Post B # 6

Tariq has finally returned. He has returned from what I first thought was the grave, but then realized that Rashid payed off Abdul Sharif earlier in the novel to lie to Laila. He comes back, 25 years aged, but still the same Tariq that Laila knew and loved in her youth. "He was an adult now, Tariq, a twenty-five-year-old man with slow movements and a tiredness to his smile. Tall, bearded, slimmer than in her dreams of him, but with strong-looking hands, with tortuous, full veins. His face was still lean and handsome but not fair-skinned any longer; his brow had a weathered look to it, sunburned, like his neck, the brow of a traveler at the end of a long and wearying journey (295)." When he comes back, even though we know he was never on the total brink of death, he seems like a risen man. He's wise, doesn't have the same childish cockiness anymore, but still loves Laila in the same way he did before. Earlier on in the novel, Tariq asked Laila to marry him, and move away. She very much wanted to get away with him and live somewhere safe, but couldn't because Laila knew it would crush her father. Now, as they finally meet up again, the feeling of regret comes about with both of them. "I [Tariq] should have tried harder. I should have married you when I had the chance (305)." This kind of talk fills Laila with guilt and she tells him to not speak that way. Tariq asks her if he should leave, and tells her that she just needs to say the word, and he will go away forever. She sharply tells him no, and finds she is clutching his arm to herself. In her darkest hour, a thin sliver of light has finally shown through the cracks of Laila's jail cell.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Post A # 6

Vocab
Pragmatic (259)- pertaining to a practical point of view or practical considerations
Alleviating (272)- pertaining to a situation where the pain is lessened

Figurative Language
"Laila remembered standing atop the bigger of the two Buddhas with Babi and Tariq, back in 1987, a breeze blowing in their sunlit faces, watching a hawk gliding in circles over the sprawling valley below (279)." This quote occurs after the reader finds out the Taliban have blown up the two great Buddhas, what Laila calls, "Afganistans two greatest historic artifacts." Hosseni uses IMAGERY like "sunlit faces," and "sprawling valley" to paint a picture of one of Laila's most happiest memories.

"In the morning, the bed was empty. I asked a nurse. She said he [Tariq] fought valiantly (187)." This sentence turns into DRAMATIC IRONY when the reader finds out on page 291 that Tariq is still alive.

Laila- "The man who came to give the new, he was so earnest...I believed him, Tariq. I wish I hadn't, but I did. [...] Otherwise, I wouldn't have agreed to marry Rasheed. I wouldn't have..."
Tariq- "You don't have to do this," he said softly, avoiding her eyes. There was no hidden reproach, no recrimination, in the way he had said this. No suggestion of blame.
Tariq is almost like Jesus in the novel. He is with Laila at the beginning, and she is the happiest she has ever been. When they part ways, Laila endures many hardships, as well as Tariq (his mother and father die of painful diseases). Just when Laila is almost on the brink of death, he returns. She regrets [her sin] leaving him. He completely turns her apology back, and tells her it is okay [forgiving her sin]. SYMBOL

Quote
"I spoke to some neighbors earlier," [Tariq] said. [...] I don't recognize anybody. From the old days, I mean (297)." This quote could mean one of three things. Laila and Tariq's original neighbors died from the bad living conditions, the Taliban killed them, or they fled, fearing the Taliban would kill them. All three scenarios are not happy ones.

Theme
Some things in life are worth the wait, no matter how painful that wait might be.

Post B # 5

"You think I want it this way [a Caesarian-section for Laila's second baby, without any pain medications]? What do you wan me to do? They won't give me what I need. I have no X-ray either, no suction, no oxygen, not even simple antibiotics. When NGOs offer money, the Taliban turn them away. Or they funnel the money to the places that cater to men (258)." Rashid begins to suspect that Aziza is the baby of Laila and Tariq. He taunts Laila about it, but says that he won't give her or Aziza away for death or imprisonment. Laila is now in the hospital with Mariam, and Laila is going through labor with Rashid's baby. It has been too long for the baby to be had normally, and a C-section is necessary. The only thing is, Laila will have to go through it without anything to nullify the pain. Because of the Taliban, almost every decent-to-good hospital is only for men. There is one hospital for women, and the Taliban have depleted that hospital of all of it's resources. Hardly any operation conducted there would be safe, much less pain-free. I'm willing to bet that needles would be used and reused, spreading blood diseases left and right. From this quote, I get the impression that this hospital had literally, nothing to use. The Taliban did many horrible things to the Afghan community as a whole, but it specifically targeted women with a long list of highly restrictive rules. After the Taliban took over, girls had to wear burqas, could not speak unless spoken to, could not laugh in public, and were not allowed to be educated. There is no wonder why Laila wanted to take Mariam and Aziza to Pakistan.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Post A # 5

Vocab

Upend(ed) (231)- To have been sat or turned on one end

Erratic (251)- varying from the usual or proper course in conduct or opinion



Figurative Language

"It is my responsibility, you see, to maintain order [...] As a matter of policy, we do not interfere with private family matters, hamshira (238)." Situational Irony The police officer says it is his duty to protect the city from disorder, but he doesn't bother to think about matters such as abuse.

"It made a sound like dropping a rice bag to the floor (267)." Simile

"'I swear you're going to make me kill you, Laila,' he said, panting (272)." Foreshadowing

Later on, Mariam actually kills Rasheed.

Quote

"It's a matter of qanoon, hamshira, a matter of law," Rahman said, injecting his voice with a grave, self-important tone. "It is my responsibility, you see, to maintain order (238)." A police officer is talking to Laila after Mariam, Aziza, and she try and run away. They are caught, and are now talking to the police. Rahman says this after Laila tells him to release them, to not send them back to their home. "We are not criminals (238)." First of all, the fact that women must be accompanied by their husband whenever they step outside, is an unjust law. Second of all, the fact that a man sold them out, just so he could suck up to the military police, is wrong in so many ways. I could tell the officer had a bit of an ego, and was really "excited" to have caught three "criminals" in the act. In the quote, Hosseni describes Rahman's manner of speaking as, "with injected garveness, and a self-important tone." It seems to me that Rahman just wanted to flex his muscles, when he caught Laila, Mariam, and Aziza.



