What does Kubic’s use of language reveal about the author’s point of view toward Mao?

the answer is b to the question

question 1

one of the main differences between central idea and theme is

a) theme is found when you have one main character, central idea is limited to stories with multiple characters.

b) themes are explicitly stated and central ideas are not.

c) central ideas can only be found in narrative writing, while themes can be found in multiple types of literature.

d) central idea can be found in both fiction and nonfiction texts.

question 4

when reading "nameless, tennessee", we know that we are looking for a central idea and not a theme because

a) its a short story. short stories only have a central idea.

b) its a non-fiction text. non-fiction does not have a theme, only central idea.

c) themes are directly stated and there isn't one directly stated in "nameless, tennessee".

d) all of the above.

question 6

read the excerpt.

"we had a doctor on the ridge in them days. as good as any doctor alivin'. he'd cut a crooked toenail or deliver a woman. dead these last years."

how do the details in this excerpt to develop the central idea?

a) they give insight into the doctor's motivation for people.

b) they depict the poverty and lifelessness of the town.

c) they explain why people wanted to get away from the town.

d) they reveal some of the meaningful human history of the unnamed town.

when connie willis was 12 years old, her mother died. in january of 2003, willis was interviewed for locus magazine. she recognized that death is a major issue in her writing, specially because the vacuous and appalling things that people tend to say in order to support you when someone you loved dies. what really saved willis was reading. books, literature, are not false. poetry tells the truth (as dickinson said: "tell al the truth but tell it slant"). it's not a escape from reality, but a nigromantic experience where whe can talk to people that exist no more. that's the definition that connie willis gives in her novel "passage": «(literature) it's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! ». enrique vila-matas has figured out the esence of literary experience when he said in a lecture that he intends to have his revenge against life (and death), because to write (and to read) is a form of living and a way to remember. i like in that sense the idea of not leting anything human to get lost. i feel fiction and poetry as the shapes of an ancient anger. like in the poem from dylan thomas: «do not go gentle into that good night / rage, rage against the dying of the light».

but there is another aspect that i have learned from connie willis's quote. in his famous work "danubio", the italian writer claudio magris describes literature as house removals. some messages reach us, other messages get lost in the labyrinth. those messages which are our inheritance teach us how to live and how to die, how to love and how to hate, how to laugh and how to cry. i think that tales really shape us if we listen to them. maybe through the stories we read we learn how to emphatize with others, knowing that the bells tolls for every each of us.