S =Shirin M =Marjane --> =New Panel * =thought R =Random person
N =Nun
It is November of 1984. Marjane is in Austria and living with her mother's best friend, Zozo.
M:It's going to be cool to go to school without a veil, to not have to beat one self everyday for the war martyrs...
S: ?
-->
S: Have you seen these? They're really fashionable. They're to protect your ears from teh cold. Do you want to try them on?
M: No thanks!
-->
S: This is my raspberry scented pen, but I have strawberry and blackberry, too.
-->
S: Do you want to put on some lupstick? I love peraly pink it's very in!!!
M: (angry) HMPHH...
*What a traitor! WHile people were dying in our country, she was talking to me about trivial things.* Page 156
I found these four panels to be very itneresting because it illustrates the culture clash between Marjane, just coming from Iran, to Shirin, having lived in Austria now for quite sometime.
Marjane is now living in a boarding house run by Nuns. Zozo has kicked Marjane out of her house because "there wasn't enough room". She is pretty much living on her own: doing her own laundry and grocery shopping for herself. Right now she is grocery shopping.
*It had been years since I'd seen such a well-stocked store.*
-->
*The first aisle i headed for was the one with scented detergents.*
-->
*We couldn't find them in Iran anywhere.*
-->
*I filled the cart with all kinds of products. Even today, after all this time, you can always find at least a dozen boxes of good-smelling laundry powder in my house.*
-->
*Given my restricted budget, I took two boxes of pasta. I didn't know yet that this would be my only food during the four years to come.* Page 160
This set of panels (5) struck me because simple things such as the "good-smelling laundry powder" was a HUGE thing for Marjane to have. As she stated/thought "good-smelly laundry powder" was no where to be found in Iran. The detergant is such a trivial thing that I know I would never think about missing. Another thing I found very interesting was when she said she would be living off of pasta for the next four years.
Marjane has made new friends, Julie, Momo, Thierry, and Oliver, at school and has just finished having a conversation with them where she herself was "out of the loop".
*This cretin Momo wasn't altogether wrong. I needed to fit in, and for that I needed to educate myself.*
-->
*So, I created a reason.*
R: Where are you going on vacation?
M: Nowhere. I'm going to read. I love reading.
*In fact, it was a useful answer to the perennial question "Hwere are you going?" All the while giving me a role.* Page 173
Marjane find the need to prove herself worthy of friendship. In this case Marjane believes that in order to proove her worth she needs to "educate" herself so that she can part-take in the conversation.
Marjane has taken a break from her reading and has gone down stairs to watch television with a pot of pasta.
*When suddenly the mother superior blocked my line of vision.*
-->
N: A little restraint MADEMOISELLE!
-->
M: But here, everyone eats while watching TV.
N: But not in a pot! What kind of manners are these?
-->
N: It's true what they say about Iranians. They have no education.
-->
M: It's true what they say about you, too. You were all prostitutes before becoming nuns! Page 177
I found this to be very interesting because the Nun, supposedly a holy and kind woman, verbally abuses Marjane with a racial stereotype. However, I am not suprised at Marjane's outburst because not only was the Nun's comment uncalled for and very inappropriate, the reader also knows that Marjane has a temper, noted from The First Persepolis.
Naturally Marjane was expelled from the boarding house for her verbal attack against the Nun. Now Marjane is staying with her best friend Julie. Julie's mom has just left for some 6 day "trip". Julie calls friends to invite them to a party seconds after her mom leaves the house.
*And the part ywas not what I imagined. In Iran, at parties, everyone would dance and eat. In Vienna, people preferred to lie around and smoke.*
* And then, I was turned off by all these public displays of affection. What do you espect, I cam from a traditionalist country.* Page 185
This panel is a clear representation of the culture clash between Iran and Vienna. This also illustrates Marjane's feelings of being out of place.
Since the party Julie threw at her home, Marjane has cut her hair very short. Marjane is being haunted / feeling guilty for her actions and the ways her parents brought her up. The Second panel is her reaction after she hung up from a call from her parents.
