TATD Blog Post.

Within the eleventh chapter, we see deep characteristics of Said, through the flashbacks from his childhood. We understand how both his parents died at a young age, and he was forced to take up a life of a thief. We further understand the importance of the Sheik, who has been a role model throughout his childhood. In particular, we see how his father introduced him to the Sheik to understand the focused points of views.

“The only entertainment he knew was making pilgrimage to the home of Sheikh Ali al- Junaydi, and it was through your father that you came to know the house.”

This Shows the simplicity of his childhood, and the relationship that he had with the sheikh, knowing him from a young age, furthermore this characterizes Said, while the reader would feel more sympathy for Said at the same time. Lastly, It articulates on the bond him and his father shared, which was not the strongest, however, both respected each other.

“And how enchanted you were by his fine white beard!”

 This specific quote further strengthens the idea of his childhood and his interest towards the Sheik, also showing his small-minded childhood, noting that he only cared about his beard rather than him as a person.

 “he days passed like dreams. And then your good father disappeared, suddenly gone, in a way that a boy simply could not comprehend, and that seemed to baffle even Sheikh Ali himself. How shocked you were that morning, shaking your head and rubbing your eyes to clear away the sleep, awakened by your mother's screams and tears in the little room at the entrance to the students' hostel! “

Furthermore, we see what Said went through at his young age. As he was so close to his family, it was extremely traumatic to go through a tragedy at such a young age. This once more Characterizes Said as someone who has seen a lot and faced a lot, it also adds sympathy from the audience towards Said, whom we can understand does not live in a financially safe situation. 

 Lastly

“And then your mother died. You almost died yourself during your mother's illness “

This is the extreme movement in the text which further drives the conflict and characterizes Said once more, here we understand that not only did Said’s Farther die, but also his mother. This characterizes Said and adds sympathy towards him from the audience. Overall we see the significance of flashbacks to characterization.

                                          

Theif and Dog: Stream of consciousness

The literary technique of stream of concisions is significant in the book “thief and dogs” by Nagibum Mahfouz. We see within the book how he uses this technique through the main character of Said, he does this to reveal his true thoughts in tough situations, and show the true person Said is. The technique is used to completely change the movement of the plot, or in some smaller cases used to reveal Said’s true character. The literary technique of stream of concisions focuses on how after the character states something, he almost contradicts himself within his own thought process, in order to reveal his true thoughts and opinions on specific people or plots. We see Nagibum uses the technique to specifically reveal Said’s thoughts on people and what he is now going to do this further builds the plot and specifically Said. If we look at some examples of this, we can see that Nagib Mahfouz uses the technique in order to specifically characterize Said, in particular in chapter one we see how after Said visits Rawfun he states after meeting him and noticing he has moved to the paper business and no longer works in the revolutionary business we see his true feelings of dis-belief and shock as he saw Rawfun as his mentor, although Rawfan offers Said a job he declines him, and we discover Said plans to Rob Rawfun. In this scene the technique is used to develop the plot and further characterize Said. We see it Characterizes Said as he is still using his olf ways and has not learnt from leaving prison, and it builds the plot as when Rawfun catches him, their relationship becomes broken. This being one example of how the technique is used to build the plot and characterize the main character as someone who is continuing with his old way. Furethermore I feel 

Why Literature is important.

In what ways could Wallace’s theory about education be applicable to the writing of Alice Munro? Justify your conclusion

I believe the Mr wallace tried to express the ideas that educated people are better able to keep their emotions controlled in different scenarios because they are able to create more open-minded frames of people during their  everyday life, unlike someone less educated whom would more likely create a mindset of a person being the same or less of them. A key example is when Wallace articulated the event of standing in a shopping line and being unable to control yourself when another person is slow, Wallace feels that a less educated person would not take into account what has happened to the person in the day, while a more educated person would, or would most of the time.

Furthermore the idea that more educated people are able to do this starts from the idea that they are able to paint pictures of people in different scenarios because they have read these examples in literature, we see literature giving them a base line to be more open and sympathetic towards society as they are able to better paint a picture of someone, when they are struggling, furthermore he specifically does not state they always do this, but they would be most likely to do so. We see being educated with literature having an integral role in how we perceive society as we would be able to better paint a picture of someone, which would take into account sympathy towards that person.

Lastly we see Munros work and the topic she writes upon being able to better control our emotions, as the topics she cover are an integral theme we see in today's society and within many families. It is not only important to read literature but also important to take into account the different themes in literature, Munro does this well in her short stories as many cover themes which are present in society. As Munro gives different examples of women in different situations, we as human would better able to paint a frame of someone in our everyday life as we can relate the person to Munros many characters. As Munro uses themes which are present in today's society we can easily relate a real life example to a munro character.

