AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

BY: KHALED HOSSEINI

How do people cope when their lives are changed by forces they can't control?

People begin to cope when their lives are strongly affected in a different way. They begin to act differently based on what happened in their history. Most likely the reason is that they lost something that was very essential to them and it’s something that destroys a persons life. A great example that situates itself to this question is And the Mountains Echoed by: Khaled Hosseini.  This book relates to this because in the beginning of the book, the father (Baba Ayub) gets isolated from his youngest and beloved son Qais.

In the beginning of the book, Baba Ayub was a great man that followed all his duties of being a great husband and a great father. He loved them with such care and would never even dare to beat theirchildren or lose his temper. But right after society or the div in this case, which is described as this terrible and horrific beast that kidnaps kids and brings them to the mountains, kidnaps Qais the father begins to lose it. Baba Ayub becomes crazy and begins to move away and leave his family. He was known as a mad man from what the neighborhood was gossiping. This is when the society really comes in place and holds the life of Baba Ayub and crushes it. The father’s roles of being a good man were disappearing throughout time. He stopped working, stopped praying, and hardly ate. He was devastated! No parent should let their children be taken away from their lives and never get to see them again. It was just the society that takes a persons life away and the small Afghan village has no say into speaking up and going against the society. It was a living hell for parents to loose there loved ones and get their hearts shattered into small little pieces.  The love was no longer there and families just had to deal with it. Baba Ayub sometimes looses his temper now and now he beats his children, but not because he doesn't love them but for them to be more roughened up in the real world. Its just Baba Ayub and his two children that live off by themselves dealing with the real world.

·      http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/taking-responsibility.htm

·      http://www.worldacademy.org/forum/individuality-and-social-conformity

·      http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?66637-Does-society-destroy-individuality

AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

BY: KHALED HOSSEINI

Why is childhood such an important time of life?  When does it end?

      

             Childhood plays an essential role in a persons life because they gradually begin learning new knowledge by an unawareness way. They begin to develop the stage of maturity, and begin to rejoice on their own feet in the real world. It begins to end right after the feeling of being more mature and having more responsibilities in life so they could stand on their feet as an individual. And The Mountains Echoed by: Khaled Hosseini is a great example of what happens as these two siblings become motherless in an Afghan village, and live out in the cold world based on the teachings of there father.

       In this book, the two siblings Abdullah and Pari begin to live in the real world at such a young age. As the father is a traumatized mad man that has lost is beloved son Qais from the div, he becomes strict and beats his children, which he used to never do before. It wasn't like he didn't love them but it was a way to roughen them up. It created fear between his children and himself. As so the children begin to learn new knowledge from there father and begin to become more mature. Even though they are at a stage of learning, they still remind themselves and begin to miss their childhood by singing a lullaby that there mother use to sing them before they went to sleep. 

"I found a sad little fairy

 Beneath the shade of a paper tree.

 I know a sad little fairy

 Who was blown away by the wind one night. (Pg.21)

      

• http://mrsuccessvn.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/childhood-is-the-most-important-period-in-one’s-life/
• http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2012/11/when-does-childhood-end/ 
• http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/persepolis.jpg  

       Childhood begins to disappear when society has a huge effect on you. It is a childhood that Abdullah and Pari could never live again. The will never find the beauty of living as a child again.

PERSEPOLIS BOOK VS. PERSEPOLIS MOVIE

          

          In Persepolis, both the movie and the book were able to portray the main idea of Marjane Satrapi but it also differed in many ways by taking a very essential character out of the film. In the film, The character Mehri was token out and she was a huge representation of the role of women during the revolution. Throughout the book Mehri is Marjane's nanny and also her maid. She was taken in by the Satrapi family. This happened when she was as a young child because her former family could not support her. Mehri falls in love with a boy from the neighborhood but she cannot be with him because she is from a lower social class than he is. Mr. Satrapi made sure to ruin this for her. Like in many cases, the book informed us of every detail possible in order to get a clearer message across. When it came to the movie, it lacked many details that were included in the book and if you would not have read the book it would cause you to be confused and lost.

           In the book Mehri was very essential because her life was a message that was sent to the readers that social class represented who you were. It was a message that social class during the revolution was looked severely by the social class you were in and not the personality of the character. However, in the film she was removed and I was very curious in why they took her out because she was so important in the book that their was a whole chapter dedicated to her. In the film, it was more focused on Marjane Satrapi's childhood than what was happening around her. Personally, if they Mehri in the film, it would have been much better.