Catherine Rottenberg's Let It Be Morning

‘Wild Thorns’ by Sahar Khalifeh is an insightful commentary that brings to life the Palestinian struggle under the Israeli Occupation and embodies this conflict through the different perspectives brought forth by the contrasting characters. We are primarily shown this strife through the eyes of the principal character, the expatriate Usama, as well as the foil character of his cousin, Adil. Khalifeh skillfully uses literary devices such as emotive language, allusions and positive and negative connotations to highlight life under the Occupation. As the audience, these techniques help encourage us to consider the struggle more in depth, and due to the wide variety of characters, invite us to relate to them.

Arab and Jew Wounded Spirits in a Promise Land by David Shipler gives an in-depth looked in his time and experience in the Middle East. He is able to show how both Arabs and Jews have found themselves in the midst of an ongoing battle for power and control over land. They both found themselves, not being to live among one another. During this time in the 1980s some were trying to find peace during a time of hardship and gloom, but many were still caught in the normal life many lived filled with hatred towards one another.

Ever since, Palestinians have had to adapt to new places and cultures in order to survive, which makes it more difficult for them to preserve their own. Said presents several examples of transculturation throughout the essay. For instance, the use of the Mercedes, even though Said describes it in negative terms, the use of the Mercedes has come in handy for Palestinians. Enduring one disaster after another, Palestinian identity is arduous to preserve in exile. It is a struggle of having no country. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath.

In my opinion, although there are many conflicts of a political nature, religion always seems to take a leading central role in these unfortunate events, and that wrongly feeds the platform of terrorists to use violence. I personally do not understand terrorism; I think it occurs when human beings pass through the line of untenable reason of the lack of compassion towards for others, when they believe that their cause is more valuable than other people’s life. (Personal

In the novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga the main character, is Balram, one of the children in the “darkness” of India. Adiga sheds a new light on the poor of India, by writing from the point of view of a man who was at one time in the “darkness” or the slums of India and came into the “light” or rich point of view in India. Balram’s job as a driver allows him to see both sides of the poverty line in India. He sees that the poor are used and thrown away, while the rich are well off and have no understanding of the problems the poor people must face. The servants are kept in a mental “Rooster Coop” by their masters. The government in India supposedly tries to help the poor, but if there is one thing Adiga proves in The White Tiger,

As ‘The White Tiger’, Balram has high standards to live up to throughout his life, even as a driver. “‘You’d never guess that his caste was a teetotaling one,’” said a minister Balram drove “‘would you?’”(Adinga 182). On his rise to entrepreneurship, Balram works as a private driver. Drivers are often seen as uneducated and lowly, so when Balram proves his quality, he is simply rewarded with kudos. While Balram works to be successful, John works to be a voice of reason within the World State, seemingly opposing his nickname. John, once an outsider to both his birthplace and now to the World State, tries to free them from what he believes is captivity, in a protest. He began to scream, “‘Free, free’” as “he punched the indistinguishable faces of his assailants” (Huxley 193). His views of the World State, rooting from his knowledge on the reservation, opposed the society. When he tries to speak out and becomes violent, he begins to fulfill the stigma of a Savage. Both men in the novels are the Black sheeps in their

With the passage at hand, Dr. Ella Shohat discusses about the case of being an Arab Jew, a historical paradox, as one of many social elisions. Unlike the idea of intersectionality, binarism leaves “little place for complex identities” (Shohat, 2). As an American, Jew, and Arab, she speaks of the disparities amidst a war involving all three cultural topographies. Albeit she speaks from a subjective standpoint, she does not mention the issue of racial hygiene, class, geographic divisions, and gender. Passages from Guenter Lewy, Melissa Wright, and Philippe Bourgois will be used to discuss the way in which different positionalities might affect the analysis of “Dislocated Identities.”

