Wednesday, July 28, 2010



“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner is a novel of two boys, Amir, a Pashtun, and Hassan, a Hazara, and of the story of them growing up in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan. It all Begins how Hassan, servant to Amir is raped, and how Amir witness the rape, and does nothing to help Hassan, or even anything about it. The story continues in how Amir and his father, Baba, travel to The United States seeking a new life after Russia invades Afghanistan. Then Soon after the death of Baba in the United States we find out that Baba was the real father of Hassan, making Amir and Hassan half-brothers, plus we find out that back in Afghanistan Hassan and his wife have been murdered, introducing us to Sohrab, Hassan son , and Amir’s Half-nephew, who is in need of family. In the end Amir adopts Sohrab, taking custody of him in Afghanistan, and eventually bringing him to The United States, The End.
This Novel is mainly about “Nang and Namoos,” honor and pride. This starts with Baba being a Pashtun, and Ali’ being a Hazara, and his Half-adopted brother to Baba ; Hazara meaning coming from Mongolian decent. Baba treats Ali as a servant even though they are related. Baba’s “Nang and Namoose “dictates that he treat Ali as a lesser person, because in the society that Baba grew up in Hazara’s are a lesser being. So eventually when Amir and Hassan grow up together, and again the problem of Pashtun and Hazara resurfaces, Amir is faced with the problem of having a best friend that is a Hazara. Thus when Amir had a choice to defend Hassan, the Hazara, from being raped, Amir’s saw his “Namoos, “honor, was in jeopardy. What type of Pashtun, Amir, would bother with defending a hazara, Hassan,one of the reasons Amir lets Hassan get rape. “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77), Amir is speaking of Hassan as if he was a piece of cattle, livestock that needed to be sacrifice for the sake of a greater good.
It is also “Namng and Namoose” that led Baba, Ali, and Rahin Khan to lie to everyone about Hassan being Baba’s son. If everyone would have found out that Baba a Pashtun had an illegitimate son with a Hazara women, it could hurt Baba’s honor, something Afghan culture takes pride in.
”People will ask. They will want to know why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter. What will I tell them” (Hoseini 360). As to the reason why Amir adopts Sohrab it’s because he now lives in America, were culture is different, “Nang And Namoos” isn’t as important as in Afghanistan, and also Amir is tired of lies, and he feels adopting Sohrab could atone for the sin of his past, the one where he left Hassan to be raped in Kabul.”’You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant’s wife. She bore him a son named Hassan. Hassan is dead now. That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan’s son. He’s my nephew. That’s what you tell people when they ask.’”(Hosseini 361). Amir eventually excepting things for what they were, and starting g his life over again, with Sohrab.
I also found that Hosseini in this novel used a kite as a symbolism to status. Towards the middle of the story Amir enrolls himself in a kite fighting tournament, and because Amir, son of Baba, a well placed man in society, has the opportunity to own and fly kites. The kite in this case symbolic to prestige, richness, and good. As for Hassan who is a servant’s son, the kite to him represents the other side of status, being poor, the wrong ethnicity, at least in this book, and or bad. So in the end Hosseini to show improvement in Amir’s life uses the kite. “It was Sohrab. . .’Do you want to try?’ I asked. . .But when I held the string out for him, his hand lifted from his pocket. . .We stood quietly side by side”(Hosseini 369). Sohrab, Hassan son, has now become the one who fly’s kites and Amir the one who runs after them, “Do you want me to run that kite for you?. . . ‘For you a thousand times over’ I heard myself say (Hosseini 371). Hosseini shows us that when Sohrab fly’s the kite, and Amir run’s them, atonement has been achieved by Amir, and Hassan has been rewarded through his son.
As to the characters, Hosseini uses culture and status as the main drive to them. Baba, a person who is presented by Hosseini as an alpha male, was made to look as an undefeatable, perfect Muslim citizen. “It was Rahim Khan who first referred to him as what eventually became Baba’s famous nick name, Toophan agha, or ‘Mr. Hurricane’. . . My father was a force of nature, a towering Pashtun specimen with thick beard, a wayward crop of curly brown hair as unruly as the man himself, hands that looked capable of uprooting a willow tree, and a black glare that would ‘drop the devil to his knees begging for mercy,’ as Rahim Khan used to say” (Hosseini 12-13). Hosseini used Islamic culture on Baba; Islamic culture believing the man of the house is the one who sets the legacy of the entire family. Hosseini used this fact to make Baba the perfect Muslim man, something Hosseini also does to benefit Amir as a character.
Amir’s character is lead by status. Amir, son of Baba a prestigious man, has to live up to his father’s name and anything less is shameful.” ‘We Afghans are prone to a considerable degree of exaggeration, bachem, and I have heard many men foolishly labeled great. But your father has the distinction of belonging to the minority who truly deserves the label’” (Hosseini 140).This is one of the reason why Amir felt Hassan, Hosseini also using status with Hassan, a Hazara was not worth being rescued from rape, and that the rape of a Hazara would be a easy, fair, trade for the love of his father, Baba. “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (Hosseini 77).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/hijab_1.shtml



