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1. Amina (the wife) wonder on pp. 9-10 how wine, something she has been taught is evil, can make her husband act in a way that brings her "comfort and peace." She tries to suppress the thought, unable to admit it to herself. What do you think of her wondering about wine, and her suppressing her thought about wine?
OR
2. Can you spot any other instances of Amina not being completely truthful with others or herself?
OR
3. Is there more evidence in this chapter of an unbalanced relationship between the husband and wife?
4. Amina's husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
17 comments:
Sang Eun Oh
#3
The evidence of an unbalanced relationship between the husband and wife can be found in the first paragraph of chapter 2. When the husband said good evening to Amina, she replied "Good evening, sir." Nowadays, it is unusual for a wife to call her husband, "sir". In this book, Amina is almost a servant of her husband. She does all chores of getting him undressed after he gets back home. Calling a husband, "sir" shows that in their culture, men are upper class than women.
#4
Amina's husband do have positive qualities. For example, when he is drunk, he shows some appearances that are different than usual like being companionable and talkative. Also, Amina does like her husband being amiable. On the other hand, there are his negative qualities. For instance, usually he is quite stern and strict to others, especially his wife. Also he wants his wife to respect and serve him sincerely. This is not appropriate and he should be showing love to his wife.
Hi everyone--good job on this first night's blog comments! A couple of notes:
1. I'm changing my mind about that "checking in" --I don't think it's needed. If you want to comment more than once you may, but it's not required.
2. 호두짱: I'm not sure who this is --please tell us. Thanks!
Steve Durning
Heather Rhee
Question 1
Answer -
Amina was a woman who believed that wine is an evil thing which brings craziness to people who drinks it. She hated wine because it was also considered as a offensive thing towards her religious believes. However, when her husband arrives at home when he is drunk, Amina starts to wonder because her rowdy husband changes to a very friendly husband to her. Her husband is talkative and amiable after he drinks wine and this gives a comfortable feelings to Amina because it is very rare to see him being so nice like that when he is not drunk. She just forget about her worrying and enjoys the conversation with her husband. Although she pray to the God to forgive her husband, she thinks that maybe wine was not as evil as she thought about it. She get confused about the relationship between wine and her beliefs. When I was reading the book, I felt pity for Amina. She was thankful when she saw her husband acting in a kind way to her and she wished that the time she spaned with her drunk husband to stay longer. Normal husbands are friendly to their wives mostly all of the time and it was pitiful to see how Amina is not getting that behaviors from her husband when she is wanting it so badly. Also, I thought that comfort of the mind might be the most important thing in humans life. Although Amina was a strong believer, she defy her beliefs to get pleasure from the time spending with her husband. I was able to related this part with myself when I give up to compelte my plans and do what I want to do. For example, I sometimes play with my friends even though I planed and I know that I have to complete my homework.
savannah,
question #2,
Can you spot any other instances of Amina not being completely truthful with others or herself?
It seems as though in the begining of her marriage Amina was a very outspoken girl who saw a sin and frowned upon it, maybe even verbaly aknowledging it.The line "his response had been to seize her by the ears and tell her in a loud voice, "I'm a man. I'm the one who commands and forbids. I will not accept any criticism of my behavior. all i ask of you is to obey me. don't force me to discipline you.""(pg.4) shows that her husband put an end to that immediately. She lies to herself telling herself her husbands constant habit of "drinking until intoxication" is OK and that it's also OK that he may be with other women. Amina is lying to others by putting on a cheerful face and pretending to be the most content wife there is when there are so many hidden problems within this marriage.
Ka Yeon Nam
question#3
The husband and wife have an unbalanced relationship and is shown from the beginning of chapter two. When the husband comes home, Amina does all the chores. She is known as "the bee" becuase she works from "just before the sunrise until sunset". Also, she thinks that she does not have the right to speak until her husband invites her to speak. The husband has far more power to do things than the woman.
Question#4
Amina's husband have both positive and negative qualities. The positive quality is that he talks to Amina about his innermost thoughts and discusses household matters with her. He is also very companionable. However, the negative quality about the husband is that he orders Amina to serve everything he asks all the time, which makes Amina feel like she is a servant.
Christy Martin
#2 Can you spot any differences in which Amina is not being completely truthful with herself or others?
"And Kamal? You better not be covering up his mischeif" The woman thought of her young son, whose innocent pranks she did in fact conceal."
This shows that Amina is not being fully truthful to her husband. She hides the fact that her son plays innocent pranks to prevent him from getting a punishment from his father. Her husband did not know that there was such a thing as innocent pranks and games that children often played. She had just replied "He respects his father's commands," to conceal her dishonesty.
#4 (agreeing with Sang Eun)
Amina's husband has some positive qualities about him. For instance, when he comes home drunk every night he becomes a more talkative and sensitive person. He discusses what is happening in the outside world instead being his strict self. Which that is one of his negative qualities. He treats his wife like a servant and is cruel to her. No man should do that to the person he loves
question #4
4. Amina's husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
I also agree with Sang Eun and Christy. Although Amina's husband was talkative and tender, it was only when he was drunk. Normally he was strick and harsh. He also treated Amina like a servent. She did all the chores and she also had to wait for him to come back home after the party. She was deferntial to him, she respected him and even if he didn't respect her back. As christy have said, no man should be cruel to someone who he loves.
This is Laura!
#2 Can you spot any other instances of Amina not being completely truthful with others or herself?
