"The Kite Runner"

 

1) How does the filmmaker "frame" the story? What words, images, events appear in the beginning and at the end?

The filmmaker frames the story with the image of a kite fight and the words “for you, a thousand times over.” In the beginning of the film, it is Amir flying the kite and when he cuts someone else’s and asks Hassan to bring the kite back for him, Hassan says “for you a thousand times over.” In the end of the film, Amir is showing Sohrab, Hassan’s son, some of his fathers old tricks, and after cutting someone else’s kite he runs to get it, turns around and tells Sohrab, “For you a thousand times over.” The similarity between those scenes functions as a reminder of how dedicated Hassan was to Amir, and that after all those years, Amir is honoring Hassan and showing that same dedication to Hassan’s son. It is a way to be good again. A way to be forgiven for the jealousy he felt toward Hassan as a child, and for not standing up for his friend/brother when he witnessed the terrible rape.

2) Why include the terrible rape of a child? Is rape used in a metaphorical sense in the film as well?

I think the rape symbolized a sort of rape of Hassan and Amir's friendship. The rape took away Hassan's dignity and innocence, and Amir's loyalty. After this event, their friendship no longer became possible, as Amir was overwhelmed with guilt at the idea of having witnessed the scene but not having done anything about it. He tries desperately to get rid of Hassan by displaying him as a thief. The rape could also be a symbol for the abuse of power, as the story is set during the time of the rise of the tyrannical Taliban government. The symbolism becomes yet stronger when we discover the Assef himself, Hassan's rapist, becomes a Taliban leader, and that he is doing the same aweful act to Hassan’s son, Sohrab.

3) Compare Amir and Hassan. What is Amir's problem? What are Hassan's strengths? Are they friends?

Amir and Hassan are both extremely different, but they both grow up together, to be great friends, until the terrible rape of Hassan. They both differ in social status. Amir is born into a privileged Pashtun family, and his mother died at childbirth. He is very literate and loves to write and read, to his father's deception, who thinks Amir is weak and lacks the qualities of a real man. Amir wants more than anything, his father's approval and understanding, and therefore partly resents Hassan for the attention Amir's father gives him. Hassan on the other hand is a poor Hazara, a minority class in Afghanistan at the time. He is a servant in Amir's home, and his fiercely loyal companion. Hassan is athletic and although illiterate, he is extremely intelligent. His loyalty is so strong that he fails to realize when Amir deceives him. He would do anything for Amir, his best friend.

4) What are Assef's issues? Did you expect him to return at the end of the film?

Assef is a bully that also comes from a wealthy family. He has a sadistic and fascist streak that he shows in the rape of the young Hassan, and further on in the rape of sohrab. Assef is thirsty for power and gets a thrill out of imposing himself on others. I did not expect him to return at the end of the film but I think that the fact that he does return, and that he is doing the same thing to Sohrab as he did to his father years ago when he was just a young boy, underlines the

5) What do you make of the relationship between Baba and Amir? Rahim Khan and Amir?

Baba and Amir have a difficult relationship. Baba expects Amir to be manly and more like him. At the beginning of the film he expresses his concerns about the boy because he is incapable of standing up for himself and more than once he has witnessed Hassan having to defend him from the bullies. Amir one day expresses his own concern to Rahim Khan. He thinks that his father Baba hates him for having "killed" his mother. Later in the film, when Amir graduates from college, the misunderstandings and false expectations between Baba and Amir are once again portrayed when Baba insists on Amir becoming a doctor. Amir has a gift for writing and is discomforted by Baba’s unwillingness to understand his desires and motivations. Rahim Khan acts as Amir's protector, someone the boy can confide in and trust. Someone he can also look up to. He encourages Amir in his writing and steps in several times when the misunderstandings between Amir and his father are creating tensions. The companionship between Amir and Rahim shows when Amir dedicates his book to the man, and writes “To Rahim Jan, who listened to my stories before I knew how to write.”

6) According to Baba, there is only one sin. What is it? What is ironic about this?

According to Baba, there is only one sin, and that is stealing. He says that every bad act that exists results from a form of stealing. When you kill, you are stealing a father from a child or a man from his wife, and when you lie, you are robbing someone of the truth. This is ironic because he himself lied to his two son’s about the nature of their relation. He never told Hassan or Amir that Hassan was his son that he had from a relationship with one of his servants, and they therefore never knew that they were brothers, until it was too late, and Hassan had passed.

7) What do Amir and Soraya have in common?

They are both Afghan and they both fled their countries when they were young because of the war, ending up being raised in America. They both also have or had somewhat strained relationships with their fathers. Soraya brought shame upon her family’s name when she ran away with an Afghan man at the age of 18. Her family found her and they had to move to California, creating huge conflict with her father, with whom she didn’t speak to for a very long time.

8) List the steps in Amir's redemption. What does he do to be good again?

To be good again, Amir goes to Kabul to find Hassan’s son Sohrab. He finds him in the hands of Assef, who has made the boy his slave. For the first time, Amir shows a sign of standing up for someone else and insists on leaving the Taliban’s house with Sohrab. Assef goes to beating him and reduces him to a helpless state until Sorhab uses his slingshot abilities to defeat Assef and allow them to make a run for their lives. Towards the ned of the movie, Amir once again stands up for the boy in front of his own father in law, when the general questions the necessity of having a Hazara boy live with his daughter, and the reputations this will give them among their neighbors.

9) What is the point of the scene with Amir, Assef and Sohrab toward the end of the film?

The scene shows the abus of power of the talibans at the time as Assef has clearly made of Sohrab his slave. It also shows the similarity between Hassan and Sorhab, when the young boy brandishes his slingshot against Assef and shoots him in the eye. Just like his gfather, Sohrab is a brave and dedicated person, and not afraid to stand up for his friends.

