Poem The Author example essay topic

Analyzing Faith and Doubt in "High Holy Days" by Jane Shore The main idea that Jane Shore is making in "High Holy Days" is that the child or young teenager is a "Chosen One", (line 54) and she must free the Jews from Anti-Semitism and the Nazis just as Moses saved the Israelites from the Egyptians. She had no idea she was going to be the chosen one just as Moses did not. Moses was lost too just like she was before God helped him find his way. The author uses diction throughout the poem to help the reader better understand how the speaker is feeling. For example, "It was hot. A size too large, my wool winter suit scratched" (lines 1-2) shows how she is hot and uncomfortable; she doesn't want to be there because she doesn't understand the true meaning of why she is there.

Later on she says, "I watched it fall one drop at a time. I felt faint. And breathed out sharply, my nose spattering blood across the page". (lines 50-53). Here God chooses her to free the Jews from Anti-Semitism and the Nazis. The blood symbolizes her sacrifices she must make in order to make this happen, just as the priest is to consecrate the Ark of the Covenant by sprinkling the blood of a sacrificed bull and goat on the cover. Near the end of the poem, instead of just saying, "I went back into the Jew-hating world", instead the author says, "And I reeled home through the dazed traffic of the business day - past shoppers, past my school, in session as usual, spat like Jonah from the whale back into the Jew-hating world". (lines 68-73).

This choice of words along with the previous seven lines shows the reader how she goes back into the rest of her everyday life, with determination to change the situation. The author uses tone throughout the poem to give the reader a sense of the atmosphere and the feelings of the characters. For example, we feel a sense of seriousness in the beginning of the poem in lines 7-9 when they are all praying for help from their God. "Mother next to daughter, father next to son flipped through prayerbooks in unison trying to keep the place". The mood changes to a puzzled feeling later on in the poem during lines 57-60 when she is unsure of what she is supposed to do. "Why would God choose me to lead this congregation of mostly strangers, defend them against the broken windows, the spray-painted writing on the walls?" Towards the end of the poem the mood changes to a triumph feeling in lines 61-73 when she is determined to change the world.

"Overhead, the red bulb of the everlasting light was burning. As if God held me in His fist, I stumbled down the synagogue stairs just in time to hear a cyclone of breath twist through the shofar, a battle cry so powerful it blasted city walls to rubble. And I reeled home through the dazed traffic of the business day - past shoppers, past my school, in session as usual, spat like Jonah from the whale back into the Jew-hating world". The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the Synagogue, which is the setting. "The shul's broken window bled sunlight on the congregation; the Red Sea of the scarlet carpet parted the women from the men.

Across the aisle, my father wore a borrowed prayer shawl. A black yarmulke covered his bald spot. Later on in lines 50-53 the speaker is making a sacrifice to God, and we can see how this works because the blood symbolizes bull and goat blood sacrifices. "I watched it fall one drop at a time. I felt faint.

And breathed out sharply, my nose spattering blood across the page. Towards the end of the poem we see the speaker being guided by God in lines 61-63. "Overhear, the red bulb of the everlasting light was burning. As if God held me in His first". Throughout the poem the author uses diction, tone, imagery, and the speaker to show us the main idea of the poem that the child or young teenager is a "Chosen One", and she must free the Jews from Anti-Semitism and the Nazis just as Moses saved the Israelites from the Egyptians. "High Holy Days" by Jane Shore.