Theme

It is important to not lose sight of the small details, when looking at the big picture. An example of this happens when Officer Rahman is questioning Mariam. He says, "I am forced to send you back to your husband, or put you in jail." She tells him that her husband is an abusive man who will greatly hurt both her and Laila if they return. Rahman is not swayed by that. Mariam proceeds to refer to him saying how it is his responsibility to maintain law and order, and asks him, "Will you be there to maintain order?"

Post B #4

Rashid is aging, but nonetheless, still a fat, chain-smoking jerk. He agrees to adopt Laila by marrying her. Mariam describes Rashid on page 191. "His hair had gone white, but it was as thick and coarse as ever. There was a sag now to his eye-lids and the skin of his neck, which was wrinkled and leathery...he still had stout shoulders, the thick torso, the strong hands, the swollen belly that entered the room before any other part of him did." Judging from this description, he may also be a drinker!
Here is another description of Rashid, but this time from Laila. "Laila had a full view of his sagging breasts, his protruding belly button, the small blue vein in the center of it, the tufts of thick white hair on his chest, his shoulders, and upper arms. She felt his eyes crawling all over her" (197). Talk about premature skin aging, jeez. Rashid is a old, saggy, hairy, chain-smoking, alcohol-drinking creep. Hosseni does a great job portraying Rashid. Rashid is a cruel tyrant, which has already been established by his actions (making Mariam chew stones), but right now Hosseni goes a step further to establish what this cruel tyrant looks like.
He also seems like a child molestor also. When he first married Mariam, she was only fifteen years old. Now, both of them have aged quite a bit. "Sex, mercifully, was a closed chapter in her [Mariam's] life" (199). The part that disturbs me is the fact the Laila is fourteen. Seeing as how he and Mariam aren't as intimate anymore (they never really were), he goes and decides to marry a younger woman for his own perverted agenda. For goodness sakes, Rashid must be in his sixties right now.
I'm hoping Rashid will meet an unfortunate turn of events on of these days...

A Thousand Splendid Suns Post A # 4

Vocab
Retching (195)- to vomit or try to vomit
Mottled (195)- spotted or bleached in coloring


Figurative Language
"Tariq's mother trapped in the lorry, upside down, screaming for Tariq through the smoke, her arms and chest on fire, the wig melting into her scalp..."(185). Hosseni once again paints a mental picture about the horrors of the the Taliban. A visitor comes to Rashid's house shortly before he marries Laila. He is telling (and lying) Laila that Tariq had been killed in a crossfire. She imagines the images of what his parents were doing around the time the crossfire had happened.
Imagery
"And that room smells like a sewer" (212). In the first few weeks after Laila has had her baby, all Rashid does is complain about how she is too loud, and creates unpleasant smells. He hasn't yet called her by her real name, Aziza.
Simile
"She had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind. A dry, barren field, out beyond wish and lament, beyond dream and disillusionment" (228). Mariam has had a horrible life so far, and she is in her midforties at this point. She compares the past years of her life to a dry, barren field, where no life grows. It is a lonely field where she had nobody to turn to.
Metaphor

Quote

"She [Mariam] is sturdy, for one thing, a good worker, and without pretensions. I'll say it this way, if she was a car, she would be a Volga.[...]You [Laila], on the other hand, would be a Benz. A brand-new, first-class, shiny Benz (199)."
Rashid has just married Laila as his second wife as he is saying this. It is obvious that he doesn't care for Mariam anymore. He makes a reference to Laila's age (14), when he says "brand new," clueing into the reader that he thinks Mariam is just an old hag now, who is only good for doing work.

Theme
When life gives you lemons, it is not always possible to make lemonade.
Mariam is a prime example. She is treated like crap, by her chain-smoking husband. Every day, all she does is chores. If she wants to run away, she will either get put in jail, because of a law forbidding women to run away alone, or she will be gunned down by the Taliban.

Post B # 3

There are four different parts in A Thousand Splendid Suns. As of page 97, the main view switches from Mariam to a 15-year old girl named Laila. Laila is the daughter of a woman named Fariba, who is one of Mariam and Rasheed's neighobrs. Laila is quite a different character from Mariam. To start, she is more fortunate than Mariam in the fact that she lives with both parents, and both her mother and father are kind to her. Because of this, she has a better outlook on life in general. In addition to that, she has friends that she can look to for companionship and condolence. When Ahmad and Noor died, Laila's three best friends were all at the funeral, and helped console her at the time. When Mariam's mother hanged herself, there was no-one for her. Her father did not love her (at the time), and her father's ten other wives didn't care for her or her mother. Laila also has a different perspective on marriage, probably due to the fact that she has a boyfriend whom she loves. Tariq is an important figure in her life. Whenever Laila is with Tariq, she feels safe. She feels that he is protecting her from the harsh war currently taking place in Afghanistan. On the contrary, Mariam's husband Rasheed is an idiot. There is no other way to describe him. He acts like he is ten levels higher than Mariam, and makes her into a slave every day. There was a time when he made Mariam chew rocks until her molars shattered just because the rice she made was supposedly "a bit hard."
As part two goes on, Laila is hit by a rocket blast, and Rasheed finds her in a pile of rubble. He and Mariam begin to care for her.

On the Waterfront Reflection

This is not my final draft I am turning in. It would be, but I e-mailed it to myself so I could work from a different computer. I printed out my final copy, but it is somewhere in a dumb temporary internet file folder. This one is pretty much my rough draft.

