Imagining Argentina Imagery

The novel, Imagining Argentina, makes use of several rhetorical devices in order to express the themes it presents. The image of the Holocaust, for example, is repeated several times throughout the novel in order to express the themes, such as during the experiences of the main character, Carlos Rueda, and the thoughts of the narrator, Martin Benn. It is through the repetition of the image of the Holocaust that the author, Lawrence Thornton, conveys the predominant theme of Imagining Argentina that, without hope, life is meaningless.
Thornton heavily emphasizes the image of the Holocaust during Carlos’ stay at Amos and Sara’s refuge. Amos shares his and Sara’s experiences in Auschwitz with Carlos through his “...picture of people with no hair who looked like skeletons...either crying or laughing.” (78) The skeletons in the photograph, Amos and Sara, were liberated from the concentration camp and survived by maintaining hope in a future despite all the horrors that surrounded them. Sasha, the daughter of a friend of Amos and Sara’s, has her story told as well by Amos who explains that she “...offended a guard by asking for something to drink when she had a fever. He cut out her tongue with a bayonet and threw it in a refuse heap where a rat appeared to run off with it to his burrow.” (78) She still held onto hope despite the torture, pain, possibility of death, and eventual muteness. Sara, Amos, and Sasha were some of the few who survived the Holocaust with their hope and belief intact. They held onto their hope following the nightmare they were forced to live through and continued to maintain it throughout their lives thus giving them meaning and reason to live.
The theme is continuously expressed throughout the novel, particularly when Carlos describes his visions to listeners who cling onto his stories in order to maintain hope. The image of the Holocaust was also presented to support the theme through Solomon Levy, a man sent by Amos and Sara wishing to find