Sheikh Ali Al-Junaydi

What does Sheikh Ali Al-Junaydi represent in the Thief and the Dogs? How is he significant to the characterization of Said Mahran? How does he contribute to the theme of the text?

After Said is released from prison, Mahfouz portrays Said as a man desperate to find meaning in the world he feels is completely corrupt, Said believes the guilty prosper while the innocent fall. He seeks the company of his late father's spiritual advisor.

Al-Junaydi is significant to the development of the plot and the enhancement of the Fate vs Free Will theme. Naguib implements Al Junaydi in order to provide the protagonist Said with a second choice, which is to pursue his religion and avoid leaning towards the darker side which was what eventually led to his downfall. The sheikh provided Said with an alternative getaway choice, but he failed in doing so and Said eventually assassinated two innocent people.

Sheikk Al-Junaydi acts as Said's final desperate resort . During the beginning of the novel, Said seeks refuge in the sheikh's house, after his failed attempt at killing Ilish he re-visits the Sheikh once again, and finally during the last chapters of the novel, Said revisits his father's spiritual advisor for the final time before his inevitable downfall. It was during his last visit to the sheikh in which he commented: "I am alone with my freedom, or rather i am in the company of the sheikh who is lost in heaven." Said conveys signs of regret through contrasting both his and the sheikh's abstractness in the world, one is in heaven and the other in reality.

Last but not least, Sheikh Al-Junaydi acts as a foil to the protagonist Said Mahran and helps progress the characterization of Said. Firstly, Said's recollection of memories portrays the sheikh to be an old friend of the family and is not intending to turn his back on Said despite his vigorous actions, instead he helps him and provides Said with a glimmer of hope and kindness to counteract the distress that Said is currently in. The sheikh acts as Said's guardian angel providing him with ways of escaping his fate and bitter feelings towards those he feels betrayed him, however Said decided to choose against this (turning to the dark side) which led to his imminent downfall. This further illustrates the apparent contrast between the characters, allowing for better understanding of the protagonist and his contradicting thoughts.

Choose Your Fate: Analytical

Naguib conveys Said to be at the lowest point in his life as a result of his unfortunate fate, all the tides were turning against him as he feels he was betrayed by the very own people he used to trust (His best-friend, His wife, and his daughter). Throughout the entirety of the novel, Said's character was diffused with hatred and anger towards those he feels were traitors, having said that, Said constantly refers to these traitors as dogs and uses harsh words and depressing tones, one instance is the grave scene, Naguib implements this  dull scene to show that a man can not control his happiness with a pre-determined fate. Knowing that the "traitors" are on the loose, Said doesn't witness a glimpse of happiness throughout the novel. Said can't control what is happening to the people who betrayed him As a result, Naguib portrays fate to be the biggest determiner of one's happiness. 

Practicing Thesis Statements

Thesis Statement: Through the implementation of recurring instances from his past through the stream of consciousness technique, Naguib is able to communicate how the ideas of Said's past control the present and how Said's actions are provoked through his past experiences in which he feels them to be a burden he must carry on.

Said Tragic Hero

1) What is Said's tragic flaw?

The Chief flaw that led to the novel’s tragic ending was Said’s lust for revenge. Throughout the entirety of the novel, Said’s actions are fueled by his desire to get revenge upon those who he feels betrayed him.  As a result of this hunger, Said accidentally assassinated two-men in cold blood which eventually led to the departure of his companion (Nur) and his death at the end of the novel.

2) How does he display excessive pride?

Said displays excessive pride through his enforcement of blame on other characters, for instance he blames Ilish for going to prison, he blames Rauf for changing his personality which led Said to believe that he betrayed him, he also blames Sana for her rejecting him.

3) When is his reversal of fortunes?

His reversal of fortunes begins when Said figures out that he killed an innocent man instead of Ilish, this is then later enhanced when he goes to kill Rauf and winds up killing Rauf’s doorkeeper, this also provoked Nur into leaving Said.

 4)At what time in the text does he recognize that the reversal was due to his own actions?

He recognizes that while staring and contemplating his past at Nur’s house, he also reminisces his upbringing while at the Shaikh’s house and was led to believe that he chose his own path, and finally during the last chapter while he was being hunted down by the police, he contemplates about his past and how it all led to this.

5) Is his fate greater than he deserved?

His fate was not greater than what he deserved, his actions throughout the entirety of the novel ultimately led to his death.

