Parvana's Journey Essay

In the novel, Parvana, written by Deborah Ellis, the characters experience a number of changes that greatly affect them. Some of the more drastic changes that occur include father being arrested, Parvana changing into a boy, Parvana meeting Shauzia and when Parvana and Shauzia go digging for bones. These changes clearly impact Parvana as well as other family members in similar and different ways.

     My favorite character in this book would have to be Peter. He was a little bit of a tough guy yet timid, but wasn’t afraid to fight for his siblings lives. Peter was the oldest amongst his brother and two sisters and was most likely the brains and brawn of the bunch. In this story, Peter has to fight off a wolf to test his courage or, in Aslan’s words, win his spurs. He returns victorious and is knighted by the lion called Aslan. His brother Edmund, a very mischievous boy and a bother to his sisters Lucy and Susan, looks up to Him though he never admits to it. Peter was definitely the highlight of this book.

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, is the story of a young man searching for enlightenment. Through his journey, Siddhartha follows several Buddhist and Hindu paths to achieve his ultimate goal of enlightenment. Siddhartha follows the path of the Brahmin, the Samana, the materialistic gambler, and eventually the Buddhist middle path. Being the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha leads a privileged life, but this isn’t enough for him. Siddhartha had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and after a time, he leaves his father to find his own path to Nirvana. Although Siddhartha was raised in a strict Hindu society, his path to Nirvana was a combination of Buddhism, and Hinduism.

Parvana is a novel written by Deborah Ellis. Parvana and Shauzia are 2 young girls who life in a Taliban ruled country, known as Afghanistan. Both girls are faced with many difficulties throughout the novel. The 2 girls are given the chance to leave the war-torn country and Shauzia immediately takes this chance. By doing so, Shauzia will no longer be living under the Taliban’s rules. Being an 11 year old girl, Shauzia deserves to get an education. Shauzia’s family does not value her in any sort of way and she doesn’t deserve to see such disgusting things everyday.

    In Hesse's novel, Siddhartha the title character, Siddhartha leaves the Brahmins in search of Nirvana - spiritual peace.  The journey he endures focuses on two main goals - to find peace and the right path (http://www.ic.ucsb.edu/~ggotts/hesse/life/jennifer/html).  Joseph Mileck, the author of Hermann Hesse:  Life and Art, asserts that Siddhartha focuses on a sense of unity developed through Siddhartha's mind, body, and soul (Baumer).  Hesse's Siddhartha revolves around three central journeys - a physical, a mental, and a spiritual journey.

The cover of this book caught my eye and I wondered what it was. When I saw it I thought to myself and I said I would give this book a chance. I flipped the book over and I started reading a paragraph about the book. It had a lot of details and it was describing the characters very well. A good book for me is one with a

When you’re walking down the street and see a group of tattooed men of color and your first instinct is to cross the street is this due to internalized racism or does past experiences validate your prejudice? Or when you sit with a group of people all speaking a common language other than your own, is your discomfort and insecurity rationalized? The film Crash explores the lives of different socio-economic groups and their experiences dealing with prejudice and stereotypes or being on the other end of it. The concept of various “American Identities” are explored within the film. We see the white woman who fears people of color. The African American male who’s so anti-white he becomes the stereotypes he’s supposedly against. The Latino male who based on appearance is profiled and many more characters. All these individuals created these identities for themselves to exist in America. In Bharati Mukherjee’s “Two Ways to Belong in America” we see this theme being shared when Mukherjee and her sister Mira arrive in America and must find their own way to exist in this new country.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a novel about the spiritual journey of a man named Siddhartha whose living in the time of Gotama Buddha. In this novel, Hesse explains in detail what Siddhartha learns as he searches for Nirvana. For Siddhartha to learn, he needs teachers, just like everyone else if they wish to pursue and education. There are four major teachers that Siddhartha truly takes something from, these teachers are Govinda, Kamala, Vasudeva, and the river itself. Another important thing is the aspect of self realization and teaching, which is ultimately what helps Siddhartha put those teachings together and reach Nirvana. This also allows Siddhartha himself to accept his new role as a teacher to his friend Govinda, which is the

There are not that many characters in the book but the main character in the book is Chet. The book is has Falling Action in it. It tells

To start off, a part I did not like about the book was the part about Ove’s dad. I felt as though this complicated the plot a lot and was not necessary to the base of the book. It did not need to be added into the book because it had no effect to my understanding of what was happening in the book. If anything it made me more confused because it went back in time, then it came back to the present and it was confusing what time period we were in at the moment. A good part of the book was when Parvaneh was becoming friends with Ove because he needed to get out of his daily routine. Ove needed someone to shake up the life he had been living for many years. I would not recommend this book to adolescents because the book was confusing at some points and the humor was guided towards the adults. Personally, I would read another book by Fredrik Backman because the book was still very well written. I also could understand the book, for the most part. To continue, this book would be better read by adults because the humor was more guided to that age group. Also, this book is still relevant today because people do not live forever. We have to learn to move on from the bad times just like Ove did. When a loved one dies we feel grief, but like Ove we use the people around us to begin to feel better about what happened to us. In conclusion, this was a good book and I would rate it three out of five

Siddhartha is a young man on a long quest in search of the ultimate answer to the enigma of a man's role on this earth. Through his travels, he finds love, friendship, pain, and identity. He finds the true meaning behind them the hard way, but that is the best way to learn them.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is about a man's journey to find inner peace and happiness.  He first decides to try to seek peace by following the Samanas, holy men.  Then he seeks happiness through material things and pleasures of the body.  After this path fails to provide him with the peace for which he searches, he follows Buddha but soon realizes that Buddha's teaching will not lead him to his goal.  Siddhartha finally finds peace when Vasudeva, the ferryman, teaches him to listen to the river.

Your only family was gone. Your home was gone. Your life was gone. This is what happened to Leila in page 147 of Parvana’s Journey, because of the extreme military group/ government, the Taliban. In the realistic fiction books The Breadwinner and Parvana’s Journey, by Deborah Ellis, there is a common theme. In both of these books, Parvana (the main character), and her friends and family are struggling to survive in modern day Afghanistan. Most of the issues that they have can be traced to the chaos caused by the Taliban. Sometimes practices or routines can be dictated by the military or government.

   In Siddhartha's quest for enlightenment, Herman Hesse makes the river the final focal point of the novel. Siddhartha is set on his journey to the river by listening to his inner voice and questioning authority. The river comes to represent the ideas through which Siddhartha reaches enlightenment. The essential concepts of time and how it relates to life are discovered by Siddhartha through listening to the river. He comes to realize that his previous conclusion is correct, wisdom cannot be taught. When he reaches nirvana, he also sees how spiritualism and materialism both have a place in the cycle of life. Acting as Siddhartha's inspiration to his ultimate goal, the river

"The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt."