Sacré Bleu By Christopher Moore: Summary

The excerpt, shows how Van Gogh escaped from his troubles and gained popularity, but only after he was dead. Van Gogh was born on 1853, renamed after his stillborn older brother. ¨As a result, Vincent Van Gogh grew up near the haunting sight of a grave with his own name upon it.¨(par. 1) His parents weren’t around most of the time, as they were also busy dealing with his younger siblings. He felt lonely, while his mother believed that his talent might come to use once he got older. He spent time by himself, but slowly depended on art to share his thoughts. With Van Gogh's shared name upon a grave of which his stillborn brother’s laid, felt as a replacement to his parents, as well, he became

You see that his lips are smeared with something slippery and red, mixed with black specks, as if he had been chewing coffee grounds. His eyes the color of rubies, and his face expressionless mass of bruises…”.(page 17) This quote continues on a bit further talking about what was happening to Charles Monet. It shows how much detail the author used to help the reader visual the novel.

Death can be thought of as a very violent being and people often associate it with maliciousness. The animated coloring plays to a reader’s familiarity of certain colors and what they represent to create a more vehement image. In the chapter titled “Beside the Railway Line”, Death states that something is blinding white when Liesel’s brother dies. It could possibly be comparing the white snow with the cold of death. There is also repeated mention of the colors of Rudy’s hair and Hans’ eyes. Rudy’s hair is described as being “lemon yellow”. Humanity mostly affiliates the color yellow with happiness, memory, communication, youthfulness and carelessness. But in The Book Thief it is twisted into a grim style. In the novel, Rudy is very happy and he cherishes his youth. When he dies, Liesel remembers the kiss he kept asking for and the mean things she would say to him and it causes great pain for her. Death almost always explains the way a person is when it comes for them. He says that Hans’ silver eyes were open and that Hans’ came peacefully. Silver is often correlated with love and peace. Only because Liesel loved Hans so much, is that why the silver of his eyes are so very important. Death gives a tranquil atmosphere to the violence it concocts. Readers become comfortable with Death the idea of it and frequently miss the gesture of violence.

In Van Gogh’s piece of art “Prisoners Exercising” (1890) is shown sadness, depression, and despair of the prisoners. You can say that prisoners are also hopeless, by how the artist drew faces of some of the prisoners. The artist used black, gray, dark blue, brown and dull orange colors, these colors make you feel sad and distressed. By looking at this painting and the colours that were used we can say that Van Gogh was feeling depressed and he had a life crisis. I believe that the artist’s message that he wanted to deliver is, this is how life can look like, making circles in a small room, loneliness, being controlled by other people who are watching your each and every step that you take. Maybe he wanted to show how people look like when they are freedomless.

"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon the carpet of the same material and hue. ... The panes were scarlet—a deep blood color.... There was no light of any kind... but in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme,” (“The Masque” 342). Poe brilliantly uses color to achieve the desired mood. The color black often represents melancholy or death. Scarlet, of course, exhibits the color of blood. Poe exploits the use of these two colors, black and scarlet, to create a feeling of macabre.

To me the three mix of colours automatically point out more death, however the set of it is more described, with the colour white and black, as it gives off a dull, grave and quiet atmosphere. This is supported even more with the use of no dialogue; seen as a critical communicator amongst each of the characters. To me the Director’s purpose was to show the strangeness between each character, as each of them seemed as though none of them personally knew one another. This links back to the film the Dark knight, in the beginning during the bank robbery, as each criminal kills off the other for the higher reward, soon enough the Joker appears just as the priest, both seen as the vulture letting others do their dirty work. The feel of strangeness is also related to the text Montana 1948, as the aftermath result of Frank’s death. “The cemetery they made a point of standing on opposite side of the grave from us. Even I understood the symbolism: Frank’s death was an unbridgeable gulf between us” the author’s purpose was to portray the symbolism, of the indifferent perception of deceit, as Julian had hard reasons to believe Wes had done this too his brother through jealousy, whereas Wes’s perception, was to always obey to the law, a moral that he could not

Perhaps he had come to Arles for the sun and for him, it was an immense joy to live in such bright bedroom, bursting with colors. What is also fascinating about this piece of art is how the painter highlights the simplicity of his bedroom through the medium of color: « the pale lilac walls, the floor of an old brown, the chairs and bed chrome yellow, the blood red cover, the orange little table and the blue basin”, as the painter describes it. Van Gogh asserted that he wanted to express a complete rest by handling all these different shades2. The color black, which could be evocating a certain form of anguish, is almost nonexistent in this painting. Only the frame of the mirror and windows is black. We wonder if this could mean that Van Gogh was afraid of his future and afraid to face up to reality.