Thieves and the Dogs Passage Analysis

The Passage:

The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug. 

Rauf gestured to the servant to withdraw, filled two glasses himself and offered one to Said, raising the other: “To freedom.” While Said emptied his glass in one gulp, Rauf took a sip then said, “And how is your daughter? Oh, I forgot to ask you—why did you spend the night at Sheikh Ali’s?”

He doesn’t know what happened, thought Said, but he still remembers my daughter. And he gave Rauf a cold-blooded account of his misfortunes.

 “So yesterday I paid a visit to al-Sayrafi lane,” he concluded. “There I found a detective waiting for me, as I’d expected, and my daughter disowned me and screamed in my face.” He helped himself to another whisky.

“This is a sad story. But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now.

Later on she’ll grow to know and love you.”

“I have no faith left in all her sex.”

“That’s how you feel now. But tomorrow, who knows how you’ll feel? You’ll change your opinion of your own accord. That’s the way of the world.”

The telephone rang. Rauf rose, picked up the receiver and listened for a moment. His face began to beam and he carried the telephone outside to the verandah, while Said’s sharp eyes registered everything. It must be a woman. A smile like that, strolling into the dark, could only mean a woman. He wondered if Ilwan was still unmarried. Though they sat there cozily drinking and chatting, Said now sensed that this meeting would be exceedingly difficult to repeat. The feeling was unaccountable, like the whispered premonition of some still undiagnosed cancerous growth, but he trusted it, relying on instinct. A resident now in one of those streets that Said had only visited as a burglar, after all, this man may have felt obliged to welcome him, having actually changed so much that only a shadow of the old self remained.” 

The Analysis:

With the introduction of such a statement “The servant came in pushing a trolley laden with a bottle, two glasses, a pretty little violet-colored ice bucket, a dish of apples arranged in a pyramid, plates with hors d’oeuvres, and a silver water jug". Naguib, through the use of internal monologue, is able to successfully convey the hatred and distrust within the protagonist Said. This is implied as Naguib portrays the inner thoughts of the protagonist Said with great detail towards the valuable things that Rauf owns. This detail is symbolic (and perhaps foreshadowing) of Said's true-self (being a thief), mainly because of how well these objects were described within Said's self-consciousness. As for symbolism it demonstrates the contrast in social classes between Said and Raud, and how Said aspires to become like Rauf, and how highly valued Rauf is in Egyptian society.  

After that Rauf's butler has served them with wine, Rauf says "To freedom". This line demonstrates the different perception of life varying between both characters. For Said, he feels that life has turned against him. After losing the last four years of his life, losing his daughter and his wife committing audeltry with his betraying friend. While on the other hand, Rauf, during the four years that Said spent in prison, has managed to crawl his way up to the upper-class, hence viewing the world he lives is as a world that is filled with freedom.

Moving along the lines in the passage, Said mentions his daughter disowning him the day he came out of jail, after four years of imagining his daughters smile. Rauf then starts to comfort him by saying "But your daughter isn’t to blame. She can’t remember you now. Later on she’ll grow to know and love you". This is ironic because Rauf used to be Saids mentor, as time passed by (relates to "grow to know you") they have become detached and each with their own perception of life.

 Said then says, “I have no faith left in all her sex". The reason behind him not having faith is due to his wife committing adultery, then having a divorce while he is in prison and marrying his "once-was" friend. This further portrays how the whole situation deeply impacted his inner views towards women as a whole, contributing to his character being further developed in the text.

Thieves and the Dogs Narrative Structure

Stream of consciousness is a form of interior monologue which depicts the thoughts and emotions of characters in a text. The stream of consciousness technique was regularly grounded in innumerable western texts. Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arab author to utilize this technique in his 1961 novel "The Thieves and the Dogs". Stream of consciousness dominates the entire novel and plays an imperative role in the unfolding of the plot and the characterization of the protagonist Said.

Through the use of the stream of consciousness technique, Naguib was able to create the illusion that the readers are aware of the emotions and thoughts within the character's mind before the character transitions these thoughts into any rational form or shape. In "The Thieves and the Dogs",  Naguib alternates between third person narration and Said's interior monologue  in order to provide the readers with a closer connection with the protagonist (Said) than if it were solely third person.

