The Taj Mahal, a supreme example of Islamic architecture.
This assignment requires you to do ONE of the following. If you have time and are feeling generous, you may do both, and the class would find it helpful, but don't feel obligated.
Choice #1:
Find an example of God's relationship to His people (in this case, the main characters of the book) in Palace Walk and discuss your example. For example, when Amina is just married and in a lonely way goes through her house saying a verse from the Qu'ran "in order to ward off demons" (p. 3), she is illustrating her sense of her relationship with God. How would describe that relationship? (Notice that this example alse serves for the previous question; Amina's sense of what is holy is often involved.)
Choice #2
After reading pages 9-16 in Lavinia, discuss the following question or bring up a point of your own:
In what we have read so far, what might make us feel sympathetic toward Lavinia, that is, what might make us root for her, or like her? Why?
23 comments:
Amina has a lose relationship with her god because she feel like what she doe:recite prayers, religous things. ECT. Bring her closer to him. She feel that just by praying she brings hreself to god and it protects her but when she falls she and hurts herself she doesnt know why he would do that. But afer she just thamks hm for saving her life and I think thats her real test of a loving relationship like Job, and what god did to him
I agree with Austin. God and Amina do not have a very close relationship. Amina really believes in god and says verses from the Kuran and also prays everyday. Compared to that, in the book you really do not see anything that god does back to her such as saving her from something. But instead, god tells Amina to go meet him by going to his temple which is why Amina gets injured and is told to leave the house.
I've decided to do both choices...
Palace Walk
I agree with Austin and Nami that there is no real evidence that Amina has a personal relationship with god. But I think, that this book is focusing more on the relationships between the different people in the story...rather than focusing on the people's relationship with god. So, if you think about what Amina, Ahmad, the children, and the muslim culture in general..the way they show their relationship with god is by praying to him, reading their religious book....We can't SEE the people's relationship with god, because we don't know all their thoughts...but we can assume that they DO have a personal relationship with god otherwise why would they be spending so much of their time doing all of those religious rituals?
Lavinia
We learn a lot about Lavinia's sweet personality in this chapter. We learn that she has a very free spirit, but that she loves her family and wants to please them...these are a few examples from this chapter that show her personality.
1) she isn't afraid of the wolf that she goes to see with Pallas, in fact she calls it a fierce queen, showing that also she understands animals
2) her best friend, Silvia, is the daughter of a cattleman which her mother doesn't approve of...
3)"there were a lot of woman there who loved me, and woman who flattered me, and old Vestina to spoil me, and other girls to be a girl with, and babies to play wish. And-woman's side or men's side-it was my father's house, and I was my father's daughter." (pgs. 13-14)
I think that Lavinia is a cross between what princess' are supposed to be- ladylike, and a tomboy. She has a very interesting personality that you don't see a lot in stories about high class/royal families.
WOW Rachel...i completely agree with both of your Palace Walk and Lavinia responses!!!!
I think at th begining og the book when we find out that she is a gurk of VERY high status, we think, she'll probably turn out to be the steriotypical rich person, not neccessarily mean but....well.....rich and wealth..............but we don;t see that here. We see a very strong, knowledgable yoounf woman who ahs been through a lot in her life and childhood, which i think is why she is so "strong" in her behavior and charactor.
Her father being a king, i think we see how knowledgeable she is about what is going on in her wold and her father's world...EG - top of pg 12.
I also get an incredibly warm feeling from her as she is SO friendly with everyone...even the servants and slaves...shes really just a kind, passionate loving person in genral!!!!
GO KING TURNUS!!!!!!!
I am tempted, as would be the case, to bring up the "ill-omened" excursion here: Amina and Kamal's visit to the temple of al-Husayn. We are presented with the temple to a person who had a very close and thus important relaitionship with his god. He, al-Husayn, lived a life as a martyr, acting pieously in the name of the lord always. We see, as "throngs of women" pass the sacred walls of the temple, that, although indirectly, Amina (and other women like her) value this connection to god. Through other everday actions, like prayer, Amina emphasizes this sacred bond.
And, for my post on Lavinia:
We immediately acknowledge Lavinia's general "nice-ness". She is crafted by the author as a loveing caring person in order to gather the reader's earnest support. Examples: On pages 14-15, Lavnia is running in the fields with her farmhand playmates; the author descirbes her as frolicing, roling in the grass, playing with kittens, daming the stream with mud, etc. These actions are, obviously, rather childlike and conjure quaint, happy, cute images of Lavinia. She appears a very sweet girl. Before this, the reader also becomes aware theat Lavinia's mother is somewhat obusive (verbally). We read a few instances of this kind of abuse,and are thus made to feel sympathetic towards Lavinia. The poor, nice, cat-loving girly has a mean mama! Lavinia is in general, made to be a very nice young woman who has lived through some trying events.
i am writing about Lavinia
her relationship with her mother is sad. i can understand why her mother is so sad. her two sons died and she probably feels useless. she does not really do anything but be a mother and she was unsuccessful. on the other hand, lavinia must feel unloved and neglected. i feel so bad for her when her mother scratched her face. it was really sad how she had to lie about it, then she started believing it. i think that she wont be able to take that destain and lack of apreciation forever.
checking in
I agree with grete and matt that it is sad that Lavinia and her mother don't have a better relationship. Oh and btw turner you spelled my name wrong. but that doesn't really matter....Oh and I think it was clever of matt to realize how the sweet personality of Lavinia and the meanness of her mother make us sympathise for her. I mean...I guess I realized it in my head......but I never really made that connection. I'm tired....
YES Matt...totally, 100% absolutely agree agree!!!!!!
Sorry Rachael...love ya!!!!
checking in!!!!
