Compare and contrast the themes of silence and beauty in the four chapters: Keeping Quiet, A Thing of Beauty, The Last Lesson and Deep Water. How do the authors use different literary devices and techniques to convey their messages and emotions? Support your answer with examples and quotations from the texts.

Answer as written by the student:

The four chapters: Keeping Quiet, A Thing of Beauty, The Last Lesson and Deep Water deal with the themes of silence and beauty in different ways. They explore how these themes affect the lives of the characters and the readers.

1. Silence:

•   In Keeping Quiet, silence is presented as a positive and powerful force that can bring peace and harmony to the world. The poet urges everyone to stop talking and moving for a moment and experience a sense of wonder and connection with each other and nature. He uses metaphors, imagery, repetition and rhetorical questions to convey his message. For example, he says “Perhaps the Earth can teach us / as when everything seems dead / and later proves to be alive”  to show how silence can reveal the hidden life and beauty of nature.
•   In A Thing of Beauty , silence is also associated with beauty , as the poet says that “a thing of beauty is a joy for ever”  and that beauty can “move away the pall / From our dark spirits”. He uses alliteration, personification, simile and rhyme to create a musical and lyrical effect. For example, he says “Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing / A flowery band to bind us to the earth”  to show how beauty can inspire us to celebrate life. 
• In The Last Lesson, silence is presented as a negative and painful reality that reflects the loss of language and freedom. The narrator describes how the school is filled with silence and sadness on the day of the last French lesson, as the Germans have ordered that only German should be taught in Alsace and Lorraine. He uses irony, contrast, symbolism and dialogue to convey his message. For example, he says “Usually, when school began, there was a great bustle” but “that day everything was very still”  to show how the situation has changed drastically. He also says that the teacher writes on the board “Vive La France!”  as a sign of patriotism and resistance. 
• In Deep Water , silence is presented as a terrifying and suffocating force that represents the fear of drowning. The narrator recounts how he nearly drowned in a swimming pool when he was young, and how he overcame his fear later in life. He uses flashback, imagery, sensory details and narration to convey his message. For example, he says “I was terrified beyond description”  and “I felt I was going down for the third time”  to show how he felt helpless and hopeless in the water.