Chapter 1 is momentous in the unfolding of the plot. Naguib Mafouz uses direct and indirect narration as well as soliloquy in order to set the tone for the entire novel. Also, this type of narration establishes the direction of the novel and provides a form of foreshadowing. One instance of this can be seen

 "Nabbawiyya. Ilish. Your two names merge in my mind. For years you will have been thinking about this day, never imagining, all the while, that the gates would ever actually open. You’ll be watching now, but I won’t fall into the trap. At the right moment, instead, I’ll strike like Fate." 

 Through the implementation of this soliloquy, Naguib was able to successfully portray Said's internal struggles and his lust for revenge towards his ex wife and his former friend.

The advantages of using this technique include the fact that through the constant transition between third person and internal monologue the readers are able to witness both aspects of the story (the protagonist's thoughts and reality), Also, the narration allows for further characterization of the protagonist, for instance we as the audience can witness Said's two-faced personality through what is occurring in reality (conversation between him and his guests) and what is happening internally in his thoughts. One disadvantage is that only one character's thoughts are portrayed which negates other characters depiction of things, which would have otherwise potentially been be completely different,

Value of Literature in Translation

Russian poet Boris Pasternak once described literature to be  "the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying ordinary words something extraordinary" There are best-selling novels created by authors from all over with different ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures. The fact that we were able to read some of these novels as a result of translation is truly a gift.  However the chief issue with translating Literature is the presence of language barriers which restricts our appreciation and understanding of these translated works.

The main advantage that translated literature brings to the table, is that we (The world) as a multi-cultural society are able to read each other's works and gain the ability to better understand the world we live in through gaining appreciation of other people's cultures and values.It's a wonder how words that once meant gibberish to us are now world-renowned texts translated into our very own languages that we are now able to read and gain life-lessons from. One example of such a text is "O Alquimista' written by Portuguese author Paulo Coelho. The book sold over 65 million copies world-wide and was translated to 67 languages.

One issue with translation is that each one of us was brought up differently and perceive different things through our unique life-experiences and then attempt to relate them to literature and other sources of knowledge. If one translator perceives something differently, then the text is altered, which could ruin the entire message behind the original text. A Chinese author "Feng" translated a collection of poems and out of the 326 verses, only three were criticized as the meaning of the official poems was slightly altered. This was because Feng perceived the poems in a more sexual form than what the author meant, thus he received countless amounts of criticism and death threats .

With that being said, i believe that despite the potential of a loss of meaning through translation, the fact that we are now able to comprehend literature from other cultures is intriguing. All credit solely goes to translation. All in all, some say that you would never understand the true meaning of life without reading certain texts. This statement alone, puts great emphasis on the importance of literature and why language barriers should not be a major issue.

English Perfect Paper 1

The following text is a propaganda leaflet by British Pacifist Norman Angell as stated on the bottom right-hand side of the text. The text is providing a reason for why Britain should not join the war. Created in 1914, the leaflet takes place in light of World War 1 and is a time of great nationalism by Europeans towards their own countries. Throughout this leaflet, Norman uses Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and font variations in order to gain support for his cause that Britain should not join the war.

The purpose of this leaflet is to convince the audience against joining the war, this can be justified as the author was a pacifist who opposed war. The author uses the fact that Britain would have to ally itself with Russia if it were to join the war as a reason for why the British should not join the war, this can be seen as the main headline of the leaflet "Why Fight for Russia." The intended audience could be the uneducated population, this is because author attempts to explain what Russia is, as seen in the second line "What is Russia." through providing information on Russia and it's political and social statuses, this signifies that the intended audiences are the uneducated as any person who is educated would know about Russia during the time. Also, the intended audience could be the unemployed. this is because at the end of the leaflet the author writes "get your local notables to hold meetings of protest against England." By providing information on how to protest against this cause implies that the intended audience has got a lot of free time on their hands which suggests that the intended audience could be the unemployed.

In summary, the leaflet conveys the ideology that Britain should not go to war as it will be alongside Russia, as seen in the first line "If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia." and continues to back up this statement by providing factual information and statistics to sway the audience's ideas in favor of the author's and concludes the leaflet by providing information on how to protest against the war.

The tone conveyed in the leaflet is a critical tone as the author is critical of Great Britain's decision to fight alongside Russia this is reflective in the statement made by Norman "Why fight for Russia." Also, the author continues by providing statistics and numbers such as "We spent 50,000,000 in the Crimea" and "140 million Russians, slaves of a corrupt autocracy" which further enhances the author's critique towards England's decision as it provides statistics against this cause.

