The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam by Bao Ninh is a immensely descriptive novel of a Soldier's struggles after spending ten years serving his country during the Vietnam War. The story starts very slowly, with main character Kien in a "Missing in Action Remains-Gathering Team"(3). I was pretty bored for about the first thirty pages of the novel, as his team, consisting of only him and one other person, driving around collecting the long-dead remains of the dead soldiers after the war. Kien starts hallucinating and thinks he sees and hears "Screaming Souls"(7). Scattered in the forest and remaining in the bodies he collects. He sleeps in the back of the truck, in a hammock above the dead bodies. It's no surprise why he gets frequent nightmares, why would he want to sleep above all those bodies? The next thirty to fifty pages detail his hallucinations and bring him to the home of an old acquaintance, who although dead, has a daughter named Lan that vividly remembers him, and the two reminisce on the horrors of the war. Lan wants Kien to stay with her and live out his days, but he knows he must finish this job so he can go back to his hometown.
Finally, on page 56 the true plot line of the story shines through. "When starting this novel, the first in his life, he planned a postwar plot...but relentlessly, his pen disobeyed him. Each page revived one story of death after another and gradually the stories swirled back deep into the primitive jungles of war" (57). This entire book is about the struggle for Kien to write his novel, and how he struggles so painfully with Post-Traumatic Stress. Throughout his book he deals with both the sorrows of war and the sorrows of love.
In his sections detailing the sorrow of war, Ninh's writing resembles Tim O'Brien in that the stories pull you in and make you believe they are real, when there in reality may be little or no truth to the story. As Kien recalls his painful memories of war, they take shape on his random writings. "The sorrows of war and his nostalgia drove him down into the depths of his imagination. From there his writing could take substance" (173). For Kien to be able to write about his experiences, he had to get drunk and write only at night. This is so strange, how is it that he can only write while in an intoxicated tired state of mind? My guess is that it has to do with his conditions in war and being drunk and alone in the dark was the closest post-war way to relive his experiences. "What remained was sorrow, the immense sorrow, the sorrow of having survived. The sorrow of war" (192). As he writes his stories I couldn't help but feel sorry for him; he struggles so much but there is no one there to help him.
As a child, Kien had a lover whom he spent most of his time with. Her name is Phuong, and she is a beautiful young girl. But as the story progresses and Kien must go to war, they realize that their "eternal love" was anything but that. When he returns from the war he finds that his love is sleeping around with other people to fulfill her material needs. She tells Kien that times have changed, and they were never meant for each other. I think this is so sad because they seemed like the perfect couple as children and now, because of what war has done to them, they will never be happy together. Their last conversation before Phuong leaves for good shows how much passion they had had for each other, "'Are you in love?' he said. 'I loved you and only you, Kien. I never loved anyone else. And you?' she asked. 'I still love you,' he replied" (146). This really got me attached to the two lovers who were once so close to each other. Because of what war does to a soldier's heart, "The sorrow of war inside a soldier's heart was in a strange way similar to the sorrow of love....It was a sadness, a missing, a pain which could send one soaring back into the past" (94). If only their love hadn't ended so tragically they could have lived out a happy life together and started a family.
At the end of Sorrow of War Bao Ninh states that he had received all of the manuscripts of Kien's writings from his mute neighbor one day. This really shocked me because the whole time I thought that Kien's stories of war and his struggles with his novel were actually Ninh's struggles, only told in third person so, as Tim O'Brien would put it, "To objectify himself to the experience." I really enjoyed reading this novel. At first it was hard to read with overly long descriptions of the screaming souls and the ghosts Kien saw, but as the story developed and I grew attached to the character of Kien, I really started to enjoy the novel. It was very sad how far Kien had fallen in his life from where he was, and all of the vivid details helped me visualize what it was like for Kien to have to serve in the Vietnam war. This book opened up my eyes to a new perspective of the war; the men I used to consider to be the "bad guys" suffered equally as much if not more than any American "hero" fighting in the same battle.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Persepolis: Close Analysis
"The Revolution is like a bicycle. When the wheels don't turn, it falls. And so went the revolution in my country" (10).
Persepolis: The Story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a book based on Satrapi's own childhood while growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Cultural Revolution in 1980, as well as a plethora of other revolutions in the early years of her life. Throughout Persepolis Marjane writes about the revolutions and how they always fail. She compares the revolutions to a bicycle to show how a revolution needs full support of the population to succeed.