The Laches begins with Lysimachus saying, “You have seen the man fighting in armor, Nicias and Laches” (Laches, 178A) to his two friends Nicias and Laches with his third friend Melesias. He has invited these men to his home to ask them what they think about training their sons, Thucydides and Aristides, with this method so as they are “concerned about the sort of training that would make the best men of them.” (Laches, 179B). Lysimachus and Melesias are worried about how their sons are perceived in society as they have no achievements or merits of worth yet while Nicias and Laches are noted generals that are held in high esteem. Nicias is “ready to take part in it” (Laches, 180A) and so is Laches but he recommends that they bring Socrates

Buruma provides detailed insight into each character allowing the reader to contemplate the motivation behind actions of each one. Buruma describes Theo Van Gogh, the assassinated, as a “ubiquitous figure” in Holland, but is quick to point put out he is better known for his provocative public statements than his films. Van Gogh’s family was made up of Calvinists, Socialists, and Humanists all of which had an influence Theo Van Gogh in one way or another. Buruma emphasizes Van Gogh’s “desire to shock, to stir things up”, a desire developed at a young age and carried into his adulthood and films known for the shock value. There were to sides to Theo Van Gogh the first characterized by his ability to be generous and gracious and the

The novel, “The Shadow of the Galilean,” written by Gerd Theissen is a fictitious narration attempting to depict the validity of Jesus, the gospel, and what is was like to live during the first century in Palestine through a historical perspective. The novel takes you on a dual journey not only with Andreas, but also with letters written from Theissen to his fictional reader Dr.Kratzinger.

Poe’s use of symbolism is very evident throughout the story of “The Masque of the Red Death”. Much has been made about the meaning of the rooms that fill Prince Prospero’s lavish getaway. One such critique, Brett Zimmerman writes, “It is difficult to believe that a symbolist such as Poe would refuse to assign significance to the hues in a tale otherwise loaded with symbolic and allegorical suggestiveness” (Zimmerman 60). Many agree that the seven rooms represent the seven stages of human existence. The first, blue, signifying the beginnings of life. Keeping in mind Poe’s Neo-Platonism and Transcendentalism stance, the significance of blue is taken a step further. Not only does blue symbolize the beginning of life, but the idea of immortality is apparent when considering these ideas. “Perhaps ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ then, is not quite the bleak existential vision we have long thought it to be”, expounds Zimmerman (Zimmerman 70). Poe’s use of each color is significant to the seven stages

One of the most important motifs of Zuask’s book was Death’s observations of colors. “A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors” (Zuask 4). Death uses colors as a distraction, to let it forget for even the slightest second that it is taking the soul of a once actually living thing. “It takes the edge off the

Most colors within the visible light spectrum hold specific emotions that are conveyed to individuals by artists through their pieces of art. Van Gogh carefully incorporated both vibrant and dark colors in his iconic painting Café Terrace at Night, of which span across a vast array of emotions. One of the colors that stand out when you first observe the painting is the vibrant yellow used for the exterior of the café. The color yellow is known within the art community as a cheerful and warm color, helping the café to come across as an inviting gathering place to the individuals observing the painting. Another color that Van Gogh used which quickly grabs

Soon hereafter, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, the wife of van Gogh’s broth Theo van Gogh, compiled and published the letters between van Gogh and Theo. This publication helped spread the absorbing mystique of van Gogh’s life. Accord to Saltzman’s book, the popular image of van Gogh was solidified in 1930s when the American novelist Irving Stone published a novel about van Gogh’s life in 1934 entitled “Lust for Life”. This book and later the movie of the same name added to further the artist's fame as an artistic martyr who driven by despair and ignored. In that time, some critics like Roger Fry and Clement Greenberg attended to discount van Gogh’s work as being driven by emotional rather than aesthetic concerns. I was surprised to learn that it was not until the 1980s a wave of revisionist scholarship reconstructed the facts of van Gogh's professionalism. Critics began to appreciate that van Gogh's bouts with depression were intermittent, that he was born into a family of artists and was well educated, and that he worked with a purposeful, intelligent genius. The process of recognizing van Gogh’s fame reveals the growing role of critics in the art

Both these artworks were constructed around the same times, 1889 in the 19th century. This was a time in Van Gogh’s life of great misplacement and the downhill run to his suicide in 1890 at 37. A series of events led to his downfall including such events as: chasing Gauguin with a knife, resulting in the fallout of their relationship; cutting his left ear off as a consequence for his misbehaviour and handing it to a prostitute as a ‘gift’ in 1888; finally shooting himself in the chest. Dying two days later in 1890. These series of events subsequently relate to Van Gogh’s paintings, as he painted with full attentive emotion within his artworks using colour as a vehicle to convey his subjective emotions.