Quarter 4: Week 4, Post A

I'm continuing to love A Thousand Splendid Suns, and as I read I notice more and more cultural differences in Mariam and Laila's world. One example of this is the food people eat in Afghanistan. Rice seems to be a staple item, eaten at most meals, if not all. Some of the other dishes that have been mentioned by Mariam include sabzi, borani, aushak, lamb, daal, and okra qurma. All of these dishes are completely unfamiliar to me, with the exceptions of rice and lamb of course. Still, these strange dishes show how important food is to our culture and how much we notice the different types of food around the world.

Another cultural difference I noticed this week was the sense of religious community in Kabul. During Ramadan, a Muslim holiday, the entire city nearly shuts down. As Mariam observes, "...a drowsy hush overtook Kabul. Traffic became languid, scant, even quiet. Shops emptied. Restaurants turned off their lights, closed their doors" (71). Then, at the end of Ramadan, or Eid, the opposite occurs. Just as the city became quiet and empty during the Ramadan fasting time, the entire city comes together to feast and be joyful. The sense of community is just as strong, instead it's focused on celebration instead of prayer and reflection. Mariam notes the differences: "Rasheed and she took to the streets. Mariam had never walked amid such livliness...kids romped about and compared Eid gifts. Maraim saw festive lanterns hanging from shop windows, heard music blaring from loudspeakers" (73).

Here in the United States, it would be rare to find an occurrence similar to this one in Afghanistan. There is such diversity of religion here that it would be extremely unlikely for an entire city, especially one as large and important here as Kabul is in Afghanistan, to all partake in the same religious rituals. Although cities do have celebrations and parades, they aren't centered around religion. The fact that the lives of Mariam and her fellow Kabul residents are so focused on religion is very different from most people in the U.S. It would be impossible to shut down an entire city for days at a time, all because of one single religious holiday. People here work on all holidays-Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Easter, Passover...there is never a time when everyone gets to take off and celebrate together as a community.

Quarter 4: Week 3, Post B

Dear Mariam,

Wow. As I continue to read A Thousand Splendid Sons and learn more about you and your life, I become more and more appalled! Your situation seems awful. First, you're forced to marry a complete stranger so your father can save face. Then, this man turns out to be a total control freak--he makes you wear a burqa, he doesn't allow you to talk to certain people, and he gets angry at YOU when you have miscarriages. It's not your fault! You shouldn't have to take the blame for something that you feel terrible enough about as it is.

He has no right to treat you the way he does. He talks down to you, if at all, and he complains about everything. You work so hard to keep the house to his liking and to cook meals that he'll find satisfactory, but he always finds something wrong with what you've made. It's just not fair! The real kicker was when he forced you to eat pebbles-that is just inhumane! Pebbles are obviously not meant to be chewed with human teeth, but he made you do just that! You lost two molars and all because he thought your rice wasn't soft enough?! If I was you, I would have left his sorry butt months ago!

But the sad thing is, you can't. You have nowhere else to go. The fact that living with this abusive man is your best option does not say a lot. I feel so sorry for you! I really hope you can stay optimistic even though it must be so tough to deal with your situation right now. Try to remember that you're so much stronger than him-he is weak.

In hopes that things improve soon,
A-Rod

Quarter 4: Week 3, Post A

My reading this week of A Thousand Splendid Suns revealed many cultural differences. First of all, the fact that Mariam and Rasheed sleep in separate rooms was strange to me. I'm sure there are similar cases in the U.S. in some places, but for me this is really weird! I've always known marriage to be between two people who love each other enough to spend the rest of their lives together, which usually means spending a lot of time together. I do not know of any married couples who sleep in different rooms, it seems to defeat the whole purpose of marriage-togetherness. But in Kabul, Afghanistan, this is a very common practice. In fact, Mariam is relieved that she gets to sleep alone and the arrangement seems to please Rasheed as well. Strange as it seems to me, this is the norm for couples with arranged marriages in Afghanistan.

Another cultural difference I've noticed is the life of Mariam as a housewife. She is held to very high expectations by Rasheed. For example, she is expected to have dinner hot and ready to eat every day when Rasheed comes home from work so he can eat. She also is expected to keep the house clean and tidy all the time. Furthermore, when Rasheed wants to host friends, Mariam is expected to clean, cook, and set up the house for them but then spend the night in her room, out of sight. And the most surprising part about this is that Mariam actually enjoys this! She likes the fact that Rasheed wants to hide her from his friends-to her, it shows that he's proud of her. If that were me, I would be seriously angry! To do all that work and then be forced to hide out in my room and miss out on all the fun? No way! It just goes to show how extremely different Afghan society is from ours.

