Read the excerpt from "A Quilt of a Country." Once these disparate parts were held together by a common enemy, by the fault line
s of world wars and the electrified fence of communism. With the end of the cold war there was the creeping concern that without a focus for hatred and distrust, a sense of national identity would evaporate, that the left side of the hyphen—African-American, Mexican-American, Irish-American—would overwhelm the right. What is the connotative meaning of fault lines in this excerpt? something powerful and threatening something familiar and interesting something harmless and pleasant something amusing and impressive.
A connotation is the meaning suggested by a word, including the emotions and associations that it comprises.
The literal definition of a fault line is a ground fracture caused by the movement of tectonic plates that could provoke an earthquake.
However, in this excerpt is used in its connotative meaning to describe the powerful and threatening wars and communist ideas that resembled a common enemy for different states, creating a feeling of national identity.
