Said as a tragic hero

Aristotle defines a tragic hero as "a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment".

• What is Said's tragic flaw? (harmatia)

Said's constant desire for revenge can be interpreted as his main tragic flaw that had later on in the novel lead to his downfall. An example from the text from chapter seven, "“To kill them both—Nabawiyya and Ilish—at the same time, would be a triumph”, his constant expressing of hate towards other characters in the play is considered as his main tragic flaw, since it lead to him getting shot at towards the end of the literary text.

• How does he display excessive pride? (hubris)

Said throughout the novel keeps blaming Nabawiyya, Illish and Rauf for being the main reason behind all that is happening to him, never having himself to blame. He even blamed Sana for not recognizing him, when he told Rauf in chapter three "I have no faith in all her sex", the previous line shows how naive he is, blaming Sana when she hasn't seen him for the past four year. This shows how excessively his character displays pride, as he sees that he himself is flawless and never to blame to what is happening between him and the other characters in the novel.

• When is his reversal of fortunes? (peripeteia)

Said's reversal of fortunes was at the moment when Rauf rejects for who he is, he says “If I set eyes on you again,” Rauf bellowed, “I’ll squash you like an insect.” This shows how Said is now left with no one and hopeless, due to the fact that Rauf once used to be his mentor and close friend, but now he is nothing other than another upperclass individual who Said attempted to rob. 

• At what moments in the text does he recognize that the reversal was due to his own actions? (anagnorisis)

Because Said deliberately broke into his house during dawn when Rauf was sleeping. “Yes, I do, but please don’t.” Said says that after Rauf said, “No? Don’t you deserve it?". This shows how Said acknowledges his mistake (perhaps just to avoid going back to jail), and begs Rauf not to call the police, showing that he knows that the reversal of fortunes is due to his own actions.

• Is his fate greater than he deserved? (nemesis)

His fate was tragic, no tragic ending is considered "greater than deserved" since all tragic endings have had some events leading up to him, contributing to a somewhat similar tragic fate. 

Passage Analysis

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.” 


Analysis: 

This passage reveals to the audience the different perceptions each of Rauf and Said have regarding the life that they are living. The passage includes contrast between both their characters, symbols are included to further contrast their relationship and perceptions. Also, Rauf's character has been established further than what Said's inner thoughts has shaped him as. 

The passage begins with “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". The previous lines are a internal monologue that portrays the hating character that Said holds. This can be said due to the fact that he pays close attention to details regarding the valuable things that Rauf possesses. An example would be, "pretty little violet-coloured ice bucke" and "dish of apples arranged in a pyramid", the close detail payed by him symbolizes the unattainable things that he will not enjoy independently. 

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.

Why does Mahfouz employ stream of consciousness narration in the novel and to what effect?

In chapter 1, Naguib first introduces us to the protagonist Said, who is in jail during the very early stages of the novel. In the first chapter specifically, Mahfouz manages to constantly switch and redirect his style of writing, whether it being from first person to second person, or by implementing stream of consciousness narration, including a soliloquy, interior and exterior monologues. The employment of such writing styles in the text, allowed Naguib to achieve a number of significant intended character traits that are to be developed and built upon in the upcoming events of the novel. 

As we are first introduced to Said, we are given insight regarding his expressed hatred towards both Nabawiyyah and Ilish, his wife and former friend respectively. The hatred has been expressed when he says "I swear I hate you all", he also describes his ex wife by saying "that woman who sprang from filth, from vermin, from treachery and infidelity.”(p.152) and “one of the secrets of hell!". After reading these previous lines, readers as audience view Said's character to be filled with hatred. However, Naguib provides contrast to the hating nature of Said's character, where his feelings for his daughter are shown to be filled with love, seen in the line "As the thought of her crossed his mind. The heat and the dust, the hatred and the pain all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul as clear as a rain-washed sky", portraying Said's nature further. This shows how Naguib managed to provide us as audience, with deep insight regarding Said's character, only by providing us with slight detail regarding his feelings and thoughts, achieved by implementing quotes and direct monologues. 