Citation Page
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Essential ed. New York, New York: Riverhead Trade (Paperbacks), 2005. 1-371. Print.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Essay 3 Source



Jost, Kenneth. (2006, November 3). Understanding Islam. CQ Researcher, 16, 913-936. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2006110300.

This Article gives both sides of the Islamic faith; those who live their lives by Islam faith and those feel Islam faith is an oppressed radical faith. I will be using this article because a good portion of it is on women of Islam faith. It gives the view of women in Islamic faith, pros and cons, from an Islamic point of view and also an objective view.

http://www.religionfacts.com/

Friday, July 16, 2010

“The Handmaids Tale” By Margaret Atwood Proposal


Because this book reminds me of the way Middle Eastern culture, the ways in how women are treated as cattle, I what to research why Middle Eastern culture. Why they treat women as they do? Why the women oblige to this demining ways? And maybe find a woman’s first hand opinion on these customs. It’s because through thee reading of this novel I kept asking myself, why don’t the women just banned together and change their circumstance? Why do they let them self get pushed around? I was disliking the book for the way they present the women, “gutless, dumb” for lack of a better word. So I feel that if I learn of the reason why the women cooperated to the situation that makes them inferior, and do nothing about it, I can apply it to the book.
I especially choose Muslim ways, first being that it’s a close resemblance to the way women are treated in Atwood’s book, secondly that their ways of living are being scrutinized lately because of the devastating terrorist attacks I the United States. So searching for these reasons could help me find empathy for the book, the men and the women, and I learn the fact to the ways of Middle Easter traditions.
http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/index.htm

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Thesis Questions



Thesis Questions
1) B, I choose (B) as the weakest thesis, although it sounds like a well informed person making and argument, it’s narrow in the topic, The person choose to base herself on one part of the paper instead of the whole article, which I think makes it a weak thesis.
2) A, I choose (A) because although I feel it covers the topic, it misses on the second part of the article, the danger of replacing one’s own thoughts with those of others.
3) A, I choose (A) Because I feel that although it’s important information the thesis gives, it’s better fitted as supporting evidence. The thesis is to specific to a topic and over shadows the other good information; as not important.
4) A, It was hard to make a choice on this one. The reason I choose (A) is simple, (B) is the same as (A) but more descriptive with its word choice, that’s about all, and I felt it sounded better.
5) (A), This too was a tricky one but I choose (A) because I feel (B) does a better job at describing the same thesis, with less word, and less opinion.

Handmaid Tales
1) Why were their tourists, in what I call woman compounds?
I think that the tourists are there to promote peace between neighboring regimes. And as to the different way of styles of life, between the tourist and the residing people, it could be due to different ruling.
2) I believe the first portion of Atwood’s books is about a post apocalyptic war existence, were the women have become infertile, new regimes have taken control over sectors of survivable land, and have imposed their ruling to the surviving few.
3) I think this is a good thesis because it would answer some mysteries in the book. War, has been mentioned in the book, could be an answer to as why tourist come, for alliances. Post apocalyptic could be answer to the infertility mention in the book; some religious factor could be involved to the infertility, or the infertility caused by the byproduct of the war. And as to the regime I feel could answer to the way the soldiers are trained to behave to their position held, the not talking to women, unless given one by the husband, definition of regime in my mind.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Mid-ter Checkin


