quiz

1. I think the poem "streets" is for Naomi's grandmother. First the whole poem shows a kind of sadness and loneliness, such like the word "dark, tirelessly, quietly", which words not represents the positive emotion. "Think the same about people." Some people can sleep completely, but some people for lost and remembered, they sleep twice, once for the one who is gone. The author's grand mother was living far from her, in another country. Maybe her grandmother has dead or just can't meet each other, that's mean"lost and remembered". And sleep can represents missing someone she loved. Although the author can't meet her grandmother, but still miss her a lot, and always walk in the author's dream.

2. There are 8 lines and 5 sentences in the stanza4.

3. Personification means that add the human characteristic to something that is not a human, such like add the description of human action to a flowers, animals. In the stanza3, there's a example: "the sky which sews and sews, tirelessly sewing." Sew is a verb to describe the humans behavior. It means use the needle to fix the clothing. But in the poem, it is used to describe what sky looks like during the sunset evening time.

4. In the last stanza, she wrote: Some people do. They sleep completely, waking refreshed. Others live in two worlds, the lost and remembered. That's a contrast. She use the people who can stay with person they loved to contrast with those people who lost and miss families, such like herself; to express the loneliness and sadness.

5. There are 3 stanzas and 3 sentences in the poem "hidden".

6. This sentence means that put  the name of person you loved under the tongue for a long time, don't speak out. If you love someone, you don't need to always say the name of the person, just remember the person, and put in heart. 

7. I think, as another poem "streets", they all show the emotion to someone the author loved, maybe is her grandmother. But not directly say who's her grand mother and how nice person she is, she use the natural things to represents the human emotion. 

8. "Fuel that feeds you" may also mean the person she loved. Because in the poem she said:"tuck the name of a loved one under your tongue" "the little sucked-in breath of air hiding everywhere beneath your words""no one sees". Someone she loved is really important to her, she didn't say it and show others but she always put the person loved in heart and remembered. As the time go, this kind of emotion can always encourage her to do a lot.

Blog 6

In this quarter, I have read the Persepolis and Naomi shihab's poem. For the book, I didnt read a lot English novel before. There are many words and sentences I can't understand, hopefully in the next quarter, I can improve. And the characters or events sometimes make me confused, sometimes I can't find the meaning of a plot. So to figure this out, I plan to do some notes when I am reading. This is a good habit for reading and many people do, I will try in the next quarter. The most challenging thing is the poetry. Sometimes it's hard for me to understand what the author says, such like in the poem of blood: "a true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hand." I can't realize that it can show the relationship between Arab and nature. And although I have idea, I think maybe it's wrong, maybe I need to show more ideas and discuss more in the class with others to understand the poem better. 

In class writing

1.Naomi is a woman of two countries, Palestine and America.I think in this poem, skins may represents herself. In the first stanza, she wrote that  "swept away by someone who never saw it was a feather." "But skin felt it was never seen." I think she may wants to show that many people just look at her appearance to make a judgement but don't know her mind. She wants to change the way of people going on with her. So she still has hope, "Heals over the scarred place, makes a road.", go a lot of place, change the people's mind, change the people thought of a Palestine.

2. Skin represents her self.

summary of the words under the words

This is the poem about Naomi's grandmother. She show the love between her grandmother and her by this poem. In the first stanza, she expresses that there are no people in the world can stay with each other forever; we have to leave some day, we can never meet again. Maybe that's mean the death.  But from natural side, something can tie us together is the sky. It ties the whole universe, ties our world, Naomi can't meet her grandmother again, but the sky ties them together, just like the title of this poem, grandmother in the star.

In the second stanza, she has reminiscences if her grandmother. She imagined what her grandmother was doing at that moment in the village. In the poem, she use "rugged feet, moth-eaten scarves" to describe her. And she still wanted to hear the knowledge of the neighbors horse and the heroic cow from grandmother. She showed that her grandmother is a simple and kind woman. I think in some degree, this poem doesn't only show her love to her grandmother but also want to tell readers how Arabic woman is.

At last, she thought that although they can't meet each other again, bu the memory will always be keep in heart. The writer Naomi was burned in America, they speak two different language, although in this way, Naomi thought they will miss each other forever. The love between them is endless.

Poem

I was learning while guests were talking,

I can heard it.

Mom passed me coffee and grape.

I ate and learned half-heartedly,

I said that I wish to sleep because I got fever.

She sat with me and told me folktales.

blog 5

First, the reason of why Naomi write this poem as a response to 911 is that the author want to show readers what's the true Arab. AL-Qaeda are the islanmic terrorist group. They are Arabs, so this accident give people in the world a bad impression of Arabs. Everyone think Arabs are terrorist, Middle East countries are not peaceful. Naomi wants to show readers that not every Arab is the terrorist, show what's a true Arab. True Arabs love their motherland, peace.

