Un Sac de Billes general stuff

Un Sac de Billes general stuff

1. Writers aims

   • destiné à ses enfants
     • witness-show war was absurd
     • communicate values
       • courage
   • Exorcise guilt
   • Thanks to the Hommage aux Justes
   • himself 'cathartique'-Psychological
   • destiné à tous les enfants francophones
     • show that hating someone for their race is absurd

2. Structure

   • hope vs. fear
   • governed by chronological events (to a point)

3. language

   • 1940's language
   • fairytale language
     • lots of references to fairytales
       • normal for a child
         • serves to make book appealing to children
   • humour
     • humanity
       • like the characters
       • reader on their side
     • contrast with the evil going on
       • heightens the evil
     • defence mechanism
       • protests against horror
     • alleviate tension

4. Symbolism

   • marbles
     • represent innocence
   • "musette"
     • used every time he flees
       • associated with evil
         • will they stay in attic
           • or will antisemitism rise again
   • journey
     • physical
     • metaphorical
       • child into adult
       • soft to hard
   • hunting
     • father flees Pogroms
       • Jo uses it to talk about why Jo is persecuted

5. Circularity

   • His journey is circular
   • rebirth
   • final train journey to Paris

6. Tone

   • ordinary church priest did not wait for church leaders to help save Jewish children
   • optimism
     • ordinary people having capacity for goodness- food, warmth and shelter
   • pessimism
     • Jo struggles with idea that people can hate/persecute
     • ordinary people have capacity for evil

7. Narrator

   • adult
     • steps out of recalling story and talks directly to reader
   • book swings between 2 narrators
     • bit rollercoaster-like
       • like boy's life
   • child
     • seen in syntax
       • present tense
         • reliving events
         • shifts to past tense sometimes