Dear, Mrs. Darrow
The greatest challenge your class has presented to me is trust, trust in myself. I’m fresh out of English, 101, and I had a bad experience in it. I was told over and over that my writing wasn’t good enough, but now confronted with literary analysis, I feel I have to be confident in my writing to be able to do a good job. My biggest success in your class has to be, getting comfortable with technology. I would never had ever imagined myself, posting a videos online, blogging, or even learning how to. In the past most writing for me has been either personal writing or research writing, and mostly for school, and almost never literary. Literary analysis to me is the better side of writing, you get a little of both world, you analyze text, learn the text, and get to write about it, and sometimes give your opinion, the “holy grail” in writing for me.
When it comes to class readings, I have enjoyed every article and book. I especially enjoyed the soldier, war, spin on some of them. The soldier’s point of view in the stories has opened my mind to the soldier side of war, something I never thought of. But as to the Handmaid Tales, I can’t decipher what’s going on, although I’m enjoying every minute of it.
What I hope for the second half of the semester is locking in a “B”. Maybe writing some more, reading some more, and having to post less links and images on the blogs, I’m having a hard trouble with them; I can’t get the links to work. But I would not change much I enjoying your class a lot, and that’s hard for me to say about an English class.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien



http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/images-3/vietnam-war-soldiers.jpg


“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
Amazing! “The Things they Carried” was a great story portraying the life of a soldier trudging in the jungle during the war, giving us the story behind the things the soldiers carried with them.
O’Brien grips the reader with the optimistic lover, and the letter he carried. A letter reminding lieutenant Cross of the outside world and the woman he loves, all in a 10 ounce letter. Then we are introduce to the things they carried: the fire arms and ammunition, the 2.9 pound-23 pounds depending on the fire arm and the body size you were, a five pound steel helmet, 2.1 pound jungle boots, six to seven ounces of dope, the 15-20 pounds of food and water, and the endless weight of emotions the soldiers bared with them. (O’Brien 1-26)
O’Brien ties in the story with the bond the war creates among the soldier, a brother hood between the men and how the men subliminally take each other’s load, physically and emotionally. How it’s not the soldier carrying his own supply to survive, but carrying the supply for the squad, so it can survive.
O’Brien does a good job keeping the reader in the story by introducing the characters, the lovable or hateful ones: Lieutenant cross the hopeless lover, Ted Lavender the paranoid soldier, Rat Kiley the field medic, Mitchell Sander the war enthusiast, and so on, using the soldiers attributes and flaws as the thing that keeps the squad together.
Citation Page
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York, New York: Mariner Books, 2009. 1-26. Print.




http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/movie-pages/movie_war.html

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

"The Ghost soldier" by Tim O'Brien


http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/magazine_faces_of_battle/img/3.jpg


Summary
“The Ghost Soldier” by Tim O’Brien is a story of a soldier at war who has been shot, and due to those circumstances is placed in easier, less battle section of the war; being removed from his squad, and placed in a new one. Eventually the old squad stumbles in to this section of the war where the soldier has been transferred to, running into him. The soldier then has resurfacing emotions towards a member of the squad, leading him to seek revenge for past events, events that haunt him, leading him seeking justice.
Analysis
“The Ghost Soldier” by Tim O’Brien is a story of the trauma a soldier goes through. The traumatic effect war has on a soldier even after the war is over. In this story a soldier is shot twice and due to that is transferred to a sector of the war that is not in constant battle (O'Brien 189-218).But this soldier can’t let go of that fact that war might be over for him, eventually seeking revenge on a fellow squad member for a botched bullet removal, sub-consciously bringing him pleasure in it, pleasure that only war gives him, and pleasure that war has traumatized in him.
Tim O’Brien’s “The Ghost Soldier” reminds us of the even darker side of war. The side that the soldiers take with him, in this case a soldier who was not ready to leave war, creating his own war, at the cost of his life, of his friends, and quad. Seeking revenge on his fellow soldier so he could feel he has a place in life that only war can give him, due to the trauma of war itself.