In the poem of my father and fig trees, she wrote: "I'm talking about picking the largest, fattest, sweetest fig in the world and putting it in my mouth. "Fig trees represents his father's motherland. Her father miss his motherland a lot although he was living in America. A true Arab is homeless. Another poem, the words under the words. She wrote that "when one mails come, she announces it, a miracle, listening to it read again and again in the dim evening night." Her grandmother, a true Arab woman who is a simple and kind woman, always miss her sons, love the family.

The Arabic culture is also showed in the poem the arbic coffee. "The coffee was the center of flower." Coffee is a important part of arabic culture, this poem describes a beautiful and peaceful scene of Arabs' life.

Although after the 911, people thought Arabs are terrorists; Naomi tries to use her poem what true Arabs are.

poem homework 2

I think Naomi's grandmother is a simple and hard working on the farm work. In the poem of my grandmother in the stars, she writes that: I bow to your rugged feet, the moth-eaten scarves that knot your hair. This describes her grandmother. And she is kind, so the author always remember and love her grandmother, in the Poem, she writes that our two languages adrift, heart saying, take this home, never again and only memory make us rich. Her grandmother may missed her son a lot. She writes that maybe it holds her son to America. Although her grand mother know rarely got the mail, once got a mail she was very excited and read again and again. I think that because the mail was from her sons.

poem

1. what does the fig tree mean to the father?

2. What Arabic culture was shown in the poem Arabic Coffee?

blog 4

I think the book Persepolis is for young people who are not familiar with the history of the Middle East country--Iran. This book is written in a comic style by Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi. Iranian historical problem is complicated because of the political factor, fossil resources and islanmic religion. After I read this book, I consider the purpose of this book is to tell people something about religious revolution, Iran and Iraq war and people's life in Iran. 

Persepolis is a comic book. This is a reason of why I think it's for young people. For me, I'm a student, I don't think so many young people would like to take interest in the book which is concerned to the policy and use a lot of difficult and long words. It's hard for readers to understand and attract them a lot, especially for young people. But Persepolis has a lot of vivid pictures and words that describe the story in a clear way but interesting. 

The book is about the memory of Marjane's childhood. The main character is little girl Marjane. The book is written in a little girl's opinion. It tells many real stories and describes how was people' hard life in Iran. Such like, she tells reader the history of king by his own grandfather's story, show the conflict between government by his uncle Annosh's experience, black Friday, social class in her home. These are all her experience, they are real and convincing. She combine the polictical and religious problem with people's life to show what was happened in Iran during that special period.

I think this is her purpose and she achieved. For me, this is the first time I know something about Iran and impressed me a lot.

Uncle Anoosh-- who show a true society but with hope

Do you know the history of Iran? Maybe the first thing come to our mind is that a woman wear veil or the war. It's not a peaceful country because of the religion and oil resource. Do you know the real life in Iran. Persepolis can give us the answer. Persepolis is a book which is concerned the Islamic revolution in Iran. This is a comic book which is written by Marjane Satrapi. She introduced her child memory during the revolution in the book. The main character Marjane was a little girl at the beginning part, she lived in a rich family, she was very religious and she believed that she was the last prophet of god. She was a out spoken girl, she disagreed with the policy and was brave to say. She joined into the demonstration, rebutted the religious teacher in school. There are many character in the book, I will analyze more about Marjane's uncle Anoosh.

Anoosh was a loyal communist; when he was young he has ever worked with his uncle Fereydoon to support the country democracy. But they fell, he had to go to Russia, and became a student who learned Marx. After he went back to Iran, he was sent to the prison and stayed for many years. When he was arrested, he met Marjane. The most important event for Marjane is that he was executed and he gave two bread swan to Marjane as gifts. He is a important person to Marjane. He represents the first definition of hero to Marjane because he gave her hope but also told the truth of government. He taught her although real life is painful, she should never give up the hope.

Uncle Anoosh gave Marjane the first impression of hero. As a little girl, Marjane thought the person who fights for the democracy and is sent in to the prison is the hero. In The book, when she met Anoosh first time, she said that "I had a hero in my family.naturally I loved him immediately." (Satrapi 54) When Anoosh told her he support his uncle for democracy, he has went to Moscow and learned Marx. Marjane thought Anoosh is great, he is the hero, he can do other people can't do. He is a hero who fight for democracy, that's the first definition of a hero in Marjane's thought.

