A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

RELECTIVE JOURNAL #5 

   A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS BY:KHALED HOSSEINI

AUTHOR

Khaled Hosseini (Persian: خالد حسینی‎‎ [ˈxɒled hoˈsejni]; /ˈhɑːlɛd hoʊˈseɪni/;[1] born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician.] After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California, an occupation that he likened to "an arranged marriage". He has published three novels, most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner, all of which are at least partially set in Afghanistan and feature an Afghan as the protagonist. Following the success of The Kite Runner he retired from medicine to write full-time.

Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father worked as a diplomat, and when Hosseini was 11 years old, the family moved to France; four years later, they applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a citizen. Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2001 at the age of 36, where he "felt like a tourist in [his] own country". In interviews about the experience, he admitted to sometimes feeling survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country before the Soviet invasion and subsequent wars.

All three of his novels became bestsellers: The Kite Runner spent 101 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, four of them at number one. A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) was a Times Best Seller for 103 weeks, 15 at number one. And the Mountains Echoed (2013) debuted near the top of the Times list and remained on it for 33 weeks until January 2014

SUMMARY

Mariam, an Afghani woman, remembers her mother calling her aharami when she was five years old — although it is many years later before she learns the word means "bastard child." Before Mariam's birth, her mother, Nana, was a housekeeper for a wealthy businessman in Herat named Jalil. Jalil impregnates Nana, and she and Mariam live in a kolba (small cottage) outside of the town. As a girl, Miriam loves Thursday visits from Jalil, who tells her stories of Herat, although she never visits the city and her mother takes pains to remind the growing girl that her father brings her only stories, none of the wealth Jalil describes to her.

As Mariam grows older, she learns her father has three wives and nine legitimate children. However, Mariam's love for Jalil does not diminish, even after she learns he banished her mother after their affair resulted in a pregnancy. Nana, a bitter woman, frequently reminds Mariam of her father's abandonment, and is upset that Jalil placed the blame on her as if he had no part in their affair.

REFLECTION

               In this literary piece, I learned that we need to accept any religion for example we encounter muslim person we don't need to judge them immediately. I had a classmate before and  he is a muslim. And that time I'm afraid to him. I don't know why, I think its because it almost all people is like that if they encounter muslim they always scared. But my classmate is different actually he was my first friend in our classroom. So I realize that we don't need to afraid in muslims because they just like us, normal people now I learned that we don't need to judge any personalities.

THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL #4

        THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENTBY: AMY TAN


AUTHOR

Amy Tan is a Chinese-American novelist who wrote the New York Times-bestselling novel The Joy Luck Club.

Synopsis

Amy Tan was born on February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. In 1985, she wrote the story "Rules of the Game," which was the foundation for her first novel The Joy Luck Club. The book explored the relationship between Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters. It received the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was translated into 25 languages. Tan lives in San Francisco and New York.

Profile

Writer. Born February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. Tan grew up in Northern California, but when her father and older brother both died from brain tumors in 1966, she moved with her mother and younger brother to Europe, where she attended high school in Montreux, Switzerland. She returned to the United States for college, attending Linfield College in Oregon, San Jose City College, San Jose State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of California at Berkeley.

After college, Tan worked as a language development consultant and as a corporate freelance writer. In 1985, she wrote the story "Rules of the Game" for a writing workshop, which formed the early foundation for her first novelThe Joy Luck Club. Published in 1989, the book explored the relationship between Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters, and became the longest-running New York Times bestseller for that year. The Joy Luck Club received numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Award. It has been translated into 25 languages, including Chinese, and was made into a major motion picture for which Tan co-wrote the screenplay.

Her other two books, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991) and The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), have also appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Her latest novel, The Bonesetter's Daughter, was published in 2001. Tan has also written two children's books: The Moon Lady (1992) and The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), the latter of which was adapted to television for PBS.

Amy Tan has been married to her husband, Lou DeMattei, for over twenty years. They live in San Francisco and New York.

SUMMARY

In the first part of the story, Violet tells the story of growing up in Hidden Jade Path, a courtesan house in Shanghai that is run by her mother, an American woman named Lulu Minturn. Violet grows up unaware of her father and unsure of her mother’s feelings for her.

When the Qing Dynasty falls in 1912, mother and daughter are separated and the young girl is sold to a rivaling courtesan house, where she is educated by an older girl, Magic Gourd, formerly of her mother's house. The two form a lifelong relationship through Violet’s marriages to former clients. Her first marriage results in a child, Flora, who is taken from Violet as a result of an unlawful marriage.

