Travis VandeNoord English 3223 708175 Assignment 16 Jan. 2, 2013 1. Examine the behavior of the camels in this novel and discuss how they reproduce the interactions of men and women in Shabanu’s culture. The camels in the novel become a part of the story as much as any character. They are such a prevalent part of Shabanu’s story that it is impossible to separate them from the people she interacts with. It quickly becomes obvious that these camels take on many of the attributes of the culture and people around them making them more human like characters than animals. There are simple reasons the that camels like Guluband is seen as more human as he dances and sings along with Shabanu while they walk across the desert. Since Guluband has human characteristics, he is seen as a person more than a camel. When Dadi sells Guluband, the heartbreak that Shabanu feels is deep because of how it feel like losing a family member since the camel is so close to her. Yet, the real resemblance comes from Tipu and his interaction with Dadi. After the fight with Kalu, Tipu is enraged by Dadi’s interference in the fight. Shabanu tells of the stubbornness and unforgiveness of camels and how one day Tipu might seek revenge. This is very similar to the men of the culture. Often when the men of Shabanu’s culture are crossed, they are unmerciful in the revenge they seek in order to feel their honor is restored. The men are rarely swayed from their anger and this can be seen in Shabanu’s family as well. Dadi also a strong sense of stubbornness and carries a hard hand when disobeyed. The same can be said of the female camels and the women of the culture as both are expected to bare children and care for them while the males are used f... ... middle of paper ... ...r because of how well he does his job, not because he always loves his work. The value placed on his work is also the value placed on him as a person. Mother is the same with the quality of the garments that she makes for the girls. There is a quiet pride about how much effort is put into creating the clothes and how beautiful they are. That type of pride once existed in America. As technology has changed and impacted the market, that pride has diminished but people are having less personal investment into what they are doing. A job is a job in America. There is little reward in doing a job well except the reward of doing a job well and for most Americans that is not enough to satisfy them. Shabanu’s culture still holds on to the hope that they will be known as a people who work hard and are known for it. It is that aspect of her culture that I respect.
From my understanding, The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed in the beginning is a man who has just sold his horse for gold and he is happy. However, as the poem goes on, he begins to regret his decision and hopes for the horse to return. I believe that in some way “Jack’s” control and focus is relative to the horse, and the girl is relative to the gold. Throughout the story, we see Jack constantly thinking about her outside appearance, losing focus in school and attending a bazaar only because she wanted to go. He wasn’t worried about the inside. Similar, to the man who allowed his greed for gold drive him to trade something he needed and
Writing Women's Worlds is some stories on the Bedouin Egyptian people. In this book, thwe writer Lia Adu-Lughod's stories differ from the conventional ones. While reading, we discover the customs and values of the Bedouin people.
There are two main themes in ‘The Camel Rider’. The first one is that even people don’t speak the same language or have the same beliefs you can still work together and achieve so much. This is shown throughout the whole book because Adam could not speak Arabic and Walid could not speak English yet they still managed to communicate. The second theme is that people in wealthy countries are very lucky because not everyone has the luxuries that we often take for granted. An example in this book is when Adam gave Walid the money and Walid was astonished of how much money there was while Adam thought that it was a normal amount of money.
Abu-Lughod, L. (1986). Veiled sentiments: honor and poetry in a Bedouin society. Berkeley: University of California Press. 400 pp. HRAF.
First we should consider a horse, an animal with various levels of excellence given to it by God. God gave horses not only a physical greatness but also a level of wisdom, these include how they should obey their owner. But horses were also given many human like attributes such as love and memory, these characteristics can also be seen in other animals such as dogs.
It revolves around the issues of gender oppression, sexual assault, and importance of social status. Alifa Rifaat manages to express her opinions towards these themes by writing about a typical Egyptian marriage. She puts in focus the strong influence that a patriarchal society has. She also manages to prove how important social status is in society. The uses of literally elements such as theme and irony help express this view. It shows that in a typical Egyptian society women are commonly oppressed by all males in society
In a culture where stereotypes are so common and thrown left and right, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say “That guy looks suspicious” or “You’re such a FOB.” However, we must be careful when it comes to these remarks or stereotypes because we must remember that what we are doing is simply feeding more into a closed minded society and contributing to the derogating of a mixed society. In all three novels, Throne of the Crescent Moon, Anatomy of a Disappearance, and Lebanese Blonde, all three male Arab characters have shown that they go against this grain of the stereotypical Arab male gender/ culture. Whether it’s Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, the ghul hunter in the city of Dhamsawaat, who’s simply trying to rewind after a hard days of work and enjoy his tea; Or Nuri el-Alfi, the young boy with an odd fascination for a woman who becomes his step-mom with a father who can only be described as mysterious; Or Samir Tammouz, the reluctant individual who never quite seemed to fully grasp what he was getting himself into till it was too late. These three Arab male characters in all three novels are distinct in their own way and that’s what separates them from the mainstream stereotypes of the Arab male gender/ culture.
Pinault, David. "The Thousand and One Nights in Arabic Literature and Society." Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999):536-537.
Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. The Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction. Cambridge, MA:, Harvard Univ. Press, 1997.
Throughout the course of Arabic literature and film, heterotopias have been used in a multitude of ways. In some cases, they have been the spaces in which characters have encountered their coming of age, or loss of innocence. In others, heterotopias act as a space that connects masses of people from seemingly opposite ends of the social spectrum. In using heterotopias in both literature and film, the audience is forced to see circumstances in ways that are not customary. We see life’s happenings that are essentially the most sacred and private in a descriptive light and are exposed to details of life’s intimacies that are essentially unheard of.
But one important aspect is what really are norms and standards? And to what extent does it influence the lives of people. Mariam and Laila are two great examples that portray what a difference it makes to actually grow up with the same cultural backdrop with different standards of living. Hosseini tries to interpret these things by using events to point out the different things that have occurred in Afghanistan in the 20th century.
The Prophet is a book of short essays by Kahlil Gibran on a variety of themes ranging from love and marriage to pain and death presented by a character named Almustafa. By using a variety of rhetorical devices such as metaphors, similes, and imagery, he enhances the ideas presented in each section and makes them easier for the reader to comprehend and put into practice. Although written in 1923, all of the themes are still very relevant in today’s world, perhaps even more so.
Class and love and marriage are three of the themes that are portrayed in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley. The era which the story takes place is an era where societal norms began shifting towards modernity due to the impact of western colonization. Midaq Alley was written to portray a society within a larger society, which allows for analysis and comparison of the two. Cultural norms are constantly challenged throughput the novel and what is and what isn’t socially accepted is a theme that is recurrent throughout the text. “Midaq Alley deals with themes which transcend the Cairene setting, and are of relevance to Egypt if not the Middle East as a whole” (Deeb 121-130.)
All men expect to marry a girl in order to continue the family lineage, and children are considered a blessing, male are considered more valuable, because at a young age they are taught to respect their elders and to help their father to work and have responsibilities, while girls usually help their mother in the house’s tasks. Children of wealthy families have the luxury of focusing primarily on their education and they live with their parents until they get married. (Arab Academy, 2013)