“The first thing she saw was footage of the Arab gunman, and her heart nearly stopped: it was my father (Ebrahim 4). In The Terrorist’s Son by Zak Ebrahim I read about Ebrahim’s life, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences, and although I have do not have the slightest idea what he went through personally, I found myself wanting to change for Ebrahim and his situation he could not control. Ebrahim in this book is the son of a terrorist named El-Sayyid Nosair, responsible for shooting, and murdering Meir Kahane, who was a militant rabbi, and founded the Jewish Defense League. Ebrahim also has a mother Khadija Nosair, formally known as Karen Mills, before she recited the Shahada and became a Muslim. Ebrahim’s father was born in Eygpt, his mother born Pittsburg, and then as family, they lived in New Jersey. . “He was an infamy of an entirely new kind, and were collateral damage (Ebrahim 12). Ebrahim says this after referencing his father …show more content…
What I mean by that is my view on terrorists had always been that they are heartless, soulless, ruthless, pigs, that do not care about anybody or anything but themselves, and that is still true to a certain extent. Although seeing how there are families attached to some terrorists makes it more of an uncomfortable thought, the thought that maybe these terrorists that have these awful plans, still feel the same love and compassion for their families that people here and all over the world have. “But he is still Baba to me-funny, loving, warm. (Ebrahim 1). The first three paragraphs of Ebrahim’s book talks about the little things father do. Ebrahim says the same type of things about his that I would say about mine. That makes me wonder how anyone could just flip a switch. Maybe it is the way they were raised influenced them, or religion, would I have a completely different mindset if I were raised elsewhere or have a different
Clearly, Amir hears how his father compares the two, and unlike Hassan who manages to meet Baba’s expectations, Amir grows bitter towards Hassan. He is unable to fight off his envy which later causes him to sacrifice his best friend’s innocence: “Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (82), and this is all because he realizes “his shame is complicated by his own realization that in part he doesn’t help his friend precisely because he is jealous of him” (Corbett, 2006). From here, Amir develops strong feelings of guilt that induces him to perform even more destructive acts, such as having Hassan and his father evicted from the house. Amir not only loses a close friend, but now he has to continue to live with remorse as he dwells on these memories.
(Chermak, 2006) The media is one of the leading causes of stereotypes, and what influences our beliefs today. When you think of a terrorist, you may think of either a middle-aged Muslim male or a middle-aged white male with some sort of mental or social disorder. This isn't always the case. A terrorist can be of any race, age, and social class.
...ventures on a dangerous journey to mollify some of the regret Amir has inside of him. Thusly he finally gains his courage and stands up for what is just. After thirty-eight years of disappointment and regret, he finally made his father proud.
Elli talks about daily life in her neighborhood. Her mother does not show any compassion for her. When Elli complains of this, her mother brings up excuses that are unconvincing. Elli believes her mother does not care for her and that her brother is the favorite. Hilter’s reoccurring radio broadcast give nightmares to Elli, whos family is Jewish. The nights when the Hungarian military police would come and stir trouble did not provide anymore comfort for Elli. One night, her brother, Bubi, comes home with news that Germany invaded Budapest, the town where he goes to school. But the next morning, there is no news in the headlines. The father sends him back to school. He learns the next day that a neighbor’s son who goes to school with Bubi has said the same. The day after, the newspapers scream the news of the invasion. Bubi arrives home, and the terror begins.
Perspective allows people to see another person’s point of view. In the essay “The Cabdriver’s Daughter” by Waheeda Samady, she addresses her perception versus society’s opinion of her father. In her eyes, her father is a person capable of displaying kindness and expressing his profound knowledge while for some Americans, he is their preconceived notion of what a terrorist might look like. She challenges people to look past his scars and the color of skin, and “look at what the bombs did not destroy” (19). To her, he is the man that has lived through the Soviet-Afghan War, persevered through poverty, and denied these experiences the power of changing him into a cantankerous person. Samady feels prideful of her father’s grit through his past experiences yet feels sorrowful thinking about the life he could have lived if the war had never happened.
However, Amir’s happy day turns dark, when an hour later, he witnesses Hassan, his best friend, raped in an alley. He had “one final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be”. 77. Instead of standing up for his friend and loyal servant, he runs like “a coward.” 77.
How I had lighed. I smiled at the memory now” (Hosseini 366). Had Amir not immigrated to America, one would not see a cleansed and stable main character reminiscing about his father at the end.
