Analysis Of A Gentle Madness By Humera Afridi

Farah Ahmedi was a woman who wanted to cross the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan. The story “The Other Side of The Sky,” elaborates on this statement by describing Farah Ahmedi’s life, the author states, “Their only hope was to escape to Pakistan”(para. 3). This quote explains that Farah Ahmedi did not want to leave the country out of her own choice, it was a necessary decision. Her country was war-torn, so she and her mom had no choice. After the very difficult and treacherous journey to cross the border through the mountains on the border, and four years in Pakistan, Farah and her mother were finally chosen to come to America. A quote from an interview with Farah elaborates on this statement by stating, “After four years of hardship [in Pakistan] she and her mother are chosen to come to America.” (authorlink 4). Just because Farah and her mother got out of Afghanistan, didn’t mean that the hardship was over. She had lost all of her family

Farah Ahmedi was a woman who wanted to cross the border to Pakistan from Afghanistan. The story “The Other Side of The Sky,” elaborates on this statement by describing Farah Ahmedi’s life, the author states, “Their only hope was to escape to Pakistan”(para. 3). This quote explains that Farah Ahmedi did not want to leave the country out of her own choice, it was necessary. Her country was war torn, so she and her mom had no choice. After the very hard journey to cross the border through mountains, and four years in Pakistan, Farah and her mother were finally chosen to come to America. A quote from an interview with Farah elaborates on this statement by stating, “After four years of hardship [in Pakistan] she and her mother are chosen to come to America.” (authorlink 4). Just because Farah and her mother got out of Afghanistan, didn’t mean that the hardship was over. She had lost all of her family except for her mother when she was in Germany getting her prosthetic leg. Farah wanted to have a better life, so she made the decision to cross the border, helping and changing her life forever.

All throughout this book, Afghanistan had many switches of power and constant war involving many countries, including the US and Russia. At the end of the book, as things are calming down, Laila says to Tariq, “Maybe there will be hope at the other end of this war, maybe for the first time in a long time.” (Hosseni 386). This quote shows the hope that the people of Afghanistan still had to possess to persevere through the years of war. The war affected thousands of lives in the country, as the war swept through the different cities. This war of especially affected Laila because it resulted in the death of her parents. Afghanistan as a whole had to show tremendous strength throughout the book as they endured through the war. Perseverance is most prominently shown through all citizens during the country’s war.

Farah Ahmedi’s goal was to cross the Afghanistan border to get to a better life in Pakistan. In the first read, The Other Side of the Sky, it says, “‘Night was falling, we were stranded out there in the open’”(Ahmedi 4). This states it was nighttime and she and her mother had no place to stay. Along the way, her and her mother faced many hardships, “The worst thing would have been if we had gotten separated. We were only risking injury”(Ahmedi 3). In addition, “Terribly warm and we had no water, but we walked. My mother began to wheeze. Her asthma was bad. Her anxiety made it worse. We could have gotten over in little more than an hour if not for my mother. Our journey took many hours”(Ahmedi 11). Overall, they succeeded their mission and made it over the border. For example, “This excerpt from “Escape from Afghanistan” describes their efforts to make

With Fara’s loss of a leg, it seemed almost impossible to get out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan. But so desperate to cross the border, they risked their health, especially Fara’s mother’s. “Her asthma was pretty bad at this point, poor thing,” (Ahmedi 11). This text shows that Fara’s mother’s health was not the best at the time and she could have gotten sick. “Because of her, we had to pause every few minutes, so our journey took many hours,” (Ahmedi 11). This shows that her mother was slowing them down because of her poor health.

This one decision left a stain on Amir for the next thirty years. A quote on pg. 88 states “I wish someone would wake me up, so I wouldn’t have to live with this lie anymore” This quote explains how guilty Amir felt after seeing Hassan get raped as he desperately sought for anyone to find out but didn’t chose to tell anyone the actual truth. Another example from the text is when Amir tries throwing pomegranates at Hassan, as an attempt to get Hassan to fight back and punish Amir for choosing to leave Hassan. However, Hassan refused to throw any pomegranates at Amir, but instead smashed one into his face. A quote on pg.94 states “I wanted Hassan to fight me back for the way I failed him” This quote indicates that Amir wanted Hassan to fight him back, so he could have the “punishment [he] craved” (93) This demonstrates that Amir wanted to feel the act of being punished for his wrongdoing, similar to how Hassan was brutally raped due to Amir’s apparent mistake. Amir’s guilt forces him to travel across two countries to seek redemption for the mistake he made. 15 years later, Amir’s guilt led him to make the hefty decision of returning to Afghanistan “to be good again” (189) by rescuing Hassan’s orphaned son, Sohrab, from the terrible conditions he was left to face in Kabul. Amir sees this as an opportunity to redeem and free himself from

