Wasted Vigil Chapter Summary Essay

The class began with each of us writing down a topic from the novel they’d be willing to discuss and a topic able to produce fruitful discussion. After we had all written something down, we all said aloud our topic of choice. Some highlights include Christina’s ever-growing disgust towards David for taking advantage of Lara, defining what a terrorist is, the prominence of nature as a symbolic tool in the novel, and lingering questions regarding the main characters.

We decided to first discuss Summer’s topic regarding the considerable presence of nature within Wasted Vigil. We all noticed that an important nature related symbol that continues to be brought up within the novel is the pomegranate. Pomegranates could symbolize a number of ideas, emotions, or actions. For one, a pomegranate has a blood red color that could easily correlate to the use of violence in this novel. Also in the novel, it was brought to attention that poisoned pomegranates used to be sent to the Soviet soldiers in order to kill them. However, the pomegranate is an essential fruit that grows often in Afghanistan, so the pomegranate having a role within a novel may have also been simply been a tool to link readers to the area.

There’s a number of scents present in just the few chapters we have read, including lilac, Zameen’s perfume, and rotting flesh. Lee brought to attention that smell is the most evocative of senses, so it would make sense in a novel riddled with haunting memories that smell would so often be present. Then, Jeremy brought up that maybe smell presents itself as the most important sense because the characters have all been numbed by the physical spectacle of violence, which we all agreed seemed a great explanation for its