*The harder I tried to assimilate, the more I had the feeling that I was distancing myself from my culure, betraying my parents and my origins, that I was playing a game by someone else's rules.*
-->
* If only they (her parents)knew... If they knew that their daughter was made up like a punk, that she smoked joints to make a good impression, that she had seen men in their underwear while they were being bombed every day, they wouldn't call me their dream child.* Page 193
Marjane is giving in to the peer pressures of her new "friends" and is conforming to the Austrian way of life and disregarding the Iranian way of life of which she was brought up in. I found this important because before Marjane leaves Iran her father says "Don't ever forget who you are" page 148. And she herself looks in a mirror and tells herself "I will always be true to myself" page 151.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Thura's Diary
In the book, Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq", I am reading for Middle Eastern Literature, Thura discusses the fears, the prejudices, the traditions, and the Iraqi side of the story from wartime Iraq in 2003.
"Last night we didn't sleep. The air was full of fumes from the bombs. My head was on the pillow but I was not comfortable inside the room. Sleeping together, there is no space and we were all looking around listening for each bomb. How far away are they? How near? It makes me terrified, always thinking, Am I going to live or am I going to die? We didn't know if we were going to live or die last night." Page 52 This passage describes the fears that not only Thura and her family suffered and countless occasions, but also describes the fears of many Iraqi's during wartime Iraq. While we were all comfortable in our beds on the night of Friday April 4th, 2003, Iraqis were questioning whether they would wake up the next morning. I found this particular entry to be very moving, and made me very grateful for the life we have in America.
"The rest of us went to chat to all the women and girls." Page 57
This passage can be related back to the Kite Runner where the reader learns that it is frowned upon for female and male Muslims (Afghans, in the case of the Kite Runner and Iraqis, in the case of this diary) to talk to each other with out any previous form of engagement of wedlock. This strongly contrasts to the American way of life.
"We have heard about two women who have sacrificed themselves for their country. For us, this is a new thing. We've never heard of that before - women sacrificing themselves, fighting for their country, their land their people. I believe that in a war, women must be strong if they lose a son or husband. But I don't believe women should fight. I have never understood why women go into the military in other countries. Women are best at giving love and kindness, not fighting." Page 59
This is a very powerful entry. This entry is an elaborate example of the great culture clash between the Muslims and those that are not Muslim. Thura does not believe women should be used for reasons other than serving the man and "giving love and kindness". This is an "argument" or "controversy" that women in many countries, particularly America, having been fighting against for centuries. Muslim women are accustomed to their ways of serving for others and know no different, so the idea of the way of like for women outside the Muslim world is very difficult to understand.
"A little while later we decided to celebrate and give thanks to God by killing a lamb and giving the meat to the different families. In my culture, sacrificing a lamb in the name of God is a tradition after something good has happened to a family." Page 62-63
This is a direct parallel to the sacrificing of a lamb we see in Kite Runner, when Soraya's mother wants to sacrifice a lamb for the families happiness, but Baba tells her not to sacrifice a lamb but to give money to the poor "for we are rich".
"Here in the village I have to dress differently when i go out, My whole body has to be covered and I have to walk in a way that is not natural to me. Usually I walk with my head held high, not like I'm hiding. But here I can't lift my eyes to somebodies face - I have to behave like someone who is shy or embarrassed. And I find it odd that women are expected to stay indoors looking after the children, rather than going out. This is a way of killing a woman's personality, but I have no choice, I have to do it." Page 68-69
This also a very powerful passage because it shows that Thura, who has clearly not been raised this way, is now forced to cover herself and look at the ground when in public, and is forced to stay inside and fulfill the "female" duties while she is living in the outskirts of Iraq during the war.
"What's got into the Iraqi People? Have they lost their minds? Just because Iraq has fallen, does that mean everything should be looted?" Page 75
I found this to be a very powerful quote because Thura shows shear disappointment in her people. She states that the behavior that is (was) taking place in Iraq is unusual and she can not comprehend the change in the people. This is important because it changed my perspective of the Iraqi people as well. We assumed that when we went into Iraq they were all uncivilized and savage people, however that just was not the case. The savage acts portrayed by the Iraqi people was only in response to the war. "Desperate times calls for desperate measures". Thura does not believe this behavior to be appropriate but people will do whatever it takes to survive it is human nature.
"Will my country ever be at peace? i ask myself. The problem now isn't just the Americans, it's the Iraqis themselves, who've started killing each other. It's terrible". Page 93
This quote is self-exclamatory. On April 26th, Thura realized that the Americans were actually the good guys. That there is (was) a reason for the American soldiers to be in Iraq.