He has traveled to Afghanistan to save his nephew he never knew. At this point Amir knows the dangers he faces in the war riddled country but he must seek a way to forgive himself for what he did to Hassan. In his quest to make things right again, Amir confronts Assef, ““WHAT’S SO FUNNY?" Assef bellowed. Another rib snapped, this time left lower. What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this.” (Pg. 289) This is a large turning point in the novel. Amir can finally feel like he is doing right by everyone and gaining redemption for his

A Long Way Gone tells the story of a boy residing in Sierra Leone who loses his innocence at a young age and manages to overcome his traumatizing events through story telling. In Ishmael Beah’s riveting memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah explores the idea that reminiscing upon joyful memories and loved ones when undergoing distress, allows children to be able to recover from their loss of innocence through the use of imagery, foreshadowing, and flashbacks. Evidently, Beah is seen throughout the story recalling every childhood memory to aid him through survival.

Not only did Amir risk his life by going back to Kabul, but he also saved Sohrab from Taliban officials and brought him back to Pakistan. After Amir went back to Kabul, he found out that Sohrab was being held at one Taliban official’s house. When he went there to get Sohrab, he found out that the Taliban official was Assef; the guy who raped Hassan. Assef agreed to let Sohrab go in exchange for a fight with Amir. While Amir gets beaten, he thinks about the day when he asked Hassan to punish him by throwing pomegranate at him. But Hassan did not and Amir felt like he wasn’t punished. After Assef beat him up, he felt that he was redeemed because he needed to be punished for his sins. On page 289, Amir narrates his fight with Assef, “What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d even been looking forward to this. – My body was broken – just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later – but I felt healed. Healed at last.” Amir felt that he was healed because he finally was punished physically for what he did to Hassan. He was physically damaged but at the end he was able to recover and take Sohrab back to Pakistan.

The last month of our stay I attended one slumber party after another, all thrown in our honor.” This statement says a lot, This shows that the people grown to accept other types of people from different places, grown-up, and treated her with the love and care she deserved from day one in her last month. She didn’t want to leave, As she has grown to actually like the people in her town in California, She didn’t know when she would or if come back, however, She invited her new friends over to visit her in Iran, Maybe

Amir thought, “I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan – the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past…. Or I could run. In the end, I ran.” (Hosseini, 82) It was this conflict that changed the lives of all the characters. This was Amir’s, “final opportunity to decide who [he] was going to be.” (Hosseini, 82) As a result, He spent his adolescence ‘running’ away from his mistakes, because everywhere he looked “Kabul had become a city of ghosts…A city of harelipped ghosts.” (Hosseini, 144) To Amir, Hassan was haunting his memories. Amir couldn’t stand it so Baba and Amir moved to America. “For [Amir], America was a place to bury [his] memories.” (Hosseini, 136) In contrast to Kogawa’s novel, Amir’s actions resulted to the change of his life and the lives of people around him. Rahim Khan, a family friend, calls Amir in his adulthood asking him to come to Pakistan. Rahim Khan urges Amir, “There is a way to be good again.” (Hosseini, 2)

For instance, by using the relationship between the past and present to influence Amir’s character development, Hosseini demonstrates how despite one’s best efforts, there is no way to escape the memories of the past. Memories follow individuals wherever they go and can torment individuals for the rest of their lives. Hosseini reveals how Amir’s past decisions shape his character development and his decision­making as the story progresses. When Amir was young, he was

First, Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba, helped create Amir’s identity. Their intricate relationship often left Amir feeling worthless as if he could not live up to the standards of a Pashtun. This negatively impacted Amir growing up; his values constantly changed as he tried to form a close bond with his father. Baba raised Amir to believe that everyone in Afghanistan had a certain role to play in life, but they should all be treated with respect. Baba’s values made Amir think he had disappointed his father. The high expectations that Baba had for Amir showed that he cared about their reputation. Being the child Amir was, he translated Baba’s hardness as though his father were unhappy to have a child such as Amir. Amir recounts the emotion displayed on his father’s face after an afternoon together; he laments, “Mostly I will never forget Baba’s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted

Amir lived a stable life while he was young but yet he still saw the terrors around him as he became older, when places he remembered were bombed, when people he knew were either dead or fleeing for their lives. Where blood

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.