Betrayed by Latifa Ali and ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan explore the issue of alienation within a foreign country and culture.
Betrayed is Ali’s real life experience of been forced, by her Parents, into the Muslamic culture in Kurdistan; after she has grown up as a westerner in Australian society, with absolutely no association with the Muslim lifestyle. The book explores the idea of alienation in a foreign country and culture through the sub ideas of: the oppression of women within the traditional Muslamic culture and the hardships she experienced as a result of differences in cultural context.
The hardships experienced by Ali show the alienation she experienced because of her differences. Ali maintained a different belief system to those around her. Her behaviours, beliefs and opinions made her alienated. There is a point in the book where she attempts to escape to the Turkish border, the enforcement of the Muslim culture had become too much for her; she wanted to the freedom to express her western lifestyle.
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The arrival however is about: a—man, who is protecting his—family. This story did not resonate as much with me because I am not a man and I do not have a family, there is generational gaps between us that results in different values, ideas, opinions and beliefs, the main character of the story was not as relatable as Ali in Betrayed. Betrayed resonates with me because of our similar up bringing’s and lifestyles, I am able to relate more to her hardships because of that connection in our ages, gender and sociological background. These reasons are why I found Betrayed more effective in displaying the issue of alienation in a foreign
War and Separation of Families in” Faizabad Harvest, 1980” Suzanne Fisher Staples merges the events of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989) into “Faizabad Harvest, 1980 “. Despite the fact that Staples never has been to Afghanistan, she wrote the events as if she were there. In this essay I will investigate how Staples has manage to show how family ties are strengthened, and at other times, broken and left shattered by war .
Mohsin Hamid explores the desperate plight of a pair of refugee lovers in Exit West. He theorizes a world with a new layer of connection with the mysterious doors, as well as how a relationship can progress under the strain of being a homeless refugee. Through the eyes of the seemingly inseparable pair, the book explains what happens when a college pair exits west in the literal sense. What makes Exit West hit close to home is because Saeed and Nadia seem like relatively ordinary people, people I could walk side by side with on my way to class and have no second thoughts about them standing out. They live in a city in which they are free to educate themselves, eat what they want, have a sexual relationship, and smoke marijuana.
Samira Ahmed’s realistic fiction novel, Love, Hate, and Other Filters, takes place in modern-day Chicago where a suicide bombing has engrossed the attention of America. Maya Aziz, a Muslim teenager, is targeted for her heritage while attempting to lead a life free of high school drama, controlling parents, and difficult relationships. As Maya copes with Islamophobia, prejudice against Muslims, she begins to understand the horrors and shortcomings of violence. One lesson the story suggests is that hatred is an infectious and blinding motive. From the very beginning of the story, readers are familiarized with the source of terrorism through thorough description and sentence structure.
The culture and religion of middle eastern countries has been split for hundreds of years. This division comes from the two constantly conflicting sections of Islam, the Sunnis and Shiites. This same conflict is prevalent in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini between the cultural groups of the Pashtuns and the Hazaras. This economic and cultural division created tensions between Baba and Ali, and subsequently Amir and Hassan; the course of their lives took drastically different courses after the fall of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban.
More importantly, though, it is a movie that remarks on communicational issues, conflict escalation, and resolution. There are many causes behind the communicational problems that arise in Arrival. One of these causes is humanity’s fear of the unknown—humans in Arrival fear the extraterrestrials because their motives are unknown. Another one is humans’ tendency to rely on stereotypes and project their own negative traits onto the aliens. As a result of this, they believe the Heptapod’s are hostile, and they turn hostile themselves.
In Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns , Nana tells Mariam that a man always finds a way to blame a woman. This mistreatment of women is depicted in the novel by utilizing multiple examples. Throughout the novel, men were able to use women as scapegoats in the Afghani society that deemed women as unequal to men.
“Saint Chola” written by K. Kvashay-Boyle is a coming of age short story that is told through the eyes of twelve-year-old Muslim American, Shala. Using the literary elements of setting and characters, Kvashay-Boyle emphasizes through the character, Shala, that when faced with injustice, prejudice, and intolerance, one must show strength and hold true to one’s beliefs. The story’s setting contributes to Shala’s emotional battle. During the early 1990s, America entered into the Gulf War.