The author uses logos to persuade and influence the audience's opinion regarding this matter. This is representative in the following statements made by Norman "Russia is the country to fight which we spent 50,000,000 in the Crimea" The author uses this sentence to show that Russia doesn't care for England as they invaded Crimea knowing that England had invested 50,000,000 pounds in it. Also, the author uses pathos in lines 12-15 "65 million Germans of our own race and blood" and "140 million Russian, slaves of a corrupt autocracy." By including this, the author implements contrasting information between Germany and Russia which creates a sympathetic connection between the audience and the Germans as the British can easily relate to the Germans due to them being "of our own race and blood." Also, the author utilizes the fact that Britain had an elected parliament in 1914 and implements the word "autocracy" to show how British and Russian ideologies contradict and that they should not fight alongside each other.

The author uses a variety of font sizes and underlines to add emphasis to the leaflet's main points which also attracts the audience towards more important aspects of his arguments. For instance, the author enforces his main ideology by including it as a headline and underlining it, as seen at the top of the leaflet "Why fight for Russia?" this allows for added emphasis by making this statement a focal point of the leaflet, also the author uses a vague claim "A war for Russia is a war against humanity." and adds emphasis to it by underlining Civilization and placing it in large fonts, this helps imply to the audience that this claim is an important claim and also acts as a focal point which would allow the author to get his main ideas across as they are focal points. Finally the author puts his call to action : "Britain, Stand Clear!"in a large font which allows the author to get his idea across.

All in all, Norman Angell uses logos, pathos, ethos, and font variations to gain support for his cause that Britain should not go to war.

IB Learner Profile Propaganda Poster

Prompt #1

"Deception is just as telling an outright lie"

An old Arabic quotes states: " If you want to take over a country, take over the people's thoughts." and the best way to do that is through the manipulation of media. The deception and manipulation of people's minds is a dangerous and unethical weapon.

The media and the news coverage that we invite to our living rooms each day are all possessed or in some cases influenced by wealthy and powerful people, let's not forget that these people, just like everyone on Earth, are human and therefore have opinions and desires too. They would do anything to protect their businesses or manipulate stories to gain support from the people whom they sell their products to.

 Lying in order to sway public opinion to favor a certain side through the deception of certain things whether it be for the most important national security reasons is unethical and delinquent. Most of us don't have access to firsthand information like news agencies do therefore portraying one side of the story for the purpose of persuasion or dissuasion is extremely immoral.

We live in a world today where we strive to achieve equity and justice; however with the constant exploitation and deception of stories through news coverage by governments and organisations to gain public support, we are always going to have different groundless opinions based on these beliefs and desires of these organisations in which we will constantly fight battles against one another due to certain ideologies implanted into our minds that negatively alter our view of certain societies and cultures.

The worst out of all, is deception of media to gain support for an invasion of another country. Millions of lives are at stake and just the single thought that the majority of the world would not know the real "truth" due to such manipulation is disheartening, and to add insult to injury with the growing number of news agencies and organisations and different opinions they bring along with it, finding the truth to a certain event is now close to impossible

Media Bias and Ideology Blog Post

Biased Article: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/what-do-palestinians-want_1058143.html
(Website funded and backed by FOX news.)

Re-written:

The so called "Palestinian terror attacks" on Israel are not as chaotic as they seem considering the fact that Israeli Forces have killed 9 times more CIVILIANS in the past decade than Palestinians have towards Israelis. Fox News needs to re-think their definition of "terror". It is also hard to believe that Palestinians are the terrorists when in-reality Israel where the ones to invade Palestinian land in the first place.

Palestine has been under constant siege from Israel since 1948, Palestinians are finding it very hard to re-grow their economy with the everlasting blockade and restrictions on imports and exports making Palestine the 126th out of the 180 ranked economies by Nominal GDP. It is estimated that sometime during the next 5 years Palestine's economy will take a giant collapse leading to an appalling famine which will inevitably lead to the demise of hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians living in Gaza.

Let's not forget the phosphorus infused bombs dropped over Palestine in the summer of 2009, this wasn't the first time Israel were accused of using prohibited weapons towards civilian-crowded areas in Gaza it was believed that they used the same weapon during their failed skirmish to take over Lebanon in 2006, and it was later confirmed to be true by a team of Italian scientists who took soil samples in Lebanon. These bombs killed about 900 Palestinians and injured 4,000 Palestinians, A UN report estimated that about half of the these numbers were civilians and half of those civilians were women and children.

