Question

Read this excerpt from "Hope, Despair and Memory" and answer the question.

"And yet it is surely human to forget, even to want to forget. The Ancients saw it as a divine gift. Indeed if memory helps us to survive, forgetting allows us to go on living. How could we go on with our daily lives, if we remained constantly aware of the dangers and ghosts surrounding us? The Talmud tells us that without the ability to forget, man would soon cease to learn. Without the ability to forget, man would live in a permanent, paralyzing fear of death. Only God and God alone can and must remember everything."

In the above excerpt Wiesel is using what rhetorical devices?

A. alliteration and ethos
B. paradox and antithesis
C. parable and pathos
D. persuasion and rhetoric

Answer 1

I believe the answer is C

Answer 2

I believe the answer is C

The definition of a parable is: a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.
The definition of pathos is: a quality that evokes pity or sadness

In the excerpt above, when Wiesel says "Only God and God alone can and must remember everything," he is using parable to illustrate how great God is, by giving an example of something he can do that not one person on earth can.
Also, by saying "Without the ability to forget, man would live in a permanent, paralyzing fear of death," Wiesel is using pathos to stimulate a feeling of sadness, as thinking of how paralyzing fear of death cannot be very pleasant.