Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif

African Americans have been discriminated and were not treated fairly from the beginning of the American colonies up to the 1960s. Their history included about 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of discrimination. However, many people state that throughout the 1800s, the whaling industry helped African Americans thrive as a race. In addition, they were treated as equals and could gain glory and wealth from it. In most cases, this is not true because negroes for three main reasons. Almost all African people did not receive high positions on their crew ships. Also, they experienced segregation on ships and were treated not equally. Finally, they were taken for their cheap and hard labor in a dangerous, unrewarding industry. Using internet sources and the novel, In The Heart of The Sea, by Nathaniel Philbrick, African Americans in the whaling industry had low status within crews and faced harsh working conditions as well as discrimination and racism.

Timothy Cole was a 24-year-old student at Texas Tech University. After completing two years of college, he had enlisted in the army for two years in hopes of serving his country. Timothy was an ordinary man with dreams of getting married and having children, but that dream never materialized. Upon his return to Texas Tech in 1985, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the rape of a 20-year-old girl named Michele Mallin. Mallin, then, a student at Texas Tech University Lubbock, was walking to her car when a man approached her and held a knife to her neck. He forced himself into her car and drove her to the outskirts of town where he raped her repeatedly. The next day the police investigator showed Michele pictures of the suspect where she pointed at Timothy Cole. When police showed her a lineup, again she picked Cole. “I was positive,” she said. “I really thought it was him,” but in fact she had accidently robbed an innocent man of his freedom (Lavendra 2009).

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is a beautiful tale of two women in Afghanistan during the Taliban uprising. They grow up on complete opposite sides of Afghan culture. The main character, Mariam, grows up in a more traditional way caused by her forced marriage to Rasheed. Laila on the other hand, grows up with a supportive father who encourages gender equality and education. There are many cultural differences such as, women’s rights, public executions, and the Taliban. The two main characters, Mariam and Laila, develop greatly throughout the novel. They push each other to be better and to stand up for equality. This plays into the themes of the novel. Women’s strength and loyalty are the two most important themes. They

People are different in many ways. Ranging from colour of their skin to their ethnic backgrounds. How society copes with these differences is what defines prejudice and discrimination. Racism, social class and ethnicity have become a never ending cycle that begins to shape the opinions of how people treat one another. The novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini revolves around a society constructed around two socially diverse ethnic groups the Pashtuns who practice Sunni Islam and the Hazaras who follow Shia Islam. Throughout the novel The Kite Runner, a variety of characters have made decisions that affect the overall outcome of the novel which base around ethnicity, race and social class.

Women have often played an important role in advocating social justice. However, they have rarely been credited for their efforts and actions. Indeed, the research or narratives on social movements too often focus on male experiences. Yet, a gendered approach to social movements is crucial, because women’s experiences differ from men’s, as do their reasons for becoming involved with any type of activism, be it political or social. The movie Salt of the Earth by Michael Wilson (1954) illustrates those differences and emphasizes the importance of understanding the role played by individual and collective identity in political action. How does one’s social identity shape one’s involvement in political action? In this movie, women get involved in a strike; they become visible activists and no longer just the shadows of their husbands. Yet, their depiction in the movie presents them as essentially mothers and wives, inscribing their actions in the realm of domesticity. Thus, their actual agency remains in question.

Millennials form the majority of the United States population, outnumbering Baby Boomers by eleven million. Higher education is now more crucial for securing a middle-class lifestyle than ever before, yet for the majority, the cost for a bachelor’s degree has become prohibitively expensive. In “The Land of Opportunity”, Loewen contends that high school education methodically avoids a critical dialogue of socioeconomic inequality in America. The social class to which a student belongs greatly influences their capacity for upward mobility. If higher education is a requirement for improved economic status, then students in the lower class are already disadvantaged. Loewen quotes Theodore Sizer, “If you are the child of low-income parents, the chances are good that you will receive limited and often careless attention from adults in your high school” (qtd. in Loewen, 203). High school students cannot look to the classroom to prepare them for real world power dynamics. If left to their own devices, adolescents may be influenced by skewed allegories in fictional entertainment media. Parents must use educational resources to prompt critical thinking about socioeconomic inequality in order to prepare America’s youth for securing their futures.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a non-fiction book about an architect who led the Chicago World Fair of 1893; a serial killer used the fair to lure people to him. Blocks from the fair, the killer built a hotel with equipment ready to use. This book known for incorporating some of America’s history also had very dramatic and entertaining story behind it. Erik Larson wrote in third person. He wrote this book to inform people on what happen in Chicago. Erik uses a great amount of imagery and diction to inform people of this event. ”The lake was grey, darkening to a band of black at the horizon “was just one of his many spots of imagery. His tone also comes across as objective and neutral limits from using any language that