When uncle Anoosh lived in Marjane's home, he talked about the policy a lot. He told Marjane how he support the uncle Fereydoon to be a minister of a democracy country, how they try to free Iran province by province like Azerbaijan. And also told her the truth about Islamic revolution, religious leader can't make this country became free. New government doesn't mean the painful life will end. Later, the tragedy happened, the people who were arrested from prison was executed by the new government.

The words Anoosh always said is that"Everything will be alright." (Satrapi 65) In some degree, I think it gives hope to Marjane. Also it represents that Anoosh believed that, one day it will became a democracy country. Marjane believed that, when she knew Anoosh was executed, she was very sad but said" Everything will be alright!"(Satrapi 70) That's what Anoosh taught her. Although the life is painful we should never give up.

I think uncle Anoosh is a great character in this book. There's only one section in the book talks about the Uncle Anoosh. But he is an important person to Marjane. He was the first person who defined "hero" to Marjane, he taught her life is painful but never give up.

Citation: Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon, 2003. Print. 

Paper draft

Persepolis is a book concerned the Islamic revolution in Iran. This is a comic book which is written by Marjane Satrapi. She introduced her child memory during the revolution in the book. The main character Marjane is a little girl at the beginning, she was lived in a middle class family, she is very religious and believe that she was the last prophet of god. She is a out spoken girl, she cares the policy in the society and is brave to say. She joined into the demonstration, rebut the religious teacher in school. There are many character in the book, I will analyze more about Marjane's uncle Annosh.

Annosh is a honest communist, when he was young, he has ever worked with his uncle Fereydoon to support the country democracy. But they fell, he had to go to Russia, and became a student who learned Marx. After he went back to Iran, he was sent to the prison and stayed for many years. When he was arrested, he met Marjane. 

The most important event for Marjane is that he was executed and he gave two bread swan to Marjane as gifts. Before he was executed, he wanted to tell Marjane what's happened, what he knew so the last person Annosh wanted to meet before he was died is Marjane. He is a important person to Marjane. Because when Marjane is a little girl, she was excited about everything about the revolution, she doesn't know what exactly a hero means, her definition to a hero is that a person was sent to the prison because of the revolution. She thinks Annosh is the hero in the family. Annosh help Marjane know more about the world and give the hope to her.

Uncle Annosh gave Marjane the first impression of hero. As a little girl, Marjane thought the person who fight for the democracy and be sent in to the prison is the hero. When Annosh tell her he support his uncle for democracy, he has went to Moscow and learned Marx. Marjane thought Annosh is great, he is the hero, he can do other people can't do. So she said that "I had a hero in my family.naturally I loved him immediately."

When uncle Annosh lived in Marjane's home, he talked about the policy a lot. He told Marjane how he support the uncle Fereydoon to be a minister of a democracy country, how they try to free Iran province by province like Azerbaijan. And also told her the truth about Islamic revolution, religious leader can't make this country became free.

The words Annosh always said is that" Everything will be alright." In some degree, i think it gives hope to Marjane. Also it represents Annosh believe that one day, it will became a democracy country. Marjane believed that, when she knew Annosh was executed, she was very sad but said" Everything will be alright!"

Persepolis--review

Persepolis is a comic book, which is written by Marjane Satarapi. It's also be adapted into the film. This is the first comic book I read actually. I recommend it. This is a story of childhood of a Iran girl. Marjane is a iran girl.  She write her childhood memory in the book, about her parents, grandmother, uncle, school, the life during war and her parents decided to sent her abroad.

Although it's in comic style, but it's absolutely not for little kids. I think it show something serious. It concerned the topic of Iran war and policy, but this book makes readers understand easily. That's one reason of why I recommend it. As a foreign student, it's hard for me to read some boring things about the policy. Because it's not a interesting topic for most of people. But if the book is showed in the comic style. We can know what Marjane think about by the picture in the book. The pictures in the book are really nice. They usually show some details. We can guess what Marjane thinks about by analyzing her painting style.

And the second point is that, this is a mamory of a young girl. Some serious topic which concerned the policy of a country is usually affected by the government. Some books or movies can't show the true historical events because of the political factor. I never know the history of Iran. But from this book, I know some affection of religious rule to people and the peoples' life during Iran war. 

Marjane lives in a rich family. I like her parents. Although in some degree, there is still social class in the family when they support the revolution. For example, their maid can't eat with them, the maid can't fall in love with the son of neighbors. But I like them because her parents didn't restrict her a lot on the policy and religion. Her parents bought her books about revolutionaries, Marx, tell her the truth of king, send her abroad to live in a more free place. They help her know more things about the country than others, help her to be a girl who is brave to say something different and have own thought.

http://youtu.be/c2_VX7uWTJw