According to United Nations estimates about 1,000,000 Palestinians live without electricity and about 750,000 are without clean water, this number was further enhanced because the white phosphoric bombs damaged major sources of water in Palestine as this toxic material was able to seep underground and mix with primary water reserves under-ground.

All in all, people who listen to FOX news need to stop and re-think their definition of terrorism when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because the numbers and facts speak for themselves, and not the unsupported claims made by FOX news on the matter.

Sample IOC The Tempest Act 5 Scene 1

Link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Fqiuxx9qMq

Lang and Lit IOC Sample #2

Link: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1iOcxdtl36ii78243

Boys and Girls IOC

Audio: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0TC7fzwNVJi

Hard copy (to follow along in-case my voice is not clear at times):

The following passage is an extract from the short story Boys and Girls by Alice Munro which was published in 1968. Generally, Munro’s work is mostly Women’s Literature with the narrator/protagonist being a female who talks about Gender roles in society, more specifically women’s roles. Alice Munro enforces this topic with the implementation of themes such as coming of age theme and the struggles that women face due to how society perceives women’s roles and the consequences of not going through with these assigned roles. Boys and Girls is no exception, the narrator/protagonist in this story is a pre-pubescent girl who faced problems coming to term with the role in life that she was expected to lead, The narrator wanted to work outside with her father in the barn which she deemed more important, than conducting women’s chores and acting like a servant to the males in the house (Laird and Her Father).

The following passage takes place close to the beginning of the short story after Munro provides the readers with information regarding her parents and how they viewed and despised her masculine-like actions.

In summary, the passage conveys the protagonists animosity towards doing feminine jobs around the house especially in the kitchen while, portraying her fondness and appreciation of doing jobs that she deemed important such as helping out her father’s in the barn. The exert also portrays the narrator’s mother’s eagerness for Laird to grow up and help his father do the work the narrator does, so that she would help her mother do jobs and occupy roles deemed appropriate for a lady.

In this passage Munro uses indirect 1^st person narration. Munro does not give the narrator a name, this effect enables the audience to relate the protagonist to whomever they desired. In regards to tone, The narrator demonstrates hate and discomfort towards doing feminine jobs around the house while portraying her mother to be the antagonist or her enemy as stated in line 30, the narrator shows bilateral emotions towards her mother, Firstly, she loves her mother because her mother cares for her and stays up all night creating the dress the protagonist desires as we can see in lines 28 through to 29; however she also views her as her enemy because the narrator feels that her own destiny is pre-determined due to her mother wanting her to remain at home and conduct feminine jobs as shown in line 22 where her mother says: “And then I can use her more in the house.”  Also, the narrator shows some-sort of indirect clash between her and her mother when the narrator attempts to flee the kitchen swiftly after finishing a chore in order to avoid receiving a 2^nd chore by her mother. This event portrays the protagonists respect for her mother as she could simply reject her mother’s proposal to do a second chore; however she feels ashamed of doing so therefore she tries to flee, this is slightly ambiguous as it could also enhance and signify the immense pressure women used to face in society when it comes to doing women’s chores and the consequences of rejecting these chores as a female. Also, the narrator portrays Laird (her male brother) to be free to do whatever he enjoys most as shown in line 20 where she describes him to be swinging himself sick on the swing, and going around in circles.” This effects allows the audience to witness the extreme inequalities of gender roles in society where young males were free to do whatever they pleased while young women were perplexed and forced to do women’s chores even though they hated it as the protagonist did in this passage.

The passage is an exposition as it consists of explanations and inner thoughts by the protagonist with few dialogues describing her mother’s desire for the protagonist to do lady-like jobs and how her mother despises the protagonist due to her admiration of doing masculine jobs.

The essence of this passage as well as the central concept is the oppression of women in Southern Ontario and the Male’s authority out-weighing the female’s authority.

In line 1 of the passage, we are directly introduced to the kitchen. The kitchen acts as a symbol for the protagonist’s prison where the narrator abhors everything about the kitchen from the “depressing work” to the “hot and dark environment during the summer”. The protagonist describes the kitchen to have endless, depressing, and useless work just like a typical prison where the work forced upon the convicts is of no usefulness to the actual convicts while it is of use to the person in charge of running the prison where he/she would have his errands done for them. The narrator also describes her eagerness to leave the kitchen/prison as soon as she’s done with her chores in line 5.

