Longing for Adulthood

This probably isn't the theme of this story, but what I took from Love and Obstacles was that this boy wants to grow up way too fast. He is only seventeen and he is at that age where teenagers are done being kids and they want to be adults. He is seen getting drunk and wanting to be very sexually active. The narrator believes that his ticket to adulthood is by losing his virginity to the first woman that is willing to have sex with him which is why the contraceptive pill is such a prominent part of the story. This boy is on a mission to help his family, but the purpose of him wanting to go is the adventure of independence, free from his family. However, he realizes that independence and adulthood isn't all it's cracked up to be. He gets beat up for trying to pursue a woman who rejects him, he is called a child by the men that kidnap him for some time, and he has to worry about the receptionist not thinking he's old enough to be at the hotel by himself.

In the end I think the boy realizes he isn't mature or old enough to face the real world out there all alone. Because he lives in another world with his lustful and desirable poems for himself, he shuts himself off from the reality of the world around him. He believed he could handle it, but he couldn't.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-kids_today_are_growing.htm

Marjane and Ramona

As I continue to read Persepolis, I find that Marjane reminds me a lot of Ramona Quimby from Beverly Cleary's children's books. Both girls are fiesty, rambunctious little girls who speak their mind that produces humor from the reader. This humor is especially endearing because, as readers, we see things they can't. However, what is refreshing is that what these girls say is the raw truth. They both tell it like they see it because they have no bias, no realization of what's actually happening so we see what they see. Marjane's side comments are so humorous, yet so true, like the one where she tells Laly," You must admit that I wasn't completely wrong when I said he was not on a trip." She wasn't wrong, she was on a trip and that is the only thing she cared about what being right. She completely overlooked the fact that her friend's father was tortured because, as little kids, being right is the only thing that matters.

The interesting thing about each girl is that they are both trying to grow up and understand the world around them without losing their own personality. Growing up during the Islamic Revolution, Marjane is surrounded by chaos and bias and is very confused about why their is fighting and which side to take. Ramona's problems, although less prominent, are still very troubling for her and she tries to take on the world around her without losing who she is. Both girls get scolded for speaking their minds and doing things without thinking, but they are both very lovable, refreshing characters who bring a humorous perspective to troubling times.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128689937

Gerardo's Dilemma

I watched the trailer for the movie "Death and the Maiden" right after I read the play, and it shocked me to see how different my perception of who is telling the truth switches after I watched the characters on the screen. While reading, I saw Dr. Miranda to be the honest and truthful one. I thought it was near impossible for Paulina to recognize him solely by his voice, this being fifteen years later. I pictured Dr. Miranda as a genuine, nice, old man who was truly innocent and caught in a predicament that was completely out of his control. Paulina was portrayed as an insane, jealous woman stuck in the past and cannot seem to let go. Even when she caught the doctor in a lie, I still was convinced that she has a psychological disorder and that he was innocent.

However, when I watched the trailer, my mind completely changed. Something about the mannerisms of the man who played Dr. Miranda struck me as guilty and trying to hide something. The sound of his voice, the way he quoted Nietzsche, everything made him look guilty. It was odd to me that a two minute trailer could put me on such an opposite side of the spectrum.

This put it in perspective for me, then, how difficult it was for Geraldo to side with one of them. On one hand, his wife, the one he clearly loves more, is telling him this man tortured and raped her. He should believe his wife, however, she is obviously mentally disturbed even after fifteen years and would probably be hard to believe. On the other hand, this man just helped him out, he was a Good Samaritan and he has no reason to believe that this man is Schubert, "the doctor." But he can't not believe his own wife. Geraldo is in a pickle, as the reader is at the end of the story. I believe an important aspect of "Death and the Maiden" is the struggle between reason and loyalty when there are huge risks at hand.

This link is an essay that talks about soldiers being torn between loyalty to their country, and the internal conflicts they face in war.

http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/641

The Effects of Evil

"There was no time to be lost. I had to build up a potential for hatred that would force me to action and attract the attention of the Evil Ones" (Kosinski 154).

The boy, surrounded by evil and continually being abused by it, makes a revelation that if he were to join the Evil Ones and become full of hatred like they are, he can join the army of evil and not be hurt by it anymore. For four years he has been surrounded by so much evil and hatred that his mind is brainwashed by the evil. His prayers for indulgences and trying to follow God has failed him and he thinks the only way out of this abuse is to attract the Evil Ones and do anything for them. This is what causes him to stab Anulka with the stick and flee Makar's farm. Now, the boy has one goal: to join and become evil.