Citation Page
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston, New York: Mariner Books, 2009. 189-218. Print.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_O'Brien_(author)

Friday, June 18, 2010


The Necessity to Speak by Sam Hammill

Hammill tells of the necessity to speak, to speak the truth, and to take responsibility of what goes on in our own back yards. Hammill encourages us to not be afraid of what exist in our world, and to confront it, that it’s it only then that we have control and the power to amend our wrongs.
Hammill speaks of murder, the Victim and the executioner; Painting a picture of society hiding, hiding from the truth, murdering their children in the process by hiding them from the world, denying the youth history that is them. Hammill believes that by parents negating to tell children of the realities of the world: murder, rape, war, lie, that parents have become executioners, and worst of all the children the victims. Hammill suggest that we as a society have desensitized ourselves from reality, not being open to the harsh realities of the world. And that only when the truth is told to the youth, the surreal possibilities of the world, thing that according to Hammill parents fear telling; fear because they believe will make their children become victims, victims of the truth that they hid them from, but the truth is that the truth only prepares them for that possibly.
Hammill also helps us in the amending process, encouraging us to use our emotions, and not be afraid of them. Hoping that we recognize our mistakes, saying that we should not be ashamed of our emotions that men should not be a shamed of what they feel, especially because of some gender role applied by society. That woman should not be treated less than a man, paid less, and treated as an inferior being because it’s the norm in society. Persuading us as a society to be open with our emotions, that doing so it could teach us about the residing mistakes in the world, and that just because some aspects of the world don’t reside in our lawn does not mean it’s not affecting us.
A while a go I read two poems; Sharon olds “Rite of Passage”, a story of her son’s birthday party, she writes of how she felt watching the kid in the party interact, giving her thoughts and emotions on the event. I also read Santiago Baca’s”Immigrants in Our Own Land”, a poem of the life of an Immigrant, and its turmoil. So now that I read Hammill’s “The Necessity to speak” I feel I’m a murderer, a murderer by Hammill’s definition of murder. Sharon Olds “Rite of Passage” was a warm, funny, lovable story of a mother watching a checkpoint in her son’s life, portraying these kids innocence through the poem. I can only imagine being a parent, and I would never trade a moment of my child’s happiness like the one Olds capture in her poem. Reality is harsh and I would whant to prepare my child for the world, but I guess I would like to do it as slow as possible. Giving him the wisdom the world has to offer, but never negating him of a happiness his child has to offer too, that I feel this harsh world can take from him/her.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Poetry Review




Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds

Rite of Passage grabbed my attention with its humor, “How old are you? —Six. —I’m seven. —So?...I could beat you up, a seven says to a six,”(Olds). I’m a humorous person at least I like to think so. So for an author to write this poem about her child’s birthday, describing the event; “Hands in pockets, they stand around jostling, jockeying for place, small fights breaking out and calming.”(Olds), it’s funny to me, especially imagining this children shoving each other around, and sniping each other. I remember my childhood and if I could record some of birthday parties’ as an observer I can imagine them being somewhere in this poems description. But besides the humor I feel that this poem had some motherly heartfelt feelings, “My son, freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks, chest narrow as the balsa keel of a model boat, long hands cool and thin as the day they guided him out of me, speaks up as a host for the sake of the group“(Olds).So overall I liked this poem, I feel the author had some fun while writing something dear to her heart.


Immigrants in Our Own Land by Santiago Baca
“At the gates we are given new papers, our old clothes are taken and we are given overalls like mechanics wear. We are given shots and doctors ask questions. Then we gather in another room where counselors orient us to the new land we will now live in.”(Baca). I heard many stories like this one Baca tells from my own family. My family migrated from South America many years ago, so when I read or hear of the stories of immigrants, and how they are treated or struggling I can sympathize with them. I think Baca has written something that a majority of America can relate to. Although I have never been in a situation like that of an immigrant, my parents have. So this poem is something I can sympathize with, but I feel that those who have lived through it would be more moved by this poem.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Friday, June 11, 2010

“Good Readers and Good Writers” by Vladimir Nabokov



Imagination and intellect, two things one must have to be a good reader, at least for writer/reader Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov believes one must have a harmonious balance between imagination and intellect to fully grasp and appreciate what’s being read. I think Nabokov depicts reading not as a skill one acquires learn, but as a possibility to emerge oneself in a world that an author creates. A world were one could truly learn what it is the author has written, but only if not tainted with preconceived notions and bias that would defer one of the message. When I read I usually only read things that interest my certain taste, electronic magazines, internet articles, and certain books. So with Nabokov’s idea, I’m not a good reader, and probably a bias one, but do I agree? I do. It wouldn’t hurt to read just to learn, and to take fully what I’d learned and judge it, like it should be; I think it’s only then that one has read.