost the privilege she had enjoyed in the South. She worked at draining, poorly paid jobs. She socialized exclusively with black people, and essentially lived the life of a black woman.

a palpable force in the lives of both James and Ruth. A strong, kind man from North Carolina, provided the stability and faith she needed after a difficult early life with her parents and harsh beginnings in New York City. He was a violinist with an incredible passion about music, a passion that his musical tendencies would later echo. He gently guided Ruth toward an acceptance of the Christian faith. Ruth describes him glowingly, and we sense that theirs was a true love.

Hunter Jordan

Ruth's second husband and James's primary male role model. he was a mechanic for the New York City Housing Authority. He met Ruth shortly after her first husband's death, married her, and had four children with her. Like Dennis, he was rather conservative. He shared Ruth's notions of the importance of God, family, and education. He died of a stroke when James was a teenager, and his entire family recalls him with fondness.

Hudis Shilsky

Ruth's mother, she suffered from polio her entire life. Soft-spoken and meek, she deferred to Ruth's father in virtually all matters. While she came from a well-to-do background, her family had little to do with her because of her handicap. Ruth felt that her mother was good to her, and suffered a lifelong sense of guilt for not taking better care of Mameh.

Fishel Shilsky

Ruth's father. Tateh was an incredibly difficult person. He was racist, demanding, harsh, unloving, and greedy. He sexually abused his daughter Ruth. He finalized his separation from Ruth when he told her never to return home if she married a black man.

Dee-Dee

Ruth's younger sister. was a shy, pretty girl, less strong-willed than Ruth. She had fewer conflicts with her father than Ruth did, and she was more Americanized from a young age. While Ruth always envied her, later in life she realized that her sister had suffered sorrow and desperation.

sam

Ruth's brother, he is two years older than Ruth. Tateh was particularly hard on the timid, sensitive, expecting expects him to fulfill many duties at the family store. he found the burden too weighty and ran away at fifteen. He was killed in the army during WW II

frances

Ruth's only childhood friend in Suffolk. sweet and accepting of Ruth, even though she is from a gentile family. Ruth's few good memories of Suffolk involve the time she spent playing with Frances.

bebeh

Ruth's maternal grandmother, she is one of her few family members Ruth recalls fondly. allowed Ruth to stay with her in New York. tried to shape Ruth's behavior in some ways, she also gave Ruth some space, and seemed to accept her.

Aunt Mary, Aunt Laura, Aunt Betsy

Ruth's aunts, and Hudis's sisters. They were wealthy, and generally snobby toward Ruth, although Aunt Betsy helps Ruth when she needs an abortion.

peter

Ruth's first boyfriend, he was the first black person with whom Ruth was genuinely close. Because of the heated racial atmosphere of the times, he and Ruth had to see one another secretly. Ruth got pregnant by him during her adolescence, but chose not to have the baby.

Helen McBride

James's older sister and Ruth's daughter. a strong-willed and pretty girl who runs away from home at the age of fifteen. Perhaps more than any of James's other siblings, her struggles with her background exemplify the political and racial turmoil of the 1960s. She eventually returned home, but her conflict with Ruth had a large impact on.

jack

James's older sister. James lives with him in Louisville, Kentucky for three summers during his teenage years. James regards her as sweet and fun, but she is also serious: she warns him seriously about his drug abuse and petty crime. Jack's opinion matters to James, and eventually he heeds her advice.

Big Richard

Jack's husband, a tough and fun guy who introduces James to all the working men on "the corner."

chicken man

Part of the crew on "the corner." endearing and intelligent, but he has done little with his life, wasting money and time on the corner drinking.

Adolf Hitler

Although not explicitly mentioned, he looms large over the book. The leader of the Nazi party and the Führer of Germany, he created policies that directly caused the Holocaust, thus imprisoning Frankl and many other Jews and other so-called "undesirables" (and killing 6 million more). If not for him and his goons, then Frankl would not have been imprisoned and would likely not have developed logotherapy, the primary reason for this book's existence.

Viktor Frankl

Author, Pyschiatrist, Neurologist, and Holocaust Survivor wrote Man's Search for Meaning to tell the story of his time in Auschwitz, one of the most infamous and harshest concentration camps during WWII and to provide some context and insight into his theory of logotherapy.

Told through his point of view, Man's Search for Meaning examines how Frankl and other prisoners survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Through a good attitude and finding meaning, Frankl argued, concentration camp prisoners were more likely to survive. When prisoners give up, he argued, then they were doomed for death.

tilly frankl

Again, although (Viktor's first wife) does not appear in person in the book, she is an important character nonetheless. Viktor used her to ground himself and to prevent himself from despairing too much by thinking about their love, imagining conversations with her, and by thinking and remembering the time they lovingly spent together before the war. Tragically, she didn't make it out of the camps, but Frankl mentions that she was a major reason why he survived his horrible ordeal.

Alfred Adler

(1870–1937) was a Viennese psychiatrist whose ideas formed the "second school" of Viennese psychotherapy.

Sigmund Freud

An early influence on Viktor E. Frankl, (1856–1939) was an Austrian psychiatrist whose ideas formed the "first school" of Viennese psychotherapy.

dr. j

A doctor at Am Steinhof Psychiatric Institution in Vienna, is Erwin Jekelius (1905–52), called "the murderer of Steinhof" for enthusiastically participating in the Nazi campaign to euthanize mentally ill patients deemed unfit to live. Jekelius was later captured by the Soviets and died in prison in 1951.

dr. m

is Josef Mengele (1911–79), SS medical chief serving at Auschwitz from spring 1943 to January 1945. Called the "Angel of Death," he was notorious for sadistic and often lethal medical experiments, many of them performed on Jewish and Roma children, especially twins.

