What does the black sack in this excerpt from leo tolstoy’s the death of ivan ilyich symbolize?
till about three in the morning he was in a state of stupefied misery. it seemed to him that he and his pain were being thrust into a narrow, deep black sack, but though they were pushed further and further in they could not be pushed to the bottom. and this, terrible enough in itself, was accompanied by suffering. he was frightened yet wanted to fall through the sack, he struggled but yet co-operated. and suddenly he broke through, fell, and regained consciousness. gerasim was sitting at the foot of the bed dozing quietly and patiently, while he himself lay with his emaciated stockinged legs resting on gerasim's shoulders; the same shaded candle was there and the same unceasing pain.
death
missed opportunities
corrupt relationships
childhood
mental conflict

The answers are Death, Missed opportunities, and Mental Conflict

98 points!

assignment

analyzing characters

respond to the following questions in one paragraph for each. use specific examples from the text to support your responses.

1. there is a set of twins on the island named sam and eric. however, when describing them, golding regularly refers to them as samneric. how does this way of describing the twins relate to their behavior and the way that readers understand their characters? what examples of their behavior readers see that samneric is really the appropriate way to refer to them?

2. as the boys set out to search for the beast, ralph allows jack to lead the way, and he sinks to the back of the pack, " to have escaped responsibility for a time." what does this moment lead you to infer about ralph and about his feelings about being the group’s leader? what does this moment foreshadow?

3. while part of the party searching for the beast, simon realizes that the notion of the beast that the other boys have does not make sense. a beast sitting atop a mountain with claws, a beast who did not leave tracks, could have easily caught the twins. simon has a different picture of the beast: "there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick." how does this picture relate to the beast that samneric saw? how does it relate to what simon said earlier about the beast being "only us"?

no plagarism

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