This is Hunter:)
I am blogging about Choice #2, Lavinia.
I definitely agree with Rachel about the fact that she isn't quite what a princess is supposed to be, and that is what makes us like her. I also want to add that I think her innocence and kindness also makes us like her because there are not many kind and innocent people in the world so when we read about a kind, innocent person, it catches our interest because we get to see how a person like that really is. Everyday people aren't used to this. An example of her kindness is how on page 15 when she talks about her friend Silvia and how much fun they have together. She talks about how she enjoys spending time with her, but mostly at Silvia's place. I think this is due to the fact that her mother and her don't have a good relationship.
I agree with what Matt’s written about how the author describes Lavinia’s actions to be ones associated with innocence and how the author juxtaposes this with the mother’s questionable treatment of her. The reader feels sympathy for her character because of the combination of these two things. Although some of you bring up that you thought at first she might be a very privileged portrait of wealth, not expecting her to be so ‘nice’ - it seems to me that it’s her carefree nature that really makes us like her more than we might have expected. I wonder what we were anticipating; maybe that she would be focused on her appearance, servants dressing her and her sipping tea with her pinky finger extended, rather than racing with friends and making flutes out of straw.
I think that Amina feels she has a relaionship with her god. I say this because she believs and trusts in him so much that she prays to him to ward off demons. Since she is very religious this also shows that she has a relationhsip with her god, beecause otherwise she would not be so focused on her religion.
This is Rosamund,
Writing about Lavinia:
Sympathy for someone and "rooting for" someone are two different things, so I'll talk about both.
The most obvious reason we feel sympathetic towards Lavinia is because of her horrible relationship with her mother. Not to mention the fact that she lost her two brothers when she was still very young, her mother takes everything out on her and completely disrespects her as a person. Disrespect doesn't go far enough, though, as she describes her mother tearing at her face with her finger nails and her lying to her father about what happened. She obviously doesn't mind lying to her father, because her maid told her to (this might make you like her, which could lead to rooting for her) but she is still not happy at the notion that her mother attacks her until she's almost completely convinced herself that it was a cat.
Some things that might cause the reader to like Lavinia/root for her later in the book:
She seams to be an honest person, except when she lies to her father to protect her mother. This is not for her own good at all, and so it doesn't cause anyone to dislike her. She has a good relationship with her father, but doesn't appear to be spoiled, even as she is a princess, because of her mother's abuse and her indifference to wealth. She prefers frolicking around outside and playing with animals than recieving fancy things and staying inside, which gives her a natural appearance that is attractive. The story gives you someone to hate, (her mother) and therefor it is quite easy to like Lavinia.
Lavinia
I feel very sympathetic towards Lavinia because she just lost her two young brothers because of a fever and yet she stays strong. Her mother treats her very badly and this makes me feel sorry for her. I know if my mother treated me badly I wouldn't want to be kind to her, but Lavinia does. Lavinia stays loyal to her parents. This is one reason why I like her. I also like her because she is friends with a commoner and she wants to be more like her. I also like her because even though the events that have happened are very tragic, she still carries out her roll as the kings daughter.
This is Alison Remmers!
checking in...
Hey, blogging about Lavinia:
I agree with what everyone is saying, but I particularly agree with ALL of Rachael's (and Turner's) blogs. I think we will learn more about her situation as we continue to read more and more. But as for what we know right now, her father is a king and therefore she is obviously very wealthy. She seems to be a very positive thinker. She also, like Rachael says is both ladylike and a tomboy, and i think it is almost hard for her because she is pretty neglected by her mother, so she takes on a certain air of "tomboy-ness" because as it says, she IS her father's girl. Then, since her mother doesnt spend a lot of time on her, she seems to take on those "childlike" actions, because maybe she feels if she acts like that her mother might care for her like a child. I dont know, it's just a thought. But it aslo reflects her very happy and loving personality.
I think we will definatly find out more about Lavinia as we read; but that's kind of obvious. So far we know that her father is king and as said on page 12 he is: "more powerful than any of the kings of the West in his day". She is a free spirited person and has a poor relationship with her mother. She also lost her two brothers.
So I think the author is trying to make us think that she is a good happy person with a free spirit and who has some bad things hapeneing in her life. the author is trying to make us sympathize with her about her relationship with her mother and her brothers and such. The author is also trying to make us like her by making her seem like a nice happy free person, which everyone loves.
Thats my answer.
I'llbe checking in.
Rocco
Checking in. . .
I agree with Rocco...the author wants us to think that Lavina is a good person. That doesn't mean that she really isn't. It just means that is what the author wants us to think. I think that is going to come in a little later...like the author wanting us to think that she is really sweet. It think that comes up a lot in books...that author trys to influance our views on the character to help with the story...
BTW this is DANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Checking in.
This is Sofia...
I feel sorry for Lavinia in that she has such a bad relationship with her mother. It's horrible that her mother had to lose her sons, but she shouldn't take out her anger and remorse on poor Lavinia! For example, "She did not often speak to me, but if I annoyed her she would turn on me suddenly and tell me in a hard, flat voice that I was a fool, ugly, stupidly timind." Also, "She would strike me or shake me till my head snapped back and forth. Once the fury drove her to tear at my face with her nails." This shows that, not only was Lavinia's mother verbally abusive, but she was physically abusive as well. Another reason I feel sorry for Lavinia is the fact that she's so misunderstood. She was written without her voice being heard and as a dull character. For example, "And yet my part of them, the life he gave me in his poem, is so dull...I can't bear it any longer. If I must go on existing century after century, then once at least I must break out and speak. He didn't let me say a word. I have to take the word from him. He gave me a long life but a small one. I need room, I need air."
just checking in
this is matt on rocco's im.
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