Another reason for this desire to join the dark side is the desire to be German and fair-haired with blue eyes. He is subconsciously realizing the Germans are evil, but instead of wanting to avoid this evil, he wants to join it. This is seemingly bizarre for the audience to read, but if you step into the boy's shoes, it doesn't seem so far-fetched. For four long, miserable years he has been put through a living hell and thinks that it would be far better to join the evil than to receive it any longer. He truly believes that being full of hatred for his own race will prove him valuable to the Evil Ones and he will no longer be ostracized and tortured.

I also believe this is analogous to how Hitler was able to supply an army of Germans to follow his vicious commands to eliminate the Jewish race. When each German sees what horror will happen to him if he fails to have hatred for the Jews, they automatically succumb to Hitler's commands, become brainwashed, and this thinking takes a domino effect on the Germans. This article describes the "democratization of evil" and how it is able to take limited resources and agents, multiply, and evolve into large amounts of evil being produced.

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/solez20110620

Children and Pathos

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky seems so much more depressing and evil than the other novels we've read about similar unbelievably traumatic experiences. I believe this is because all of the horror, death, and torture is happening to children in kindergarten. It's impossible for me to believe that 20,000 plus little boys had to trek hundreds of miles through snake and lion infested lands and scorching deserts and only to get to more grief, all without knowing what's happened to their families. Many of these little boys are all on their own, starving and waiting alone to die.

In The Sorrow of War, many terrible images and memories overtook Kien's life, but even though that was tragic to read, this book is almost unbearable because these boys aren't even involved; they are completely and utterly innocent. They are receiving the effects of war and have no idea why. The African Proverb in the very front of the novel, "When two elephants fight, it is the ground that gets trampled," is the perfect summary of the entity of the novel. This is a war about religion and greed, which is the elephants. The little boys that are stripped from their happy lives and families are the grass, being trampled to death by the elephants.

As I said in class, my little brother is only eight. He needs help doing very menial tasks, and I don't even think he would be able to walk more than five miles at one time. It sickens me to read this book because I put my brother in Benson's place. I see him starving and struggling to survive without myself or the rest of my family. This book shows the true evil of the world by putting innocent, very small children through hell and back.

This link is full of quotes from the Incredibles, but there is one that struck me the most that Mrs. Incredible says while they are in the cave. She says, "Remember the bad guys on the shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys aren't like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you are children. They *will* kill you if they get the chance. Do *not* give them that chance."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/quotesThis quotes emphasizes how it doesn't matter if you are a child in Sudan at this time. If you are a Dinka, you deserve to die. The same as in the Rwandan Genocide, the Holocaust, and many other catastrophes.

Education

Although it's not a major theme of the novel, Somaly Mam proves the importance of education to be able to be independent and break out of the chains of slavery. Somaly's ignorance is evident in numerous parts of the story and it continues to hold her back from her true potential because she has no capability of knowing what she can do without being educated about the world around her. One part that I found small but had a huge impact on me was when she was at the hotel with Dietrich and didn't know what a shower, toilet, sink, etc... was. To be that uneducated and cut off from the world in the 80s and 90s is thoroughly unbelievable. Another example was when Somaly talked about the lack of sexual education of her and the girls from her town. They believed, because adults told them, that if a boy held your hand or merely touched you, you would become pregnant. The ignorance of these people holds them back from the world because their small, small world is all they know. They only know what is told to them.

Once Somaly began schooling with the Alliance with the help of Pierre, quite immediately her whole life changes. In France, she gets jobs that pay good money for her to keep for the first time. She begins to learn French and, because of that language barrier being broken, she is able to wait tables and earn money. Whenever she learns, she excels and distances herself farther and farther away from the prisoner of ignorance she once was. When she returns to her village where her town once saw her as a savage, her education and marriage to Pierre transform her into a powerful, respected woman instead of a dark-skinned nobody. Education is the key to open up the eyes of people to the world they know nothing about.

This link gives information about Cambodia's education system, or lack-thereof due to the Khmer rouge abolishment of education. Although they have somewhat of an education system again, it's a very poor one that needs improvement.

http://www.culturalprofiles.net/cambodia/Directories/Cambodia_Cultural_Profile/-36.html

Madam Aniema's Role

Serving as the apparent neutral character on the bus, Madam Aniema often interjects during arguments and calms the situation by remaining neutral to both religions, Christianity and Islam. This is especially evident with the fight between the Colonel and the Chief that broke out over the seating arrangements, and Madam Aniema, with a gentle grace, stood up and brought peace to the bus by calming the Colonel and letting him sleep next to her. Also being seen as a maternal figure here, Madam Aniema never once shouts or yells; she is the sole figure on the bus that is fully respected. This is ironic, because she is not only a woman, but not a figure of authority like the Chief or the Colonel.