In line 15, Munro implements a simile relating the narrator’s dad to a salesman which shows her dad’s approval of the narrator doing masculine jobs, and the protagonists appreciation of her dad approval towards this specific event. However the narrator portrays contrast between her mom and her dad. Her dad being her ally while her mom being her enemy, this can be justified by her appreciation of her dads actions in line 15 and what the narrator said about her mother in line 30 where she briefly stated that she felt her mom was her enemy although she can be nicer than her dad at times.

In line 17, the narrator’s mother declares that when Laird grows up he would be of greater help to his dad, Munro implements this line to portray how the ideology that Men will grow up to do men’s chores has infected her mother although Laird clearly is not showing any signs of usefulness around the house and that the protagonist is doing most of the chores while Laird never stays with the protagonist to complete any job they previously started.

In Line 24, the mother says: “It’s not like I had a girl in the family at all.” This shows how women will be looked down upon and not be established as females if that certain person does not act womanly, although the protagonist is a female by birth, her own mother justifies her daughter by her actions rather than by her actual birth gender which in this case is female.

Finally in line 40, the protagonist expresses her mother’s lack of understanding of what is going on around the house as well her depreciation towards her daughter’s ability to conduct all these difficult masculine jobs. This in fact shows that at the time, no matter how capable a person is of doing opposite gender related roles they will still be despised and looked down upon by society as a whole.

All in all, Munro’s implementation of a symbolic feature in the protagonist’s life, the portrayal of discomfort and hate by the protagonist towards doing what the protagonist deems to be useless jobs, the narrator’s mothers closed-mindedness, the ideologies regarding gender inequalities enforced upon people in her society as well as her mother, and finally the protagonists desire for change in her current lifestyle to escape her pre-determined fate all assist in suggesting and enhancing the fact that women had little to no authority in doing anything outside the household at the time and the oppression of women in southern Ontario as a complication in Canada.

This Is Water

"This is Water" is an essay written by American Writer David Forster Wallace. The essay covers topics like the difficulty of empathy and the importance of being well-adjusted. The overall chief moral in the story is not to consider factors about life after death, but to consciously be aware and live the life we have before death. The fundamental purpose of this essay is to encourage people to view the world we live in and the people around us with a different non self-centered perspective and take into account other people's issues and hardships.

David develops and enforces his thesis through the implementation of relatable real-life examples and situations that the majority of the working population face nowadays. David also provides a solution to the audience's everyday issues which will ultimately improve and make people's lives less miserable than they are and gives us less of an incentive to "shoot ourselves before the age of 30." David also applies an extended metaphor that runs throughout the entirety of the essay, at the very beginning David introduces a story of three fish and constantly re-assures the audience that he isn't addressing an unimportant issue with no relevance to the audience's real life situations and that they should continue reading to figure out what this essay truly is about. Once we approach the very end of the essay we figure out that the fish are compared to humans and the water around the fish (which the essay was named after) was to resemble life. "This is Water" translates to "this ls life" and this is how life is meant to be we can either learn to cope with it and live cheerful lives or if we refuse we can live miserable lives, it's all up to us to choose how we want to spend the rest of our lives as he states in the essay it's all a matter of choice.

How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence? How does literature help us further understand David's theory? Well, Literature further helps us understand David's theory because, most literary works portray real problems we face everyday and by reading literature we expose ourselves to such problems and ultimately become more mindful and apprehensive to other people's situations which might be worse than we think our situations actually are, therefore we will learn to appreciate the lives we had and know that no matter how hard and irritating our lives are there are always people worse off  that are still fighting and refuse to give up.

Munro Literature Reflection

What is the purpose and benefit of the study of literature?

Literature is defined as: "Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. A great Russian poet by the name of Boris Pasternak once said: "Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words, something extraordinary." I believe that literature is not just important to us, it is vital to our survival in this invariably evolving world. My 6th grade teacher once told me: "reading and writing are crucial to your success later on, you will need to be able to do one in order to do the other". It's that simple! Also reading improves our communication skills, we need to communicate clearly through either writing or speaking so we can share our thoughts and ideas with one another. For example if we were approached by an individual who cannot communicate well, naturally we humans don't feel inclined to take that person seriously. Also, studying literature helps us grasp a better understanding of the world around us, since most literature speaks of issues that are still present in our society. Finally, it is very useful to learn about the way people from other nationalities think, this also helps us better relate to them.

