##ortals Of Meluh The First Novel Of The Shiva Trilogy Series By Amish Tripathi

One source once stated, “By masking the discomfort, of being pre-judged” (Mora 40). People should examine their culture in order to better understand how it affects their identity and perceptions. In order to understand one’s cultural identity, he or she needs to understand what the term means. According to one source, cultural identity can be defined as “We all have unique identities that we develop within our cultures, but these identities are not fixed or static” (Trumbull and Pacheco 10). Various aspects of a person’s life that may determine his or her cultural identity music, community, family, ethnicity, relationships, religion, clothing, and food. After analyzing several texts, the reader recognizes that four important

Muhammad Ali once said, “Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do - they all contain truths.” The heroes and gods talked about in William Dalrymple’s book, “Nine Lives,” range from god's who request the skull of a virgin or a goat sacrifice, to heroes that allow a god to take over their body for an amount of time on end. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and can be good or bad. Some of the followers do not even seem like they would follow some of these gods or participate in outlandish rituals.

In the memoir, “By Any Other Name,” Santha Rama Rau explores the British attempt to replace Indian culture with the “superior” British culture and her resistance to this change. The speaker depicts this man vs. society conflict by sharing the story of a culture clash she experienced at a British run day school. The conflict is first seen when the headmistress decides to change the girls’ names, as indicated when she states, “Suppose we give you pretty English names” (Rama Rau 35). By calling English names pretty, the headmistress is implying their Indian names are not pretty, and thus inferior to British names. She said it was because Indians cheat…So I don’t think we should go back to that school. Another instance where the conflict is evident

The book is written from the point of view of various heroes by using different characters’ personal experiences and descriptive emotions before and during the tragic war. This has allowed the reader to grasp the situation through the eyes of those who has experienced it. Shaara describes

The novel The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is the story of a young, upper class boy by the name of Amir and his friend, a lower class boy named Hassan. While Amir is a Pashtun and a Sunni Muslim, Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a muslim, which causes the main conflict between the two. Amir and Hassan learn more and more about their social status, as well as their personal friendships and problems as they grow up in Afghanistan.

Atonement is the focal point of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner as portrayed through Amir’s guilt, the repercussions of his guilt and his effort to remove this guilt by atoning his sins.

The movie “Clash of the Titans” directed by Louis Leterrier is an old Greek myth that takes place in ancient time of the Greek Gods in the city of Argos, where there is a war between humans and Gods. The religious aspects are shown through the role of religion in mortal's lives, the influences of the Gods over humans, and the interactions of the mortals to the Gods' actions. The movie personifies on a realistic foundation of how ancient Greeks lived. While the hero Perseus is torn between the two worlds of humans and Gods, he learns who he is, and what he wants to be. The hero journey’s idea that is based upon The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell mainly focuses on the physical and spiritual transformation the hero goes

“I do not wish for women to have power over men, but over themselves” Mary Wollstonecraft. In the vast majority of places around the world, men have the upper hand over women, whether it is in the household, workplace, or government. Even in America, the land of the free, women are still discriminated against to a slight extent. A man and woman could have the exact same job, but the man would bring home a greater salary than the woman. In spite of the fact that this is unfair, at least women in America are permitted to work. Khaled Hosseini brings awareness to the women of Afghanistan who are victims of the inhumane and unjust laws of the Taliban. In his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini uses agonizing scenes and imagery to analyze the ways Afghan women continue to subsist in an oppressive and discriminatory society from the 1950s to today.

In his book All the Shah’s Men, Stephen Kinzer tells the story behind the coup that took place in Iran in 1953 and how US-Iranian relations were impacted as a result. To give a full picture of the events that transpired before the coup, Kinzer goes above and beyond and recounts the history of Persia going back to the founding of the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC, giving the reader an excellent overview of the long history of the region. He then goes on to recount the root causes and events that led up to the coup and then covers the coup itself. Kinzer then devotes the last 40 pages going over the events that happened after the coup and the consequences that both nations have suffered for it. Kinzer’s point of view on this subject was obvious

Sold the novel is about a young 13 year old Nepali girl named Lakshmi who gets sold as a sex slave. Lakshimis

I believe this book has been an important step for me in considering the future

A person’s heritage and cultural identity may be lost when moving to a new country where the culture is different and other cultures are not easily accepted. In the short story “Hindus”, Bharati Mukherjee uses setting, characters and the plot to discuss what it is like to lose your cultural identity while being a visible minority in America. Mukherjee uses the plot to describe the events that take place in the main characters life that lead her to realize how different the culture and life is in the America’s. She also uses the characters as a way of demonstrating how moving away from one’s culture and heritage can change a person’s perspective and ways of thinking. Mukerjee also uses setting in her story to identity the physical differences in culture between living in India and America. Alike the setting and characters, the plot helps describe the loss of culture with a sequence of events.

Each of the main characters are selected by the gods in some ways but however gained favor not only because of who they are and of their birth but also are fated to prove themselves as a true warrior and to fulfill certain expectations to prove to see if they are worthy or not.

Shiva, a Sympathetic Character? Switched at birth, Shiva is Saleem’s rival and counterpart. Born to a rich family but got switched to be raised by a poor family, Shiva is named after the Hindu god of Destruction. Shiva was one of the Midnight’s Children who was blessed with enormous and powerful knee’s. Shiva represents the other side of India: aggressive, poor, and hindu, Shiva is driven by a determination perspective.

The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan's is an epic story that provides insights into many aspects of Indian culture and still today influences the politics, religion and art of modern India. He based his novel on a poem from one of India's great Sanskrit epics also called "Ramayana." He revived this ancient story and condensed it and set in modern times. This is story of adventure and friendship as well as a story of psychological insight, spiritual meaning and of wisdom. R.K. Narayan does an excellent job of portraying all these aspects throughout his novel. The meanings of The Ramayana are found through the actions and personalities of its principal characters. It is part of the sacred literature for the Hindus because