Thesis Statement: Throughout Farah’s amazing journey, she learns to adapt to many different cultures, develops a sense of belonging and finally finds inner peace and self-acceptance, which allows her to continue growing and evolving. Claim: Farah learns many lessons on her journey. One of which is that taking shortcuts might get you there sooner and easier, but they can have life-changing consequences. Quote: “Perhaps the grown-ups had told me so stay out of it too,I don't know- a child forgets such warnings. I was late to school, and that’s all I could think about. I started across the field. And then suddenly a fire flashed in my face and the earth seemed to move beneath my feet” (43 Ahmedi). Reasoning: Farah was late to school and decides that it is a good idea to take a shortcut to school. She soon finds out that it was not a good idea, because she steps on a landmine! Now she has to deal with the consequences and learn how to cope with this new- found issue. Farah Ahmedi uses imagery to try and paint the picture of this event in our minds because it was a big moment of her life and she wants us to visualize the full extent of the situation. …show more content…
Claim: When Farah was sent to Germany as a young child, she discovered a new world.
A world that included a new language, culture, and people. She had to learn how to cope with a new world and find a way to belong. Quote: “ I compared life in Afghanistan as I remember it to the life I saw all around me I saw in Germany, and I thought, This is better. I want to have a life like this- getting educated, working, supporting myself, making my own choices” (68 Ahmedi). Reasoning: When Farah is sent to Germany, she learns many things, and she likes their lifestyle and way of life so much that she almost doesn't want to go back to Afghanistan. She had adapted and started to feel like she belonged in Germany. She had even made friends and felt hopeful about the future and her
possibilities. Claim: When Farah went back to Afghanistan, she felt like she didn't belong there. She was used to the lifestyle and freedom of Germany and now she had to adapt to the Afghanistan lifestyle and learn how to belong again. Even though her family accommodated her wishes, she still did not feel at home. Quote: “Nothing about Afghanistan sat well with me. It all felt alien. Can this really be my home? I thought. My two years in Germany had changed me, you see. Of course they had! I was only nine years old! Those two years represented nearly one quarter of my life,and they were years of earthquake intensity. They had stamped my tastes indelibly. My family's way of life now seemed primitive to me” (76 Ahmedi). Reasoning: When Farah comes back from Germany she realizes how strange her family's way of life is. She had grown out of the Afghanistan lifestyle and into German, and then she had to go back to her old way of life and learn how to react to this sudden change. Farah family seems alien to her. She was forced to change again to adopt to her surroundings. Claim: While in Pakistan and subjected to a horrible life of slavery, Farah discovers faith in Allah. This faith gives her the strength to cope with her dire situation and she learns to become more patient. Farah is again changing and evolving. Quote: “For the first time, truly and totally, I was surrendering to Allah. And with that surrender, a change began” (132 Ahmedi). “ And the more I tended to God, the more I discovered how to be patient and tolerant and how to relax” (132 Ahmedi). “ I grow so calm, so serene that even the girl who was bossing me around noticed the change and eased up on me” (132 Ahmedi). Reasoning: Farah is dealing with some hard times in this part of the story. She is a slave and feeling very trapped and frustrated, especially with the daughter of the household. She then surrenders to Allah and in doing this she find peace with herself and learns to be more patient. Her life gets better at this point. For example, the daughter of the house is a little nicer to her. The change in Farah at this point of the story is a result of her faith discovery. Claim: Farah comes full circle when she comes to America. She realizes that its good to move forward, learn new things and develop a sense of belonging. However, she also learns that the past is a part of who she is and she should not forget it. Quote: “When I first came to America I wanted to forget my past” (249 Ahmedi). “But time passed, and I began to think about it. I realized that its good to remember my own customs and traditions” (249 Ahmedi). “Today I feel that I am both Afghan and American” (249 Ahmedi). Reasoning: When Farah comes to America, she learns a lot about being independent and trying to fend for yourself in a new, alien country. When she starts to belong, she also starts to remember her past and how even if it was bad you shouldn't forget. No matter how hard you try, you can't forget your past and how it's shaped you to what you are now. She also realizes that she has only begun in her development and she will continue to grow and evolve in her life.
orphanage and went on a long journey where she met many people that were like her, in
The Soviet-Afghan War changed the course of millions of lives. Samady’s father is no exception. He went from an engineering student to a person devastated by war. Without the war, he would have never endured a coma or known what it was like to live in a refugee ghetto. More importantly, he would not be the person his daughter has
She lived in a sheltered world—a world she did not see. She saw what she could get out to see--almost what she could steal--even in her mind.
...izens of Kabul. As a result, Hassan’s childhood is much more difficult than Amir’s, allowing him to become stronger, more resilient, and less ignorant. Nonetheless, the two boys grow up together in Afghanistan during a time when it is considered to be a relatively peaceful country. In the late seventies however, this peace is destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion in Afghanistan. Ultimately, the environments from which Amir and Hassan each came from largely influences the people they become in the transitional phase of their lives from boyhood to young adulthood.