What is women's literature and what is the value of studying it? 

Women's literature is defined as: "women-centered books that focus on women's life experiences."It is important to learn about because it allows readers to think critically about gender, sexuality, and criticism. It also helps us better understand culture at particular times and how it gradually develops and changes, and finally provides us with real-life issues that are very common around the world.

Why were themes and values of Munro's social realism so significant during the 1950s - 1980s / Although she does not identify as a feminist writer, how has Munro's work contributed to gender equality?

Munro's themes and values of social realism were significant during the 1950s all the way through to the 1980s was because there were many active movements towards gender equality all over the wolrd and in some of the most predominant countries such as France, The United Kingdom, and The U.S.A. Her work helped further convey social issues women were currently facing and also provoked many readers into supporting such movements.

Scorpions - Wind Of Change IOC

 Wind of Change is a song by German Rock Band "Scorpions" composed in 1990. The lyrics celebrate the end of the cold war and the end of socialism.

Verse 1 reads "I follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park" The Moskva river could be used as a symbol for the nature, indicating that the end of the socialism is caused by the basic human nature (socialism constricts your freedom to enjoy yourself). The fact that his goal is Gorky Park, an entertainment park, also supports such an interpretation, because people want to have fun. "Listening to the Wind of Change" signifies the failure of the socialism had become visible, everybody could see that it would come to an end sooner or later. The wind he is listening symbolizes the end of socialism.

Verse 2 reads "The world is closing in" The world people knew, one which was separated into the capitalist west and socialist east, was coming to an end; the socialist governments took their last breaths, before finally being gone. "And did you ever think" Only a few years prior, during the prime of the Soviet Union’s Rule, such a dramatic change would not have been believed or expected. "That we could be so close, like brothers" The methaporical border between two different people, but also actual borders such as the Wall of Berlin were destroyed in that time and people could be closer to each other, families that were long separated were finally able to come back together. "The future's in the air, i can feel it everywhere" The problems and the required changes could not be hidden from the public eye by the government anymore. Therefore, the future became obvious to everybody, since many people are now talking about about it openly. "Blowing with the wind of change" The failure of the socialism had become visible, everybody could see that it would come to an end sooner or later. But now, instead of having to listen to the wind of change, the change is actually blown towards him and everybody else, marking the development of the situation as time passed.

The chorus reads, "Take me to the magic of the moment, on a glory night." He who expected the fall of the communist regimes wanted to see this event as soon as possible, considering the fact this night would be a (glorious) part of history. Where the children of tomorrow dream away, in the wind of change" In this moment, the reunion of both German countries, West and East, the life of the next generations would be changed fundamentally, an event he had expected, because of the public view and behavior.

All in all this song has been voted the song of the century, and it is the highest selling song in Germany with an outstanding 6 million records sold. Also this song is remembered as a song of German reunification and a message of hope.

Summer Blogpost

This summer was by far the worst summer i have ever experienced throughout my life time, firstly i did not travel anywhere with my family, wasted half, if not the majority of my time sleeping, the amount of IB work we were set to complete over the summer is immense, and finally Ramadan wasted literally half my summer.

Ramadan is a holy month in which Muslims all over the world practice strict fasting from dawn to sunset, since Ramadan is a month long and the summer was two months, half the summer was wasted with endless hours of sleep to make up for the time i had to fast. Not travelling anywhere and doing absolutely nothing was the biggest waste of time ever, all i did during my free time was sit at home and watch TV shows, on the bright side the intense amount of IB work given to us by school was not bad as i had so much free time on my hands that sometimes i would rather work on my university applications or my school work rather than do nothing.

All in all, i have experienced the worst summer i will ever experience in my life. The only thing i am currently looking forward to is the completion of the IB program and receiving my diploma.

Paper #2

Stories often form an important part of the culture of a people. It is through stories that ideas, moral beliefs and everyday life can be preserved most easily. In a culture with no form of written language, such as Achebe’s Igbo culture, story-telling becomes the most practical way to convey knowledge to the younger generations. In his novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe makes good use of various stories and myths of the Igbo culture to create a genuine depiction of his own culture, which in turn allows his readers to not only better understand the Igbo culture, but to entirely immerse oneself into Achebe’s fictional village of Umuofia.

