Throughout the novel, Elie struggles to retain his humanity in the face of nearly insurmountable hardship. His outlook on life, faith, and humanity completely changes as he describes the horrors of living in a concentration camp. For example, his relationship with his father evolves as the child becomes the parent—Elie is forced to care for his father, when normally parents are meant to care for their children. Elie resents this, saying, "If only I could get rid of this dead weight." It is also incredible and horrifying to Elie that anyone could inflict the kind of pain on others that he experiences at the camp. He doesn't understand how anyone could treat other human beings like they are nothing, and he loses faith in the goodness of humanity.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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