Furthermore, we were firstly introduced to Illish's character through Said's inner thoughts and feelings, which gave a rather negative impression regarding his 'yet to be introduced' character. However, as the audience are given the chance to view Illish's character further in the first chapter, they are provided with Indirect characterization, also mainly achieved by the style of writing that Naguib uses. Later in the first chapter, the first time the audience are encountered with Ilish is when he invites Said to his house, then as the scene progresses, we as audience, manage to see somewhat valid reasoning behind his argument with Said, that we do not have a lot of insight about, other than the fact that Said's inner thoughts and feelings are neglecting it based on Said's point of view solely.

Value of Literature in Translation

"Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other"

Translated literary texts have been separated all along than those referred to as "original texts". What makes a literary text original, is being published and read in the language it was written in. However, one may argue that the originality of a text relies on its content and worth. On the other hand, translated texts are those that are written in another language, yet attempting to communicate and deliver the same intended meaning and content within the original piece of text.

When a text is to be translated, the translator is to have an appreciation of both the content and context of the original piece, with the events taking place. The translator is also confronted with moments where he or she has to preserve some elements of the text and sacrifice some others. Every piece that is translated has came from an "original" individual, hence translators tend to give it an individual based treatment. This is when understanding the context of the work is important, as translators tend to "retain the ambience of the original culture, rather than the language, as it is reflected in the text". 

When people read translated literary works, they tend to hate to have something challenging their historical views of things, corrupting them, and display their idols in a undermined manner. As a result, it is safe to say that in order to enjoy translated literary texts, the reader should be 'open-minded' and have an interpretation suitable to what the author aims to deliver with translating an original piece of text.

"Translation is two things: it’s very close and careful and thoughtful reading. Then, it’s precise and careful and thoughtful writing"

Why fight for Russia -Paper 1

The following text is in the form of a leaflet, a type of propaganda against Russia in Britain during the early stages of the first world war, this can be said as the bottom of the page states, “Leaflet by British Pacifist Norman Angell, 1914”. It discusses the once was ongoing conflict from Britain’s perspective; hence we can safely say that it is a propaganda. The piece of text targets the English audience in order to serve its own purpose. This was done by using some factual information, appealing to the audience also by using literary features, all resulting in triggering the mood of the audience in order to enhance the leaflet’s purpose.

The target audience that this extract aims to reach out for is the British people, more specifically unemployed and uneducated people. The leaflet aims to inform the people of England, of avoidable actions that are to be taken by them as a whole nation. While simultaneously educating them of the consequences that would result if they proceed with the actions that the author is trying to warn them from.  The leaflet’s first line states, “If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia”, the line informs the English people of what is about to take place if their nation joins the war. The British Pacifist who wrote this text, approached the audience through establishing a sympathetic connection, as in lines three and four, he informs the audience of how Russia payed a tremendous amount of money, which will seem to successfully attract audience to read the text while engaging with it more thoroughly, as money was even more valuable a century ago. The reason money was said to be more valuable, is due to the fact that a lot of money was used up for buying equipment suitable for wars, as well as it was a period of time before the inflation that we know about took place, also the fact that the author decided to include that in the text, portrays its significance and importance.

The leaflet starts off with a title written in bold and caps, “WHY FIGHT RUSSIA” which attracts audience to make more than just a glance with the piece of text. Then the write starts to inform the readers (British Population) of the role that Great Britain will lay, as well as the side they will take, this can be seen in line 1, “If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia”, moving along the lines, the English writer further asks a rhetorical question, “What is Russia?” (2). This then allowed the writer to take advantage of historical events and facts, such as, “Russia is the country … designs on our Indian Empire” (10) and “It is the Russian … St. Petersburg” (14). These previous statements did not only intend to educate the audience, as the main purpose was to cultivate the negative sight that the English people are to view Russia with. As the readers start to read more through the text, they will start to notice that the sole purpose of the text is to avoid going to war, in order to avoid fighting on the side of Russia and next to them, since allies are meant to help one another, here Britain sees no gain in being any form of help for Russia. The main theme is the theme of liberty and independence, showed through how Britain doesn’t believe in fighting a war along side with their enemies, “A war for Russia is a war against civilization” (17).