Achebe shows us just how important stories are in Igbo culture by showing us a story made up by Ekwefi, who is telling it to Ezinma. Ekwefi’s story carries a moral that she intends to teach to her daughter. She uses the story as a method of education. Ekwefi then asks Ezinma to create her own story, a task which she finds to be harder than what her mother made it look like. The use of stories as a form of education and the encouragement for young members of the population to be trained in the art of making stories from a young age shows us that in Igbo culture stories are the main way of transmitting knowledge and of educating the population. Achebe also shows us that this transmission of knowledge was something more than just a mere moral lesson. It was also used to shape the Igbo society itself. This can be seen when we see that Okonkwo’s male sons are told stories by him while his daughters are only told stories by their mothers. This shows that stories were used to determine the gender roles within the Igbo society, since there would be a separation as to what stories the boys would hear and what stories the girls would hear. And as remarked by Achebe through Nwoye’s opinions of the difference between Okonkwo’s and his mother’s stories, these stories would differ in content, the male ones usually being more violent than those told by the mothers.

Another example of an Igbo legend used by Achebe, and in this case one that has a visible effect within the culture is the legend of the Ogbanje. The Ogbanje is a demon child that keeps dying young and being reborn into the womb of the same mother. In Things Fall Apart, Ezinma is considered to be an Ogbanje, since Ekwefi has had many children before her, but they have all died young, thus she was thought to be plagued by an Ogbanje for a long time. At one point in the novel, the members of the village even harass Ezinma so that she gives off the location of the small pebble that is supposed to be the link between the Ogbanje and the physical world, in order to make sure that Ekwefi would not be tortured anymore. Achebe, writing for a contemporary audience, would have known that there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon which the Igbo mythology attributed to supernatural forces, and that his audience would have known this as well. The fact that the reader knows that this is indeed nothing more than a legend may cause some confusion or misjudgment of the Igbo culture, but Achebe tries to stay as true to the culture as possible and show his readers exactly what the culture was like. And to this end, he shows us the extreme extent that these legends would impact the behavior of the Igbo people.

Another example of a myth that would directly impact the lifestyle of the Igbo people was their belief of having a very strong connection to Ani, the earth goddess in Igbo religion. Throughout Things Fall Apart Ani is the most mentioned deity, since many of the actions taken by the people in the village have consequences that are directly related to her. An example of this can be seen when Okonkwo accidentally kills Ogbuefi Ezeudo’s son with his faulty gun. Killing a fellow clansman is considered to be an offense to Ani, and thus Okonkwo is forced into exile in order to prevent the earth goddess from doing anything too rash. Okonkwo’s house, all of his crops and his animals are also destroyed in order to please the earth goddess. This shows that the Igbo people had a very deep belief in their religion and that it heavily affected the way they lived. Achebe might have intended to make special emphasis on this aspect of the Igbo culture in order to make an indirect comparison with the Christian church, where a lot of people do not take religion as much into account during all of their lives, and thus portray the Igbo people as a culture that may be more religious than the colonizers themselves. This would have caused the western readers of the time of the novels release to question the religious aspects of their own lives.

Passage Analysis Chapter 21 (Things Fall Apart)

Summary of Chapter 21:



At this point in the story, the majority of the Umofian people are quite pleased with the changes taking place in Umofia as they have set-up trading posts and wealth as a result of that started flowing into the village. Mr. Brown (the white missionary) and Akunna (one of the clan’s elders) meet often to debate about their own cultural and religious views in attempt to convince one another to convert religions. However; that was not Mr. Brown’s sole intention, he persistently visited Akunna to acquire additional information regarding the flaws of Umofia’s religion in order to convey that the flaws of the Igbo religion are the advantages of Christianity. Using this information Mr. Brown goes on and builds a hospital and a school and argues that “strangers who can read and write will come to rule them”. His arguments are fairly effective and his hospital wins praise for its treatments.




Various power factors that impact the major events in the novel:


The missionaries seemed to acquire and provide the Umofians with advantages lacking in the Igbo culture. Firstly he provides the well-established members of Umofia with new opportunities for wealth (Trading), Secondly the impotent members find find acceptance in Christianity that they didn't experience in the so-called old ways, and finally Mr. Brown builds a school and a much-needed hospital in Umuofia; both institutions produce immediate and impressive results which attracts even more converts to side with the missionaries.