Thesis #Historical

The authors historical influence has significance towards the story “Thing fall apart” as is able to give first hand accounts of context within the nigerian lifestyle in early ages of the missionary period.

The main protagonist Nwoye, is a central character employed by Achebe to communicate the missionary lifestyle from a igbo point of view.

Missionary smith was employed as a character to shed light into specific examples of how treatment was, in specific cases, was unethical.

The Egwugwu is revealed to the reader in a critical tone, this is significant as although it is seen as unwanted, it is the main reason why Okonkwo starts his revolution towards the missionaries.    

Igbo

Good evening The royal colonial institute, I have studied the Igbo Culture for the past 20 years and have seen this beautiful culture blossom from what was once many states, to a concrete united state. Now, what is the Igbo society. The society is located in the continent of Africa, specifically in Nigeria. This society has had a drastic development over the past decade, for instance, the community has become more connected to one another. If you traveled through the many societies in the past, you would assume you were in a new country, due to many of the civilizations communicating through different dialects.

Not only have different dialects been developed, but also the way the society functions. At one point the Igbo people relied heavily hunting as a mean of income, and suitability for their family, however I have also seen mass development in this sector. The people have branched out from hunting, to farming, to even art in the form of poetry. Not only has this taken place, but in each foundation we see large development, for example farming has introduced irons tools, the people have mastered the craft of smelting and incorporated it into their daily lifestyle, which is purely stunning as the time scale which this has taken place is extremely rapid.       

Although this may be the case, there is still flaws in this community. A tragic barbaric act which takes place daily in the community is the treatment of babies. In Igbo culture it is seen as abnormal to have twins. The Igbo community treat this abnormality with the most barbaric treatment, they lay the babies to die in the forest, as well as perform rituals towards the women who gave birth to the babies. This leads me onto my next point, which is their religious believe. The community is heavily reliant on superstitions, they perform many rituals to ensure there farming seasons are positive as well as sacrifice many lives to the “gods”. This god is called “chukwu” in the community, and they believe he created life as we know it. They also have a devilish figure in the name of “ekwensu”. This is particularly significant as they have a correlation with our society's believes, however much more barbaric and foolish.      

Achebe Interview

What was the most meaningful takeaway from today’s discussion relating to the cultural or literary context of Achebe’s work?

I feel what was meaningful from today's discussion was how I view Achebe from due to other people's reasoning. Not only did the discussion change my opinion about Achebe but also colonialism in general which we were able to relate to the book in specific ways.  I believe that my group had great questions which we were able to build off of, such as a question I asked

“Do you think that achebe sees colonialism as a core concept to development, or a set back?”

What our group decided was that it is helpful tool for development, however people are being used for other people's advantages. We were then able to the book “things fall apart” as the colonialism brought the churches, which can be seen as less barbaric and created more order in the society. We also discussed how they were being exploited as they were indirectly being controlled. Overall I believe that this experience was good to change our points of views on specific topics.

#13

Through out the Coriolanus text Shakespeare delivers multiple different perspectives which we characterize him from, through the beginning of the text he is seen as selfish and somebody who does not care for the people, rather cares for himself. However as the scene progress we see a large difference in his attributes. our first glimpse of his noble heroic side is shown through the dialect between his mother and his wife. The dialect portrays him these ways as his mother states she rather see him win his battles than love. This is further strengthened through the actions he later carries out. I believe Shakespeare uses this plan of action as a way of showing us his flaws, most heroes are portrayed as flawless however, once Shakespeare distinguishes to us his flaws we can then assume he is not perfect. Something key to acknowledge is the fact that this play is a political play, showcasing flaws is key to reveal to help the reader make a decision on who's side we must take. Secondly while he reveals his flaws, it can help develop the conflicts later to be developed in the play. Moving forward towards the end of the act Shakespeare reveals Coriolanus to be noble through the dialect which involves himself. A key area was when the news of the Volscels came in, in particular who Coriolanus was going to battle. It is revealed he would be battling against Tulles Afidus,  unlike most heroes Coriolanus speaks kindly towards him, proclaiming how much of a great warrior he is, even comparing him to the king of the jungle the lion. This reveals to us how modest Coriolanus could be, he is willing to state kinds things towards his enemy, This is significant because he ends up forming an alliance with him in the later chapters. Finally the battle took place, this is where Shakespeare reveals to us how heroic he can be, He single handily went into battle, which also shows how strong he is. Lastly when he spares Afidus life we see the true character Coriolanus has, most significantly to me, shows how noble he is.