10) How do the following function symbolically: Kite flying, fighting, running; Sohrab's name; pomegranates and the pomegranate tree?

I think that the kite flying in the movie symbolizes friendship and companionship… Hassan and Amir share a moment of friendship when they fly their kites together. It is also through kite flying that Amir first makes his father truly proud. And Amir and Sorhab make a connection and establish their first bond whilst flying their first kite together. The kite connects Hassan, Sohrab and Amir together. I think the fighting and the running represent the unstable state of the country at the time, politically and economically. There is fighting going on in the streets between the children, just as there is fighting going on, on a larger scale between countries. The pomegranates also have a symbolic meaning… Hassan and Amir engrave their names on a pomegranate tree, Hassan squashes a pomegranate on his forehead when Amir asks him to hit him, and pomegranates fall from a truck as Amir is reading Hassan’s letter. In Iran and Persia, pomegranates take on a symbolism of love and fertility, as well as patriotism in death for the country. The pomegranates could therefore symbolize the true relationship between Hassan and Amir, they are brothers, and Hassan’s dedication for Amir.

Lahiri's "The Namesake"

1) Compare/contrast Gogol's "The Overcoat" with Lahiri's "The Namesake." How is a name like an overcoat?

Dostoevsky said: “We all came out from Gogol’s overcoat.” Ashoke refers to this quote when giving the book to his son Gogol, hoping that some day he will understand what was meant by it. In Nikolai Gogol’s “The overcoat,” the author makes much of his protagonist’s name: “His name was Akakiy Akakievitch. It may strike the reader as rather singular and far-fetched, but he may rest assured that it was by no means far-fetched, and that the circumstances were such that it would have been impossible to give him any other.” The way Ashoke chooses his son’s name is much like the way Gogol finds his protagonists name. He did not look very far; he chose the one moment in his life that changed everything, the train accident. I think the meaning of the overcoat is that your origins are not very far. In a way, us all coming from Gogol’s overcoat symbolizes the fact that we all have the same origins; we are all the same in some ways. The quote binds Gogol with his family and his origins that he denies for such a long time. 

2) Trace Gogol/Nikil's struggle with his name and his identity. Do you think he ever makes peace with his name?

Gogol shows the very first sign of struggling with his name and identity on his first day of school when his parents explain to him that now that he is going to school he has to be called his "good name." Indians receive two names: a pet name that shall only be used by their family members, and a good name that is used by everyone else. Gogol's pet name is Nikil. But on his first day of school, he feels uncomfortable with this name that no one has ever called him by. A name that is not his. Later on, when he is 11, he comes to realize the peculiarity of his name, on a field trip with his school to a graveyard. He realizes that he is the only person to have his name. He shares it with no one. He then grows ashamed of his name: "Other boys his age have begun to court girls already, asking them to go to the movies or the pizza parlor, but he cannot imagine saying "Hi, it's Gogol" under any circumstance" (p.76.) For years, until he finds out the real reason behind his pet name--the story of the train--Gogol is confused and irritated with it: "The writer he is named after--Gogol isn't his real name. His first name is Nikolai. Not only does Gogol Ganguli have a pet name turned good name, but a last name turned first name. And so it occurs to him that no one he knows in the world, in Russia or India or America or anywhere, shares his name. Not even the source of his namesake" (p.78.) His discomfort with his name strengthens when one of his English professors decides to study Gogol's short stories in class. Gogol is viscerally upset when he sees the printed letters spelling out Gogol on the cover of the book.

One evening, at a party, when Gogol finds himself alone with a girl and she asks him his name, he lies: “I’m Nikhil.” He then kisses her, but when he tells his friends about the kiss, “he doesn’t tell them that it hadn’t been Gogol who’d kissed Kim. That Gogol had had nothing to do with it” (p.96.) This just shows us how confused Gogol/Nikhil is about his identity. He doesn’t love himself as Gogol, but doesn’t identify himself to Nikil either. Similarly, he is neither Indian nor American, he is stuck somewhere in the middle. In an interview, Lahiri explains that “The question of identity is always a difficult one, but especially so for those who are culturally displaced, as immigrants are, or those who grow up in two worlds simultaneously, as is the case for their children. The older I get, the more I am aware that I have somehow inherited a sense of exile from my parents, even though in many ways I am so much more American than they are. In fact, it is still very hard to think of myself as an American.”

During Gogol’s search for his identity, Gogol goes through phases where he first denies his origins and lives someone elses life, the American life. But after his father dies, he realizes that living in exile from his own culture is not an option: “with a stamina he fears he does not possess himself. He had spent years maintaining distance from his origins; his parents, in bridging that distance as best as they could” (p.281.) As he goes home, he makes peace with his family, his mother, and starts immersing himself in his old life again. But essentially, Gogol/Nikil will always have a certain confusion concerning his identity. He will always be living in two worlds, nether completely American or completely Indian. But yet, that is what has formed Gogol, that is what has made him who he is. In a way, he makes peace with his name after his father’s death:”The name he had so detested, here hidden and preserved—that was the first thing his father had given him” (p.289.)

3) Consider the blossoming of Ashima in the course of the novel. In what ways does she grow and develop?

Ashima’s development and growth is apparent in the novel. When she moves to the United States, she resists her new environment slightly. She is unhappy, in a word so far from everything and anyone she has ever known. Before her first child is born, she expresses her fear of raising him in this foreign country, and wants to go back to India. Ashima feels extremely lonely and isolated, especially because her husband spends the entire day away and only comes home in the evenings. She has no friends or people to lean on. When her son is old enough to go to school, she will once again feel this loneliness, but eventually grows to accept it. She eventually stops resisting to her children’s inevitable immersion in the American culture, and even ends up accepting the fact that her daughter will marry a non Indian man.

