Assisi Annotations Flashcards
The dwarf
Dehumanising, brutal/disgusted tone
hands on backwards
Imagery, hyperbole, inhuman/demonic (contrasts with church)
sat, slumped like a half-filled sack
- Alliteration, sibilant hissing, sounds disgusted
- Simile, inanimate object, dehumanising
tiny twisted legs
- Alliteration, tutting, judgement
- ‘twisted’ suggests twisted character
from which sawdust might run
- Irony, he cannot run (literally or from his situation)
- Sawdust suggests puppet/inanimate object, dehumanising
outside the three tiers of churches
- ‘outside’ emphases beggar is an outsider
- ‘tiers’ ornate like wedding cake, contrasts with beggar
over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet
- Sarcastic/ironic tone: asks reader to consider if being poor/scorned is better than being dead
- Emphasises church’s hypocrisy
A priest explained how clever it was of Giotto
- Tone: condescending, shallow, pompous
- Like priest thinks he’s superior to Giotto
reveal to the illiterate the goodness of God and the suffering of his son.
- ‘reveal’: makes them sound ignorant/stupid
- Ironic, priest shows no goodness to the beggar
I understood the explanation and the cleverness.
Double meaning: understood Giotto’s illustrations of what the church should be, and the church intentions for monetary gain over helping the poor
A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly, fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the Word.
- Extended chicken metaphor (brainless, gluttonous)
- Grain should nurture, juxtaposes beggar’s hunger with the tourists
- ‘Word’: god’s word is ignored, priest expects tourists to follow/not question him (not god)
It was they who had passed the ruined temple outside
- ‘they’ is accusing
- Shows the beggar is a ‘temple’ worthy of respect but is in ruin
- ‘outside’ emphasises he is an outsider
said Grazie in a voice as sweet as a child’s when she speaks to her mother
- Irony, he has little to be thankful for
- Shows purity/innocence
or a bird’s when it spoke to St Francis.
Reminds us of what St Francis stood for and how the church is now a perversion of that