Another respectful quality of Madam Aniema is that she remains the only person on the bus who truly emits a non-hypocritical representation of her faith. While everyone continues to shout out which religion is better and attempting to prove to each other the "dedication" they each have to their faith, Madam Aniema actually lives hers out without saying bragging about it. This is also proven by her reading "The Imitation of Christ" because she is imitating Jesus Christ's actions without showing off that she is following him. She embodies a true follower of her religion while being the most respected and sought after character on the bus.

The following link shows numerous articles, opinions, and videos dealing with the hypocrisy of religion.

http://www.squidoo.com/religious-hypocrisy

War Defeats Love

The ability of a person to love extends from joy and happiness. In order to reach it's full extent, love has to develop and grow between two people. For Kien, his teenage years with Phuong were just the beginning of love and the war stunted its growth. After being in the war for ten years, he expected to return and start where he and Phuong left off. However, the war had its terrible effects on him and he no longer had the ability to love because of the of the prolonged horrors and long-lasting traumatic memories he obtained. This happened not only with Phuong, but with Hanh and the girl who was one his friend's sister. They wanted to love him, but he couldn't reciprocate because he can't let go of the war, he can't let go of the horrors that would allow him to love again.

Although love may not be fully defeated by war for all, Kien definitely is an example of the terrible effects war has on love. Love is happiness, war is not. Love is kind, war is not. Everything love is, war isn't and being involved in such an opposite state for so long took a toll on Kien.

This link is to an article that clearly shows the emotional void that comes from war. Like All Quiet on the Western Front, both Paul and Kien must emotionally detach themselves from love, happiness, and the real world in order to do their duty as a soldier. This article explains the stress and effects war has on a soldier's emotions and ability to love after war.

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/11261/1/The-Emotional-Effects-of-War-on-Soldiers.html

Fascinated

I am disturbingly fascinated by atrocities like the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Fascinated because of the horrors that went on for so long, and the brutality that innocent people faced because of ethnicity and politics. Fascinated because the world sat around and did nothing.

It's hard to believe, sitting on my comfortable couch in the study lounge of Jones, that something as catastrophic as the Rwandan genocide could happen in my lifetime. Reading books such as "We Wish to Inform You..." and "Left to Tell" provide mere glimpses into the horrors that people faced, the scarring images that will forever haunt them. I complain about so many unnecessary inconveniences in my life, when some survivors of the genocide lost their entire families. And not only lost them, but have to have recurring nightmares of them being slaughtered and hacked to death. Of their bodies being tossed into a heap of nameless, faceless corpses that disappear forever. Even thinking about something like that happening to my siblings is inconceivable. I will never understand how we can live in a world where monsters can kill children, mothers, and fathers so mercilessly and live with themselves. Or how survivors of this disaster have the courage to move on with their lives.

This fascinates me, in a terrifying and shuddering way, that some people had to go through hell and now live with that nightmare, while I can sit here in Jones and probably, hopefully, not ever have to witness a massacre of my loved ones.

This link is about the importance of remembering Rwanda. The pictures, although disturbing, need to be engraved in our minds so we can prevent something like this from ever happening ever again.

http://www.visiontv.ca/old/RememberRwanda/main_pf.htm

Chance

"Over us, Chance hovers...It is this Chance that makes us indifferent. A few months ago I was playing skat...It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit" (Remarque 101). This idea of chance, of coincidence, in war appeals to me because I wrote a paper on coincidence because I am baffled by how complex and yet how simple chance really is. Paul survived death simply because he was in the right place at the right time, but why did he get that dumb luck? It's terrifying to think about, especially in war, that one's chances of survival could depend on sheer luck as opposed to months of training.

The link below delves deeper into the topics of chance and fate, fortune and misfortune. For Paul, nearly escaping Death by Chance was clearly a fortunate stroke of luck. It's excruciatingly difficult for humans to grasp the concept of chance because there are no facts or reason for it; chance is uncontrollable and unpredictable.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=morenetuomcolum&tabID=T003&searchId=R3&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=11&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3407704213&&docId=GALE|CX3407704213&docType=GALE&role=