4) Discuss Gogol/Nikil’s relationships with women. What do the relationships have in common? Why does each break down at some point?

Gogol has two major relationships in the book. In both relationships, Gogol becomes passive, and lets the other control his life. Both Maxine and Moushimi make all the decisions. Gogol completely adopts Maxine’s life style, culture and even her family. He becomes as much a child to Maxine’s parents than a lover to her. He sleeps in her bed, moves in with her when she asks him to, and would rather go on vacation with her family than spend time with his. At the beginning, he is as happy as ever, enveloping himself in this new lifestyle, so different from the one he had known so far, the one he had spent such a long time rejecting. But soon enough he begins to realize that living the life of someone else is not healthy, and not a way of life.  His regrets, that he had until now buried deep inside him, surface from time to time: “he is conscious of the fact that his immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own.” (p.141) He then realizes that all this time, he had been immersing himself in her life without letting her into his. In fact, Maxine hardly knew him. And the people he had surrounded himself with, were not the people that truly cared for him: “Everybody sings Happy Birthday, this group who had known him for only one evening. Who will forget him the next day” (p.158.) Gogol’s father’s death is what truly ends up separating him and Maxine. When she asks Gogol to get away from his family, shortly after his father dies, it is evident how little she really knows him, and he finally stands up to her. In a similar way, Moushimi also dictates Gogol’s life. They start visiting with her friends all the time, dinner party after dinner party. Despite the fact that Gogol and Moushimi have the same cultural background, he feels very misplaced and uncomfortable when he is around her and her friends. To make things worse, they constantly compare him to Graham, her ex fiancé. Moushimi keeps a part of her life secretive. She never reveals the sentimental details of her relationship with Graham, to Gogol, like the fact that it was so passionate. Inevitably, the two grow apart. Gogol feels judged by Moushimi, for example when she mocks his name change in front of her friends. I think that Gogol’s problem remains in his relationship with his family and himself. In both relationships, he lets his significant other take control. Instead of each sharing parts of their lives with one another, Gogol is too focused on the other person and tends to forget that he has a life of his own.

5) Many episodes in the novel occur in the train. What is the significance for this?

The trains in the novel symbolize change. Change can take on several variations. When Ashoke comes close to death in a train accident, his life changes. A man he had met on the train told him of the wonders of traveling. He said: “Do yourself a favor. Before it is too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can” (p.16.) After the accident, those words stay with Ashoke and he decides to move to America, starting a new life. The train can take on the meaning of growing up as well, a change from childhood to adulthood. Gogol meets his very first girlfriend, Ruth on a train, and together, they travel on the same path of life for a little while. The symbolism behind the train is there to reinforce the changes that the characters are experiencing. For example, Gogol finds out about his wife Moushimi’s affair in a train station. This is significant in that they are not on the actual train, but have come to a halt. They are no longer moving forward together, their relationship has come to a stagnant stage, and they now part ways. The train could also symbolize a sort of deracination. Trains are often associated with hobos that travel from city to city without a home. Gogol resembles a homeless person in that he has no sense of belonging to a single culture, a single home. He is neither Indian nor American, and this is a struggle that is present throughout the entire novel. He is still searching for his identity.  At the end of the book however, I think that Gogol has finally stopped seeking. He has finally found himself. The story ends with Gogol opening the book his father had given him years ago. The book that had always been there, but Gogol simply hadn’t paid any attention to it. This illustrates the fact that the answer to Gogol’s identity search had been there the whole time, in his very own home; he just had to look closer instead of searching on the outside, far away from home and his origins. .

6) In an interview with the author, Lahiri said she wanted India to function as a ghost in the background of the story. Does India function as a ghost or as something else?

The fact that she desires India to function as a ghost in the background of the novel draws another parallel between “the namesake” and “the overcoat.” Indeed, in Gogol’s “The overcoat” Akaky comes back from the dead in the form of a ghost, to haunt people on the bridge and steal their overcoat. The ghost is here to remind us of the things that are important in life. Part of the criticism of human nature that Gogol implies in his story is that people assign too much value to unimportant things such as social status, financial means, and material possessions. In that sense, I think that India functions as a ghost in the story. It is there to remind us that we can never deny our origins, because that makes us who we are.

Gogol's "The overcoat"

"The overcoat" is the story of Akakiy Akakievich Bashmachkin, a poor and insignificant clerk who has been working for many years in the same unspecified department within the Russian government in St. Petersburg. He spends all day copying letters mindlessly, but puts all his passion and heart to his work. The narrator's tone of voice is often condescending, critical and ironic. 

"The Overcoat" treats several themes whilst blending comic, grotesque, realist and fantastic elements into his story. 

The first and most obvious theme is human condition. Akakiy seems to be an isolated human being with no great significance or importance to the world around him. The need for human compassion is central to the story. It appears in the very first paragraph when we see how Akakiy is mocked by everyone at his office: "some writers make merry, and crack their jokes, obeying the praiseworthy custom of attacking those who cannot bite back." This theme of human condition encompasses isolation, as Akakiy often seems completely alone in his own world. When he walks in the streets he does not see the people around him. He lives alone and has no friends. The author's tone makes it difficult for the reader to decide whether he should feel sympathy for the poor mistreated clerk, or if he should take it as a comic tale that makes fun of Akakiy Akakievich. Often times the descriptions of this sad and poor character border the ridicule: " And something was always sticking to his uniform, either a bit of hay or some trifle . Moreover, he had a peculiar knack, as he walked along the street, of arriving beneath a window just as all sorts of rubbish were being flung out of it: hence he always bore about on his hat scraps of melon rinds and other such articles."