On the Waterfront Film Reflection
On the Waterfront was an outstanding film about the corrupt working conditions on the harbors of Hobokken, New Jersey, and it held my interest right from the opening scene until the credits had finished rolling. On the Waterfront starts with a bang, as Joey Doyle gets pushed off of a roof, where he falls to his death. Beginning the film with a murder was brilliant. In addition to the fact that the opening scene contained a thought-provoking murder, the murder in itself was quite unconventional. How many times have you watched a murder in a movie and seen it go down by one guy pushing the other off of a roof? From the second Joey Doyle was pushed off of that roof, I was hooked. The protagonist Terry Malloy, an ex-fighter who now works on the harbor, does not reveal that he knew and collaborated in Joey’s murder until late in the film. With the help of Father Barry and Joey’s sister Edie, Terry decides to try and expose the mob controlling oppressing the workers and their union, but it may be too late. The film climaxes with Terry emerging victorious from a bloody fistfight between him and the mob boss Johnny Friendly and leading the workers to the President of the shipping company. Terry ends up testifying against Friendly’s mob, and sends him and every mob member to prison. Throughout the film, Marlon Brando performs the part of Terry spectacularly, and clearly communicates to both the harbor workers in the film and the viewers in the audience how one person can make all of the difference.
Each and every film contains literary aspects such as plot, characters, setting, themes, point-of-view and symbols. On the Waterfront is told in third person point-of-view, and takes place in Hoboken, New Jersey, around the year 1948. The film is centered around the protagonist Terry Malloy, who is pressured by Father Barry and Joey’s surviving sister Edie Doyle to expose Johnny Friendly’s mob and their corrupt ways of running of the harboring business’ union, as well as the planned murder of Joey Doyle. Early on in the film, the viewer learns that Terry was never educated. He used to be an ex-boxer, but now has a low position in Friendly’s mob. Constantly throughout the movie, he is pressured by people to tell the Waterfront Crime Commission what he knows about Joey Doyle’s murder, and at it takes a while for him to consent. If Terry reveals damaging information about the mob in any less than a courtroom, he knows that he will probably be assassinated. He tells is questioners, “I don’t know anything. I’m no canary.” His canary relates to the metaphorical theme throughout the movie of birds representing people. Characters in On the Waterfront are categorized into three types of birds: Hawks, pigeons, and canaries. Johnny Friendly’s mob is represented as hawks, and all of the workers who pretend to not care about the mob’s corrupt ways are pigeons, being deaf and dumb. Joey Doyle was a canary that sang about the mob’s ways, then was killed by the mob. The hawks prey on the canaries, but leave the pigeons alone, because they are deaf and dumb. There is a scene where Terry is tending to his pigeons on a roof, and a hawk approaches. The hawk lingers for a bit, but then leaves after less than a minute. As he is questioned, Terry fears that if he is a canary who rats out Johnny Friendly, he will get in a sense, “eaten.” Throughout the film, Terry is pressured by Edie and Father Barry to speak about his inside view of the mob, and in the end, he does testify against Johnny Friendly. In addition to Terry, Father Barry decides at one point to speak in front of all of the shipyard workers about standing up to the mob. His wise words are not taken seriously, and he is pelted with fruit. Many times, the right choice is not the easiest choice.
Actors, costumes, set design, and lighting are all dramatic aspects, which are aspects that can be shared with a play. In On the Waterfront, the costumes and props were well-chosen, and the acting was spectacular. Three actors stood out spectacularly: Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Marlon Brando. The three of them played Johnny Friendly, Father Barry, and Terry Malloy, respectively. Cobb’s acting as Johnny Friendly was spectacular. He was portrayed as a plump, cigar-smoking mob leader, who could have someone killed just by the snap of his fingers. In my mind that’s how mob leaders are. People obey them for fear of death; the mob leader himself is well fed due to his obscene wealth, and he (or she) seems to always be smoking or craving a cigar. Cobb fit my description of a mob leader perfectly, from his walk, his speech, and those hard-eyed looks that made me remember who the boss on the docks was. Karl Malden performance was also spectacular, but not because he fit my stereotypical description of a church father. I picture fathers as quiet, well-dressed men who are shy outside of church, and people who don’t drink alcohol. Out of the above four characteristics, Father Barry is well-dressed. He is a loud, assertive man, who does in fact drink a beer once in a while. At one point in the film, Terry is in a bar holding a gun, waiting for Johnny Friendly to walk in. Father Barry convinces Terry to throw the gun down, and then says, “Bartender, get me a drink. And one for Terry, also.” In spite of that scene, Father Barry was much more than a raucous man who drank. After Kayo Dugan’s murder, his speech to the shipyard workers is truly inspiring. As he finishes his speech, he is lifted out of the lower storage floor to ground level on a pulley. It is a powerful moment when he is being lifted, and I compared it in my mind to Christ rising to heaven. In addition to Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden’s performances, Marlon Brando’s acting as Terry Malloy went above and beyond my expectations. Terry is just an ex-fighter who currently works in the shipyard, so I didn’t have much of a mental picture of him going into the film. He looked like an ex-fighter though. He didn’t look like one of those hulk-type body-builder boxers, which was good, but he looked as though he could knock someone out in just a few seconds. Brando’s acting was terrific. There is a scene where Terry Malloy’s brother Charlie, who was sent by the mob to “persuade” him to stay quiet, is riding with him in a taxi. Terry is reminiscing on his boxing career, and how Charley and the mob forced him to lose a match that ended his career, just because the mob had money on the other fighter, “You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody [...].” That quote has become definitive to the film, and is still famous today. In addition to the quality acting in On the Waterfront, the costumes and props of the characters play an important role in the film. Cigarettes and cigars enhance the meaning of the play. The fact that many of the shipyard workers smoke clues in the viewer to the fact that everyone is going through some tough times. Even the Father asks for a cigarette as he talks to the shipyard workers. In addition to that, Edie’s bright blond hair stands out in a crowd of men who all are wearing dull colors. The brightness in her hair almost brings a sense of innocence anywhere she goes. The first-rate acting of Cobb, Malden, and Brando, as well as Edie’s bright hair and the abundance of cigarettes are three influential dramatic aspects having to do with the greatness of the film.
The angle of shots, camera movement, and editing of a film are all cinematic aspects, which are elements that only films can possess. On the Waterfront opened with a low angle, with Terry looking up to talk to Joey Doyle about a pigeon that he lost. The camera then looks up at Joey standing three stories up on a roof just in time to see two men walk up behind him and roughly shove him off. It happens in literally two seconds. There is a lull in the conversation between Terry and Joey, the view shifts upwards, Joey is pushed, and hits the ground below with a loud crash. If I hadn’t been paying attention to the film before, I would be now! In addition to the low-angle shot at the beginning, it was effective to shoot scenes of the mob diagonally. There was a time when Johnny Friendly was walking his mob down one of the docks, as the shipyard workers watched. The diagonal shot of the mob walking gives the viewer a look at the mob through one of the worker’s eyes. It wasn’t just moving shots of the mob that were shot diagonally either. Whenever the mob congregated in a back room somewhere, the scene was shot from a corner of that room, almost like they were being filmed from a security camera. In addition to that shot angles, the camera movement and editing also added a lot. Near the end of the movie, Terry picks a fight with Johnny Friendly after Friendly has Terry’s brother hanged. Terry is about to take him out, but Johnny Friendly gets the rest of the mob to help him fight, and Terry is knocked out in a bloody fashion. Father Barry and Edie rush over to him, and shake him, trying to get him to stand up, so he can walk to the President of the shipyard company. After they shake Terry, the camera switches to his view, and the viewer sees Father Barry and Edie’s face blurring and coming back into focus, from a close-up low angle shot. Terry stands up, and begins walking to the president, who is at the working building, which is probably 150 feet away. As he is walking, the view switches between a side-view of a stumbling Terry and a shaky, blurred vision of the president seeming farther away than he really is. This view through Terry’s eyes not only shows how disoriented he is, but also shows his determination to take down Johnny Friendly and his mob. It really is a great scene to end the movie. Both the opening and ending scenes of the movie were great. The strategic use of camera angles and camera movement, as well as the blurred editing of certain parts not only enhance the viewers physical vision of the film, but also help the viewer to better connect with Terry’s determination at the end of the film.
Terry Malloy dilemma in On the Waterfront is remarkably similar to that of Joe Keller’s in the play All My Sons. First of all, both Terry and Joe are faced with the issue of revealing information about a murder issue to the authorities that could potentially harm themselves. The difference between what happens when they do reveal it is that Terry is just severely injured, but Joe Keller kills himself out of the realization that he killed his own son. In addition to that, throughout both On the Waterfront and All My Sons, Terry and Joe are prompted by a female partner to go the honest way, and tell the necessary people the facts. The difference is that Terry reveals incriminating information about the mob to the Waterfront Crime Commission in a public trial, while Joe Keller reveals self-incriminating information to only his family and a few others who lived close-by. Joe Keller does not reveal that information to the judge and jury when he had a trial. Lastly, both Terry and Joe’s issue of keeping quiet about what they knew caused the death of one family member. When Terry does not agree to keep quiet about the mob, his brother Charley is hanged by the mob. When Joe does not confess about his crime in a trial, his son who is at war is so disappointed in him that he commits suicide. When looking at the big picture, both Terry Malloy and Joe Keller were faced with the issue of the importance of their life or many other’s lives, and they were both pressured by another female to reveal information that could hurt themselves or others dear to them, and they both did end up losing family members in the process of revealing the necessary information.
On the Waterfront is a truly well-done film, something that is hard to come by these days. The film is centered on the theme, “One person can make a difference, it just depends on how hard he or she tries to make that crucial change happen.” The action in the movie keeps building and building right up until that last moment when the president of the shipyard lets Terry into the doors to start working. On the Waterfront combines just the right amount of laughs and seriousness, from the time Father Barry yells for a beer, to the sorrowful moment when Terry must take his own brother off of his gallows. If you know what’s best for you, you will watch this film.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Post A # 3

