Shabanu is the story of a Muslim girl, 11 years old, during her years of becoming a women along with her older sister Phulan. The family of Shabanu including her mother, father, older sister, grandfather, aunt, and cousins live together in Pakistan. After their toba dries up in the hot Cholistan Desert they move to a village nearby in hope for a deeper well to provide water for the family. Dadi, Shabanu’s father is a highly known camel owner in Pakistan. Shabanu has a great love for her camels as shown in the beginning of the story when she helps birth her camel Mithoo who soon becomes “ part of the family”. Throughout the story Phulan and Shabanu face many struggles including marriage, death, and sacrifice. Shabanu is promised marriage to Murad as well as Phulan who is promised marriage to Hamir. However, Shabanu at the end of the story has to face a harsh reality when things don't work out as planned and she is forced to marriage with a 55 year old man. She will need to suffer the consequences of Dadi if not obeyed as for it is her custom.
I believe Suzanne Fisher Staples wrote this novel for a multitude of reasons. These reasons were to inform the
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reader of the struggles of an arranged marriage, the roots of gender, and the life of a Muslim girl. Shabanu and Phulan both being promised an arranged marriage to their cousins Hamir and Murad face an internal struggle throughout the book. Both girls have not seen there cousins for many years and only remember them by their childhood memories. They face the struggle of not having the experience of marrying the one they truly fall in love with because of their religion. The roots of gender is also a major role shown in Shabanu. Shabanu's attitude towards the fact that she’s a woman in her culture is prominently shown when she goes to the Sibi Fair with Dadi and tries to refuse her wearing of a chadr. As being a child throughout the book she has the freedoms of being a boy until she comes of age. Shabanu struggles with this being that she is an outgoing and immature child. The life she faces as a Muslim girl living in Pakistan also brings upon struggles. Her life is full of much excitement and fun although when the time comes and she wants to be free her culture sets her aside from doing so without the consequences attached. She especially live’s with this set back when forced to marriage with a man she does not want to marry. Personally, I thought Shabanu was a great book that was interesting, deep, and touching. This book showed a great deal of culture along with a true heart felt story. Even in not interested in the topic of history you are engaged in the overall well put together story . This book puts you in the footsteps of a muslim girl while making you feel her every struggle. It makes you wonder how she must feel in her endeavours of everyday life. I really liked how much information was in this story along with the culture you can learn while reading it. Suzanne Fisher wrote an amazing historical fiction book and I would recommend this piece of work to anyone. Geography The geography of Shabanu is mainly based in the Cholistan desert.
The Cholistan Desert is a harsh place with extreme climate and weather where Shabanu and her family lived. Shabanu explains the desert when she says “ There has been no rain in nearly two years, and the heat of the Cholistan Desert is as wicked as if it were summer” (Staples 1-2). This quote simply shows how harsh the climate of the desert is and the crazy weather patterns that were happening. With the climate being this harsh it put many struggles in the family of Shabanu. For example when the families toba dried up because of the hot summer winds they must move to a desert settlement where the wells are deeper. The Cholistan Desert provided many more struggles for the family including it bringing storms, lack of resources, and geographical
problems. One indigenous animal to the Cholistan desert is the camel. The camel is proven to play a major role in shabanu's family. Dadi is a well known nomad and camel owner throughout the book. The camel is a source of trade and getting money as well as transportation. The camel being transportation for Shabanu's family is there way of getting from place to place around the desert. This being a way of trade and money is shown when said “And they have heard we export camels for fifteen hundred dollars-not rupees”( Staples 45). Getting money from camels is an important source of income for Shabanu's family and a way to help pay for Phulan’s wedding. That's how the camel is significant to life in the Cholistan. The vegetation of the Cholististan is also important to Shabanu's family. Vegetation like Pogh, Kharin, Khip, and Sito have a significant importance. Pogh is a vegetation camels eat in the hot Cholistan Desert. It is thorny but the camels can eat it because of their tough leathery mouths. Kharin is a red flowery plant that is edible to eat and sweet to the taste. This is important because it is a source of food for the family to eat. Khip is a plant used mainly to thatch roofs. “The little boys are making piles of khip to repair the thatch in the morning”(Staples 117), this quote describes how khip is in importance for shelter and used by all. Lastly, the sito is a plant used by people in the Cholistan as a source of water. This plant is used as a source of water in drought and is significant for life in some desperate times. Those are the ways vegetation plays a significant role for life in the Cholistan.
She focus mainly on ethnic diversity in the U.S. From my perspective, Jeanne wrote this book, so she can heal emotionally wise. She went through a lot of things when she was young and she also wanted her friends and family to feel where she was coming from. Jeanne and her husband did not want want to write about the live issue that went on during World War II. As she stated in the book “I’m issued out myself”(pg IX). They wanted to express the life inside of one of those camps.
... to find your symbol” (p.49). This is very simular to the traditional novels where they have to go on a quest to find certain objects or defeat certain enemies, the only difference is who we are reading it from and the struggles to achieve this even if it takes a long time to prepare for the evil. With the balance of traditional and modern she was able to create a more deceptive antagonist who we all could relate to and communicate with at least one point in our lifetime.
Clinton's main idea of the book is to in light the confusion on a category of American women in the nineteenth-century. Her significant benefaction of the work lies perhaps
...lives. It gives readers the chance to emphasize with these women and their families. It let readers experience the trials and tribulations these women underwent firsthand. A nonfiction novel would not have had that impact and ability to draw readers that close.
... the book has to offer. She gives Montag a new outlook on life, simply by asking questions, and actually taking interest in his life.
throughout this book is very visible. It has to do with her search for a name,
1) The major theme of the book is respectability. In the 1950 's Rosa Parks became the symbol for black female resistance in the
In order to further discuss her main points and views, a summary of her story
to tell the story of the dreamer whose dreams were corrupted.
The desert is home to Jassim and Salwa Haddad. Leaving their native Jordan for the American deserts of Arizona, heat is their habitat. Unfortunately, the sun serves as the only source of warmth in their cold relationship. Married and childless by choice, Halaby's reader meets the Haddads in the center of their unconscious rut. Jassim's career as a successful hydrologist, which cemented their roots in America, consumes him and he is aware of little else. His life revolves around water – unpredictable, ever changing, H2O. This first love keeps Jassim's wife suppressed in his peripheral vision, where she has remained for far too long.
She was a writer who suffered from Lupus. Her father died of the same illness when she was thirteen. Her Catholic beliefs reflected in her work, as well as the implementation of violence and darkness ironically used in her short stories. The titles in the stories give the readers an idea that the stories are the opposite of what the titles really state. She uses metaphors and similes to describe the characters and the settings of the stories. Each story relates to the darkness of the characters: people with racial prejudice, ignorance, and evil. Each story ends in a tragedy. The use of irony allows her to transport a meaning to each story that is not easy for readers to understand.
It revolves around the issues of gender oppression, sexual assault, and importance of social status. Alifa Rifaat manages to express her opinions towards these themes by writing about a typical Egyptian marriage. She puts in focus the strong influence that a patriarchal society has. She also manages to prove how important social status is in society. The uses of literally elements such as theme and irony help express this view. It shows that in a typical Egyptian society women are commonly oppressed by all males in society
...I believe it provided the reader with a better understanding of the different reasons the girls were acting in the nature they did.
throughout the novel allows the audience to gain a better understanding and personal compassion for both the character and the author. 	The novel is written in a short, choppy sentence structure using simple word choice, or diction, in a stream of consciousness to enable the reader to perceive the novel in the rationale of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another, relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is.