The tone used in the text is critical, as all we see is the criticism of Great Britain Russia. Which allows them to enhance the purpose of the text, allowing it to be grasped by the audience easily as they will start to believe in it too. The tone of criticism resulted in creating a thrilled mood for the British audience. As during a time period before joining a war, the people would have felt as if they are hopeless and have nothing to do but see their country join the war. However, this piece of leaflet the people of Great Britain that their nation will not participate in the war, creating somewhat the thrill that was mentioned previously in this paragraph.

Literary devices were present throughout the text. At the very top of the leaflet, we see bias by headline, stating, “why fight for Russia?” the statement appealed to the audience allowing them to have their attention taken from the start, as it’s appealing. Ethos, Pathos and Logos were all present as well, as they help dictate the sole purpose of a given extract, which is done by providing factual information (appealing to the audience as knowledgeable and informing them), “which we spent 50,000,000” (3). This previous quote is an example of Logos. In line (20) the writer asks the audience a guiding question, “which is the greater peril to this country”, this metaphor also the audience to compare the benefits of another country to their own as a peril that they are to cherish, admire and support. Then also it says, “the slaves of a corrupt autocracy” (25), here instead of referring to them as “citizens of a corrupt autocracy”, the world slaves is to be used instead. This allows the audience to form a negative idea about Russians, which is in fact, the mean purpose of this given extract. Then another sentence in bold states, “ A war for Russia is a war against civilization”, this metaphor portrays what it will be like if they fight with Russia, it explain how civilization can be so vulnerable, hence unethical to fight for such cause, and also not really required as far as how bad Russia is to be concern.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/world/middleeast/palestinian-driver-suspected-of-deliberately-hitting-jerusalem-bus-stop.html

Palestinian Driver accidentally Hitting Jerusalem Bus Stop

The 37 year old Palestinian Khaled Koutineh accidentally drove his car into two people who happened to be waiting at a bus-stop. In response to all the accusations made against him that he has a grudge against Israeli Jews, it was confirmed earlier on that he does not have any previous criminal records or anti-Zionist connections with any group which would cause him to commit such a terrible act.

Palestinian police chief made a statement after the incident stating that there was a large amount of traffic due to celebrations of Israel's annual holocaust remembrance day which eventually led to the incident.

Also, Nasser Messis (Khaled's driver) said that the crash could also be a result of the weather, as Juraselam was under heavy rain the past couple days

Despite recent increase in deliberate attacks between the two communities that have been taking place for the past three months, Palestinian authorities assured the Israelis that the attack was not deliberate

The Tempest IOC

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0qtcKjMLe8A

Munro IOC #2 - Runaway

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1VdSip9Ukib

Munro IOC

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1WZuViLMTqv

This is Water - Essay Analysis

"This is Water", this essay was written by David Foster Wallace, only to be delivered as a speech to the university graduates of Kenyon University. The speech covered and conveyed a significant aspect in life that the majority of people don't notice. It managed to portray freedom as being so important and easily configured. The purpose of the speech is to implement a simple yet primary lens, which life should be seen through. The moral of the phenomenal speech is to is to not consider the questions about the life after death, as a person must self adjust oneself to be aware consciously live the life before death.

The thesis has been developed primarily using solid, focused and easily relatable real life examples. Wallace starts off the speech by introducing the story of the three fish, which is considered to be unclear and has no specific value at the very beginning to the audience. Throughout his speech, he introduces phenomenas and questionable statements and events, yet he keeps on stressing on the fact that he does not know the answers himself, which creates a connection between him and the mis-lead audience, being both unaware and able to come up with answers that suits both parties individually.

The speech aims to clarify the idea that most people are unaware of, or unconscious enough to further appreciate its existence. The idea is that normal people who are set to their "default settings" are unable to see and understand the most obvious and important realities that by which they are surrounded, hence the story of the fish and their questionable inquiry of "what the hell is water". Wallace uses water to symbolize the realities that we are surrounded with, since we are certain that water means life for fish, yet however the fish are unaware of what water is due to the unconsciousness and uncertainty. This allows Wallace to create the basis of his argument, which not only can be used when relating to fish, but also when talking about everyday events of us human beings.