Another theme of the story would be social status. There is a clear distinction between Akakiy and his superiors. The difference of social status is shown when Akakiy is on his way to the party thrown in the honor of his overcoat: " Akakiy Akakievitch was first obliged to traverse a kind of wilderness of deserted, dimly-lighted streets; but in proportion as he approached the official's quarter of the city, the streets became more lively, more populous, and more brilliantly illuminated. Pedestrians began to appear; handsomely dressed ladies were more frequently encountered; the men had otter skin collars to their coats; peasant waggoners, with their grate-like sledges stuck over with brass-headed nails, became rarer; whilst on the other hand, more and more drivers in red velvet caps, lacquered sledges and bear-skin coats began to appear, and carriages with rich hammer-cloths flew swiftly through the streets, their wheels scrunching the snow." 

Ernesto Che Guevara--The Motorcycle Diaries

The movie motorcycle diaries was based on Che Guevara's diaries. He remains till today, an international symbol of freedom, a hero.

Che Guevara was born in 1928 in Argentina. He was of spanish and irish descent.

• suffered severely from asthma
• amazing athlete
• avid collective reader
• Machu Pichu played an important role in his life.

 His beliefs were influenced by some of the most important and influential figures of his time, as he read works by Kar Marx, William Falkner, Kafka and Vladimir Lenin.
He participated in many revolutions and ended up being Fidel Castro's right hand man in the Cuban revolution.

Motorcycle diaries is categorized as a bildungsroman. This implies that the author presents social, psychological, and moral shaping of the personality of a character, usually the protagonist. But Motorcycle diaries is often also associated with an identity plot where the protagonist comes to learn who they are and their identity.
An identity plot has five major elements:

• The narrative revolves around the question of how to define and understand a character's identity.
• The character must be a member of a minority within a larger society.
• The character is at odds with the minority group of which he or she is a part of.
• The character needs to be conflicted about his or her difference from the majority and about his or her difference from the minority. 
• Authenticity and origine are always at stake in the characters quest for personal identity. Even when they are absent, their absence alone signifies something crucial to the character's identity. 

Here are some variations of an identity plot:

• The characters seem to be a member of the majority group.
• The character does not seem to be conflicted about his membership in the minority group (will that person betray his group or not)
• The character resists the whole idea of having an identity that is stable (Kingston--she doesnt believe identities stay still--identity is changeable--the variation becomes more common in later 20 th century although clearly there are authors who believe that identity can be stable.)
• There may be multiple people who's identities are at stake in the novel
• can have variations of fiction based on fact (raises the stakes of the fiction--suggesting its purchase on the real to write a fiction that is sort of semi-autobiographical, not all truth--that what is going on in the fiction is close to what we live.)
• Identity is not based on race or ethnicity.

Silko's "The Yellow Woman"

"Yellow Woman" can probably be interpreted in different way, but I believe that the adventure that the narrator lives is very much reality and not a fantasy. She met a man who provoked such a desire within her that she followed him into the night and remained with him for three days. At several occasions she thinks about her family, husband and child that she left behind and wonders if the they are worried about her. This shows us a certain level of guilt for cheating on her husband, a guilt that she attempts to rationalize through the story of the Yellow Woman. Becoming "Yellow Woman", kidnapped by the spirit of the mountains provides her with a sort of escape from reality, and an excuse for her irresponsible behavior. We can see that she truly lived the story, and that she is well aware that she is not really Yellow Woman , because when she goes home, she tells her husband she was kidknapped by a navajo. If she had truly believed that she was Yellow Woman, she would have most probably told her family so, and they would have believed her.
The narrator also mentions her grandfather at several occasions, and says how she wishes he were still alive. This shows a certain desire to be nurtured and taken care of, something that she found in Silo. This nurturing care was not given to her in her home. This is obvious when she comes home after several days and nothing seems to have disturbed the peace of the household. Everyone is in the process of making Jell-O and are not even worried about the narrator's whereabouts.

Gabriela Garcia Marquez: "A very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" tells the story of a small village who's monotony is disturbed by the arrival of a very old man with enormous wings. He lands in Pelayo and Elsinda's yard as they are killing crabs. I believe the story works as a criticism of the catholic institution as well as human nature. 
Marquez criticises the church through Father Gonzaga's superiors in Rome when he mocks the unnecessary and lengthy hierarchy: " Nevertheless, he promised to write a letter to his bishop so that the latter would write his primate so that the latter would write to the Supreme Pontiff in order to get the final verdict from the highest courts." The amount of people Father Gonzaga has to go through to speak to a superior is just ridiculous, especially when these superiors completely fail to be interested on the nature of this so called fallen angel, but instead concentrate on ridiculous and irrelevant details such as whether " his dialect had any connection with Aramaic, how many times he could fit on the head of a pin, or whether he wasn't just a Norwegian with wings." Marquez is clearly mocking the churches arcane medieval theories and insinuating how literal minded and out of touch with reality the church is. In the end, the old man simply flies away, implying that the wisdom of the church was all together unnecessary and didn't contribute to the resolution of the mystery at all. 

