It's time for my second update for Haroun and the Sea of Stories!! Let's get started... My impressions: So far my impressions are the same. I am still getting surprised by the book. For example, *SPOILER ALERT* that Blabbermouth is a girl. Who would have expected that? I am getting a deeper understanding of how the author views the world and the government through his characters. The recurring theme of the self-obsessed political figures is one example. By understanding this, I am given a deeper insight into the book and what its message is. Annotations: One of my annotations dealt with telling stories that aren't even true. This annotation dealt with Blabbermouth. In a way, she was telling stories about herself and her gender. She told a story that she was boy in order to get a job. She told an untruthful story in order to succeed and do what she wanted to do. This is one of the many reasons people tell stories that aren't true. Allegories: I also have continued to annotate the story. Through my lens of allegory, I continued to look for connections the author makes to his own life. One quote really stuck out to me. It reads, "He is the Arch-Enemy of all Stories, even of Language itself. He is the Prince of Silence and the Foe of Speech." This could relate to the leaders of his government that tried to silence him and set rules on his writing. (You can read more about this conflict here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy ) Class Discussion: Our discussion this week was very interesting. We had the different lenses all talk about the story this week. One major topic that we discussed was government. Rushdie, the author, puts a spotlight on the government in this novel. He points out the flaws of leaders through his characters. This intrigued me as it relates to my lens of annotations. We had made connections to his political figures in the book to general groups of people in our society. So that is all for today! Now I'm off to finish the book!
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In my English class, we have been reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. So far it is a little different than would have expected. I didn't expect to have the element of the mom running off with another man. That is one thing you don't expect to see in a children's book. This, however, was a welcome surprise. I enjoyed seeing that the book had some depth to it instead of it being just a lighthearted book. I haven't been confused by anything at this point as it seems to be a pretty straightforward book at this point.
Also, in our class, we were put into groups that indicated how we were to view the story. I was put into the allegory group. This means I had to look for things that could have symbolized a person or event in the author's life and look deeper into the text. One possible symbol could be when the wife left Rashid. This could symbolize the people who no longer supported the author when the Satanic Verses was released and left him behind. We are also annotating sections of the book. One of the ways we are annotating deals with the stories we tell ourselves and reality. Two lines that caught my attention both dealt with this. One quote reads, "When Haroun heard his father say only a story, he understood that the Shah of Blah was very depressed indeed, because only deep despair could have made him say such a terrible thing." The other, which is much too long to quote here, is a paragraph where we see that Rashid is questioning giving everything up because he can no longer tell stories. These two passages show how Rashid is losing his identity because he can no longer tell stories, which is all he knows. This in turn is making him depressed as he feels that he is no longer himself. Finally, we had an discussion in class about the book. I was intrigued by the topic of what state of mind you have to be in when telling a story. We talked about how it is easier to tel stories when we are happier, but the impact of a story can be stronger when a person is upset. We related this to the book as we thought about how the book would be different if it was more focused on Rashid than Haroun. And that's where we are in the book. I will continue to update as we continue to read the book. Emily |
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