World Issues

For our world issues outline/annotated bibliography assignment, I've decided to focus on the terrible situation in Darfur in Africa. (And I'm not just copying the model, I actually really do want to learn more about this issue-it's something that really interests me.) Here are some sources that seem helpful so far:

"Dying in Darfur: Can the Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan Be Stopped?" from New Yorker, accessed on SIRS
http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307-0-2161&artno=0000193365&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=darfur&title=Dying%20in%20Darfur&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=Y

"Darfur and the Genocide Debate" from Foreign Affairs, accessed on SIRS
http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-6022&artno=0000209215&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=darfur%20conflict&title=Darfur%20and%20the%20Genocide%20Debate&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=Y

"UN Says Darfur Conflict Worsening, with perhaps 300,000 Dead" from The New York Times online
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-UN-Sudan-Darfur.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=darfur&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Quarter 4: Week 2, Post B

So far I am really, really enjoying A Thousand Splendid Suns-much more than I thought I would. I mean, I've heard how amazing The Kite Runner is, and this is by the same author, but I definitely didn't expect to like it as much as I do. Mariam is easy to relate to in some ways because she's around the same age as me, she doesn't always get along with her mom, and she and her dad have a special bond-at least at first. However, in most ways our lives are very different. Mariam's parents are not married, she doesn't know any of her siblings (or half-siblings, technically) and her mother kills herself when Mariam is just fifteen years old. Also, she is forced into an arranged marriage and she is an outcast in her father's home. In these ways, her life is so vastly different from mine, it's hard to believe. She has so much struggle at such a young age, and many of these struggles are things that would never be encountered by the average American teen (aka the arranged marriage and dealing with her father's multiple wives). Overall, I really like Mariam so far. I think she's smart and very strong. Hopefully she can learn to stand up for herself a little more-she needs a little Minerva Mirabal attitude in her! I can't wait to keep reading and see what happens when Mariam gets married to Rasheed..should be interesting!

Quarter 4: Week 2, Post A

I switched books this week to A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini because there weren't very many cultural differences to blog about in Atonement. I'm going to keep reading it, just not for our outside reading assignment.

Anyway...there is definitely an abundance of cultural differences to be found in this book! Within the first few pages I immediately noticed how many aspects of Mariam's life are strange to me. It's crazy to think how incredibly different her life is from mine, when she's just a teenage girl like me. For example, Mariam's father, Jalil, has three wives with ten children between them. Obviously, this would be seen as completely crazy and just wrong in our modern American culture, but it's seen as totally normal in Mariam's home of Afghanistan.

Another prominent example of culture difference is Mariam's arranged marriage to Rasheed. "Mariam's multiple step-mothers inform her that she has a "suitor" and even though she doesn't want to be married, her father has already agreed and she must honor that. She is only fifteen years old-something that would never happen in the U.S., but is seen as acceptable in Afghanistan. 'What are you, fifteen? That's a good, solid marrying age for a girl' (44). And arranged marriages are very uncommon in America as well, although they do still exist in some areas.

The last major cultural difference I found this week was Mariam's lack of familiarization with material goods. For instance, she sees a car for the very first time in her entire life when she is fifteen years old! "Mariam had never before touched a car. She ran her fingers along the hood of Jalil's car, which was black, shiny, with glittering wheels...the seats were made of white leather" (30). Cars are just one of many things that Mariam has never seen or used-things we take for granted in our daily lives.

Quarter 4: Week 1, Post B

Dear Briony,

So far, I am not that impressed by you in this story. You do seem very intelligent, and based on the snippets from your play, you're definitely a gifted writer. I think it's impressive how you've tried so hard to follow your dreams by writing so many stories and plays. It's nice that you have the support of your family to back you up as well.

However, I really think you're being kind of immature about this whole casting situation with Lola. Even though she sort of took over your territory by taking the lead role in your summer play, you could be handling the issue with much more grace than you currently are. Especially given Lola's current situation--her mother has abandoned her and she has just been sent to live in a totally new home with family she doesn't know that well. That's got to be a pretty scary change for a teenage girl to be forced into, especially with the added anxiety about the war raging in her hometown. I advise you to take some pity on the girl and befriend her. Even though she seems uppity and annoying right now, deep down she's probably feeling very scared and alone.

Also, even though Lily's twin brothers seem pretty bothersome since they're ruining your play with their terrible acting, you should have more patience with them. Again, they're stuck in a very difficult situation right now. And frankly, I think you should consider it a victory that you even convinced them to be in your play in the first place. Giving them acting tips is probably not the best idea right now.

Anyway, I hope you start to grow up a little bit more as the story continues because right now you strike me as almost whiny at some parts. Sorry for the negativity, but I'm just trying to be honest here.

Sincerely,
Anna