Marquez also criticizes human beings in general, primarily through Pelayo and Elsinda and the other villagers. Their narrow mindedness seems to prevent them from really understanding the meaning of life. The "wise neighbor woman" has know it all solutions to every situation, therefor never really analyzing and thinking about the situation in itself. Father Gonzaga desperately looks for a procedure to follow instead of dealing with the situation at hand, contacting his superiors in Rome that are worthless of advice. And finally, Marquez mocks human nature through all the pilgrims and sick people that come to see the fallen angel with their own selfish concerns. Even  Pelayo and Elsinda show the same selfishness. Instead of taking care of the old man, they lock him up like a savage and turn him into a circus animal and a means to make money: " Elisenda, her spine all twisted from sweeping up so much marketplace trash, then got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging five cents admission to see the angel." 
Another main theme of the story could be how people treat differences. This old man with enormous wings is not like anyone else these villagers have ever seen. But instead of treating him with respect and dignity, he is locked up and turned into a circus animal, an attraction for people all around the world to come look at.  

Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

Discussion:

Why did Okonkwo wish that Ezinma was a boy instead of a girl: I think this illustrates an important aspect of the Igbo culture. Men and women did not have an equal status and therefor could not accomplish themselves in the same way. Men could gain titles and a good reputation. Okonkwo and Ezinima have a very good relationship. Okonkwo feels like she is the only one who truly undersatnds him. He also say at several occasions that she is smart. He thinks that if she were a boy she could have accomplished great things.


Okonkwo's death signifies the end of the tribe, its inability to resist to the new arrivers. The fact that Achebe does not go into explaining what happens to Okonkwo's family after his death clearly illustrates this. Okonkwo was very representative of his tribe and when he died, it died with him. Moreover, the fact that the commissionaire decided that Okonkwo's life would be an interesting story and would probably just be worthy of a single paragraph in his book, illustrates the mentality with which the white men came to invade Africa. The saw each clan, with their elaborate and complex culture and beliefs, as small paragraphs in their overall mission. I think Achebe is highlighting how unconsiderate they were and how little they tried to understand what they were actually destroying.



Main Characters:

• Okonkwo: hates his father because he was a lazy and unmanly person, and does everything to be the opposite. As  result he is very masculine, driven by success and the image he has amongst the clan. He has a violent streak. He s also very proud and values strength and power
• Unoka is Okonkwo's father
• Naoye is Okonkwo's eldest son, the son of his first wife
• Ikenefuna is Okonkwo's adopted son
• Ekwefi is Okonkwo's second and probably favorite wife. He has three wives. She was married before him but she always loved Okonkwo. She married someone else because Okonkwo didn't have enough money, but she ended up running back to him.
• Ezinma is Okonkwo's daughter, the daughter of Ekwefi. She is very precious to her mother because she had a lot of trouble having children and always gave birth to still borns or babies who didnt survive the first couple months. 
• Nwakibie is an elder who gives Okonkwo his first seed yams to start his life.
• Obierka is Okonkwo's best friend and his polar opposite.
• Ezeudu is an elder who tell Okonkwo not to partiipate in Ikemefuna's death
• Uchendu is Okonkwo's uncle that lives in his mother land. He halps him and gives him advice when Okonkwo is exiled to his mother land.
• Mr. Brown is a british missionary who builds a church in Umofia. He is described as harmless.
• Reverand Mr. Smith is also a British missionary, he continues what Mr. Brown started except he is much harsher in his ways.

Achebe tells his story in three parts:

1. Umofia: Things are in place, with Okonkwo as a representative of his culture
2. Mbanta: Things are out of place, Okonkwo is in exile for seven years, he has to rebuild his life and he starts hearing about the missionaries
3. Umofia: Okonkwo is back in his hometown and he has to start his life yet again... But the missionaries are here and the clan has been divided into those that still believe in their own gods and those that chose to follow the christian missionaries. Things fall apart.... 

Selections from "I never saw another butterfly" by Hana Volavkova

After WW 2, Hana Volavkova collected poems and songs written by the children incarcerated in the Terezin concentration camp, many of whom died later in Auschwitz. She was director of the Prague Jewish Museum.

"The Butterfly" by Pavel Friedman

Pavel Friedman was a teenage Jew in the Terezin Ghetto near Prague in 1942. Along with the adult Jews, many of these Terezin children were then sent to other death camps where they were killed. Very few children survived from the Terezin ghetto. Pavel Friedman died in Auschwitz a couple years later. The symbolism of this poem is very strong. In its metamorphosis from a common ugly caterpillar to a beautiful and colourful winged butterfly, the butterfly often takes on the symbol of hope, beauty, freedom, but also of rebirth and resurrection. But the poem is one of lost hope: "Only I never saw another butterfly. That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don't live here, in the ghetto." All the beauty of the world, represented by the butterfly is gone. What is left is the horror of the ghetto, and death.

"Terezin" by Mif

This poem speaks more directly about the pain and suffering endured in the camps. The vocabulary used is one that evokes pain, grief and death. Amidst all the pain however, rises a sliver of hope as it "A fourth year of waiting, like standing above a swamp from which any moment might gush forth a spring." These children are still waiting for something good to happen, someone to come take them away from this hell. A hell where people are neither dead or alive, they are just waiting: "Meanwhile, the rivers flow another way, another way, not letting you die, not letting you live." The poem opens and ends with the same verse: "The heaviest wheel rolls across our foreheads to bury itself deep somewhere inside our minds." This repetition stresses the never ending waiting for the unknown that these children endured. They had no idea what they were doing there and what was awaiting them.The wheels are reminiscent of the trains in which these people were brought to the camp. It is most probably those same wheels that will transport them later on to Auschwitz where death awaits.
Many of these children had been seperated from their families and put in a special part of the camp with supervisors to look over them. Some were as young as five years old. Mif recalls this when he writes: "We've suffered here more than enough, here in this clot of grief and shame, wanting a badge of blindness to be a proof for their own children."