(4) Violence is central to both war and terrorism, but the objective and purpose of terrorism is entirely different. Terrorists seek to use intimidation to impose their agendas. They create fear and panic, extort concessions or weaken and discredit governments to show that the government is unable to protect their citizens. Terrorism is also used in the place of low cost strategic warfare, motivated by ideology, religion or nationalistic sentiments, to express protest and rage, advance fanatic agendas, and overthrow opposition governments. Countries such as Syria, Iran and Libya use terrorism as a form of diplomacy and as an adjunct to their foreign policies. * For these states, terrorism is an integral part of their negotiation strategies.

Terrorists are not the same as terrorists. A country like Palestine, which oppressed by Israel, must proceed from their own perspective no other choice but to use force against it. Now some countries declare these people as terrorists, but other countries do not. So it depends on the perspective.

Terrorism in the Middle East has brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the attention of the world. These terrorist groups use murder, bombs, threats, and other violent acts to get their way politically. Hamas, the organization that has replaced Fatah as the representative of the Palestinians, is a leading sponsor of terrorism. The Hamas are the leading reason there is not peace in the middle east as they strongly embrace terrorism.

Within The White Tiger, Indian society, which is extremely corrupt, is depicted as a world of predator and prey, with the rich taking full advantage of the poor; for one to even reach the same playing field as those at the very top of Indian society, one must adopt the corruption of the upper class and learn to be a predator themselves. We see this with the novels unreliable and narcissistic narrator, Balram, who grew up poor and with very little formal education. Throughout his youth he witnessed how the rich would exploit and abuse the poor and he would remark at how monstrous and predatory like they were, yet to escape his own fate and caste, Balram too would become just as beastly by killing the first rich person who ever treated him

“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga is a piece of literature that talks about India left and right. A book that can be half fiction half true. It talks about the fortunate and the unfortunate, the rich and the poor. The irony shown in this book about corruption, oppression of the poor, reality of India vs. the images foreigners have of India help portray our understanding of this novel.

I enjoyed reading the book “The White Tiger” written by Aravind Adiga over the summer. Throughout the story main character Balram Halwai was explaining his success story in a letter regarding his transformation from being a peasant in a small poor town, to a how he came about to be an entrepreneur. Throughout this novel is a series of letters to “His Excellency” Mr. Wen Jiabao, the Premier of China who wanted to come to the town to follow in his steps. As a character, Balram goes on a transformative journey while discovering his own identity. He goes from being very obedient and observant as a child to very observe and obstruct. His master, Mr. Ashok was one of the few people that were on his side. He was the reason that Balram got the

The narrator of the novel, “The White Tiger,” by Aravind Adiga writes in first person. This particular narrator is Balram Halwai, who tells about his own journey throughout the book. The writer uses the style of the narrator, Balram, writing letters to the Chinese Premier. This particular narrator is telling the story because it is him that is writing the letters. This style of letter writing helps to tell the story because through these letters Balram tells of how he came to be a success in life. The reason he started to write letters to Mr. Premier was in response to something he heard on the radio. He heard the statement that said, “Mr. Jiabao is on a mission: he wants to know the truth about Bangalore” (2). Balram, the narrator, knows he is a man with little formal education, but considers himself an expert on the hidden truth of the India culture. Mr. Premier also wants to meet with Indian entrepreneurs and hear about their success and Balram wanted to tell about his. He considers himself an expert because of his life story. Balram grew up in a rural area in poverty. In school an inspector calls him “The white Tiger,” because he said “it is the rarest of animals” (30). He called him this because thought Balram was the brightest kid in the village. He was forced to drop out of school and start working to help support his family. He ends up getting a job as a chauffeur to the Stork’s family. The Stork is one of the bosses that have control over Balram’s village where

Written by Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger tells the story of a man who went from living with nothing to someone with everything he could ever want. Balram Halwai grows up in “the Darkness,” an area of India where, among other things, family was the main source of life and contempt for family was of the utmost evil. When he decides to find a job outside of his social circle, Balram’s family implores him to send money home to sustain them. He finally hits his final straw when his grandmother begins to try to force him to be married, something he does not have interest in and knows it will take away his independence. Once he disconnects from his family, he is able to be himself, free from his former life that tied him down. As Balram Halwai embarks on his journey to become successful as the “White Tiger”, the social concept of family breaks down, thus giving way to him finding his independence.