Vocab
Flaccid (112)- soft and limp, weak, not firm
Ruse (113)- a trick
Figurative Language
"[...] his unstrapped leg raised high over his shoulder like a sword (120)." As Tariq is hopping towards Khadim, he is holding his prosthetic leg like a sword, ready to beat down Khadim when he gets to him. (SIMILE)

"A jeep honked and Tariq whistled back, beaming and waving cheerfully. 'Lovely guns!' he yelled. 'Fabulous jeeps! Fabulous army (131)!'" Tariq is saying these comments to a Russian convoy that is passing them. He is actually insulting them, and goes on to say, "Too bad you're losing to a bunch of peasants firing slingshots!" (VERBAL IRONY)

On PAGE 123, a man comes to Laila's house and reveals that her two brothers have been killed in the war with the Soviets. Laila's father and mother are both grief-stricken about this, and Laila is too, but not to the same degree. "Ahmad and Noor [her brothers] were always like lore to her. [...] It was Tariq who was real, flesh and blood. Tariq , who taught her cusswords in Pashto, who liked salted clover leaves, who frowned and made a low, moaning sound when he chewed, who had a light pink birthmark just beneath his left collarbone shaped like an upside-down mandolin" (126). Tariq is becoming a SYMBOL of hope and happiness throughout all of the hard times. He seems to be the only one Laila can turn to in times of despair. A bit later, Laila finds out that Tariq has supposedly been killed by a rocket blast, and she is as devastated as her mother was following Ahmad and Noor's deaths. "Laila remembered how Mammy had dropped to the ground, how she'd screamed, torn at her hair. But Laila couldn't even manage that. [...] She sat on the chair instead, hands limp in her lap, eyes staring at nothing, and let her mind fly on" (188).

