Question

Read the excerpt from Wiesel’s All Rivers Run to the Sea. My very last resistance broken, I let myself be pulled, pushed, and kicked, like a deaf and mute sleepwalker. I could see everything, grasp it and register it, but only later would I try to put in order all the sensations and all the memories. How stunned I was, for example, to discover another time outside time, a universe parallel to this one, a creation within Creation, with its own laws, customs structures, and language. Read the text and study the image from Spiegelman’s Maus. Which theme is addressed in both excerpts? Ignorance of reality is preferable to awareness. Physical sensations can be just as painful as the event itself. People can be worn down to the point of giving up. Reality can be inexplicably cruel and unfair.

Answer 1

Wiesel's and Spiegelman's works both depict the theme that reality can be cruel and unfair, showing dehumanization and psychological trauma. Other referenced texts shed light on despair, conflict, and altered perceptions due to extreme situations, linking back to the shared theme of dealing with harsh realities.

Step-by-step explanation:

Both Elie Wiesel's excerpt from All Rivers Run to the Sea and the image from Art Spiegelman's Maus convey the theme that reality can be inexplicably cruel and unfair. Wiesel details an experience of complete dehumanization and psychological numbing in the face of overwhelming trauma, while Spiegelman's graphic novel illustrates the stark and brutal experiences of Jews during the Holocaust through the use of imagery and allegory.

The references in other texts also point towards themes of despair, the idea of conflict shaping human experience, perception of the world being altered by extreme circumstances, and the struggle for self-realization amidst profound hardship. Each relates to the concept of a harsh reality and the human response to it, with shared elements of suffering, adversity, and the quest for understanding or endurance within that context.