The second part of the story is told by the mother, who thinks the daughter is dead. She recalls her upbringing by remote parents in the US, her runaway with an unknown Chinese painter, and her struggle to be accepted as the mother of their two children.

Violet is eventually reunited with her mother, and eventually also her daughter Flora.

REFLECTION

              In this literary piece. I realize that we need to accept all things in our life no matter what it was. Because It is given my the lord. We are special and I also learned that we don't need to judge the person if wedid'nt know his/her personality. And also I realize that the all experiences when we're child it can affect in our present life. So our parents is also the way to have a good future. We need to know ouselves deeply. To choose what are the right ways and to have a happy life.

THE FOLDED EARTH

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL #3

                    THE FOLDED EARTH BY: ANURADHA ROY 

AUTHOR




Roy grew up mainly in Hyderabad, India, where she was educated at Nasr School. She studied English Literature at Presidency College, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta and at the University of Cambridge. She is the co-founder of Permanent Black, a publishing house 
started in 2000.


SUMMARY
In a remote town in the Himalaya, Maya tries to put behind her a time of great sorrow. By day she teaches in a school and at night she types up drafts of a magnum opus by her landlord, a relic of princely India known to all as Diwan Sahib. Her bond with this eccentric, and her friendship with a peasant girl, Charu, give her the sense that she might be able to forge a new existence away from the devastation of her past. As Maya finds out, no place is remote enough or small enough. The world she has come to love, where people are connected with nature, is endangered by the town's new administration. The impending elections are hijacked by powerful outsiders who divide people and threaten the future of her school. Charu begins to behave strangely, and soon Maya understands that a new boy in the neighbourhood may be responsible.

REFLECTION

        I'm so amazed in this literary piece. Because the men in this story chosed his own career compare to his love ones. I can relate to michael because I'm also want's to be a photograper someday and when I got a good shot I'm so happy and I will post it on the social media, but then going back to the topic. If I choose love or career, I will choose love because the all things that I'll going to do now is for my love ones or to my family. Other say that they will choose they career but we free to choose. This the lesson that i learned

A LOW ART

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL #2

                        A LOW ARTBy: MARGARET ATWOOD

AUTHOR

  

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian award-winning writer best known for her poetry, short-stories and novels such as The Circle Game, The Handmaid’s Tale, Snowbird and The Tent.

Synopsis

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. The internationally-known author has written award-winning poetry, short-stories and novels, including The Circle Game (1966), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Snowbird (1981), The Blind Assassin (2000), The Tent (2006) and more. Her works have been translated into 30 different languages.

Career Highlights

Born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Margaret Atwood is one of today's leading fiction writers. She studied at the University of Toronto and Radcliffe College, becoming a lecturer in English literature. Her first published work was a collection of poems entitled The Circle Game (1966), which won the Governor-General's Award.

Since then Margaret Atwood has published many volumes of poetry and short stories, but is best known as a novelist. Her controversial The Edible Woman(1969) is one of several novels focusing on women's issues. Her futuristic novel, The Handmaid's Tale (1985) — which was later turned into a film by Harold Pinter—was short-listed for the Booker Prize, as was Cat's Eye in 1989. She finally won the award for The Blind Assassin (2000). Other critically acclaimed works by Margaret Atwood include The Robber Bride(1994), Alias Grace (1996), and Oryx and Crake (2003). Her Survival (1972) is widely considered to be the best book on Canadian literature.

In 2006, Margaret Atwood had several new publications: The Tent, a volume of tales and poems; Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda, a children's book; andMoral Disorder, a collection of short stories. She continues to be a popular author worldwide; her works have been translated into more than 30 different languages.

SUMMARY

As portrayed in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope - wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting when her husband goes to fight in the Trojan War. As she fends off the attentions of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus' epic adventures around the Mediterranean - slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When Odysseus finally comes home, he kills her suitors and then, in an act that served as little more than a footnote in Homer's original story, inexplicably hangs Penelope's twelve maids. Now, Penelope and her chorus of wronged maids tell their side of the story in a new stage version by Margaret Atwood, adapted from her own wry, witty and wise novel.

REFERENCE: http://www.studymode.com/essays/Analysis-Of-Chapter-1-Of-The-1111184.html

REFLECTION:

      Based on what I learned, this literary piece is focuses in the era of women in 19th century that they living in so unfair that time. All women treat like a useless person. So the story wants to say that we need to be fair. It say that women and men should be fair to each other in all matter. And I'm glad because now a days women a men is almost fair. For example women can be president in our time, women can work like a men unlike before women is only for house to clean, to take care the kids. This is one of what I learned.