Quote

"Ahmad and Noor had always been like lore to her (Laila). Like characters in a fable. Kings in a history book" (126).
First of all, that's just a horrible thing to say (or describe about her). I don't care how bad her situation was. You just can't say that kind of thing about siblings.
Second, I thought that this quote was a bit out of place. It's true, it went on to say that Laila's "real" brother Tariq was alive, flesh and blood, but I thought she would be a bit more sad about her two brothers being killed by jihadists.

Theme
Stay close to the ones you love.
When her brothers die, she holds onto her mother, father, and Tariq much more than before. She learns not to take her family and friends for granted.

Post B # 2

Mariam has changed emotionally in many ways since she got married to Rashid, but the most prominent change that happened to her since the marriage was the change from her childish, curious manner, to her reserved, depressed, and fearful manner. When she was young, she wanted to receive an education. She wanted to take control of her life. "I mean a real school, akhund sahib. Like in a classroom. Like my father's other kids" (16). I didn't pick this up before, but out of the eleven children that Jalil had, Mariam was the only one that was not in school. When her mother hears of this, she is appalled, even angry. "What's the sense schooling a girl like you? It's like shining a spitoon. And you'll learn nothing of value in those schools" (17). From that moment on, Mariam was belittled more and more by various people in her life. Her husband Rashid has a notion that she is his slave, and is not afraid to let her know. "A week's gone and... [...] as of tomorrow morning I expect you to start behaving like a wife. Fahmidi? Is that understood" (58)? Rashid doesn't hesitate to remind Mariam that she is uneducated, either. He gives this answer after Mariam asks him what Communism is, and what Communists believe. "You know nothing, do you? You're like a child. Your brain is empty. There is no information in it" (89). Hosseni gives a third person view of the whole matter in the next paragraph. "It wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her [...] Mariam saw how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid. She lived in fear of his shifting moods [...] he would resolve [small issues] with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not" (89). Because of the fact that she didn't receive a proper education, and the physical and emotional insults from her husband, throughout the first 94 pages, Mariam changes from a talkative, happy girl to a fearful, reserved woman.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Post A # 2

Vocab
Perfunctory (82) - lacking enthusiasm, performed as just a daily routine
Volatile (89) - tending to fluctuate sharply and regularly

Figurative Language
" Their nails were long, polished pink or orange, their lips red as tulips (69)." Mariam uses a SIMILE when describing the high-class city women. Before she saw them, she only knew woman as the villagers who wore burqas, or the depraved women pictured in Rasheed's magazines.

"She devoured the entire bowl [of ice cream], the crushed-pistachio topping, the tiny rice noodles at the bottom (66)." Hosseni uses HYPERBOLE when he says "devoured the entire bowl." She didn't really eat the whole bowl.

"Now and then, his ear rubbed against her cheek, and she knew from the scratchy feel that he had shaved it (69)." This quote contains IMAGERY that appeals to the touch senses. Imagining someone's ear being scratchy because they shaved it is dirty and disgusting.

Quote
"CHEW! he bellowed. [...] Mariam chewed. Something in the back of her mouth cracked. [...] Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars" (94). If the reader didn't know before, they know now that Mariams husband Rashid is a hateful man who does not care at all about Maria. I was genuinely disturbed by this passage. Rashid forces her to eat pebbles until she shatters her molars only because the rice she made was supposedly a bit hard. Her husband is just a lazy bastard who cannot do anything himself, and quite frankly does not need another person involved in his life.

Theme
There is a sad difference between the treatment of wealthy women that live in the big cities and the treatment of impoverished village women.

Post B

"Yes. But I've seen nine-year-old girls given to men twenty years older than your suitor, Mariam. [...] What are you fifteen? That's a good solid marrying age for a girl" (44).

A man is telling Mariam this after she learns that she will be marrying a man who is thirty years older than her; he is 45 years old. As I read this quote, I became angered and saddened by Mariam's situation. Mariam is fifteen. At age fifteen, the average American is in ninth grade and has just gotten their drivers permit. Most likely, the thought of who their spouse will be has not even crossed their mind. In this situation, Mariam isn't in ninth grade because she was not granted the gift of being educated. In this situation, Mariam cannot drive because she is a woman. Her mother has just hanged herself, and now she is being forced to marry a complete stranger who is thirty years her senior. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.

I can't remember the exact time I learned of the concept of arranged marriages, but it must have been around fifth or sixth grade. Before then, I always found that I could grasp almost any concept thrown at me. But not this one. It's not that I didn't understand what arranged marriages were, or how they worked. I couldn't understand why a society would forbid women to choose who their spouse was. I asked my mom and dad why, and every time they would give me the same beat-around-the-bush answer, "It's because thats what the people of that religion believe." Of course I would then ask why they had that view on marriage, and they would answer, "That's how things work in those societies." Looking back, I don't think they were trying to be general on purpose, I think they just didn't have a concrete answer for me. I still don't have a concrete answer for myself. I hope that through reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I can help myself better understand the motives for such a thing.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Post A #1

Vocab
Culpable (4) - deserving blame
Demurely (5) - in a shy and reserved manner

Figurative Language
"Like a compass needle points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman" (7).
This sentence is a simile because it uses like to compare two situations.

"And so, your father built us this rathole" (9).
This sentence is a metaphor because it does not use like or as, but simply states the house as a "rathole."

