In Rebecca Kanner’s Sinners and the Sea and Yasmina Reza’s The God of Carnage the human capacity to commit violence is emphasized. Kanner portrays violence during the time of Noah time before and during the flood. The sinners of the town of Sorum, as well as some members of Noah’s family, commit acts of violence toward one another. Reza portrays violence with the same intensity as Kanner, but with a limited cast of characters. The difference between the two portrayals of violence is that Kanner uses evil as a transformative force, while Reza depicts evil as an end. Kanner is hopeful that evil restores the good, while Reza believes that evil does not bring positive outcomes.…
In Rushdie’s work, Haroun embodies this heroic character, when he realizes he is at fault for his father’s inability to continue with story telling. When he encounters the water genie, the genie becomes his mentor in a sense—bringing him from the ordinary world to his magical world of stories, where Haroun will be able to save his father’s stories. The reader becomes increasingly aware of Haroun’s motive and drive when he drinks a certain wishwater and sees his father’s face in his mind: “just do this one thing for me, my boy, just this one little thing” (Rushdie, 70). With this motivation, Haroun proclaims himself a hero for a cause—his father. However, as the story progresses, he becomes all the more heroic as the story land is faced with problems of its own and Haroun steps in to…
Thomas C. Foster conveys that all tales derive from a single story in How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids. As a result, they all include a hero’s quest in which the hero gains self knowledge by finding themselves and their purpose. The hero’s quest relates to “Araby” by helping the reader understand that priorities should be chosen wisely to avoid conflict with ones self in the future; the destination along with the “stated reason”, the challenges and trials, and the “real reason” for the journey all build up that lesson.…
Flipping through the hundreds of pages in the Norton Sampler lead me to a beautiful story, that most would find too fantasy for the adult imagination. Although, my adult imagination pieced together the images in this story and made it clear that it is an overlooked treasure. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, contains many important qualities that a child, although it is a more childlike tale, would overlook. These hidden symbols are what paint a clear, in the fantasy and make believe. These symbols are the qualities developed the tale in an organized piece of fiction. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is an example of a fantasy tale being a perfect work of fiction by developing hidden symbols, themes, and a well defined setting within the creativity that explains how one or more elements help evaluate the piece within its historical contexts.…
Amir is a very conflicted character; he is equally good as he is bad. The reader’s…
7. In what ways, according to Shaheen, does the “reel” representation of Arabs affect our understanding of the Arab world in “real” life?…
Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is an award-winning novel and considered one of today’s most popular, contemporary classics. The story is one of familiar themes such as loyalty, forgiveness, betrayal, love, and redemption. It follows the tale of Amir and how he must atone for his sins and find a way to “be good again” (Hosseini 2). The quintessential message of this book relies on the idea of second chances. Themes of redemption, betrayal, loyalty, and forgiveness are not only shown without doubt through this book, but are also common among many literary works and religions. Hosseini is successful in showing the significance of these themes throughout the novel.…
Set against the backdrop of the gradual rise of the Taliban, the novel follows the life of it’s the narrator, Amir, who faces a personal crisis when he witnesses an act of violence done to his loyal friend and servant, Hassan, which he fails to prevent. The guilt of his inaction overwhelms Amir and he eventually forces Hassan and his father Ali to cease their servitude, much to the dismay of…
The experiences of young children often shape their personalities and preferences later in life. In The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, Amir’s childhood affinity for American movies exposed him to a different culture than the one that surrounded him in Kabul and to a new kind of hero. As a child, the action-packed movies were mere entertainment, but they ingrained new ideas in his mind. The portrayal of the deeply flawed, yet ultimately good, protagonists in classic Western movies laid the foundation for his own atonement. Watching these men fill the societal roles expected of them, but also shatter them with their individual complexities connected with Amir and his struggles to do the same. The strong American influences in Amir’s life gave…
This monomyth pattern, most commonly connected to Campbell, is clearly present in Araby, which allows the reader to apply his own beliefs to create a moral theme throughout the story. The application of Joseph Campbell’s notion of the literary journey consisting of a departure, initiation and return as can be illustrated in James Joyce’s short story, “Araby,” demonstrates how mythology constitutes a vessel for critical thinking that allows the reader to explore his or her literary culture in a surprisingly meaningful and personal way.…
Say what you mean and mean what you say; this simple phrase has been reinforced to the youth of society for years. This and the inverse can be found in a story written by Salman Rushdie. Haroun and the Sea of Stories tells the tale of the journey of a boy called Haroun and his father, Rashid who is a storyteller. They adventure into the hidden moon of Kahani to redeem the story-telling power of Rashid, which he has lost. There, Haroun and his father find that the moon spins in a certain way that a city called “Gup” is in constant sunlight and a city named “Chup” exists in permanent darkness.…
The vivid imagery in “Araby” by James Joyce is used to express the narrator’s romantic feelings and situations throughout the story. The story is based on a young boy’s adoration for a girl. Though Joyce never reveals any names, the girl is known to be “Mangan’s Sister.” The boy is wrapped up around the promise to her that he would buy her a gift if he attends the Araby Bazaar. From the beginning to the end, Joyce uses imagery to define the pain that often comes when one encounters love in reality instead of its elevated form.…
Shortly after Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha fall over the English Channel, they both seem to go through a major transformation which is one of the themes in Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses. Farishta and Chamcha not only go through an opposite physical transformation but a mental process throughout the novel with themselves, each other, and society around them. Saladin goes through a physical mutation into a “devil-like” figure with horns and cloven hooves, while Gibreel acquires a halo seen only sometimes, giving him an “angel-like” appearance. These bodily changes took place based on how the two men have previously been judged in life, with Gibreel being a famous actor playing godly roles, and Saladin denying his true identity by trying to become an Englishman. It becomes apparent towards the end of the novel that the transformations are deceiving. Although the mutations started off as physical for the two characters, they ended up having a huge mental impact on each one of them.…
In The Moor's last Sigh', we witness a reeling pageant of mad passions and dark secrets, deep crimes and high art, poignant innocence and cruel revenge, hopping in a careful, calculated manner across four generations of a rich and demented Indian family. Salman Rushdie's cynical post-modernistic novel The Moor's Last Sigh' laughs mischievously at the world and shivers from its evils. It is also, by analogy, one version of the history of India in the 20th century. Weaving a tale of murder and suicide, of atheism and asceticism, of affection and adultery, Rushdie's exquisitely crafted storytelling explains the "fall from grace of a high-born crossbreed," namely our narrator Moraes Zogoiby, also known as "Moor" set predominantly in the city of Bombay.…
Brown 71 ---. The Moor’s Last Sigh. New York: Pantheon, 1995. Print. ---. The Satanic Verses. 1988. New York: Random House, 2008. Print. ---. Shame. New York: Picador, 1983. Print. ---. Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction, 1992-2002. Westminster, MD: Random House Adult Trade Publishing, 2003. 145-158. Web. 4 Jan. 2011. ―Salman Rushdie.‖ Contemporary Writers. The British Council. 2009. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. ten Kortenaar, Neil. Self, Nation, Text in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight‘s Children. Montreal: McGill-Queen‘s University Press, 2004. Print.…