Blood Brothers Essay Prompts

Hey! Just in case you need the essay prompts for Blood Brothers, here they are:
*NOTE: You have until Friday 11/13 to get your points for a thesis rewrite.
*Rewrites must follow CAB style.

Option A

 “If there is a problem somewhere,” he said with his dry chuckle, “this is what happens. Three people will try to do something concrete to settle the issue. Ten people will give a lecture analyzing what the three are doing. One hundred people will commend or condemn the ten for their lecture. One thousand people will argue about the problem. And one person—only one—will involve himself so deeply in the true solution that he is too busy to listen to any of it.”

“Now,” he asked gently, his penetrating eyes meeting each of ours in turn, “which one are you?” (Chacour 134)

The words of Father Longere had a deep impact on Elias. By the end of the novel, had Elias become the “one person,” the activist that Longere says will bring real change? If so, how has he proven himself? If not, what else must he do to enact this identity?

Option B

Silent, still, I lay there, aware for the first time that I was capable of vicious, killing hatred. Aware that all men everywhere—despite the thin, polite veneer of society—are capable of hideous violence against other men. Not just the Nazis or the Zionists or the Palestinian commandos—but me. I had covered my hurts with Christian responses, but inside the anger had gnawed. With this sudden, startling view of myself, a familiar inner voice spoke firmly, without compromise: If you hate your brother, you are guilty of murder. Now I understood.

I was aware of other words being spoken. A Man was dying a hideous death at the hands of His captors—a Man of Peace, who suffered unjustly—hung on a cross. Father, forgive them, I repeated. And forgive me, too.

In that moment, forgiveness closed the long-open gap of anger and bitterness inside me. From the time I had been beaten as a small boy, I had denied the violence inside me. Now . . . the taming hand that had taught me compassion in the border of West Germany had finally stilled me enough to see the deep hatred in my own soul.  (Chacour 172-173)

What effect does this realization of his own rage have on Elias’ views on the role of violence in the process of making peace?