"How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?" this inquiry question has been further clarified after reading the essay by David Foster. In the essay, he uses relatable events in order to attracts us as audience and create a sympathetic connection with us. This allowed him to take advantage and introduce his theory more smoothly, since us audience will not question the reliability of the theory, as we will mostly only think of how much we can relate to such events and everyday life.

Munro Literature Reflection

Literature is a skill that the majority of this generation appears to lack in. It consists of a wide range of literary works such as classical well-known novels, inspirational poems/ speeches and so on. It is important to have knowledge and skill in literature as it allows the reader to grasp the knowledge that is needed in order to further comprehend language as a whole and engage in more sophisticated thoughts and conversations. It also betters our ability to read others and interpret their body language and thoughts.

Women's literature, to be specific, is a kind of literature that can be used to express a variety of different thoughts and views. As a result of women's literature, people started to see things and understand them from different angles and perspectives, allowing them to understand how women view the world and the society as a whole. With it readers can form a less biased judgment about women and their values.

The themes and values of Munro's social realism were significant during the mid 1990s. This is due to the fact that her short stories managed to focus on women, and how they struggle to the fact that it was the 2nd wave of feminism at the time, so there we see a link that shows the significance of her themes. Munro stresses in her short stories, on bringing attention to women from their own perspectives, while also including different kinds of women from all ages, contributing to women's literature. Seeking equality in society, her short story "Boys and Girls" targeted the idea of gender roles, which took into consideration the expectations that people from either sex live up for.

The reason behind me admiring Alice Munro's short stories and techniques, was because as a reader a person wants to read and learn something different. The thing that was different and impacting, was how Munro managed to write her stories surrounding women as the main characters. In addition, the fact that she managed to make her stories informative and give perceptive without having to write anything much longer than just a typical short story, made her stories appealing and enjoyable.

Tupac "Changes" commentary

Tupac, who was killed in 1996, was an American Rapper. Many of his songs feature the struggles that many people from black ethnicity have to cope with. The rap song "changes" carries with it Tupac's own lived experiences. The lyrics sheds light on significant issues consisting of violence, poverty and racism, all beholding a strong message of peace and equality.

In the third line of the song, "Is life worth living? Should i blast myself?", we can view it as a rising action, where Tupac is introducing an internal conflict to us as audience, which is a conflict of a struggle occurring within a character's mind. Then Tupac moves on to say in the next few lines, "I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black, my stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch", these lines further illustrate the internal conflict the author Tupac is struggling with, we are given an insight of how many people from black ethnicity live in poverty in America, and are not given the same opportunities and living standards, so they divert into doing wrong in order to move on. Tupac keeps on repeating and stating that he "sees no changes", further demonstrating his eagerness to see people from his culture and from black ethnicity, to be recognized by society and be equal.

Various Poetic features were in play and enhanced the message delivered to the audience, such as an anaphora, rhyme, allusion, free verse, Irony and metaphor.

Anaphora is a word or phrase that is repeated at the start of lines, "I see no changes, wake up in the morning and I ask myself ... I see no changes, all I see is racist faces", these previous lines carry an anaphora within to be delivered to the audience. A rhyme is an important component that can be very common in songs, which is considered to be the usage of matching sound patterns of different words at the end of different sentences, evident in the lines "Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, Crack you up and pimp-smack you up". An allusion was also present, which is when the song writer or author refers to another text, person or an event, for example "It's time to fight back, that's what Huey said. Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead".

Ironies were also present in the song, which are words that convey a meaning different and opposite of their literal meaning, such poetic devices are used by authors who are discussing an issue where they are resembling a minority or a lost cause, this can be shown in the lines "Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare", in these previous lines, Tupac asks to hand drugs down to kids, however the intention is to show how desperate people can get for fighting a case that is being looked down upon. Last but not least, free verse, a piece of text written in free verse is intended to not have any rhymes or a basic regular rhythm, this was clear in the lines "We gotta make a change. It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live And let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive".

Summer Post #2

After coming back from Jordan, I have spent a lot of time doing schoolwork and finishing up some assignments that we were assigned to do from before the summer break started. I have been looking for CAS opportunities, and I have found out that Khalifa University was offering a Medicine Program for two weeks. I sent in my application, and luckily I have been accepted through a selective process to be one of the 15 people accepted.