"Mariam caught a glimpse of what was eneath the tree: the straight-backed chair, overturned. The rope dropping from a high branch. Nana dangling at the end of it (34)." This quote is an example of the powerful imagery Hosseini uses. When I read this, my stomach jumped a little, and for a second I felt a bit sick. His words gave me a sickening mental image of Mariam's mother's body blowing back and forth in the wind, hanging from the tree.

Quote
"Like a compass needle points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman" (7). My mom wasn't sure whether I should read this book, and she told me that there were some graphic descriptions of the Taliban mistreating women. This quote is said by Nana to Mariam. She has just finished telling Mariam how her father was out horseback riding when she was in labor with Mariam. By saying the words, "A man's accusing finger always finds a woman," Nana foreshadows to many more times that Jalil (and other males) will mistreat Mariam (and other females in the story).

Theme
Right away, I see the theme "You never appreciate something until it's gone." Before Nana hanged herself, Mariam believed her father Jalil and every lie that came out of his mouth. He told her that he loved her, gave her gifts, and pretended to spoil her. Mariam finally decided to go and try to live with Jalil, and decided to leave her mother Nana. When Nana realized that Mariam wouldn't be coming back, she hanged herself. After she had done this, Mariam realized that Nana was right about everything. She was right about Jalil being a liar. She was right about the fact that Jalil didn't care about her. She was right about Jalil being a cruel man. It is sad that Mariam only realized this after her mother was gone.

Post B # 5

A friend of mine told me, "Oh, 'It's Not About the Bike' sucks. It focuses way too much on his cancer."
I thought to myself, "Great, I'm stuck with another boring memoir." I have finished reading "It's Not About the Bike," and am thinking about how wrong my friend was, and how wrong I was. It rocked!
I started out describing how Lance was basically a child prodigy in any long distance event, talked about how he got cancer, then ended with his triumphs in the Tours de France. In my opinion, that doesn't seem like overemphasis on his cancer at all. I hate to quote what one of the reviewers said, but his memoir is quite frank in most aspects. Lance didn't sugarcoat the bad times, and didn't brag about the good times. He did have his moments (the "private moment" moment), but overall, and I'm not using that term lightly, his memoir was a sincere and truthful one.
If I had to rate it, I would give it a 9.5. It was one of the few books that I've had to read for school that I read of my own accord, in my own house. In other words, I read "It's Not About the Bike" whenever I needed a break from all of my schoolwork. In addition to that, I never fell asleep while reading it. You see, whenever I read a book, I read it on the same yellow sofa in my kitchen. Every time. I guess you could say that I mark off one point out of ten, each time a book puts me to sleep. "It's not About the Bike" was engaging, and kept my mind always sharp and alert as I read it on my sleep-inducing yellow sofa. If you must know why I rated Lance Armstrong's memoir only 9.5 out of 10 instead of 10 out of 10, it is because of his "private moment" moment. When I think of "It's Not About the Bike," nothing specific really sticks out in my mind except for that.

"It's Not About the Bike" is a touching story that drew me in from page one. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about true perseverance.

Post A # 5

Vocab
Insinuated (242)- suggested or hinted in a sly manner
Undulating (243)- to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion

Appeals

"I can emphatically say I am not on drugs. I thought a rider with my history and my health situation wouldn't be such a surprise. I'm not a new rider." (246)
This sentence is an emotional appeal for two reasons. It seems a bit defensive, but it also shows Lance's anger towards the seemingly endless drug tests administered to him.

"When you open a gap, and your competitors don't respond, it tells you something. They're hurting. And when they're hurting, that's when you take them. (237)
This sentence is a factual (logical) appeal. I thought about this, and yes it's true. Usually in extremely competitive races, gaps like that do not go uncontested. In the first stage of the Alps, which was 132 kilometers, Lance proved to the rest of the peloton that he simply had greater endurance then they.

"We changed into the complimentary bathrobes [...] and had our private moment." (258)
This sentence has a loaded phrase. The loaded phrase is, "private moment". Nothing else is explained in that sentence, except for the fact that Lance and his wife changed into the hotel's complimentary bathrobes and drank champagne. The phrase, "private moment" leaves the sentence open-ended, which is horrible, and I hope I don't need to explain why. In my opinion, that sentence detracted from the point that he had just won the Tour de France.

Quote

"Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the Tour, because of what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son, and a father." (259)

This sentence is deep, and I'm not saying that lightly or in a joking manner. I cannot pretend to know the struggle that he or anyone else with cancer went through, but from this, I know that cancer taught him more than just perseverance on the bike.

Theme

In a person's life, one must think of their priorities.

When Lance divorced Kristen, he was saying to the world, subconsciously or consciously, "Kristen Armstrong is not a priority for me, and my son isn't so high on the list either." I don't know why or what exactly prompted him to do this, but to me his decision to do that will always be a black mark in my mind.

Post B # 4

At this point in the memoir, things are looking up for Lance Armstrong. He has regained much of his pre-cancer biking strength, is married Kik (Kristen Armstrong), and as weird is this may seem, has in-vitro fertilized his child. I admire his hard work, and endless perseverance after his bout with cancer, but I am starting to ask myself, "Self, how is Lance Armstrong as a person?" He seems to boss Kik around a lot. For example, when he was getting back on the bike, he travelled to France to bike with some of his old friends. Kik didn't know French, so she took an extensive French course, only to later find that Lance was discouraged and wanted to return to the United States. Kik, however doesn't seem to mind, and Lance is there when she needs him (for example, he stood by her when she was in the hospital for the IVF).
The near end of the book talks about his triumphs in the courses of the Tour de France. Lance wins a tough 56 kilometer course by 58 seconds, granted that he started 6 minutes below the leader Tom Steels.
When Lance wins his first Tour de France, he comes across as a bit of an egoist. He radios to his support car, and says, "How do you like them f***in apples?" Even though that rhetorical question is not meant for a rider behind him, but it came across as unsportsmanlike to me. If I conquered cancer and won the Tour de France, I doubt that that would be the phrase that would pop into my head as I crossed the finish line.

Post A # 4

Vocab
Pretext (159)- the misleading appearance assumed with an intention
Brunt (177)- the main force or blow of something



Appeals



"'I'm pretty sure I'm done with that [biking],' I said. 'It's too hard on your body.'" (166)

This sentence is an emotional appeal, showing the struggle Lance went through after he had recovered from cancer. It is true, he beat cancer, but he beat it at the cost of becoming only a shadow of his former self. He doesn't think he can ever become as good of a biker that he was before his cancer incident.



"Things change, intentions get lost. You have another beer. You say another cuss word." (182)

This sentence is Lance talking about how when he was sick, he told himself that he would never do anything bad ever again, and would be the most clean-living guy ever if he survived the cancer. Now that he has survived, he starts to see that nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, but you just gotta dismiss the little things, and think of the big picture.

"The next night was New Year's Eve, the last night of libations for her." (205)

The loaded word in this sentence is libations. Could it be that it stood out to me because we just learned it in Mrs. Burgess' English class? Possibly. The sentence is talking about how Lance's ex-wife Kik drank a lot on New Year's Eve, then swore not to drink anymore, which would later lead to a healthy baby.

Quote

"A few days later, Och went back to the States. He told everybody who would listen that I was going to win the Tour de France." (223)

Lance trained on a hill called the Madone, in Nice, France. It is an eight mile climb, that most riders only ride once a year. Lance rode it once a month. After months of training, he had just beaten the record for climbing it, which was 31:30. Lance got 30:47. The time right after he beat the record for the Madone was the first real time that he felt confident about his post-cancer biking skills.

Theme
"You can't make it through life on your own. Enlist the help of your friends, and listen to what they have to say." If it weren't for all of his friends, family, and biking coaches, Lance would have never thought of winning the Tour de France, and would have never raced again after his cancer.

Post B # 3

Lance goes to a hospital in Indiana, that can supposedly cure his cancer while still preserving his lungs. On page 105, Dr. Craig Nichols tells Lance's mother, "We don't want his lungs to be affected," while talking about how they are still going to abolish the cancer in his body. Most cancer treatments involve a chemical called bleomycin. If Lance took bleomycin, his lungs would be damaged to the point where he couldn't race anymore.
This will sound weird, but I compared his healing from cancer to the time I broke my ankle last winter. I know that my situation was nowhere near half as bad as his, but for some reason, I remembered it. The four weeks that I had to use crutches were the loneliest four weeks of my life. Everyone was supportive, and carried my stuff when I needed it, but I felt weak. I felt like my foot would sink into the ground every time I accidentally put it down. If felt sharp pains shoot up my leg every time I was bumped by someone. And then there were the idiots who would say, "Hey Daniel, would it hurt if I kicked your foot?" No, go ahead, I'm just using these crutches for fun! There were a few times in the last two weeks of my healing period (six weeks total) when I played for the whole soccer practice, then later found out that it was too much for my ankle to handle. Making decisions like those delayed my healing for two weeks.
Now imagine all of that, except it's not a broken ankle. It's cancer. The death threat is real, and if you overexert yourself, you may faint. Walking two miles feels like a marathon, and biking up a small 20 foot hill can make you pass out. The fear of the cancer turning back to take your life grips you most of your every day. That's what it was like for Lance. Cancer is hell.

Post A #3

Vocab
Caustic (104)- capable of burning or destroying living tissue

Balked (124)- stopped or refused to go on

Appeals
"But the pathologist looked up from the microscope, surprised, and said, 'It's necrotic tissue'" (116)." The pathologist is talking about the 12 tumors they have just removed from Lance's brain. This sentence is a logical appeal, telling the reader that at this point, Lance's body has started to kill and reject the cancer cells that inhabit him.

"It was a woman in her 50s on a heavy moutain bike, and she went right by me. [...] She cruised, without even breathing hard, while I puffed and chugged on my high-performance bike, and she went right by me" (143). This sentence is an emotional appeal, allowing the reader to experiences Lance's feelings as this 50 some-year-old woman passes him by. He was (or should have been) at the peak of his bicycle riding years, and thinks his bicycle speed is improving. All of the sudden, this middle-aged woman rockets by him, and he thinks for the first time in his life, "I am in bad physical shape."

"You're a responder" (141). Dr. Craig Nichols tells Lance this, after his HCG levels continue to drop, which is a good thing if you are recovering from cancer. Responder is definitely the loaded word in this sentence. I know that the word responder is not meant to sound negative, but it does. Responder could mean bad or good, and in this case it means good. With all due respect, I don't think responder was the best word for this context.

Quote
"[...] if the illness returned it would probably happen in the next 12 months. But for this moment, at least for this brief and priceless moment, there wasn't a pysical trace of cancer left in my body" (155). When I read this passage, I could almost experience his joy and happiness. The whole cancer ordeal had taken 2 long years, and that moment was the first time in those two years that the cancer had completely disappeared.

Theme
Take every opportunity that is presented to you to help others as well as yourself. After Lance had healed from the cancer, he and his doctors thought and knew that he should use his experience to talk to other cancer patients. They wanted him to tell other patients his story, and tell them to hang in there just like he did. In addition to doing that, Lance also did some research about starting a cancer aid fund, (and later made Live Strong).

