Question: How has your understanding of crossing boundaries been challenged and transformed through the course of your study?
In the novel Burial Rites by Hannah Kent my understanding of Crossing Boundaries has been challenged to a great extent as well as transformed in the process of studying Kent’s novel. I have also had my understanding of boundaries crossed challenged through Martin Luther King’s speech ‘I have a dream’. Kent’s use of social, work and moral boundaries right throughout the text intertwined with techniques such as Pathetic Fallacy, Visual Imagery, metaphors, personification and repetition gives me a deep and new meaning to crossing boundaries. King’s speech also speaks of the same social and moral boundaries as Kent’s novel does as well as using Repetition to get his message across of an equal America.
Kent’s novel uses the idea of social boundaries to great effect and has really challenged and transformed my idea of crossing boundaries. My thoughts on social boundaries are challenged when Agnes talks about judgements about her from other people and the way she experiences hostility. “I am Agnes of Illugastadir, Agnes of the fire, Agnes of the dead bodies”. The technique of repetition is used by Kent to make us think of these bad images when the Agnes’s name is spoken. The same is done by King in his speech with the words ‘I have a dream’. He will constantly use these 4 words along with what he believes is right ‘I have a dream that one day this nation with rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed’. King uses repetition to the same effect that Kent does in her novel, to make us think of a specific thing which may be good or bad whenever the repeated words are spoken. The ideas of crossing boundaries and the fact that they can only mean a bad thing have changed drastically with the relationship between Toti and Agnes starting of as a working relationship and evolving into something more than that. Toti’s lustful dreams cross a work...