Under the Afghan Sky by Melissa Fung and A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout

An individual’s fears and need to survive can become a major factor in the buildup of their identities. ‘The Happiest Refugee’ memoir written by Anh Do and the illustrated novel ‘The Boat’ by Nam Le explores how the individual characters’ existence is based upon the strengths and weaknesses that they have acquired from their fears. Do uses the bold ambience Tam Do has to demonstrate how his early life in Vietnam has impacted him in contrast to Lee’s protagonist, Mai who begins to understand how her memories and bonds with her family will helps her endure her journey on the refugee boat.

Nobody fully understands what drives people to undertake a mission, but it often causes people to take many risks. For example, Farah Ahmedi climbed a mountain on a prosthetic leg with a sick mother just to reach freedom. Rikki-Tikki fought for his life to save his family. John Steinbeck eavesdropped on people's conversations just to get material for his book. These stories show different people who had each set a goal for themselves. Ahmedi and Rikki-Tikki fought for their lives to survive and save their loved ones. While Steinbeck traveled to great lengths to write his book. Their goals may be different but they all had set a goal and they all eventually accomplished their goal.

its has happened before " I know this scene so well". She seems to be

In Tim O'Brien's narrative, The Things They Carried, characters are shown going through excruciatingly difficult war struggles. There are many intriguing themes that O’Brien is sharing in the text, but the most striking is the differences between the way each person handles war. People in the story cope by imagining things for motivation and pleasure. Imagination can help soldiers, but also does not help in war when the coping distracts one from important situations. The most common coping mechanism in the war stories has to do with women because they were used as security blankets during war. Soldiers use women, imagined and real, to offer an escape from war, but due to their inability to understand the war, the women cannot help them cope.

Throughout the novel, A House in the Sky, by Amanda Lindhout, the audience can identify the theme of emotion versus logic. Within the novel, the main character Amanda makes a lot of life changing decisions, which are based more towards her emotions than logic itself. This strongly impacts not only her life, but also those close to her. Amanda Lindhout’s A House in the Sky is an exemplary depiction of the ideas of feminist criticism, new historicism, and moral criticism. Although Lindhout describes the consequences that come from her decisions throughout the novel, she also stresses the aggravation that comes with being female. The novel, A House in the Sky, portrays the complications of female development and identity through the main character.

Everyone needs friends who they can trust and rely on to always have their back. The House of the Scorpion is a dystopian fiction novel written by Nancy Farmer, is about a clone, named Matt, of the powerful drug lord, El Patron. When he is brought into a world ruled by El Patron, he is hated by everyone in the big house, except for a sweet girl named Maria, who lightens Matt’s day with just her presence, his bodyguard who becomes more like his father, and Celia, the woman who has taken care of Matt since he was made into a clone. He learns what it is like to live in a world full of social hierarchy and in his adventure he goes from the top to the bottom and everywhere in between. He is constantly being judged on who he is and is learning more about his identity, though mostly learns about love and loyalty . In this adventure of The House of the Scorpions, Matt finds that loyalty with friends is one of the most important things to have. Farmer shows many aspects that point to this theme.

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

Water is something that is seen as solely necessary for human beings to stay hydrated, but the novels being mentioned in this paper describe water as being something more. Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall, Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat and Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain all depict water as being something that helps with liberation, recovery and new life.

“In 2009, 33 million people in the United States were second generation immigrants, representing 11% of the national population. The children of such immigrants in the U.S., also known as "second generation immigrants," experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of mainstream U.S. society” (Wikipedia 1). Amy Tan the author of “Two Kinds”, and the young character in the story both are a second generation immigrants, who have struggled in their life with parents, about the culture they assimilating and their real culture.

Sara Corbett, a contributing New York Times writer and journalist, is the speaker and narrator of the lost boys of Sudan. She mainly writes about the struggles of people around the world and the fortitude, or courage, they uphold. According to a recent interview by The Lightning Notes, Corbett states, “In general, I find myself really interested in moments of fortitude in people. Fortitude is, to me, an always compelling quality in people and it stretches across all different topics.” In the past, Sara has traveled to various places and interviewed numerous people with different backgrounds and personalities. She is a very empathetic, ambitious and curious person and her achievements have manifested, or proven that. In another interview, she mentions, “The best thing you can do is try to understand where people are coming from, why they say the things they say, why they do the things they do, and what context they’re operating in.” Furthermore, to continue advancing her career, Sara is determined to increase her patience and skill set as a writer and journalist.

Have you ever experienced being alone? Everyone has, or likely will, at some point in their life. But how about for 94 days, carrying a backpack that weighs nearly as much as you do containing all you have to survive off, by foot? Or what about 227 days, floating through the ocean on a tipsy life boat, with limited supplies, little to no sense of direction, and a huge Bengal tiger to watch out for? Probably not. Both of these scenarios involve extreme human conditions. On the theme of a person’s conditions both challenging and shaping who they are, there are two novels that stand out in the exploration of this topic, and they are Life of Pi and Wild By Cheryl Strayed.

In the “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” the speaker emphasizes the insignificance of the death of Icarus which is seen as the main idea of the painting and poem however, there is an underlying idea of the disobedience which results in his death. Emily and Kaylyn though both have different ideas of the main theme each of them echo my two thoughts. Emily agrees that the central theme is Icarus dying and it seeming unimportant (5 March 2016). Whereas Kaylyn expresses her views of the disobedience that occur between Icarus and those with higher authority (12 March 2016). Naturally, it seems unthinkable that someone’s death would have no bearing on others but, it seems that people are really self-absorbed in their own daily routines and what

This book for literature gave everyone the memories of what it was like to live post-war, with a backyard full of neighbours. This novel gives life experiences and memories of a life that we did not leave. I now know what it’s like to feel with survivor’s guilt as Chris

The novels, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, include many different elements of the psychoanalytical theory. According to Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalytic theory explains the reasoning behind personality disorders through one’s conscious and unconscious mind (Psychoanalytic Criticism). This theory also states the idea that things that happen to people during childhood can contribute to the way one later functions as an adult (Psychoanalytic Criticism). Both novels include characters that can contribute towards the psychoanalytical theory through the roles that the characters play in each novel. Both of the parents of the murdered child in each story contrast on how they act in the situation. The fathers

Reza Shah was in control of everything. Reza Shah’s obsession with control educational matters is vividly illustrated in an anecdote told by Solayman Behbudi, the ruler’s personal assistant. Reza Shah was so used to the tolling of the bells of the Tarbiat School, located next to the ruler’s palace, that when one day he failed to hear the sound, he inquired about the reason. Being informed that the school had closed on account of the death of one of its employees, the shah angrily scolded the minister of education for failing to uphold a standard of uniformity by allowing one particular school to suspend its classes. By establishing a highly controlled national school system, he was able to control the schools,