Higuchi Ichiyô's "Childs Play"

Ichiyô was born in 1872 in Japan and died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis. Her father sent her to a private school with a classical curriculum despite the opposition of the mother. Ichiyô developed a reputation for being a voracious reader and excelled at writing. At a young age, her family moved to the red light district because of lack of means, an environment that became an inspiration to the young girl in her writing of "Childs Play". Some of the plaSy's main themes are growing up, poverty and interaction between children. The main characters are Midori and Nobu. Chokichi was the leader of the back street gang, and Shota, the leader of the main street gang.

Henrick Isben's "A Doll House"

"A Doll House" is a realistic, modern prose drama. It shows the relationship between a married couple, Nora and Torvald, and Nora's struggle with Krogstad, who threatens to tell her husband about her past crime of signature forging. These events incite Nora's journey of self-discovery. Her main struggles are however with the oppressive and stifling attitudes of her selfish husband. At the end of the play, Nora decides to leave him. She takes with her only her coat and leaves him with everything, including her children. The end of the play was modified for many years, due to the inappropriate, socially unacceptable ending. Indeed, in the beginning of the 1900s when the play was written (more precisely in 1906), a woman leaving her husband was considered a taboo. Women had absolutely no rights at that time, they could not even borrow money without the approval of a male. Relationships therefor become a central theme to the play, as well as power and social expectations of men and women.

Tadeusz Borowski's "Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber"

Borowski is a polish writer and was incarcerated in the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau for two years, at the age of twenty. In this story, Borowski writes about his own experience in the death camps, perhaps as a way to externalize his feelings of guilt, but also as to not let people forget these acts of horror. "The narrator's dispassionate tone in his stories,as he describes senseless cruelty and mass murder, individual scenes of desperation, or the eccentric emotions of people about to die, continue to shock many readers. Borowski is certainly describing a world of antiheroes, those who survive by accommodating themselves to things as they are and avoiding acts of heroism." (Norton Anthology, p. 2770) The narrator is a polish prisoner at the Birkenau concentration camp. He is not however just a regular prisoner, for his position gives him privileges to food and clothes, as he works under the German Nazis, transporting and unloading people that were arriving at the camp.

How does the “politeness” of the title mock the content of the story? Can you find other examples of such mockery within the story?

The politeness of the title creates a contrast with the actual acts of gruesome murder that were being committed in the camps. There was absolutely no consideration for the victims that were treated worse than cattle. I think this politeness is meant to draw attention upon the detachment with which the Nazis but even some of the workers, went about with their acts. For example on page 2774, just after describing how tough the conditions in the camps, the narrator explains how carefree he was: "Several of us are sitting right now on a top bunk swinging our legs in a carefree manner. We take out white, extravagantly baked bread: crumbling, falling to pieces, a little provoking in taste, but, for all that, bread that had not been molding for weeks. (...) Under us, in the block, naked, sweating people mill about." Borowski shows detachment but he is also mocking the bread. I think the sarcasm is used here to resurface how life in the camps was really like. Henri the Frenchman is also very detached from everything that is happening around him. When the narrator asks him if they are good people and explains the rage he feels toward them Henri replies: "Oh, no, quite on the contrary, its normal, foreseen and taken into account. You are tired with this unloading business, you're rebellious, and rage can best be vented on someone weaker. Its even desirable that you should vent it. Its common sense. Compris?" I think these people chose to detach themselves from this gruesome reality in order to survive. However, the narrator can never quite rid himself of his guilt. His vomiting is a metaphorical representation of his attempt to get rid of the guilt that weighs on his soul, and his responsibility in the death of 15000 Jews from Sosnoweic-Bedzin. (Critical Essay on "This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen", Rena Korb)

Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl" (written in 1989)

The shawl tells the story of Rosa and Stella in their attempt to survive in a Nazi death camp, despite the hunger, the cold, hostility and the inhumanity that they face. Rosa is carrying a baby, Magda, hidden in a shawl that she has wrapped around herself.

For the most part, the text is written in short and simple sentences that are very descriptive. This seems to enhance the state of mind that the characters are in. They have been dehumanized by the way they are treated, a single false step and they could be shot dead like animals: "But if she moved from the line they might shoot." They are barely even part of this world anymore: physically they have been reduced to almost nothing through their food deprivation, and mentally, being in a death camp, they are surrounded by death, pain, horror. It is even said of Rosa that she is "floating." She acquires an almost ghostly characteristic. She is not fully there and merely exists through her fight to protect and keep the child she is holding alive. Nothing more than instinct is keeping these characters going. The writing style mirrors the instinct that drove these people to survive, they had nothing left but their emotions.

Several times, the shawl that Rosa carries Magda in, is referred to as a "magic shawl." The shawl in itself greatly contrasts with the hostile environment of the story, as it represents the magical provision of safety and nourishment in a hellish surrounding. The shawl keeps the child quiet when roll is being called, it keeps her in a little nest, protected from the horror surrounding them and safe from the Nazi soldiers' eyes. It even nourrishes Magda when Rosa's nipples go dry: "She sucked and sucked, flooding threads with wetness. The shawl's good flavor, milk of linen." I think the way Magda is nourished by the shawl can be interpreted two different ways. First of all, the piece of cloth turning into food shows just how terrible the conditions of the camp were and just how much pain these people had to go through. When a person is so hungry that a piece of cloth represents nourishment and even takes on a sweet taste of "cinnamon and almond," they are gripping at their very last resources. But the nourishment of the shawl that keeps this baby alive also reminds the reader of how powerful love is. The shawl takes on a symbol of this motherly love and nourishment that Rosa gives the child, and that is what is keeping her alive. Amidst all this horror, and demonstration of the horrific acts that humanity is capable of, the story also celebrates love, the persistance of good amidst all this evil.

Katherine Mansfield--"The Fly"

Question to consider:  Although the story “The Fly” never overtly mentions World War I, make a list of details which indicate that the story is related to WW I and takes place shortly thereafter.

Although World War 1 is never overtly mentioned in the text, when one takes the story and puts it into its historical context, such an interpretation would make sense.
Indeed, the story was written in 1922, only four years after the end of the First World War that took Mansfield's brother. Similarly, every character in "The Fly" has experienced a loss of some kind. Mr. Woodfield has lost a person named Reggie, possibly his son, as his daughters went to visit his grave, and the Boss also lost his son. Evidently, one of the major themes of the story is loss, and how people deal with it. Most importantly, the story analyses how the boss deals with this loss, as he feels more resentment than sadness towards his son.

The fact that he has never even visited the grave shows his inability to deal with his loss. Also, he finds himself unable to cry, when the memory of his son surfaces. The boy was his only son and the Boss had worked his entire life, building up a business for him: "It had no other meaning if it was not for the boy. Life itself had come to no other meaning." I think that the boss feels resentment towards his son for dying in the war and not living long enough to fulfill his fathers dream. There is also a psychological analysis of various ways that people have to deal with loss. Some people transform their sadness into anger, making it easier to deal with the pain, a stage that Mansfield may have gone through herself when losing her brother with whom she was very close with.

The boss quickly turns his attention to a fly that is resting on his desk, and spends the rest of the story dropping ink on it, until it dies. In my opinion, this symbolizes various things. The fly represents the bosses son. He challenges the fly the same way his son was challeneged by the war. He drops four ink drops on the fly, one drop of ink per year of war, and watches as the fly fully recovers the first time, struggles slightly the second time, even more the third time and finally dies with the fourth drop of ink. At first the Boss admires the fly's courage: "He's a plucky little devil, thought the boss, and he felt a real admiration for the fly's courage. That was the way to tackle things; that was the right spirit. Never say die." But with the final drop, the boss is seized with anger as he watches the fly give in and die. He is angry at the fly for not standing up to the challenges he is facing, just how he is angry at his son for getting killed in the war. But after the episode of the fly, the Boss can no longer remember what he was thinking about: "He fell to wondering what it was he had been thinking about before. (...) For the life of him he could not remember." The boss tested the fly's limits and relates to it in the sense that he himself is being tested by his son's memories.

This interpretation can also be seen at a larger scale however. The Boss symbolizes the authority, the leader. Most of the time, a boss pushes the papers but doesn't get his hands dirty. By choosing this particular job for the character, Mansfield is representing the leaders behind the war. The fact that the Boss cannot cry at the memory of his son represents the numbness that has fallen over the leaders and the people, at the consequences of the war, the destruction it caused and the huge losses of men. When the war was over, the damaged countries were so occupied with reconstructing themselves that the people who had died and the entire reason behind the war seemed to have taken a backstage role. The son represents those that have fallen during the war, the lost generation, whereas the fly is symbol of Europe. With each year, Europe had more and more trouble recovering until it's economy finally completely collapsed, mirroring the fly's struggle with recovering from each drop of ink. This symbolism is enhanced by the fact that the boss and the son are not named, allowing them to take on the faces, and speak for many people.

Woodfield is the only character that has a name in the story, and the similarity between Woodfield and Mansfield could lead one to believe that the author desired to put herself into this story. After all, this story is also about her traumatizing loss. Woodfield triggers the entire resurfacing of the memory of the son's death as he tells the boss how his daughters came across his grave. He triggered emotions in the Boss that he had not felt in a long time, however, the man is unable to weep. I think that Mansfield is making it a point that one cannot forget the fallen ones. She wants us to remember.

I think the sons photograph also represents a connection with World War One. The boss describes his son's expression as "unnatural. It was cold, even stern-looking. The boy had never looked like that." I think this reflects what the war did to these young men that left home to fight. They were engaging in such brutal acts that they lost their humanity. The description of the boy's photo reminds me of the priest's speech in "Joyeux Noël" when he is telling the soldiers to kill the enemy like they are not sons of God. Taking the humanity out of these men is what allowed them to keep fighting and to kill all those men. It is much easier to pull the trigger on an evil person than someone you may have someone in common with. I think Mansfield is making a point here. The soldier is not who she thinks we should remember, but the person behind that cold expression, before the war robbed them of their humanity.

James Joyce's "The Dead"

Discussion Question 1: Consider all the references to death, the dead, and dying throughout the text, what is their significance?  How does they influence/inform Joyce's title selection?

Jame's Joyce's constant reference to death throughout the text, starting with its title "The dead" implies that mortality is a key part of the story. "The dead" is set during the winter time, around Christmas.  Despite the many festivities that are going on, at which people should be enjoying themselves at this wonderful party and dance, the mood is bleak and gloomy.

The darkness that seems to fill the house, the corridors and the staircases, the shadows that are cast over the characters, as well as the cold winter night and the silent blanket of snow that is falling outside, give the reader the uncomfortable sensation that these characters are living life without really living. Their almost ghostly characteristics enhance the idea that they are really dead. For example, Aunt Julia's "hair, drawn low over the tops of her ears, was grey; and grey also, with darker shadows, was her large flaccid face." (p.1948) Her colorlous face reminds the reader the one of a corpse. Gretta, Gabriel's wife, also takes ghostly characteristics as she seems distant from the other characters, like she is in a different world: "Gabriel watched his wife who did not join the conversation (...) She was in the same attitude and seemed unaware of the talk about her." (p.1967) Also, when in the room together, he does not hear her come to him from the window, as if she moves around like a spirit.

The lingering memory of those who died also enhances the feeling that these characters are almost dead themselves. Gabirel's speech constantly refers to them: "we still cherish in our hearts the memory of those dead and gone great ones whose fame the world will not willingly let die." (p.1962) and again "but yet there are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here tonight."

