Assisi Flashcards
“The dwarf with his hands on backwards sat, slumped”
Dehumanisation is the theme.
Alliteration is being used at sat, slumped.
Visual imagery- hands on backwards, helps us imagine how he might have difficulties with tasks and movement.
Onomatopoeia- slumped noise
“Tiny twisted legs”
Theme- dehumanisation
Alliteration is being used to help you visualise his twisted legs.
“like a half-filled sack”
Dehumanisation is the theme.
Visual imagery- you can see the half filled sack falling to the side, this is giving you the image of the beggar falling to his side.
Dehumanisation- telling us that his posture
“Outside the three tiers of churches built in honour of St Francis.”
Theme- contrast
Three tiers shows comparison between the church and the beggar
“brother
of the poor, talker with birds, over whom
he had the advantage
of not being dead yet.”
Word choice- it’s telling us that he is like a brother of st Francis as he is also poor.
Advantage goes to the beggar as he is the one still alive since st Francis is dead.
“A priest explained how clever it was of Giotto to make his frescoes tell stories that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness of God”
Word choice- By saying he is a priest, you are given the idea that he’s going to have the same qualities like st Francis (helping the poor)
Theme- hypocrisy
“suffering
of His Son”
Word choice- by saying the suffering of His Son, it’s making us think about the suffering Jesus went through while dying.
“I understood
the explanation and
the cleverness.”
The priest is being a hypocrite.
Hypocrisy- the practise of claiming they have higher standards but they don’t.
Makes us think of the hypocrisy of the priests lack of action.
Theme- hypocrisy
“A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly,
fluttered after him as he scattered
the grain of the Word.”
Clucking contentedly
Metaphor- comparison to chickens
Alliteration- “c”
Onomatopoeia- you can hear the sounds of the cluck
Extended metaphor- the idea is being continued he is saying it’s as if they’re eating the grain of the word, therefore just believing what the priest is saying instead of noticing what’s going on around them (which correlates to “he scattered the grain of the Word”).
Theme- hypocrisy
“they who had passed
the ruined temple outside, whose eyes
wept pus, whose back was higher
than his head, whose lopsided mouth“
Metaphor- the beggar is the ruined temple.
”wept pus” Visual image-
Metaphor- his eyes are weeping pus as if he was weeping tears.
“Lopsided mouth” It’s suggesting that his face isn’t symmetrical which is showing signs of illness.
Word choice- suggest there’s not just a slight imperfection, it is actually someone who is disfigured
Theme- dehumanisation
“Grazie in a voice as sweet
as a child’s when she speaks to her mother
or a bird’s when it spoke
to St Francis.”
It’s telling us that the beggars voice is subtle, sweet and almost high
Pitched.
Similie- it’s comparing the sweetness to a bird.
Metaphor- suggesting how beautiful and sweet the voice is.
Theme- the sight of the priest