"Almost all Iraqi people hate the Israelis because they kill Palestinians and it seems, [they] don't want to make peace with them". page 96
Thura mentions the hypocritical mind set that Iraqis have. I found this to be important because it reflects the American "hatred" towards Muslims and middle eastern people shortly after 9/11.
"People are having their cars stolen, and there are even children carrying weapons and fooling around with them, as it they were acting out an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude van Damme film. There are ten and twelve-year-olds wandering about with machine guns, and the only thing that stops them is if an American comes along ans takes their weapons away." page 97
This entry conveys the corruption that was taking place in Iraq on the minds of the young Iraqis.
"The Shiite demonstrators in Paradise Square are crazy - they stand around in circles lashing themselves. Is it because Saddam banned them from doing that, so that now they want to do it even more? Some of them even beat themselves on the back with metal chains until they bleed, but others just slap themselves with their bare hands." page 97
-Iraqi practices emphasizing Saddams loss of power.
"This year is the first year that I won't celebrate the Prophet's birthday, because the men in the neighborhood have decided that Muslim women should not be able to celebrate. Local women and children have been warned not to go in case things turn nasty. It's a special day for me, so I feel very upset." page 106-107
-Men declaring power over women and deciding what they can or can not do.
(Thura had cut her foot very badly...)
"... so I decided to go to the hospital. But when I got there, there was no one who could see me, and not even any disinfectant, so i had to go and get some from a chemist myself, as well as some bandages. It made me think of all the people who've died because there's no one to treat them in the hospitals - not even any nurses - and then I thought about how my friend Fahad had died." page 112
-Fall of Iraqi civilization, civic responsibilities.
"People say the Americans aren't doing enough to make the city safe, and no one dares go out after dark." page 118
Personally this quote upsets me because we hear all the time in the news or read in the paper how the Iraqi people want us out of their country and that we've only caused trouble. And here the Iraqi people are saying we're not doing enough. Its one thing to be ungrateful, but they they complain that what our people are dying while doing isn't enough.
"The future is shining in front of us like a bright light, and eventually we'll find that's we can all live together as long as there's no darkness and no injustice between us. While there's still light, no one will be able to destroy our lives completely". page 121
This is Thura's quote that she put in her last entry. I found it to be a powerful message.
"Last night we didn't sleep. The air was full of fumes from the bombs. My head was on the pillow but I was not comfortable inside the room. Sleeping together, there is no space and we were all looking around listening for each bomb. How far away are they? How near? It makes me terrified, always thinking, Am I going to live or am I going to die? We didn't know if we were going to live or die last night." Page 52 This passage describes the fears that not only Thura and her family suffered and countless occasions, but also describes the fears of many Iraqi's during wartime Iraq. While we were all comfortable in our beds on the night of Friday April 4th, 2003, Iraqis were questioning whether they would wake up the next morning. I found this particular entry to be very moving, and made me very grateful for the life we have in America.
"The rest of us went to chat to all the women and girls." Page 57
This passage can be related back to the Kite Runner where the reader learns that it is frowned upon for female and male Muslims (Afghans, in the case of the Kite Runner and Iraqis, in the case of this diary) to talk to each other with out any previous form of engagement of wedlock. This strongly contrasts to the American way of life.
"We have heard about two women who have sacrificed themselves for their country. For us, this is a new thing. We've never heard of that before - women sacrificing themselves, fighting for their country, their land their people. I believe that in a war, women must be strong if they lose a son or husband. But I don't believe women should fight. I have never understood why women go into the military in other countries. Women are best at giving love and kindness, not fighting." Page 59
This is a very powerful entry. This entry is an elaborate example of the great culture clash between the Muslims and those that are not Muslim. Thura does not believe women should be used for reasons other than serving the man and "giving love and kindness". This is an "argument" or "controversy" that women in many countries, particularly America, having been fighting against for centuries. Muslim women are accustomed to their ways of serving for others and know no different, so the idea of the way of like for women outside the Muslim world is very difficult to understand.