The memory of dead Michael Furey, Gretta's long lost lover who died for her, at the age of 17, is also an important reference to death in the text. His last name reminds the reader of the fire of passion that he felt for this woman, a passion so strong that his memory is still very much alive after all those years. A little part of Gretta died with Michael, and the only time she seems to fire up with a little bit of life is when Michael's memory surfaces. After hearing Bartell D'Arcy sing "The Lass of Aughrim," Gretta remembers her long lost love. She turns to Gabriel and he sees that "there was a sudden color on her cheeks and that her eyes were shining." (p.1967) Michael Fuery's death serves as an epiphamy for Gabriel as he sees himself as a shadow, in a world where life and death meet: "A shameful conscieusness of his own person assailed him. He saw himself as a ludicrous figure, acting as a pennyboy for his aunts, a nervous, well-meaning sentimentalist, orating to vulgarians and idealising his own clownish lusts, the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse of in the mirror." (p.1972) While during his dinner speech, Gabriel focuses on the separation between the past dead and those that are still alive, he realizes how false this separation is after seeing how alive Michael Furey's is through his mere memory. Despite his death so long ago, he is the most alive character of the story. Joyce voluntarily creates a confusion the living and the dead by creating a world where the dead are alive and the living are dead.

The snow is a final touch to the confusion between the dead and the living throughout the text, and this idea can be clearly perceived in the last paragraph: "Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. (...) His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." (p.1974) The last sentence captures Joyce's world where life and death meet and intertwine. 

Discussion Question 2: Consider the names of the characters, specifically Gabriel and Michael--what is their origin/meaning generally and then consider their use in the text.

In Christianism, Gabriel and Michael are the names of two of God's angels. Michael is an Archeangel, which means he is of higher rank, and Gabriel is God's special messanger. While Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus, he is also considered the angel of death. Gabriel's subservience to Michael in the bible is also true in "The dead". Gabriel feels inferior to dead Michael. He will never receive his wife's love like Michael did, and he will never cause her emotions to surge, like they did with the memory of Michael.

Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

Discussion question 1: According to Dictionary.com - a metamorphosis is, "a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism--a complete change of form, structure, or substance--a form resulting from any such change."  In considering this definition, what was Gregor's life like before and after his metamorphosis--do you believe his change was literal or metaphoric and why?

Despite Gregor's complete physical transformation, he changes very little mentally. Throughout the entire story he tends to accept his fate without complaining or questioning why he is going through these events. Instead, he takes his transformation like an unfortunate fate that could have happened to anyone and is not out of the ordinary, and tries to adapt to his new life. According to Norton's Anthology, "no allegorical interpretation is finally possible, for all these potential meanings overlap as they expand toward social, philosophical and religious dimensions and constitute the richly allusive texture of seperate tales by a master story teller." If there is no political, religious or social allegorical interpretation, the only interpretation left would be the one that Gregor fall into a permanent insanity that affects his view of the entire world and turns him into the shame of his family and those around him. 

Discussion Question 2: Kafka includes many references to hunger and food--what is the significance of these references? 

The many references to hunger and food could be symbolic for Gregor's desire to be loved and accepted by his family, and simply to exist. When the narrator talks about Gregor's life before the metamorphosis, the reader gets the overall impression that Gregor merely exists to his family through the money and economic benefits he provides them with. He is not truly loved. This feeling is strengthened when, after his metamorphosis, his family turns against his due to his incapacity to go to work and maintain their lifestyle like he used to. Kafka could possibly be identifying himself with the main character. It is stated in Norton's Anthology that Kafka suffered from "his father's overbearing nature and felt deprived of maternal love." The apple scene could also be symbolic of Kafka's sufferings as he grew up in an unloving family. Gregor's father bombards his son with apple's, one of which lodges itself in Gregor's back. No one tends to Gregor or even bothers removing the apple, that ends up creating a permanent injury and causes his death. This could be a figurative interpretation of what Kafka went through in his own family. His bad relationship with his family permanently injured him and affected his life.

  Discussion Question 3: Identify and discuss some of the themes of "The Metamorphosis" - be sure to refer to your notes about what a theme is and in your discussion identify key passages of the text that support the themes you've identified.

The major underlying theme in Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is isolation. After Gregor's transformation, he barely ever leaves his room and when he does he is forced back into it like an animal. This isolation becomes gradually more unbearable for Gregor. At the beginning, Grete, Gregor's sister comes into the room to leave him food, but soon she barely even does that anymore, and uses her feet to shove the food through the door as not to set foot into the room. Gregor's loss of contact with the outside world, and therefor isolation, is also symbolized through his loss of long distance eyesight due to his animalistic condition: "From day to day, even the things that were rather close were growing hazier and hazier; he could no longer even make out the hospital across the street." (p. 2014)

Another major theme is money, as it is at the root of many of Gregor's problems. Money problems define Gregor's life before his metamorphosis and after metamorphosis. Prior to his uncomfortable condition, Gregor's only worry in life was the one of providing his family with a comfortable lifestyle: "Gregor's sole concern at the time had been to do whatever he could to make the family forget as quickly as possible the business catastrophe that had plunged them all into utter despair. And so he had thrown himself into his job with tremendous fervor, working his way up, almost overnight, from minor clerk to traveling salesman, who, naturally, had an altogther different earning potential and whose professional triumphs were instantly translated, by way of commissions, into cash, which could be placed on the table at home in front of the astonished family." (p.2013) Furthermore, right after Gregor's realization of his handicapping condition, his first worry is providing for his family and how they would survive if Gregor would not be able to go back to work.