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C2 Sample Essay 39 (School or family shapes one's personality)

In the minds of ESL exam candidates, e ssay writing is one of the most daunting tasks they are required to complete, regardless of the level of the exam, the administering body or the ease with which they themselves use the language. The same applies to students who are asked to write an essay by their teachers at school.  In the previous sample essays posted on the blog, the main point I stress is the need to become acquainted with this form of writing (as opposed to writing a letter, review or report, for instance), to get a feel of what authorial voice is and how to organize and progressively express the arguments you wish to make in a coherent manner.  Unfortunately, the best way to prepare for exam writing or learn how to write good essays for school is to read as many essays from as many sources as possible, then write as

Victoria Hislop - The Thread (Plot Summary) Part 2


This is the second part of the plot summary of Victoria Hislop's novel The Thread. For a brief introduction and the first 10 chapters of the book, please read Victoria Hislop - The Thread (Plot Summary) Part 1

http://argutelegacy.blogspot.com/2018/05/hislop-thread-plot-part1.html
The Thread 

    • chapter 11:
      • Dimitris, girls, Elias, Isaac often go out on walks/to play: this is kept secret from Komninos
      • kids visit graveyard
      • meals with the Morenos described
      • American lady at offices of Refugee Settlement Commission still remembers Eugenia + family
      • Katerina writes letter to her mother + gives it to office
      • Zenia + Artemis’s story: in Athens, are housed in opera house; ladies in Smyrna (prevented Zenia from getting off the boat to stay with Katerina for fear boat would capsize + they’d lose relics / icons for new church) now tell her to write letter to find Katerina
      • French lady at Refugee Settlement Commission indifferently puts letter on pile
    • chapter 12:
      • Katerina learns stitching from Mrs. Moreno, who is happy to have a girl to show her trade to
      • Olga lends Eugenia money to buy loom to make carpets
      • Olga tells merchants to take their time with the orders for new Komninos mansion
      • Eventually, mansion is ready, Olga must leave Irini Street: sad goodbyes
      • postmaster at sorting office in Athens makes connection between Zenia’s and Katerina’s mail
      • Zenia: remarried to neighbor with 4 kids (Angelos Pantazoglou); Artemis is pushed around by stepfather and siblings, Pantazoglou beats Zenia
      • Zenia asks Eugenia to keep Katerina for some time
    • chapter 13:
      • Maria + Sofia want to work as tobacco girls (would work outside, get paid every week)
      • Katerina and Eugenia disagree with this: Eugenia wants her daughters to learn a skill (which would take time)
      • Dimitris misses his friends: Komninos doesn’t let them play together
      • Olga’s agoraphobia grows: tailors come to her house to make dresses for dinners at the mansion/Olga’s appearances with clients
      • Katerina goes to learn needlework at Moreno’s house every night while Eugenia fought with her daughters about their future as tobacco girls
      • Mrs. Moreno embroiders quilt: Roza’s work for pleasure = she adds sth new every so often; is a work in progress that would never be finished; is a “profoundly symbolic work”; for Katerina this links sewing with love
      • Katerina’s present for Eugenia’s name day: handkerchief she embroidered with flower + butterfly
      • Eugenia gets letter from government: husband presumed dead; is touched by Katerina’s beautiful gift
    • chapter 14:
      • Sofia + Maria start work at tobacco factory (away from home, edge of the city)
      • Sofia gets a little more money than others because she’s flirtatious with supervisor
      • Katerina = 13 yrs old: extremely skilled in embroidery; goes out to sell wares in richer neighborhoods; wares are sold for less than their worth, but always sold out, so money brought in and family never hungry
      • Moreno workshop known for its attention to detail + perfection: Katerina goes to work there
      • Komninos at Moreno’s shop: Dimitri set to take exams to go into law school (although Dimitris wants to become a doctor); Olga doesn’t leave the house
      • Elias goes to play tavli (backgammon) with Dimitri from time to time but leaves as soon as Komninos comes in: Komninos wants son to learn 5 languages before leaving school
      • why Morenos didn’t live in bigger house since they have such a big workshop + good reputation: put profits back into business, hire best workers (especially relatives + Jews but also Greeks, + had Muslims they still miss)
    • chapter 15:
      • Katerina learns under guidance of Saul’s aunt, Esther Moreno (worked over 40 yrs there)
      • Katerina put to work in finishing room under Mrs. Raphael (on beading): does excellent work
      • Katerina remembers her mother working on ecclesiastical robe with nostalgia
      • historical facts: Thessaloniki = the affluent live side by side in shacks with poorer immigrants since the great fire wiped out homes; Irini Street families are in between; unemployment rising; labor militancy especially from tobacco workers; Nationalists hostile towards Jews (who hadn’t welcomed Greek troops during 1912 liberation of Thessaloniki + some who still didn’t speak Greek)
      • Moreno workshop: Moreno finds “Jew” painted on door
      • Campbell district: 2 Jewish houses torched: afterwards many Jews emigrated (Palestine)
      • Moreno’s reaction to this: keeps morale of workers high (buys gramophone); takes out large ads in newspapers to improve reputation (right-wing newspapers too)
      • dress for Olga is finished + Katerina takes it to Komninos house (Olga has grown thin)
      • Katerina sees Dimitris as she nears the house (Dimitris= 16 yrs old); they go in together
      • Olga eager to hear news from Irini Street: Katerina brings life back into the house with her news + tales; Dimitris is mesmerized
      • Komninos returns; rebukes Olga for not having taken dress out of box to hang