Satrapi's message throughout the book is very simple to understand; without full support of an entire group, a revolution will never succeed. The entire population needs to be behind a single cause if it is to overpower the current system and start something new. This was such a problem in Iran during Marji's childhood, because for every revolution there were people in favor of revolution, and those who would rather keep everything the way it is. During the first cultural revolution in 1980, "The year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school" (3). Right from the start of this revolution, the people were divided over this act of covering a woman's hair. "Everywhere on the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil" (5). Another example of a disunited people was when the war had started in Iran against Iraq.
"There were two kinds of women. The fundamentalist woman. The Modern women. You showed your opposition to the regime by letting a few strands of hair show. There were also two sorts of men. The Fundamentalist Man: beard, shirt hanging out. The Progressive Man: shaved, with out without mustache, shirt tucked in. Islam is more or against shaving" (75).
Even when the country needed the full support of the population, people still decided to rebel against the common ideals of Iran and the Islamic religion.
Although the revolutions never achieved the unity necessary to succeed, they did make many attempts to sway the population. One such example was when Marji's Father was taking photos of the revolutionaries turning dead victims into Martyrs. Her father explained what he saw, "People came out carrying the body of a young man killed by the army. He was honored like a martyr. A crowd gathered to take him to the Baheshte Zahra cemetery" (31). They tried to rally support by raising these victims to martyr status and persuading the people. Also on page 31-32, they take the body of a man who died of cancer, and not only do they blame his death on their King but they persuade his wife to protest with them.
The government also made attempts to unify the people. Since regular actions did not come close to swaying the people, they had to start taking extreme actions. When girls were walking around alone, they were confronted by men or women who tried to scare them into following the new laws of the revolution. This was especially true for those who weren’t wearing the veil properly or even at all. These men used force and foul language to scare the women, Marji’s mother Ebi told her story to Marji and her father, “Two fundamentalist bastards…they insulted me. They said that women like me should be pushed up against a wall and fucked. And then thrown in the garbage” (74). This was very hard for many women to deal with. Another form of intimidation tactic were fundamentalist women who walked around and punished young girls for breaking the rules. Marji explains the experience when she was yelled at by these women, “Their job was to put us back on the straight and narrow by explaining the duties of Muslim women. ‘Why are you wearing those ‘punk’ shoes? What punk shoes? Those! But these are sneakers! Shut up! They’re punk” (133). Even for something as unimportant as wearing the wrong shoes, the women in this book were forced to comply with the government’s beliefs for fear of bodily harm.
There were also others who didn't stand in a group to aid the revolution, but suffered alone, even giving up their lives for the cause of the revolution. On page 51 is shown the horrible torture of a man who will not confess the hiding place of his comrades and in the end, "they burned him with an iron" (51). Another example of someone who died for the revolution was Marji's uncle Anoosh, who was a supporter of the revolution. He was put into jail multiple times, and in the end was executed under the accusation of being a "Russian Spy" (70).
In Persepolis, there are many people who are both strongly in favor and strongly opposed to the revolutions taking place. With the many different reasons for each revolution to exist, it became very hard for any of them to attain enough popular support for their new ideal to become a reality. Marjane Satrapi wanted to show people how hard it was living in a world full of so much adversity, and that uniting under a common goal was as futile as trying to pedal a bike with wheels that don't turn. She does a great job of conveying this message throughout Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood.
Persepolis: The Story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a book based on Satrapi's own childhood while growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Cultural Revolution in 1980, as well as a plethora of other revolutions in the early years of her life. Throughout Persepolis Marjane writes about the revolutions and how they always fail. She compares the revolutions to a bicycle to show how a revolution needs full support of the population to succeed.
Satrapi's message throughout the book is very simple to understand; without full support of an entire group, a revolution will never succeed. The entire population needs to be behind a single cause if it is to overpower the current system and start something new. This was such a problem in Iran during Marji's childhood, because for every revolution there were people in favor of revolution, and those who would rather keep everything the way it is. During the first cultural revolution in 1980, "The year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school" (3). Right from the start of this revolution, the people were divided over this act of covering a woman's hair. "Everywhere on the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil" (5). Another example of a disunited people was when the war had started in Iran against Iraq.
"There were two kinds of women. The fundamentalist woman. The Modern women. You showed your opposition to the regime by letting a few strands of hair show. There were also two sorts of men. The Fundamentalist Man: beard, shirt hanging out. The Progressive Man: shaved, with out without mustache, shirt tucked in. Islam is more or against shaving" (75).
