Beasts of No Nation - Uzodinma Iweala

Upon reading the first half of Beasts of No Nation I found myself appalled and disgusted by such violence and gore. It is a heartbreaking read, especially when reminded that this is reality, not fiction. One passage I found to be particularly raw reads as such: “You are not my mother, I am saying to the girl’s mother and then I am raising my knife high above my head. I am liking the sound of knife chopping KPWUDA KPWUDA on her head and how the blood is just splashing on my hand and my face and my feets. I am chopping and chopping and chopping until I am looking up and it is dark” (51). After reading this, I questioned the necessity of such a brutal description of the kill. However, I came to the conclusion that no other description would do. In order to raise awareness to the issue of child soldiers, it is impossible to make light of the situation.

I recently had a conversation with a very conservative friend of mine. She suggested on the issue of Darfur, for example, that Americans should not be providing aid there because we have fundamental issues on our own soil to deal with. I brought to her attention that in countries less advanced than the United States, where government is non-existent and wealth is limited, the innocent people have no way of gaining relief from their plight, whatever it may be. My friend was not swayed to change her mind and is unfortunately very naïve to the issues outside of the United States. Perhaps I should lend my friend this book once I finish…

Satrapi's Persepolis

Persepolis was my first graphic novel experience…and I found it to be wonderful. I finished the book in almost one sitting as I found it hard to put it down! I was delighted by Marjane Satrapi from the very beginning, and her inquisitiveness as a little girl reminded me of myself very much. At her young age, Marjane was able to look past the social classes that plagued her society, as well as the idea that men are subservient to women. To me, one of the most touching parts of the novel is when Mehri comes to live with Marjane and her family to work as a maid. Marjane writes love letters to the neighbor next door for Mehri who is illiterate. When the neighbor boy finds out that Mehri is but a maid, and not ranked “respectably” in social standing, he dismisses her. Marjane is distraught. She says, “When I went back to her room she was crying. We were not in the same social class but at least we were in the same bed” (37). This passage, however simple, is incredibly moving. Marjane, even as a young girl is wise beyond her years. The irony of this statement is that in her naivety she is actually more knowledgeable of the world than any adult or politician who abides by the regimes rules of class.

As much as I felt a sense of closeness and admiration for Marjane’s character, at times, I felt angered by her lack of concern and somewhat indifference towards her unjust society. Later in the novel in the chapter titled “The Makeup” Marjane fabricates a story, so as not to get herself arrested for wearing makeup. She accuses an innocent man of saying obscenities to her. While reading this, I was devastated. Although Marjane fully regretted the responsibility of getting an innocent man arrested, I feel that this scene proves just how easy it is for one to give in to the “trap” of a society such as Iran’s. Very saddening, yet effective.

simply beautiful.

The following passage from One Hundred Years of Solitude is strikingly beautiful. It reads: “…Fernanda felt a delicate wind of light pull the sheets out of her hands and open them wide. Amaranta felt a mysterious trembling in the lace on her petticoats and she tried to grasp the sheet so that she would not fall down at the instant in which Remedios the Beauty began to rise. Ursula, almost blind at the time, was the only person who was sufficiently calm to identify the nature that determined wind and she left the sheets to the mercy of the light as she watched Remedios the Beauty waving goodbye in the midst of the flapping sheets the rose up with her, abandoning with her the environment of beetles and dahlias and passing through air with her as four o’clock in the afternoon came to an ed, and they were lost forever with her in the upper atmosphere where not even the highest-flying birds of memory could reach her” (255).

Remedios the Beauty is the only character that remains unaffected by Macondo’s change with the introduction of capitalism and the Banana Company. Because she unaware, or perhaps just oblivious to capitalism, she represents purity, and with this purity comes beauty. Remedios the Beauty is the opposite of fraudulence and greed. By making her float to heaven, Garcia Marquez seems to be saying that she is inhuman and other-worldly in that she has the miraculous ability to completely shut out capitalism and continue living her life of purity and free of corruption. She is an unrealistic being. Greed, money, power are all aspects of human nature. Since the beginning of civilization, people have tried to resist these temptations, yet they always succumb to these evils.

I feel the novel is a testament to Western economies and their overwhelming ability to taint and destroy developing nations. The novel is timeless and I can only expect it to become more relevant as time continues on.