      • 20,000 stremmata bought 5 yrs earlier by Komninos for production of silk; guests / clients see Olga wearing clothes made from his fine materials and want to buy from him
      • Dimitris preparing to take exams to get into medical school
    • chapter 16:
      • Komninos furious with Dimitri for joining medical faculty at university: his business is growing despite economic slump; needs lawyer not doctor
      • Dimitris: aware of inequality + precariousness of his position as the son of a wealthy man
      • Dimitris sees Katerina + Elias (Mr. Moreno now has delivery van for clothes): Elias + Dimitris arrange to continue tavli tournament
      • Dimitris’s university friends: Vassilis Filipidis, Nikolaos Zakhariades, Lefteris, Manolis, Alexandros
      • they go to tekhes to see Stelios Keromitis (rebetis) sing about suffering + flight from Asia Minor until early morning
      • nights out continue + Elias joins group of friends (continues to play tavli with Dimitris)
      • Elias updates Dimitris: Maria moved to Trikala (married with baby); Sofia engaged for 2 yrs; Moreno grandmother dead; Katerina practically member of Moreno family; Eugenia works long hours at carpet factory
      • Dionis Street: they see Komninos go into brothel: Dimitris tells father indirectly the same night after returning home late + drunk
      • family lunch: Komninos goads son to anger over political situation (Metaxas appointed Prime Minister by King; is cracking down on worker protests; trade unionists + Communists are exiled); Dimitris keeps his cool for Olga’s sake
      • Dimitris meets Elias, Vassilis, Katerina at kafenion (café): walks her home; falling for her happiness; says she, like Mozart, is said to be a prodigy
      • tobacco workers strike: Vassilis tells them all to go out to support over 20,000 strikers in the city
      • martial law imposed by Metaxas: next day during strike, police fire on unarmed crowd; Dimitris seeks shelter in Moreno house
      • martial law declared, Greece = dictatorship: over dinner, Komninos toasts dictatorship (Olga not present) taunting Dimitris, who leaves
    • chapter 17:
      • Vassilis + Communists are imprisoned; further suppression by Metaxas
      • letter to Vassilis’s father: Vassilis died of tuberculosis (Dimitris goes to pick up personal belongings in prison; signing his name on the form = marks him as Communist)
      • twins want Eugenia to move to Trikala (Sofia lives nearby), but for Katerina + Eugenia Thessaloniki = home
      • Zenia’s letters to Katerina become fewer: squalid conditions at home, sharing it with 2 stepdaughters + their husbands + their widowed mothers; only Zenia works
      • Greek army pushes Italians back (Epirus): Komninos toasts his son + Metaxas’s army
    • chapter 18:
      • Germans arrive: food shortages, Jews arrested (council members + community leaders)
      • growing anti-Semitism: signs “Jews not welcome here” appear
      • anti-Jewish measures: hand over radios (Moreno gramophone is hidden)
      • Moreno business: Germans are clients; employees at workshop were better off than other Greeks because they had a job + food
      • 2 men arrive, are representatives of Jewish Affairs Commission: gather any Jewish documents + manuscripts; Morenos hide parochet (curtain hanging in front of the Ark), tallit (silk parchment, 500 yrs old), yad (pointer)
      • German at Moreno workshop breaks rebetiko records employees would listen to on gramophone: gives them Wagner’s Lieder instead
    • chapter 19:
      • Dimitris + Elias become andartes: become members of EAM (National Liberation Front) whose aim was relief work by stealing food and medication to give to the Greeks ; King George + government have withdrawn to the Middle East
      • they join ELAS (National Popular Liberation Army) fighting guerrilla warfare against Germans
      • they obtain a few days leave to visit with family
      • Dimitris goes home: sees Pavlina + Olga; father returns (“You’re a disgrace to this family.”) and bans son from entering the house so long as he’s a Communist fighting for ELAS
      • Dimitris goes to Moreno house: they welcome him, give him a bed for the night + fresh clothes
      • Elias goes to Moreno workshop to convince Isaac to join them (Dimitris is jealous Elias will see Katerina)
      • Dimitris goes for a walk, sits in a café, is recognized be a gendarme as Komninos’ s son: is disgusted that his father is on good terms with gendarmes
      • all Jewish men 18-45 yrs old transported to do hard labor in Larissa; before leaving they are made to do “keep fit exercises” in the sun without water, shade, rest: Jacob from the Moreno workshop vomits, collapses, is left on the ground unconscious for an hour
      • Jews are given the chance to buy back laborers (3 million drachmas): Jewish cemetery valued at that amount by Germans and so is given to them; Germans take marble headstones, sell them + use them in construction
      • Isaac returns (Jacob has died along with 3 other Moreno employees)
    • chapter 20:
      • less work at Moreno workshop: famine in city; Komninos put up price of fabrics so only the rich had clothes made; poorer people brought clothes to be mended or altered for size
      • Olga becomes thinner; dinners at Komninos mansion continue with Germans as guests
      • Jan 1943: Eichmann’s deputy arrives to implement the Final Solution for 50,000 Jews; first are made to wear a yellow star at all times, then are moved into a ghetto
      • Morenos give precious hidden heirlooms to Katerina and Eugenia to keep and hide
      • Moreno workshop is locked
      • Isaac arrives at Eugenia’s, starving: says he escaped from the ghetto. Rabbi Koretz told them they’d be moved to Krakow, Poland; they were told to exchange their drachmas for zlotys; he had escaped but came back to leave with his family/can’t abandon them; he has just come to get some clothes + blankets
      • Eugenia + Katerina stay up all night to make warm clothes for Morenos
      • they both go to railway station the next day to say goodbye to Morenos but aren’t allowed to go near
 
By User:MWD - english wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6885987

A view of Thessaloniki's waterfront promenade






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