Shahan Shahnur was 26 years old when he gave the birth to one of his most unique and exceptional creation, “Retreat without Song”. This piece was not only a beginning of new era for the Armenian literature but also alarmed the Armenians against substantial threats on their national identity such as degradation, alienation, and eventually assimilation. The novel is a vivid description of young Armenians from Istanbul and the interior provinces who are stranded on the beautiful streets of Paris. It is written in a style which is realistic, brilliant and impressively picturesque. Filled with boundless bitterness of the soul Shahnur severely criticize the Armenians, picturing a group of Armenian youths, who uprooted from their native identity …show more content…
It is now obvious that people were getting offended when reading this novel because his creation was not understood most of the time. Nevertheless, the writings were doing their job of describing reality and firing people up to revolt against retreat and assimilation. Although it was with a price of hating Shahnur [], he didn’t give up. Shahnur was convinced that if people won’t appreciate his writing today, they will in the future. On the other hand, the controversy created by Shahan Shahnur was due his pure anti- establishment views. He revolted against the everything except the Armenian language and the Armenianness. He criticizes traditions, political parties, Armenians attitude at exile. He talked about Armenian famous writers mostly in a negative aspect. Some accepted his work and criticism such as Charents, but some accused him of being a traitor to Armenianness, which is nonsense because he only loved Armenians and Armenianness. Further, Shahan was good enough to threaten the establishment's crown in literature that was the only reason for the hate. Shahnur didn’t care about anybody's opinion, he kept writing nonstoply. At some point of his life, he broke apart and couldn’t handle the pressure from Armenian population, leaders, and writers. He was also in a bad physical condition, so he took a break from writing in Armenian. Against all claims, Shahnur didn’t hate Armenianness or Armenian; that’s why with all the fame that he had in his French writing, he returned to create in Armenian. I believe the reason of that was his novel “retreat without song”; Shahnur didn’t want to betray Ararat and didn’t want to
This completely changed the perception of the United States within Iran. Many Iranians believed that “American influence and power made a mockery of their national autonomy and desecrated their religious beliefs” (Farber, 37). The real struggle came once the Shah sought asylum in the U.S. Iran believed this to be a betrayal and demanded the Shah be released to the revolutionaries. Due to the fact that the United States did not refuse the Shah, the revolutionaries took the embassy in Tehran and all of the people that worked there hostage. One of the hostages wrote back to his parents during the crisis “‘We will not be set free until shah is released and the longer we stay here like this the better is a chance for something terrible to happen’” (Farber, 156). The siege was led by Iranian students who supported the revolution and the Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader that the revolution had selected to take the place of the
From The Phantom of the Opera to A Child Called It, literature is full of woeful tales containing characters waiting for a compassionate soul to understand and sympathize with them. Farewell to Manzanar is one such book. It is a sorrowful tale of hypocrisy, shame, and stolen freedom which is best viewed with a condoling heart. Though this may initially seem a work of fiction, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston presents in this book not only an autobiography, but also a very acurate portrait of events as they occurred.
In All The Shah’s Men there seems to be a very strong hatred for all foreign powers, including the United States, taken by the citizens of Iran. I believe that this ultimately occurred because of the impatience of certain government officials in Washington D.C., and also in Great Britain. If only there could have been better communication between countries, I feel that there would have been a solution reached. The stubbornness of the British for the most part, led to many lives being lost, and a feeling of perpetual disgust being shown towards the United States for their involvement. Although the British were our allies and we did have an extreme fear of communism taking over the free world, this coup was disorganized, forced along too quickly, and put forth without any guidance or strong evidence, which in the end proved to completely defy what the United States was trying to impose on the world, and what Mossadegh was trying to give his people; freedom and democracy.
Through the whole movie there is never an intimate interaction between two Iranians, they have no opportunity to humanize the Iranian country as a whole. Therefore, the audience is led to believe that all of Iran is represented by the generic description and hostile toward Americans. The closest interaction is when the house maid gives up the six diplomats, and even in that the Iranians are shown with more flaws, treachery and betrayal. This puts Iran as a country the antagonist of the movie based on these false characteristics and the events in the movie, many of which were exaggerated or created. Argo proves that Orientalism is still impactful today, and the West still sees the East in a like manner of that in the 1800’s.
This novel and film commentary analysis or interpretation will be first summarised and then critiqued. The summary will be divided into twenty- four episodes. While summarising it is well to remember that the film was made out of the book.