Even when the country needed the full support of the population, people still decided to rebel against the common ideals of Iran and the Islamic religion.
Although the revolutions never achieved the unity necessary to succeed, they did make many attempts to sway the population. One such example was when Marji's Father was taking photos of the revolutionaries turning dead victims into Martyrs. Her father explained what he saw, "People came out carrying the body of a young man killed by the army. He was honored like a martyr. A crowd gathered to take him to the Baheshte Zahra cemetery" (31). They tried to rally support by raising these victims to martyr status and persuading the people. Also on page 31-32, they take the body of a man who died of cancer, and not only do they blame his death on their King but they persuade his wife to protest with them.
The government also made attempts to unify the people. Since regular actions did not come close to swaying the people, they had to start taking extreme actions. When girls were walking around alone, they were confronted by men or women who tried to scare them into following the new laws of the revolution. This was especially true for those who weren’t wearing the veil properly or even at all. These men used force and foul language to scare the women, Marji’s mother Ebi told her story to Marji and her father, “Two fundamentalist bastards…they insulted me. They said that women like me should be pushed up against a wall and fucked. And then thrown in the garbage” (74). This was very hard for many women to deal with. Another form of intimidation tactic were fundamentalist women who walked around and punished young girls for breaking the rules. Marji explains the experience when she was yelled at by these women, “Their job was to put us back on the straight and narrow by explaining the duties of Muslim women. ‘Why are you wearing those ‘punk’ shoes? What punk shoes? Those! But these are sneakers! Shut up! They’re punk” (133). Even for something as unimportant as wearing the wrong shoes, the women in this book were forced to comply with the government’s beliefs for fear of bodily harm.
There were also others who didn't stand in a group to aid the revolution, but suffered alone, even giving up their lives for the cause of the revolution. On page 51 is shown the horrible torture of a man who will not confess the hiding place of his comrades and in the end, "they burned him with an iron" (51). Another example of someone who died for the revolution was Marji's uncle Anoosh, who was a supporter of the revolution. He was put into jail multiple times, and in the end was executed under the accusation of being a "Russian Spy" (70).
In Persepolis, there are many people who are both strongly in favor and strongly opposed to the revolutions taking place. With the many different reasons for each revolution to exist, it became very hard for any of them to attain enough popular support for their new ideal to become a reality. Marjane Satrapi wanted to show people how hard it was living in a world full of so much adversity, and that uniting under a common goal was as futile as trying to pedal a bike with wheels that don't turn. She does a great job of conveying this message throughout Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Persepolis: Readers response
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi, is a very good graphic novel detailing Marjane's own childhood living in Tehran, Iran. I've read comic books before, and even one or two Japanese "Manga" books but I have never read an Graphic noviel in English before. I have to say I really liked the book; both because of the powerful impact it left on me as well as the artisticness of Satrapi. I honestly didn't realize that this story was in part non-fiction besides the historical events; many aspects of this book are actual events in Satrapi's early childhood.
Persepolis really showed me a lot about the culture and lifestyles in Iran during their many revolutions, revolts, and wars. I honestly had no idea that women's wearing of a veil was ever a controversy; I had just assumed it had always been something they did as a part of their religion. But right from the very begginning of this book I could tell that was not so. During Iran's "cultural revolution" the veil caused conflicts. "Everywhere in the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil" (5). With page 11's "2500 years of tyranny and submission" I really saw all the opression these people have had to deal with. I wondered if these events really happened, and as I looked more at them I realized they probably did. On page 22, Marjane learns that her grandfather was a prince, and pictures him riding on an elephant with a lion chasing after him. This helped me to understand why Marjane had a hard time understanding what was going on; Marjane wanted to "become a prophet...because our maid did not eat with us...Because my father had a cadilac...And, above all, because my grandmother's knees always ached" (6). It is hard for her to understand because she has been living a good life all her life without even realizing it.
Marjane Satrapi is a very religious young girl. Besides wanting to be a prophet when she was young, she had many personal conversations with God throughout the book; from anything faith all the way to "tomorrow the weather is going to be nice" (13). As she is faced with the many evils of life, she pushes God away and he leaves her alone for awhile. But when she starts to feel truely alone God comes back to talk with her. Throughout her life she is faced with many tragic events and scenes, which make her basically skip her childhood. She constantly hears about death and torture, until she is so numb to it she play games involiving it with friends. She is not the only one; the majority of children living in Iran in this time period seem to have lost their childhoods as well.
