When Mr Pirzada Came To Dine By Jhumpa Lahiri

“I’m Nikhil” (Jhumpa Lahiri 96) these are the words that Gogol uttered for the first

Wisdom is to know that there’s a world with a different set of values, tragedies, and wonder different and/or larger than your own; books, people, the internet, and traveling can add to anyone’s wisdom. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai are two memoirs that share their perspectives, and seem to imbue invaluable wisdom into the average American. These two memoirs, as expected of individuals and their life’s stories, are distinct from one another with their unique conflicts, climaxes, and conclusions.

Farah Ahmedi was eager to escape a war torn country so she could live a better life. “The gate to Pakistan was closed, and I could see that the Pakistani border guards were letting on one through…. I felt desperate to get through...if we got stuck here, what were we going to do? Where would we stay?” (Amedi paragraph 1) She was so worried about the fact that if

In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini purposely utilizes setting to play a pivotal role in the portrayal of an important focus when narrating a post 9/11 Afghan and American novel. The author’s deliberate incorporation of Afghan and American settings over a 3-decade time frame successfully illustrates the differences and similarities between Eastern culture and Western culture, as well as highlighting the harm each culture cultivates. The emphasis placed upon the discrimination of Hazaras by the Pashtuns not only informs the readers of the socio-economic relations in Afghanistan but also addresses a parallelism of harm towards Afghanis from Americans. Hosseini breaks down post 9/11 stereotypes by showing that a person's socio-economic class or ethnic group does not determine their ability to form friendships, feel guilt and seek redemption. Khaled Hosseini rehumanizes a culture which has been demonized by the generalizations of many individual Americans and many Hollywood films. He does this by developing universal themes which demonstrate that Afghans and Americans

Language has power. Authors use language to inform citizens about the social injustices that have occurred in the past so that they can impact society. They use factual information, data, and other relevant information to help explain the mistakes that have happened in the past. By doing this, authors make their point across that the reader as an individual has the power to impact their society.

Many people are become and are shaped by their country, beliefs, and values. Zia is an international student from Pakistan who is studying to be able to join the civil service in Pakistan. His ultimate goal is to teach political philosophy. Because he is from Pakistan he has certain different beliefs and values, from Americans, that model his behavior and interactions with others, but I won’t be talking about the person he is in Pakistan. No, I will be writing about the person Zia is here at Concordia College-Moorhead and the impact he has had on those around him.

In Afghanistan, there is a divide between the Pashtuns and the Hazaras; the Pashtuns are upper class citizens who are treated with respect while the Hazaras are lower class, minority citizens who are treated poorly. Because of the contrasting history of the two groups, their responses to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul were complete opposites. The Pashtuns “danced on [the] street,” (Hosseini 200) while the Hazaras cried “God help the Hazaras now” (Hosseini 213). The conflict between the Pashtuns and Hazaras in “The Kite Runner” directly reflects the real life issues in Afghanistan starting in the late 70’s and continuing on past 2001.

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

The series of short stories each show how relationships can be hard. The characters have tough relationships that are putting a strain on their lives. In A Temporary Matter the characters find secrets to destroy each other with. In This Blessed House the characters don’t agree and do not try to resolve their issues which creates tension. Jhumpa Lahiri uses the characters in Interpreter of Maladies to reveal how secrets can destroy relationships. In Temporary Matter Shoba and Shukumar started a game of confessing their secrets to each other. “Somehow, without saying anything, it had turned into this. Into an exchange of confessions - the little things they had ways they’d hurt or disappointed each other, and themselves.” (Lahiri pg. 18) This

Rickshaw Boy by Lao She was set in China during the 1930s. Students were able to see an insight of the culture and history of China during this time through the reading and discussion. Through She’s writings, it is clear to see that his techniques had great influence from a significant event, the May Fourth Movement. This allows to show the contrasts from 1930 to modern day China as well as connect the significance of occupations She used in the novel. As a common Chinese occupation during the 30’s, pulling rickshaws is able to delineate the differences in social classes. It determines how one who is in the lower class had strong ambition to earn money to achieve their goal by getting a job that pays very little. One is truly able to see

In contrast, Malala’s attempt to create social change was far more dangerous. Malala and many other girls in Pakistan are denied the right to education when the Taliban seize power in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. Malala’s struggle takes place in contemporary Pakistan where speaking out is considered very dangerous. The memoir revels the destruction of Pakistan founder, Ali Jinnah’s original vision of a ‘land of tolerance’ by increasing Islamisation; two military dictatorships ; corrupt politicians, poverty, illiteracy and the rise of the ‘forces of militancy and extremism’ exemplified by the Taliban, who was led by Maulana Fazlullah and the imposition of terror and fear under the guise of sharia law. The repression of individual freedom made people fearful to speak out. The Taliban had banned women from going ‘outside without a male relative to accompany (them)’ and told people ‘stop listening to music, watching movies and dancing’. The Taliban had ‘blown up 400 schools’ and had held public whippings demonstrated the consequences of disobedience, as did the execution of ‘infidels’ like young dancer, Shabana, whose body was dumped in the public square. Both texts, however more so Malala than Rita reveal that speaking out in a volatile and dangerous political environment does involve more risks, but is essential for change to occur.

Orff Carl, born July 10, 1895 at Munich Germany and died March 29 1982. He is known for his operas and his contribution and innovation to children’s music education. After studying at the Munich Academy of Music under Heinrich Kaminski, he conducted in Munich, Mannheim and Darmstadt. Including his best known secular oratorio Carmina Burana, his trilogy is completed with Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. Before wirting the Carmina Burana, he edited 17th century operas and published a manual, named “Schulwerk” to describe his method of conducting in 1930.

Other than the roof, bricks, walls, lights and other components needed to build a home, what truly makes a home a home? One might believe that the tangible items such as a bed or sofa or television constitute the real value of a home. In contrast, one may believe that a home is less about material items and rather more about the individuals such as parents, kids and other loved ones who live together and make memories in the same house and thus generate the true value of a home. A home allows for relationships to be formed inside of it while also creating lifelong memories between people as they carry out their daily lives in the household. The divergence in considering the main function of a home is exhibited in Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “This Blessed House” in her book collection The Interpreter of Maladies and P Diddy’s song “Coming Home.” Both works deal with the notion of the true value of a home, and it is evident that P Diddy’s song corroborates the notion that a home is more about the individuals who reside inside it and the memories created in it; whereas, in “This Blessed House”, the main characters Sanjeev and Twinkle primarily believe that a home is more about the material items inside it.

An American Brat is set up against a very disturbing journey of the Protagonist Feroza, replete with the complex negotiations underpinning the gendered, Pakistani migration westward and beyond. The Indian- Pakistani migratory experience to America is well narrated. The eponymous protagonist is sixteen year old Feroza Ginwalla. She is the only daughter of a wealthy Parsee family in Lahore, whose behaviour is the topic of much concern for her parents. The novel is set against the austere backdrop of Parsi culture.

When traveling to a foreign country, visitors may often imagine how strange or different life can be compared to their home. In the stories The Old Lady and The Aliens, Ruth Jhabvala introduces the foreign experience through different perspectives and attitudes of the protagonists. In the story The Old Lady, the reader is entertained by the viewpoint of an elderly Indian woman, who is constantly joyous and happy even when he children quarrel. In the story The Aliens, the reader is entangled in the distress and frustration of a youthful English woman along with her husband’s Indian family. Despite the obvious differences between The Old Lady and The Aliens, Jhabvala provides depth of foreign affairs through multiple similarities shared between the main characters: judgement by antagonists, imagery and the protagonists positive representation.