... There are those individuals that have a strong hatred for Islam, than we have people that feel sorry for Muslims in America and make them feel like they actually belong to society. However, it would be fantastic if people can start to actually separate terrorists from the Muslim community. Their religion was hijacked by the attack. Like I previously mentioned, we many not seem to stop and realize that our own religion might be part of terrorism. Religion should not matter when we look at a person because there are two kinds of people in the world, the good and bad. If we all had to look at the flaws in everyone’s beliefs and religious we would probably come to the conclusion that we aren’t all terrorists but some people with the same beliefs as us, might be. We tend to find the bad in something and associate it with everything else that is somehow connected to it.
The author’s intention in the beginning of Mahtab’s story is to give the reader a descriptive introduction regarding the feelings and cricumstances of Mahtab’s journey. She uses descriptive language to inform the reader of Mahtab’s feelings of uncertainty as the “fog of darkness” (p.2) closes in on the family as they travel by truck through the Afghani mountains in a search for a better life.
Joyce, James. “Araby.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W.Norton.
Critics have already begun a heated debate over the success of the book that has addressed both its strengths and weaknesses. The debate may rage for a few years but it will eventually fizzle out as the success of the novel sustains. The characters, plot, emotional appeal, and easily relatable situations are too strong for this book to crumble. The internal characteristics have provided a strong base to withstand the petty attacks on underdeveloped metaphors and transparent descriptions. The novel does not need confrontations with the Middle East to remain a staple in modern reading, it can hold its own based on its life lessons that anyone can use.
About two years ago I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s memoir “Infidel” and was immensely moved by her story, especially the atrocities she went through in her childhood in Africa and the way she struggled to flee from an oppressive life. At that time, I could not imagine that anyone (except fanatic Muslims), let alone victims of the same oppression that she was, would not share her feelings and views. However, the reading of Ian Buruma’s Murder in Amsterdam sheds light on bigger and obscure components of this story, which clearly influenced some people to disapprove her behavior – even Islamic women. Like in Hirsi Ali’s story, Ian Buruma also identifies nuances in the main episode of the book – an episode that at face value could be described as a murder of a fierce critic of Islam, Theo van Gogh (Hirsi Ali’s friend), by a Muslim extremist, Mohammed Bouyeri. According to Buruma, although the common theme is immigration – involving two guests, Hirsi Ali and Bouyeri, and one host, Van Gogh – there is no single explanation for what happened. Instead, each of these three characters, he explains, was influenced by a blend of personal experiences and external forces. It was thus the clash between their diverse cultural values and personal identities that ended up leading to the tragic morning of November 2nd, 2004, the day of Van Gogh’s murder.
Both “Araby” and “Eveline” are characterized by melancholic, even depressive mood. In the first case, the sadness associations are developed by the motifs of darkness and silence that reinforce the boy’s psychological state. The boy says that “All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves” (108) which means that he wants to become invisible, to disappear, and darkness and silence are helpful for him alleviating his pain: “I was thankful that I could see so little” (108). In “Eveline”, the mood is also melancholic and depressive, but this time the feeling of melancholy is combined with nostalgia and a fear of the uncertain future. It reveals itself in Eveline’s memories of her deceased mother, her brothers, her friends, in her looking at the things associated with her previous life: “Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects from which she had never dreamed of being divided” (1). And what concerns the tone, in both “Araby” and “Eveline” it may be described as serious though not solemn as the narration lacks too eloquent expressions, and the context concerns more daily routine than some elevated
Slowly we are led to see how a simple, innocent man can lose the demeanor of mercy and civility as he allows revenge to dominate his emotions. The kind, peaceful, and helpful Emad we knew in the opening scene is now clouded in a different ideation. In the most calculated manner, Farhadi lets us visualize Emad’s earlier reply to his student, how a man can gradually change into a different
The visual and emblematic details established throughout the story are highly concentrated, with Araby culminating, largely, in the epiphany of the young unnamed narrator. To Joyce, an epiphany occurs at the instant when the essence of a character is revealed, when all the forces that endure and influence his life converge, and when we can, in that moment, comprehend and appreciate him. As follows, Araby is a story of an epiphany that is centered on a principal deception or failure, a fundamental imperfection that results in an ultimate realization of life, spirit, and disillusionment. The significance is exposed in the boy’s intellectual and emotional journey from first love to first dejection,