Essay Questions

What is the significance of cell phones in “Numero Zero” by Umberto Eco?

The author ironically uses phones to build the novel. He starts by noting that Simei, the primary editor, argues that cell phones are not critical to humans because they are expensive. Additionally, he says that people do not need to give instant responses. In other words, Simei implies that cell phones cannot replace traditional forms of communication. Simei says, “People will miss private communication, face to face conversation.” Similarly, Simei expounds that cell phones can only benefit womanizers who are looking for ways to cheat on their wives, “womanizer will need them because they remove the problem of the home phone”. The other builds the irony of cell phones because their popularity and usage contradicted the predictions of Simei.

Briefly explain one example of how Umberto Eco uses the literary devise symbols to enhance his themes in “Numero Zero.”

The Narrator says, “His shower is not the Red Sea” when he tries to imagine that it is God who shut his water tap in the Kitchen. His kitchen water tap is inexplicably closed and the narrator fails to understand what is happening. He decides to lay the blame on God but quickly disputes that idea. He continues to think why the tap is closed and remembers that Moses was a religious legend who ordered the Red Sea to stop flowing so that he can lead his people out of Egypt. These thoughts are biblically mortified and symbolically used to imply that God’s doings are mysterious and cannot be uncovered by man.

Explain the quote, “Losers, like autodidacts, always know much more than winners. If you want to win, you need to know just one thing and not to waste your time on anything else: the pleasures of erudition are reserved for losers. The more a person knows, the more things have gone wrong.”

Colonna who is a middle-aged person puts this quote forward. He has not achieved much in his fifties and tries to comfort himself that words are just words because they cannot be converted to monetary value. He says that any modern man, regardless of how bright he is, without money he is useless or a loser. Winners know how to generate money through business deals or other profitable ventures. Colonna is a loser and he is dreaming of writing a book in the future to make money and attain fame.