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher and cultural critic (1844–1900) questioned traditional European values and proposed new ones based on his theories about the nature of a person's essential being, or self.

otto

The only prisoner mentioned by name, is the friend and fellow prisoner at Dachau to whom Frankl entrusted his verbal will, to be conveyed to Tilly Frankl if he could find her after the war. After being sent to a "rest camp" the next day, Frankl never saw him again.

prisoners

Frankl's fellow inmates, including countrymen, colleagues, and strangers. They represent thousands of nameless, faceless prisoners.

A recount of someone’s life that is self-written

autobiography

According to Stephen King, this is like telepathy.

writing

First two or three sentences of an essay that are intended to grab the reader’s attention.

hook

This type of personal narrative, where the author shares details of a specific time period or topic, is also the French word for "memory."

memoir

The article "There is More to Life than Being Happy" states that this gives us more to strive for than the simple pursuit of happiness.

giving rather than taking

He ran a grocery store in Suffolk, Virginia.

tateh

This fast food chain now stands where Tateh's shop used to be.

mcdonalds

At first, Ruth did not like the suburbs of this Mid-Atlantic state.

delaware

This fear is why Ruth McBride was never able to stay in one place for too long.

claustrophobia

This political organization came to the forefront in the racial justice movement during the 60's and 70's, and playing a significant role in James McBride's childhood

back panther party

Frankl describes this as worse than physical pain.

mental agony

This "special" type of prisoner was generally crueler than the guards.

capo

During the first hours at a concentration camp, some prisoners felt hopeful that America would win the war quickly and rescue them. Frankl describes this mindset as this.

Delusions of Reprieve

This is the second stage of prisoner life

apathy

Fate is a central theme in this story Frankl recounts as part of his prison life.

Death in Tehran

The base level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

physiological needs

He is often referred to as the founder of Stoicism.

Zeno of Citium

Living close to nature, self-trust, free thought, self-reliance, and this are the core tenets of Transcendentalism.

dignity in manual labor

These are the type of people that Emerson believes can truly see nature.

children

During his time at Walden Pond, Thoreau had a strained relationship with this government office.

post office

reformed capo

frankl was NOT

auschiwtz

frankl’s family was sent to here to be executed

that he doesn;’t count himself heroic for surviving, the best people didn’t survive bc they were giving, he writes about his experience in hopes of helping others

on the first day of camp, frankl accepted

life expectancy was short anyway, so what did he have to lose

why didn’t frankl end his life

stuffing haversack and book under clothes to look stronger, stood up stright and tried to appear smart

frankl lived thru finger game by….

his loss of hope and pending suicide, a reward by capos for hard work

prisoner seen smoking meant

shock, apathy, disillusionment

emotional and mental stages of concentration camp

suffering is an emotion that fills the entire soul of a person regardless of the severity of the pain

“man’s suffering is similar to the behavior of gas” means

if man finds a purpose for living, he can endure any suffering

“he who has a why to live can bear with almost any how” means

to choose one’s attitdue, to choose one’s way

“last of the human freedoms” that can never be taken from person

person who showed photo thought it was dreadful, frankl asked why it is terrible, frankl said that the prisoners were happy bc they didn’t have to work that day

frankl and prisoners reaction to a photo

watching a boy’s frostbit toes get removed, loot a dead body for clothes and food, dragging dead patient head bound down stairs, watch beatings of others with no reaction

apathy penetrated the prisoners by

existing without much sleep, healthy gums despite not brushing and no vitamins, wearing the same clothes, being able to sleep in horrible conditions

“textbooks tell lies”

among corpses

what place did frankl find moments of solitude

prisoners felt like the playthings of fate, transport of prisoners away from camp were burned to death in cabin, allowed fate to run its course, prisoners sealed their fate when they signed up for late night work party to avoid transport

“death of tehran”

they could stuffer still more

disillusionment infiltrated the prisoners’ minds when

eat/talking

things prisoners did after release

salvation of man is thru love and in love

“the greatest secret”

his wife

spiritual connection frankl found in suffering

what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, man can get used to anything, the prisoner who lost faith in the future was doomed

from concentration camp, frankl learned

hes normally passive, risked being caught

frankl says hiding his haversack under his coat is “surprisingly enough” becasue

officer has right elbow casually supported by his left hand

how was officer illustrated indifferent

passive

“i just waited for things to take their course” what approach to life?

frankl didn’t initially look like a man who could perform hard labor, him standing up straight to hide haversack made him look stronger

officer hesitated at decision on frankl bc

90% condemned first day, died with in a few hours, given bar of soap to enter building with “bath” on it, frankl saved his own life with haversack deception

what is later revealed in the finger game

matter of fact

frankl tone is

trick them into believing and obeying without resistance

prisoners were given soap and “bath” building to

the horror has been described so many times

frankl chooses not to “descibe the events” bc

desensitization the prisoners experienced, denial and delusion, dehumanization of people

frankl includes dialogue of experienced prisoner to show

love, love

the salvation of man is thru ___ and in ___

neg. happiness

partially defined as finding happiness in own suffering

maslow

credited with creating a system dubbed the “hierarchy of needs”