The reason I signed up was for CAS, but it was an opportunity to make my mind on whether I want to study medicine or engineering in the next years of my life. It was a really nice experience, and I have met new people that made the program easier and more fun for sure.

The program included dissecting hearts, DNA extraction from blood, hair, nails and fingerprints, along with other activities that were interesting and exciting. The program and the activities help me to be more familiarized with different medicine specializations.

Summer Post #1

My summer so far and the rest of it surely belongs to the IB. My laptop, books and notes have been my traveling companions throughout this period. Others argue that summer is meant for people to relax and reflect on the previous school year, however, us IB students have no time to relax as we are meant to be working on our internal assessments and most importantly the extended essay.

Summer started off during the month of Ramadan, so hanging out would only be reasonable if I leave my house at 9pm, plus the weather in AbuDhabi would reach 53 degrees, so going out in the previous conditions was unpleasant, which had me stay home and be forced to start my summer work early. 

After a couple of weeks of spending the beginning of summer in AbuDhabi, I went to Jordan; it was so pleasant and appealing to see it after 3 years. Friends, family and the people there were all welcoming and loving. But the way they drive there makes me realize how lucky we are here in AD to have such traffic-less streets. Though I haven’t seen the people there for a while, I still had to take extra classes to keep some topics fresh in my head, these included physics and mathematics. I went to the dead see with my friends, which was an interesting and a memorable trip. But I knew that for every hour I spent having fun and relaxing, there are 4 other hours that will have to be dedicated for schoolwork. After spending a month there, I had to head back to Abudhabi and say goodbyes. So I headed back to Abudhabi, but the weather wasn’t welcoming which had me feeling down for the first couple of days.

Paper #2

Discuss the significance of social status in Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization 

The Igbo people rely on success, in order to determine how well a person should be respected and recognized. Social status in Things Fall Apart plays an impacting role on the various themes originated by Achebe. It is one of the most important factors that as a result, character's actions were driven with their traits. Social status was used as a tool of characterization, as Achebe managed to relate titles character traits. In Igbo culture, a man's social status is based on merit rather than inheritance. A man is capable of gaining respect by committing to hard work, bravery and war skills. Hence, when men have a couple of titles, it means that they have earned a rather high status in their society. Achebe kept the audience updated and informed of the titles earned by characters. Okwonko has earned two titles; this signifies his physical capabilities and his hard working inflated ego. On the other hand Unoka, Okwonko's father, has not earned any titles throughout his lifetime, this is a symbol of the ideologies stating that Unoka is a lazy character and incompetent.

Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village and considered to be one of the most important clan elders and leaders, had a high status in Umofia. Because of his significant titles, “he was to be buried after dark with only a glowing brand to light the sacred ceremony" (page 123). This further enriches the idea that relates titles to social status and characterization. Unoka, unlike Ezeudu, had no titles. Which resulted in him dying a rather shameful death as he was left in the evil forest to die there alone.

Those who were old were given a lot of respect by their society. This is because respect is associated with experience, wealth and social status. Assuming that old people have the most experience, and as a result they gained respect. However, the tribe valued achievement and accomplishment more than how much age was concerned. This is determined after perceiving that Okwonko was a fine young warrior in contrast with the respect he gained from his people, as he was an achiever and hardworking.

Women did not play a huge role in society and were only good at raising their husband’s children, thus men with no titles were referred to as women, as they did not play a role in society and deemed to be lazy and unworthy in terms of their social status.

"There was a wealthy man in Okonkwo's village who had three huge barns, nine wives, and thirty children. His name was Nwakibie and he had taken the highest but one title which a man could take in the clan" (page 18-19). This enhances the ideas of titles and success. The more titles an individual has, then the more respect he will earn from his tribe, showing that a character is an accomplished citizen of Umofia.

 In conclusion, social status shaped the character’s actions and limited their character traits as discussed in the previous analytical response. As characters were introduced in terms of how many titles each has, then resulting in a creation of an idea surrounding the character and his actions relating to his social status.