War in Ireland

In the story "Everything in this Country Must", there seems to be a lot of tension between the father and the soldiers. Judging by the accents and the summaries of the story, it seems to be during "The Troubles" period in Ireland. During this period, their was much tension between the protestants and the catholics (or the british and the irish). Many irish felt as if Britain was invading their country and they wanted the soldiers out and to create an all irish constitution.

From the readings we have done this semester and from previous knowledge, it seems like most all war stems from religion. Religion is the very thing that people say unite them and spreads peace however it seems to actual just create a gap between groups of people. It is an interesting source of discussion because this class has focused almost completely on war. This is a link to some information about "The Troubles".

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Getting-Past-the-Troubles.html

Comic

I think it is interesting that Marjane Satrapi decided to tell her story through a comic book version. Doing a comic book is a very dramatic change versus a regular format. The comic format brings a lot to the table though. I think it gets the sense of humor across better and also sets an almost sarcastic tone throughout the book because comics are normally seen as read by children yet the book is about a very adult issue. Comics are also much more simple than regular stories, where the issue they address is not simple at all. It is extremely complicated.

Comics have changed a lot since they were first published. They used to be mainly about the artwork with the story coming second. In the "gold age" of comics, the story became the most important part, with works like Watchmen. Now, in the modern age, comics are used a lot to demonstrate a sort of dark humor, much like in Persepolis. Here is a link to a short website with some further information about the history of comics:

http://www.sugarbombs.com/comics/cpart4.html

Responsibility and Chance

After watching half of the Abu Ghraib video, two things have really stuck out in my mind. The two subjects are responsibility and chance. It seems in the video, as if no one wants to take responsibility for what happened. The soldiers say "it was the MI" who were doing it, the MI say they were told to do those things. At the same time, I think it's impossible to blame them solely because what are the chances that all of the soldiers that were told to watch over Abu Ghraib were all evil people who enjoyed torturing people? It's very unlikely.

When thinking about both of those terms and how they intertwine, it makes me think there seems to be one problem; when you give people power without rules, humanity goes out the window and power takes its place. In the video, some of the guards said they saw what was going on and the commanders and people in power told them not to say anything and mind their own business. If there is an institution where someone has the power to make another "be quiet", anything can happen. The whole idea of this hierarchy and it being in a prison, reminds me of the Stanford Prison experiment.

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Christianity During World War Two

In the reading for tomorrow, christianity becomes a factor in the main characters life. With christianity, also comes the priest of the church. The priest in Painted Bird actually has good intentions for the little boy. While being spat on and physically abused during a cart ride, the priest walks along side, trying to protect the boy. Then, it appears the priest, in a way saves him from death by the Nazi's. It was very interesting to me when the Nazi's did not kill the boy, but instead gave him to the priest. It made me wonder if a priest was still held with high regard to Nazi's during world war two.

I found an article online that briefly described the roles of christianity, including different forms, during world war 2. The article states mainly that Germany was over 50 percent protestant. The next largest religion was Catholicism. By reading the article, I gathered that both sects initially gave into the Nazi demands, many think by intense pressure. But by the middle to end of the war, did not hold their stance of agreeing. Both started separate movements to try and end the holocaust. It says that almost all other sects of christianity were considered enemies of germany, and some, like Jehovah's witnesses, were even sent to concentration camps. Here is the link to the website, which I encourage reading, as my interpretation of it may be limited due to having hardly any knowledge of religious jargon.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005206

Magical Realism

In class on Friday, the topic of Magical Realism was brought up. I thought it was interesting to think about how Painted Bird is magical realism. When looking up the definition, it seems that magical realism is based around having two polar opposites. For example, focusing on death and life. It seems like in painted bird, all of the people believe in very outdated superstitions, yet the time period is the 1950's during war. Everyone around them is using guns and grenades, yet a man has his eyes gauged out with a spoon and people believe spitting three times keeps a vampire away. The villages almost give off a medieval feel due to how the people act. Another way, is how this little boys life seems to be clouded with death everywhere he goes. Every new house, someone dies as this little boy struggles to survive. Kosinski seems to try to show the gap of life and death through magical realism.

http://english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html heres just a website to look at different books that are magical realism and more in depth definitions and examples.

Kakuma Today

The story of "The Lost Boys" is to me, the most heart wrenching story we've read so far. Imagining these boys just trying to stay alive and being treated so horribly is almost physically painful to read. The section we were assigned for tomorrow has the boys wanting to live in Kakuma. A refugee camp in Kenya. They get tricked into living in Natinkga which is a camp that they eventually find out is for raising soldiers. They so badly want to continue onto Kakuma but are forced to live in Natinkga.