Post A # 2

Vocab
1. Catheter (78)- a flexible or rigid hollow tube employed to drain fluids from body cavities
2. Infarction (88)- an area of tissue in an organ that is dead or dying

Appeals
1. "Fabio had been a man. I was still trying to get there" (69). This passage is an emotional appeal. Lance is talking about the man Fabio Casartelli, a teammate of his. He had won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics, and was killed when descending a hill in a 1995 race. At the time Fabio died, his son was just one month old. The reader is introduced to the danger in professional biking from this quote, and feels Lance's emotional hurt as he reads this passage.
2. "It's in your lungs, it's stage three, you have no insurance, now it's in your brain" (94). His cancer was spreading, and at it's worst, Lance was given a twenty percent chance of survival. This is a logical appeal, showing the fact that the cancer had spread into Lance's brain.
3. Decimate (95)- Lance talks about how cancer will decimate one's body whether they are 500 pounds or in the best possible physical condition in their life. He's living proof. The word decimate is very loaded. He could have used other words such as kill or cripple, but I think decimate is just the right word to describe his cancer.

Quote
"I won [the 1995 race where Fabio was killed] by a minute, and I didn't feel a moment's pain" (68). There are times when someone is racing, and it almost seems that a higher power is guiding them. For example, during the 1995 race, Lance started "sprinting" 25 miles before the finish, which is usually a pretty stupid thing to do. When he did this, however, he maintained an increasing gap between him and the others, until he won the race one minute ahead of everyone else. He said, "There is no doubt in my mind that there were two riders on that bike. One was Fabio."

Theme
One theme in this section of the text is, "Don't cut corners."
"It took years of racing to build up the mind and body and character (to win the Tour de France), until a rider had logged hundreds of races and thousands of miles of road" (69). When you work every day for years, and work hard for years without giving up, then and only then do you have a chance to be the best in your sport.

Post B # 2

I think that getting cancer is the worst thing that can happen to a person. No matter where it starts out, it will almost always spread to another place in one's body, and there is never a certainty whether you will live or die. Lance Armstrong got testicular cancer, which can be the best or worst type of cancer possible, depending on how one views it. When he finally went to the doctor, it had spread to his lungs, and he was given a 40-60 percent chance of survival. His body tolerated the chemo extremely well, and he continued to bike 6 hours per day during his cancer treatments.

Lance is no superman, however. As his cancer progresses, it is clear that he needs to sacrifice something, either riding a bike, having children, or walking. Any treatment strong enough to help him survive is way too poisonous to leave him the same as he was before he was admitted. I truly admire his perseverance and determination in picking up the bike after cancer. There was one thing he loved, and cancer almost took that away from him. He was determined to not get beaten by his foe, and ended up conquering it.

Outside Reading Post A

Vocab

Affinity (5)- a person, thing, or idea, in which a person has a natural liking to

Stagnant (40)- not flowing or moving

Appeals

"Of course I should have known something was wrong with me. [...] You deny all aches and pains because you have to in order to finish the race" (5).The reader now knows that at the time of his cancer, Lance had a high level of mental toughness. I read on, and found out that even professional bicyclist's get sore, and when Lance had pains in his right testicle, and nipples, he just attributed it to the stress he was going through on the bike. Having the guts to just deal with pain is an admirable trait, but is not always the best one to have.

"It looks like testicular cancer with large metastasis to the lungs" (12) Before I read this sentence, I knew for a fact that Lance Armstrong beat testicular cancer. After reading this sentence, I found out that he also survived lung cancer.

"I saw children with no eyelashes or eyebrows, their hair burned away by chemo, who fought with the hearts of Indurains" (5). In this sentence, chemo is the loaded word. I know more then one person who has gone through chemotherapy, lost all their hair, and later lost their life to cancer. I, myself, cannot pretend to know what it feels like to go through chemotherapy, but I can guess that it is a horrible nightmare, based on descriptions.

Quote

"You're gonna win the Tour de France one day," he said (48). Lance's bicycle coach Chris Carmichael tells Lance this after he is the first american to win the Settimana Bergamasca in 1991. The Settimana Bergamasca is a ten-day race that takes place in Italy. He won this race when he was only 20 years old, and had not raced the Tour de France yet. Regarding the Tour de France, though, it looks like Coach Carmichaels words turned out to be the truth.

Theme

A prominent theme in this memoir is, "Take the activities you excel in, and push yourself to be the very best while participating in them." Lance Armstrong did not achieve such an amazing cycling record by going and throwing the shotput everyday. He biked, ran, and swam every day, and boy, did it pay off.

Outside Reading Post B

I chose the memoir It's Not About the Bike, by Lance Armstrong. So far, I am only 32 pages into it, but it seems that Lance has had an amazing childhood. When he was thirteen, he entered and won the IronKids triathlon. When he was twelve, he swam under a coach named Chris MacCurdy's instruction, and by his guidance, became fourth in his state for the 1500-meter freestyle when he was thirteen. In addition to swimming one and a half hours in the morning, he swam two hours after school, as well as biking 10 miles to and from school.
“What makes a good athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment and to suffer without complaint […] It didn’t seem to matter what the sport was-- in a straight-ahead, long-distance race, I could beat anybody. If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it” (23). I thought about the first sentence of this quote some, and it has a lot of truth in it. In track, for a distance runner, if one wants to win a race, they need to almost be sprinting the whole time. It is true. Half of ones time depends on how in shape one is, and how much endurance one has, however, the other half is just sucking up all fatigue and tiredness one has, and not giving up. No matter how hard someone has ran throughout a race, they can always sprint those last few hundred meters, and shave those extra few seconds off of their time.
Lance Armstrong’s memoir is not just about his athletic success. The first chapter briefly explains how he got testicular cancer when he was 25, and was given a less than 40 percent chance of survival. Being a professional biker, he was taught to ignore pain, and just keep going. He dropped out of one of the Tours de France, just five days before the race started. A few of my friends who have read this book, said that it was horrible, and focused on his cancer too much. It’s Not About the Bike has been a gripping memoir, talking about Lance’s three fathers, semi-rough childhood, and his early athletic successes. Even though I am 32 pages into his book, I can tell that his story will be an inspiring one.

Hi guys. This is my blog.