Figurative Language

Quote: “To put [the pictures] somewhere else, amid the files he used for his clippings about famous people, for example, would immediately resolve the difficulty, but the sense of defending a secret with his own body was too strong, too thrilling even, for Senhor Jose to give it up.”115

Analysis: Emotion as expression
I believe that this is figurative language. It’s the author using emotion to convey just how important something is to his character and what he’d do for it.


Quote: “He beat two eggs, added a few slices of chorizo sausage, a generous pinch of sea salt, put some oil in a frying pan, and waited until it had heated to just the right point…” 133

Analysis: Imagery
This uses all five senses to show Senhor Jose’s meal. For example- the generous pinch of sea salt is sight, the ‘heated to just the right point’ is a measure of feeling of heat. Clever of him to describe a meal in such color when everything else is bland. He’s slowly opening up to us about Senhor Jose’s character.


Quote: That string will lead back to the world of the living the person who, at this very moment, is preparing to enter the kingdom of the dead.

Analysis: Irony
Not only does this describe live vs. death, but it describes a string vs. a kingdom.



Vocabulary: Thank you Microsoft Dictionary

Commiseration- (116) Sympathy
Convalescence- (119) Gradual return to health
Torpor- (133) Lack of energy/numbness



Chapter Quote: One might ask why Senhor Jose needs a hundred-yard-long piece of string if the length of the Central Registry, despite successive extensions, is no more than eighty. That is the question of a person who imagines that one can do everything in life simply by following a straight line.

Analysis: This really explains what I’ve been trying to say with all my ramblings- nobody can do everything or even anything with too short or too long a rope. I think that Senhor Jose was wise in giving himself some slack, but not too much.
Theme: Time and it’s possibilities. It’s a rather odd sort of theme, but it’s gotten to the point where Senhor Jose really puts his time to use by testing different choices and seeing some fly and some fail.


Post B- It's quite funny...
I find it funny that my dictionary didn’t recognize the name Senhor. It’s pretty ironic considering that this is a book about a man trying to find his identity through someone else. As he said last chapter, the reason he is not the Registrar is because the Registrar knows all the names, whereas he only writes them every day. However, this got me thinking about how much I dislike the fact that in the novels I’ve been reading recently, making a name for yourself is so relevant. It’s not who you are, but what sort of choices you make. As the Goo Goo Dolls would say, ‘Doesn’t it make you sad to know that life is more than who you are?’. So I chucked at that bit. On the other side, it’s quite bittersweet when you realize that this is a man without a name in some sense. He gets himself sick looking for the thing that keeps him alive. So, what kind of existence is that? It’s interesting to think that you can either make a name and be important to the world overall, or you can have a secret name that’s only known to a few around you. I’d much rather have the latter. I know it’s not world fame, but what is a celebrity stance when you have no friends, family, love? So I consider Senhor Jose much more ‘there’ than others who have huge names.