struggles with self identity after moving from Iran to America for asylum. In addition to fleeing Iran due to the political climate and his family’s involvement with the Shah, Behrani is presented to the reader as the quintessential immigrant and refugee. He and his family move to San Francisco, California in order to start a new life. With very little money compared to what they were accustomed to, Behrani and his family reside in a relatively wealthy area.

Throughout world history women have been treated abysmally. Societies with male-dominance have abused and used women and continue to do so today. Women have been made vulnerable to a man due to the spread of cultural values and beliefs in society that condemn them from power. In Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the two main characters Mariam and Laila develop an unconditional bond in which they become each others protectors. The immense inner strength of women from adversity has been exemplified through the growth of Mariam and Laila's contrasting relationship, the pain they endure from Rasheed which strengthens their bond and the courage within them that ultimately resolves their conflict.

Written by Tayeb Salih, the novel ‘Season of Migration to the North’ as described by The Observer “is an Arabian Nights in reverse, enclosing a pithy moral about international misconceptions and delusions.” The novel is set both in England and the Sudan, showing the stark social differences within these two locations. In this essay, I will evaluate the reasons supporting and opposing Mahjoub’s statement as defined in ‘Season of Migration to the North’.

“In all his travels the Bishop had seen no country like this. From the flat red sea of sand rose great rock mesas... The sandy soil of the plain had a light sprinkling of junipers, and was splotched with masses of blooming rabbit brush,-- that oliver-coloured plant that grows in high waves like a tossing sea, at this season covered with a thatch of bloom, yellow as gorse, or orange like marigolds.” 94 Both women describe the land of desert with such vividness that one is not left with the idea of a barren, sandy soil but an environment that is rich with history as well as life. This life and history of the land are a part of the culture.

Khaled Hosseini presents the struggle Afghan women go through every day by discussing honour, marriage and the place of women in society in Afghanistan.

Plot summary: Amir flashbacks to when he was twelve years old in Afghanistan. He lives with his father, Baba, and has two servants, Ali and Hassan, who are also a father and son duo. The latter two are Hazaras, Afghan’s minority, and as such, are subjected to racial slurs and cruelty. Amir and Hassan are playing when Assef, Kamal, and

The work of literature “Midaq Alley” by Naguib Mahfouz introduces the audience an Arab culture through his descriptions of different characters. Each character is used as an analogue, representing people in the alley with different beliefs and ambitions. Moreover, the characteristics of Mahfouz’s characters also draw international readers’ attention concerning how westernization takes place.

Tehran, the capital of Iran, has its highs and lows. It is polluted by everything it encompasses. The city is jam packed with rapid highways, stentorian neighborhoods, and idiosyncratic citizens. City of Lies, written by Ramita Navai, perfectly sums up the way that this cryptic and disturbing city works. The novel follows eight very unique characters on Vali Asr Street who have a connection to the city that changed each of their lives. Each of them have very different backstories and personality traits that make them different from the last. But in the end, what brings them together is that they are all polluted by the city they call home. These characters, throughout their lives in Tehran, experience difficult pasts and hardships all because of the different ways of pollution in the city. This is evident when we read about Dariush’s environmental realization during his return to Tehran, when we read about many woman characters dealing with sexism and prostitution, and when when we read about the citizen’s opinions on the politics and organizations.