The main character had to manage his father’s neglect while growing up. All Amir really wants is to be “looked at, not seen, listened to, not heard” (Hosseini 65), and while this conflict shapes the way that Amir grew up, readers are exposed to the
In “Longing to Belong”, Saira Shah gives you a look into the life of a 17 year old girl longing to understand her parents heritage and trying to fit into a culture that is so much different from what she knows. Having a father who originates from Afghanistan and a mother who originates from India. Saira wants to learn the culture of her father’s afghan routes. The author feels the only way in to learning is by being betrothed into an arranged marriage. The author states that her uncle in seeing “two unmarried” daughters in the company of a chaperone visiting his home, concludes that they were sent to be married.
Betrayal is an issue many can relate to, whether it is done by a family member or a friend. In the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, we witness betrayal play a vital role in the downfall of the main character’s Amir and Hassan’s friendship, and how betrayal was the reason for why Amir sought redemption in hopes to move on. The novel begins with Amir as an adult, recalling an event that took place in 1975 in his hometown Kabul, Afghanistan and how this event was what changed the rest of his life and made him who he now is. Despite this heartbreaking occurrence of Amir’s reluctance to help Hassan while he was being raped, it was the reason for why Amir later decided to be brave and stand up for what he believes in.
The Power of People: The Lasting Influence Rahim Khan has on Amir in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini It is often the individuals taken for granted that have the most impact in the lives of others. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner explores the profound power that lies in the hands of influential figures, and the resulting impact that they can have in terms of shaping ones identity and actions. While personally lacking rich character development, Rahim Khan’s role in the novel is significant, not only in terms of influencing Amir’s life, but also as a tool of personification used to embody the overall themes that are exemplified.
Alienation is the process of feeling lonely due to someone 's lack of experience that separates them from society. As a result, characters in The Dubliners collection by James Joyce, such as “Araby” and “The Dead”, suffer from alienation. Joyce explores the feeling of being the “other” through its main character Araby from “Araby” and Gabriel Conroy from “The Dead”. Araby and Conroy are both very different from being young or old,uneducated or educated, and poor or wealthy. These characters show us in their story’s how doesn 't matter which lifestyle choice one makes because no matter what no one can escape from that one moment in your life where one feels as if they do not
This discrimination has become built into society and effects everyday life. As Pashtuns, Amir and Baba have the opportunities to receive an education and start their own business. While the Hazaras, Hassan and Ali, may only work as servants. This discrimination brought on by social hierarchy causes isolation, violence, and guilt, to those surrounded by it throughout the book. These ideas are caused by discrimination and are explored through Amir’s experiences in the book.
In October 1905, James Joyce wrote “Araby” on an unnamed narrator and like his other stories, they are all centered in an epiphany, concerned with forms of failures that result in realizations and disappointments. The importance of the time of this publication is due to the rise of modernist movement, emanating from skepticism and discontent of capitalism, urging writers like Joyce to portray their understanding of the world and human nature. With that being said, Joyce reflects Marxist ideals through the Catholic Church’s supremacy, as well as the characters’ symbolic characterization of the social structure; by the same token, psychoanalysis of the boy’s psychological and physical transition from one place, or state of being, to another is
Beginning in the the Middle East, then onto an island near Greece, a house in London, and finally a small refugee town in California is the progressively eastward journey that the reader and the protagonists go on throughout the novel “Exit West”. Written by Mohsin Hamid, this is an eye opening novel in which the author gives the story of a young middle eastern couple who are forced to leave their homeland and become refugees. Written in 2017, it is very clear that though this story comes with the addition of some fantasy elements in the form of teleporting doors, it reflects the actual lives of many current Middle Eastern refugees throughout the world. Hamid gives these real refugees faces in the form of his characters Saeed and Nadia, the young couple forced to leave their home due to the increasing violence from the progressing militant presence which is comparable to ISIS.