I didn't know what I wanted to write about really in this blog post so I googled different searches like "kenya lost boys" and eventually googled "kakuma". I came upon youtube videos that are very recent images of the Kakuma refugee camp. There were plenty of videos to find on prostitution in Kakuma. It seems prostitution is the most popular form of employment for women during war time in these countries. Here are two links to videos on Kakuma. The first one is an overview and the second one is about prostitution in the camp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWW4ov-zr9Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZGrQFgRzPE&NR=1

Not Ready For Economy

In "The Road to Lost Innocence" Somaly talks about how in the forrest where she lived before she was sold into slavery, they had no money. They only had goods that they shared. She says when someone needed cabbage and didn't have any, that they would go to their neighbors and simply ask for it. She makes it seem like the forrest did not have any money or corruption, yet she was sold from that same forrest. Also, she does say that the adults would make trips into the city. We had talked in other classes about how some countries that are used to being in a state of war, aren't ready for democracy when it is first introduced to them, or maybe just unsure how to use it. While reading "Road to Lost Innocence" it almost seemed like the small villages and forrest villages were not ready for capitalism or having an economy in general. Maybe that is why they went so quickly to such awful things like selling people because their currency isn't what it should be and they don't know how to use money effectively.

http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/cambodia

This site has interesting facts about prostitution in Cambodia but also, specifically for my topic, the "Causes" section is interesting because it says some of the main reasons are an imbalance between urban and rural economies, also poverty and socio-economic factors play a huge roll in the growing problem of prostitution.

Suspense

The other day in class, we talked about how the author used suspense in the story "Fattening for Gabon". We were discussing how the first line gives the story away and "kills" the suspense. Yet, as I was reading I found this story to be the most gripping we've read so far and definitely the story I needed to keep reading. Even in Sorrow of War, when the story was incredibly mysterious and left many questions unanswered throughout, I was still more focused on Kien's internal struggle whereas in Fattening for Gabon, I wanted to know what was going to happen next in the story. I think this related to another topic we discussed, which was the narrator not putting any reflective element on the story. There was one line however, towards the end, where the narrator says "If I only I had known what was to come". It's really the first indication of the him reflecting at all.

In the beginning when the narrator gives away the ending, it's almost like a prologue. I found this website that talks about the use of a prologue. It refers to Romeo and Juliet which is interesting because both give away the great tragedy of the story.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-prologue.htm

Name Change

In the story, "Fattening for Gabon" I thought it was interesting how the NGO "mother" changed both of the children's names. It seemed very wrong to me and it was obvious it made the children uncomfortable. I think this is a good topic to look into because the children's names represent who they are. A name is a very important part of identity it seems like. It definitely sways the readers (or at least my own) opinion of the woman. It made her seem very ignorant and even disrespectful of the children's past and birth family. Also, it made the children start to change their identity and it doesn't seem like this adoption is 100 percent set in stone, which could be potentially very emotionally damaging to the children. I looked a little farther into this topic and found a website talking about name change in adoption cases, especially international. It agrees that a name is a "link to the past" for an adopted child and the author recommends not to change the name.

http://www.rainbowkids.com/expertarticledetails.aspx?id=38

The other day in class, we talked about the roll of women in the book "The Sorrow of War". At the time, I thought it was a very important aspect of the book so far, but I wasn't sure how much of a roll these theme would continue playing throughout the book. The more I read, however, the more I realize that it is a HUGE theme of the book. There continues to be more and more women introduced and Kien talks more and more about Phoung (his "one true love"). I've began to wonder what this theme will attach to overall.

Kien seems to treat women with a huge amount of "respect", which is now almost translating into fear of women. I wondered if maybe that was a cultural aspect of vietnam so I tried to research it more through the internet, it was hard to find much of anything and the rest of the characters in the book seem to not have the same problem as Kien with being intimate with lovers. When I looked into how relationships are affected by PTSD, there seemed to be loads of information. It appears, so far, that Kien's problems with being intimate could have to do with his constant flashbacks. The war consumes his life and leaves little to no room for romantic attachments. This website gives some good information on how PTSD victims form (many similarities to Kien) relationships.

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/ptsd-and-relationships.asp

Loss of Innocence

In "All Quiet on the Western Front", there seems to be a reoccurring theme of the men losing their innocence. The first few chapters of the book (before the actual war scenes) focus mainly on how young the soldiers are. They are only 18 and they feel as though the war has aged them greatly. When Paul gets put on leave, he goes back to his childhood home where he is faced with his old life again. He says this while he is sitting up in his room, flipping through his books, "The breath of desire that then arose from the colored backs of the books, shall fill me again, melt the heavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatience of the future, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall bring back again the lost eagerness of my youth." He has truly realized that he will never be the same as he was and will never get his youth or innocence back after the war.

The link at the bottom of this is a link to a article about children living in Iraq. They are growing up amidst war and are severely suffering from it mentally. Much like the soldiers are suffering from it in "All Quiet on the Western Front". The article talks about how the children saw their teachers throat slit and since then have wet the bed and played extremely violent games. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/06/iraq.topstories3