Amir later refers to Hassan as "the face of Afghanistan," and that it was "a face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile" (Hosseini, 2003, p. 31). The importance of this is
escape her life, but all she ended up with were friendships that reminded her of
Jeannette Walls came from a family that had always faced many struggles in life. They had to travel to many areas due to job search. At first it was all fun and games until their lives were affected in negative ways. Specifically, the parent's decisions and actions caused unforgettable moments. Although, Jeannette Walls’s father had struggles of his own and couldn’t take good care of his children due to his alcoholism; it made his children be more prepared for the future.
Sohrab is a Hazara who endured many painful experiences throughout his life, regarding his position in society and family events. Sohrab has been raped and tortured throughout his life with the witnessing the death of his parents and living in an orphanage for the duration of his life. He still lives through every day of the pain and suffering he endures, “I want my old life back”(373). Sohrab displays courage because he still lives his life without the guidance and love from his parents. It has been seen though Amir that Sohrab and attained some of Hassan's traits, such as his eyes, personality and the way he carries himself. Sohrab shows Hassan's traits in him when he stands up to Assef, who is now the leader of the Taliban, “No more, Agha please” (304). Sohrab has the courage to stand up to Assef and save Amir who is a stranger at the time. He has been following the same values Hassan has always had which is to be kind, thoughtful and to always follow what’s right. Even though Sohrab has changed as a person through all the events he has been through, he has shown he never lost the ability to care or the ability to stand up for values that go against teaching. Sohrab established he was courageous in the novel, but one way he is brave is for going to America to live with Amir and Soraya. This is an example of true bravery for showing he is strong enough to start a new life in a
different world than she. As she organized herself in preparation for the trip, her family
"Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood."
“Please think, Amir jan. It was a shameful situation. People would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honor, his name, and if people talked… We couldn’t tell anyone, surely you can see that.
However there are some characters that become better people and change becoming a better, stronger, more loyal individual in the end. The individual that demonstrates this development within this novel is Amir himself. All of the guilt Amir holds with him as a child allow him to realize his duty to be loyal to his brother Hassan ion the end. An example of this is when Amir goes back to Kabul, Afghanistan to retrieve his nephew Sohrab. Amir says, “I remembered Wahid’s boys and… I realized something. I would not leave Afghanistan without finding Sohrab.’ tell me where he is,’ I said” (Hosseini 255). Here, Amir is at the orphanage waiting to find out where Taliban has taken his nephew. Amir remembers the three young starving sons of Wahid, a man whose home he had been in earlier, and realized that Afghanistan is not a safe place for Sohrab. Amir is finally aware of one thing, Hassan has always been there to protect Amir like a loyal friend and brother would and now Amir knows that it is his turn to return that loyalty to Hassan by protecting Hassan’s flesh and blood. A second example of Amir’s loyalty to Hassan near the ending of the book is during Amir’s confrontation with General Sahib and the dinner table after Sohrab is safe in America with him. Amir proclaims to General Sahib, “…That boy sleeping on the couch
Afghanistan since its beginning has been a place of conflict, despair, and at times lost hope. It has been taken advantage of and lost its sense of identity, which has had a direct effect on its people, and there own sense of what justice truly is.
After Amir wins, he turns back to look at Baba and he sees Baba “pumping both of his fists. Hollering and clapping. And that right there was the single greatest moment of my twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of me at last”(66). Baba now had something to be proud of in Amir. Baba had now accepted his son but Baba’s true transformation would come later when he and Amir leave Kabul and go to America. Baba leaves all his wealth, his power and all the respect he gained in Kabul to escape to America where he would end up working at a gas station and making close to minimum wage. Even though Baba moves to America, he never changed his principles; he just changed the way he acted around Amir. When Baba goes to the social services office, he “dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. "Thank you but I don 't want," Baba said. "I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don 't like it free money" (130). Baba acting differently in America was not all contributed to not having his wealth, but rather the way he lived. Baba did not feel as guilty living in America as he did in Kabul. While Baba was in Kabul, he could not share his wealth with his other son, Hassan, but now that Baba was in America with no wealth, he could focus on his relationship with Amir. On Amir’s graduation day, Amir says, “This was his day (Baba) more than mine. He
As an Arab American, a Muslim and a woman writer, Mohja Kahf challenges the stereotypes and misrepresentation of Arab and Muslim women. Her style is always marked by humor, sarcasm, anger and confrontation. “The Marvelous Women,” “The Woman Dear to Herself,” “Hijab Scene #7” and “Hijab Scene #5” are examples of Kahf’s anger of stereotypes about Muslim women and her attempts to fight in order to eradicate them, in addition to her encouragement to women who help her and fight for their rights.