Quarter 3: Week 1, Post A

VOCAB:

decimate (27): to destroy a great number or proportion of a group
obelisk (36): A tall, four-sided shaft of stone, usually tapered and monolithic, that rises to a pointed pyramidal top.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:

1. "Look at my child, at the shine of her flyaway curls and the butterfly flight of her smile..." (34). This is an example of a metaphor because the author compares Kate's smile to the flight of a butterfly.
2. "Trailing her spine, like a line of small blue jewels, are a string of bruises" (28). This is an example of figurative language. It is a simile because the author uses the word 'like' to compare Kate's bruises to blue jewels.
3. "I lift her out of the water, slick as a fish..." (26). This is another example of a simile. This time, the author uses the word 'as' to compare Kate's slippery body after her bath to a fish.

QUOTE:

"Kate struggles in earnest through her first and second vials. By the third, she has gone completely limp. I don't know which is worse" (29). This quote comes from Sara, as she narrates the trip to the hospital with Kate. I thought it really exemplified the power of a mother's love for her children because Sara is in such extreme anguish as she is forced to watch her daughter in pain with no way to stop it.

THEME:

I think the theme of this book in the beginning is the power and complexity of love within families.