With many magazines and newspapers being shut down, authors are speaking out against the government and the censorship it has established (Iran par. 5). As intellectuals are finding flaws and contradictions in the belief systems the government uses, the religious leaders grow more and more threatened and frightened of losing their power (Iran par. 5). In an attempt to outwit government officials, writers and artist will portray their intended message through a vague symbol or metaphor, as to not seem suspicious (Iran par. 9). The suffocation of intellectualism affects Marji’s life when all of the universities are shut down, the reasoning being that "The educational system and what is written in school books, at all levels, are decadent. Everything needs to be revised to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam" (Satrapi 73). The government is trying to eliminate the skepticism floating about in more educated groups of people by teaching the next generation Islamic ideals. This indoctrination will ensure the survival of an Islamic
Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, is indisputably a master narrator. His refreshingly distinctive style is rampant throughout the work, as he integrates diverse character perspectives as well as verb tenses to form a temperament of storytelling that is quite inimitably his own. In his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, he explores the intertwining lives of two drastically different Afghani women, Lailia and Mariam, who come together in a surprising twist of fate during the Soviet takeover and Taliban rule. After returning to his native Afghanistan to observe the nation’s current state amidst decades of mayhem, Hosseini wrote the novel with a specific fiery emotion to communicate a chilling, yet historically accurate account
First, the Shah, out-of-touch with what his people wanted, became the catalyst for massive xenophobic and anti-Western feelings to spread throughout the nation. By giving up traditional Islamic ideals and becoming sort of a “puppet” for the U.S. and the Western world, the Shah made a mockery of himself and of those traditional Islamic values, which were paramount in Iran. For many years, Iranians wrote letters to the Shah, voicing their discontent with many aspects of his rule — the spread of the Bahá’í Faith, the collapse of Islamic traditions, and the crumbling economy. The Shah, however, did nothing to fix these issues. Instead, he designed a political reformation movement, hoping to silence his opponents, to introduce personal rights for women, and to establish a sense of fiscal equality. This series of reforms, which appeared to be a blatant attempt to Westernize Iran, became known as the “White
A few years later in 1979 the Islamic revolution began, causing the Shah to flee (introduction pages one and two).
As revealed in Azar Nafisi's book Reading Lolita in Tehran, Iran's radical religious and political views are the driving force behind the domination and maltreatment of the country's people. Throughout the book there are many examples of this oppressive treatment which is enforced because of strict religious convictions. Nafisi compares the oppression happening during a tense period of revolution with various works of fiction that mirrors what is becoming life in Iran. The tyrannical treatment of Iranian people can be analyzed by uncovering themes found throughout Nafisi's book.
Unlike the Shah, he was extremely against western influence in Iran. Mossadegh won national elections and demanded more power. In order to retain influence in Iran, the CIA helped overthrow Mossadegh and bring Pahlavi back to power.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Part of modernizing Iran was turning it into an absolute dictatorship. The Shah was a ruthless leader. He jailed those who did not follow his laws. The Shah violated the basic principles of human rights, such as freedom of speech and religion. The Shah's son was also a ruthless leader who made himself like a king; he denied Iranian citizens peace.
The education system in place when the shah was in charge was secular in nature, and the education system implemented by the Islamic regime was incredibly religious and based upon the teachings of Islam. If the students of Iran were not forced to switch from one education system to the other, then each system in their own way would have succeeded. However, since the students were forced to switch education systems, this caused the students to become rebellious. “I think that the reason we were so rebellious was that our generation had known secular schools,” (Satrapi, 2000, p. 98). The students had become accustomed to they ways of the secular schools, that when they were forced to switch to the strict rules of the education system of the Islamic regime, this caused pandemonium and ultimately led to rebellion. This switch is education system was the reason both forms of education ended up not succeeding but failing.
Although the Iranian Revolution was caused by combination of political and religious motivations and ideas, the desires of the people supporting the movement were more dominantly religious ideas that were wished to be imposed in society and in a new government. The Shah, or king, of Iran at the time was Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who had developed relations with nations in “western” world, specifically with the United States. The United States supported the White Revolution, which was a series of social reformations the Shah made to remove Islamic v...
Perhaps the main reason I liked this book was the unfaltering courage of the author in the face of such torture as hurts one even to read, let alone have to experience first-hand. Where men give in, this woman perseveres, and, eventually, emerges a stronger person, if that is even possible. The book’s main appeal is emotional, although sound logical arguments are also used. This book is also interesting as it shows us another face of Nasir – the so-called “champion of Arab nationalism” – who is also the enemy of pan-Islamism. The book is also proof of history repeating itself in modern-day Egypt.