"A little while later we decided to celebrate and give thanks to God by killing a lamb and giving the meat to the different families. In my culture, sacrificing a lamb in the name of God is a tradition after something good has happened to a family." Page 62-63
This is a direct parallel to the sacrificing of a lamb we see in Kite Runner, when Soraya's mother wants to sacrifice a lamb for the families happiness, but Baba tells her not to sacrifice a lamb but to give money to the poor "for we are rich".
"Here in the village I have to dress differently when i go out, My whole body has to be covered and I have to walk in a way that is not natural to me. Usually I walk with my head held high, not like I'm hiding. But here I can't lift my eyes to somebodies face - I have to behave like someone who is shy or embarrassed. And I find it odd that women are expected to stay indoors looking after the children, rather than going out. This is a way of killing a woman's personality, but I have no choice, I have to do it." Page 68-69
This also a very powerful passage because it shows that Thura, who has clearly not been raised this way, is now forced to cover herself and look at the ground when in public, and is forced to stay inside and fulfill the "female" duties while she is living in the outskirts of Iraq during the war.
"What's got into the Iraqi People? Have they lost their minds? Just because Iraq has fallen, does that mean everything should be looted?" Page 75
I found this to be a very powerful quote because Thura shows shear disappointment in her people. She states that the behavior that is (was) taking place in Iraq is unusual and she can not comprehend the change in the people. This is important because it changed my perspective of the Iraqi people as well. We assumed that when we went into Iraq they were all uncivilized and savage people, however that just was not the case. The savage acts portrayed by the Iraqi people was only in response to the war. "Desperate times calls for desperate measures". Thura does not believe this behavior to be appropriate but people will do whatever it takes to survive it is human nature.
"Will my country ever be at peace? i ask myself. The problem now isn't just the Americans, it's the Iraqis themselves, who've started killing each other. It's terrible". Page 93
This quote is self-exclamatory. On April 26th, Thura realized that the Americans were actually the good guys. That there is (was) a reason for the American soldiers to be in Iraq.
"Almost all Iraqi people hate the Israelis because they kill Palestinians and it seems, [they] don't want to make peace with them". page 96
Thura mentions the hypocritical mind set that Iraqis have. I found this to be important because it reflects the American "hatred" towards Muslims and middle eastern people shortly after 9/11.
"People are having their cars stolen, and there are even children carrying weapons and fooling around with them, as it they were acting out an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude van Damme film. There are ten and twelve-year-olds wandering about with machine guns, and the only thing that stops them is if an American comes along ans takes their weapons away." page 97
This entry conveys the corruption that was taking place in Iraq on the minds of the young Iraqis.
"The Shiite demonstrators in Paradise Square are crazy - they stand around in circles lashing themselves. Is it because Saddam banned them from doing that, so that now they want to do it even more? Some of them even beat themselves on the back with metal chains until they bleed, but others just slap themselves with their bare hands." page 97
-Iraqi practices emphasizing Saddams loss of power.
"This year is the first year that I won't celebrate the Prophet's birthday, because the men in the neighborhood have decided that Muslim women should not be able to celebrate. Local women and children have been warned not to go in case things turn nasty. It's a special day for me, so I feel very upset." page 106-107
-Men declaring power over women and deciding what they can or can not do.
(Thura had cut her foot very badly...)
"... so I decided to go to the hospital. But when I got there, there was no one who could see me, and not even any disinfectant, so i had to go and get some from a chemist myself, as well as some bandages. It made me think of all the people who've died because there's no one to treat them in the hospitals - not even any nurses - and then I thought about how my friend Fahad had died." page 112
-Fall of Iraqi civilization, civic responsibilities.
"People say the Americans aren't doing enough to make the city safe, and no one dares go out after dark." page 118
Personally this quote upsets me because we hear all the time in the news or read in the paper how the Iraqi people want us out of their country and that we've only caused trouble. And here the Iraqi people are saying we're not doing enough. Its one thing to be ungrateful, but they they complain that what our people are dying while doing isn't enough.
"The future is shining in front of us like a bright light, and eventually we'll find that's we can all live together as long as there's no darkness and no injustice between us. While there's still light, no one will be able to destroy our lives completely". page 121
This is Thura's quote that she put in her last entry. I found it to be a powerful message.
Having completed Thura's Diary I believe that I would recommend this book to others. This book helps even the most prejudice of people realize that not ALL Iraqis are responsible for the War. There are more Iraqi victims in this war then there are American.
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