I thought the sadest part of the whole book involving children growing up too fast was the chapter "the Key". Mrs. Nasrine shows Marjane and her mother a key that her son gave to her. "They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them to heaven" (99). The mother's struggle to accept this along with the traumatic impact of this make this a very powerful section of the book. I couldn't imagining living in a place where your school encouraged you to not only fight but to die for your country to gain access to heaven.
By the end of the book Marjane is only fourteen years old, but she seems like she is a grown up. Her parents decided to send her to a French school in Austria. Marjane rejects the idea at first, "But I'm only fourteen! You trust me?" "You're fourteen and I know how i brought you up. Above all, I trust your education" (147). As Marjane finishes saying goodbye and leaves to get on the plane, she turns one last time to see her mother laying in her father's arms. What happened? What does Marjane mean when she says "I turned around to see them one last time. It would have been better to just go" (153). I'm very confused by this part, and I'm hoping it's made clear in the sequal, which I plan on reading later this week.
I found Persepolis to be much more interesting then I expected. I was entertained by the book and its artwork, while I also gained quite a bit of knowledge about Iranian culture and background. I feel very sympathetic for all of the innocent civilians in Iran that had to suffer not only at the hands of their enemies, but the hands of the overbearing reformists as well.
I am really curious about what happens next in the story now that Marjane is on her way to an Austrian French school. I'm going to read the next book this week and I think for my creative journal I will write a story on what happens between the end of Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: the Story of a Return.
Persepolis really showed me a lot about the culture and lifestyles in Iran during their many revolutions, revolts, and wars. I honestly had no idea that women's wearing of a veil was ever a controversy; I had just assumed it had always been something they did as a part of their religion. But right from the very begginning of this book I could tell that was not so. During Iran's "cultural revolution" the veil caused conflicts. "Everywhere in the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil" (5). With page 11's "2500 years of tyranny and submission" I really saw all the opression these people have had to deal with. I wondered if these events really happened, and as I looked more at them I realized they probably did. On page 22, Marjane learns that her grandfather was a prince, and pictures him riding on an elephant with a lion chasing after him. This helped me to understand why Marjane had a hard time understanding what was going on; Marjane wanted to "become a prophet...because our maid did not eat with us...Because my father had a cadilac...And, above all, because my grandmother's knees always ached" (6). It is hard for her to understand because she has been living a good life all her life without even realizing it.
Marjane Satrapi is a very religious young girl. Besides wanting to be a prophet when she was young, she had many personal conversations with God throughout the book; from anything faith all the way to "tomorrow the weather is going to be nice" (13). As she is faced with the many evils of life, she pushes God away and he leaves her alone for awhile. But when she starts to feel truely alone God comes back to talk with her. Throughout her life she is faced with many tragic events and scenes, which make her basically skip her childhood. She constantly hears about death and torture, until she is so numb to it she play games involiving it with friends. She is not the only one; the majority of children living in Iran in this time period seem to have lost their childhoods as well.
I thought the sadest part of the whole book involving children growing up too fast was the chapter "the Key". Mrs. Nasrine shows Marjane and her mother a key that her son gave to her. "They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them to heaven" (99). The mother's struggle to accept this along with the traumatic impact of this make this a very powerful section of the book. I couldn't imagining living in a place where your school encouraged you to not only fight but to die for your country to gain access to heaven.
By the end of the book Marjane is only fourteen years old, but she seems like she is a grown up. Her parents decided to send her to a French school in Austria. Marjane rejects the idea at first, "But I'm only fourteen! You trust me?" "You're fourteen and I know how i brought you up. Above all, I trust your education" (147). As Marjane finishes saying goodbye and leaves to get on the plane, she turns one last time to see her mother laying in her father's arms. What happened? What does Marjane mean when she says "I turned around to see them one last time. It would have been better to just go" (153). I'm very confused by this part, and I'm hoping it's made clear in the sequal, which I plan on reading later this week.
I found Persepolis to be much more interesting then I expected. I was entertained by the book and its artwork, while I also gained quite a bit of knowledge about Iranian culture and background. I feel very sympathetic for all of the innocent civilians in Iran that had to suffer not only at the hands of their enemies, but the hands of the overbearing reformists as well.
I am really curious about what happens next in the story now that Marjane is on her way to an Austrian French school. I'm going to read the next book this week and I think for my creative journal I will write a story on what happens between the end of Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: the Story of a Return.
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