an English question
By dufresne
@dufresne (137)
China
May 8, 2009 7:57pm CST
In the sentence "I could endure hunger. I had learned to live with hate. But to feel that there were feelings denied me, that the very breath of life itself was beyond my reach, that more than anything else hurt, wounded me.", I feel the last "that" should be replaced by "which", referring to the prior content. What do you think?
3 responses
@Daae92 (75)
• United States
9 May 09
I think it should remain that, the person is saying that he was harmed by the prior content. The last part, "that more than anything else hurt, wounded me." It seems that those two parts go together, the writer is using both words to express the same feeling, using which would make "that more than anything else hurt" seem more like a contradiction than an agreement to the last words.
@dufresne (137)
• China
9 May 09
But my education taught me "which" can be used to refer to the prior sentence or content, not "that" ,which can only be used to refer to a prior single word. In addition, between "there were feelings" and "denied me", there should be a "that" or "which", do you think so?
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
10 May 09
i would suggest if the last that was retained,a comma be put after it to emphasize which thing was what hurt the most.
