March 2015

One of the big issues that was discussed for this month in AP English was the issue of female and male gender issues. Virginia Wolfe's novel, A Room of Ones Own, discusses and brings accusations to light about the male superiority to women. She believes that men think that they are above women and thus they oppress the women. She uses examples from real female writers and authors to describe issues, such as the made up sister of Shakespeare that was oppressed by Shakespeare himself. She believes that eventually women can prevail from the oppression of men and make themselves known and equally as important and powerful as men themselves.

Unfortunately, gender issues are still seen in society today. Many women believe that there is a gender gap and still feel oppressed by men, especially in the work place. There is supposedly a salary gap between men and women, and it is proven that more men hold higher positions than women, which arises issues and concern among some. Even in The Doll House and A Thousand Splendid Suns has gender issues and oppression of women portrayed in the novellas.

Feb 2014 Blog

The middle East. It has always been interesting to us Americans. We here only bad things about the Middle East- such as terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda and ISIS. When the Taliban came to the Middle East and took over, life changed drastically for the people living among the countries in the Middle East. This is seen in A Thousand Splendid Suns. The Taliban used excessive force to take over the Middle East. You were killed if you were caught committing a crime. When Mariam and Laila are caught trying to escape to Pakistan, the Taliban catches them and brings them home to where they are beaten almost to death by their abusive husband, Rasheed. Eventually, the Taliban executes Mariam for killing Rasheed. The men in the novel represent the real society under Taliban rule, in which the men have complete rule over the women in society.  The idea that really amazed me was how the women are treated under the Taliban rule. Every woman must wear a burqa veil no matter where she is going, which is seen in the novel. If a woman is found outside of her house with out her veil on she can be whipped or even stoned to death publicly. Afghan women have been pushed to the lowest form of living there is. The Taliban men have completely banned any education for women starting from kindergarten to graduate school. Also employment for women has been banned in their country. The poor women under the Taliban rule can’t wear make-up, nail polish, cut their hair short, wear colorful or stylish clothes, white socks and shoes, and can’t even walk or talk loudly. In fact the government believes women shouldn’t even leave their homes at all. If woman do choose to leave her home it must be for an essential, government purpose and she must wear the full burqa outfit. Even then these suppressed women risk their lives. Women born into this horrible lifestyle are born already dead. 

January 2015 Monthly Blog

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini about political upheaval and the dreadful toll it takes on the citizens, as well as an examination of the limited role of women in Afghan society. The novel itself takes place in Kabul, which in the largest city and the capitol of Afghanistan. It is the target of territorial leaders; fighting in the streets is rampant and violent, and civilians are raped, tortured, and murdered, even in today’s society. As Americans, many of us perceive some the issues and people in the Middle East as unbelievable. In the United States, women are (almost) equal to men. In the Middle East, however, it is almost the complete opposite. Women are oppressed and treated like animals. They are raised with the belief that they are behind men in the social status. This is clearly shown in Hosseini’s novel through his portrayal of two main characters, Mariam and Rasheed.

Khaled Hosseini uses a strong conflict between the two main characters Mariam and Rasheed to present many important ideas within the novel. It follows Mariam’s struggle through her life with Rasheed, her abusive husband, which clearly leads to the idea of suppression of emotion. Through Rasheed's conflict with Mariam, we witness his total mistreatment of her and the idea of the oppression of women in Afghan society is established. He has complete control over her, and this is shown when he forces her to wear a burqa whenever she goes out in public. This portrays the burqa as an enclosure for Mariam where she is being kept in captivity by her abusive husband.

In 1996, the Taliban took over Afghanistan. This was the beginning of the societal oppression of women in the Middle East. I have a friend named Sabrina, who is from Pakistan, who went to my old school. We were always good friends, but when I moved schools, we lost touch. Two years ago, I remember hearing from my mom that her mother and father chose a man for her to marry- an arranged marriage, and she was to move to Pakistan to carry out her life with that man. She was 15 at the time. To me, this is beyond belief that this occurs, because it is such an unfamiliar occurrence in our society. Doing further research on this novel, I found out that Hosseini was inspired to write this novel while on a trip to Kabul in 2003. He describes in an interview the sights of women on the street crying and bleeding, and he felt that he needed to bring Americans to light of what is going on in other parts of the world. When I heard about my friend Sabrina, I was scared for her. After knowing what can happen to women in that part of the world, it is scary to think that it could even happen to her.

December 2014 Monthly Blog

Change is something every human experiences in their lifetime. There are both good changes and bad changes. We have control over some changes, such as physical appearance and our attitudes towards certain things, but many people still fear the change that we cannot control. Okonkwo in "Things Fall Apart" is a perfect example of a human that completely rejects the subject of change. Religious "white" men come into his village, bringing new culture and religious views with them, causing an uprising from Okonkwo. His choice to not support the changes being brought in did eventually lead to his downfall. Okonkwo is like many humans in today's society. They are scared of what change might bring to them and the outcomes of such change, causing them to reject the changes. We may wonder what would have happened to Okonkwo if he would have accepted the changes- would he have still committed suicide or would he have flourished as a farmer and lived a happy life? Change is inevitable- every human being is faced with change in their everyday life. The thing we can control is how we handle such changes- do we accept it or do we fight the changes?