On page 12 in the 4th full paragraph it says, "She could not find anything to say, but moved by her feelings of veneration for the speaker and afraid not to comment on something he said, she responded, 'May God have mercy on the Sultan and bless his son.'" Although she enjoys it when her husband talks to her warmly and openly about his day, she does not have anything to say back. Therefore, she says something empty and without importance just to fill the space and to voice what she feels is veneration for the topic.
Next, at the very top of page 13, Amina says, "Our Lord can return our sovereign Abbas to us." She only voices THAT concern although paragraphs have been spent describing her other thoughts. She never says any of the things she thinks, it seems. Afraid to be rude or inappropriate, she doesn't ever tell her husband anything interesting. Amina is not a boring woman, I don't think, but her husband must think differently. She says things that any woman would say out of respect. Perhaps she wouldn't have to worry about him having interests in other women, as is stated in the first chapter: "It was suggested to her once that a man like Mr. Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, so wealthy, strong, and handsome, who stayed out night after night, must have other women in his life..." if she showed him that she is more unique and interesting.
There are so many words wasted talking about the thoughts of Amina, when all she actually says are bits of prayers and little snippits her husband has heard all before. She barely says two lines when not talking limitedly of the children, which is not even put in quotes, yet half of the chapter is told from her point of view, in her head. This is surely proof of her dishonesty to herself and others. Simply by not voicing the truth, she is being untruthful.
3. Is there more evidence in this chapter of an unbalanced relationship between the husband and wife?
Everything seems so right, peace, and good, but there are few times where Amina suppresses her feelings towards her husband.
We all understand that she wants to respect and do everything that her husband says, but if this is how she is reacting then definitely their relationship will be unbalanced.
By the way this is Emily Lee Mr. Durning:) hahahahaha
3. Is there more evidence in this chapter of an unbalanced relationship between the husband and wife?
“ He followed, mumbling, ‘Good evening, Amina.’ She replied in a low voice, both polite and deferential, ‘Good evening ,sir’
I agree with Sang Eun that usually when two people are in love and become wives and husbands, they do not address each other as sir or ma’am. However Amina addresses her husband as “sir”. Also, it seems that all the chores that Amina does, it what normally servants do.
4. Amina’s husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
Amina’s husband surprisingly does have a positive behavior when he comes back from the parties. It is mentioned in the book that he doesn’t come in the house until he is able to control himself from drinking a lot of alcohol. Also, he becomes very friendly and easier to talk to. However, I think this may be one of his negative qualities as well. He should always be nice and easy to talk to when with her wife, not only when he is drunk a little.
4. Amina's husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
I also agree with everyone so far. I believe at home, he dominates his wife through authoritarian rule and absolutist morality. Not only does he enjoy total jurisdiction over his wife, but he routinely demands acts of servility of her. Amina sits by his feet each night when he returns home from his carousing to take off his shoes and socks. Ahmad's other personality comes out when he has to much to drink. With that he is witty and charmingly dissolute-the favorite "lover" and ever the life of the party. He has the negative qualities of being controlling over his wife but he has the positive qualities when not being aware of his true actions.
4. Amina's husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
I also agree with everyone so far. I believe at home, he dominates his wife through authoritarian rule and absolutist morality. Not only does he enjoy total jurisdiction over his wife, but he routinely demands acts of servility of her. Amina sits by his feet each night when he returns home from his carousing to take off his shoes and socks. Ahmad's other personality comes out when he has to much to drink. With that he is witty and charmingly dissolute-the favorite "lover" and ever the life of the party. He has the negative qualities of being controlling over his wife but he has the positive qualities when not being aware of his true actions.
-Brianna Malavenda
Q. 3
Sung Kun Kim
It shows in chapter 2 about the unbalanced relationship between the husband and wife. When the husband comes back from the party late at night, the wife removes the clothes from his body and organize them all. Also, she puts water in the basin and place it by her husband's feet for him to wash. Besides these service, she doesn't sit on the sofa because she thinks that she do not have any right to sit beside him. These things show that the husband and the wife are in unequal position.
4. Amina's husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
I disagree with some of the other students in their view that Amina's husband has any good qualities at all. Amina's husband appears to be an emotionally abusive chauvinist, and the justification of these awful character traits through alcohol just doesn't seem right to me. However, are "positive" and "negative" two universal and objective traits? Let us remember that Amina, her husband, and her family live in a vastly different culture than ours, in a very different time. Nevertheless, the culture difference doesn't appear to change much. Even in this culture, Amina's husband is a hypocrite, and, if you'll all excuse a generalization, a bad man. He forces upon his family a strict set of Muslim values, but is quick to turn around, get drunk, and quite possibly cheat on his wife. Even if he is friendly when he is completely inebriated, I don't believe this is necessarily a positive trait.
Answer to #1 (agreeing with Heather):
Amina is clearly very confused on her thoughts about wine. On one hand, she has been taught that wine is a sinful substance, but also recognizes that the intoxication makes her husband more cordial. In turn, this gives her great internal conflict - her morals over her desires. Though she wouldn't admit it, she likes it when her husband is inebriated because he is talkative and more loving than his usual, strict self. She wishes more than anything for a caring husband, and must abandon her values to receive this unusual pleasure. I wonder if she feels wrong in doing this, although she does pray for her husband.
This is probably psychological torture to her, a cruel irony, and I pity her suffering.
#2,(agreeing with savannah)
Can you spot any other instances of Amina not being completely truthful with others or herself?
At the begining of Amina's relations hipt with her husband she was a normal women maybe even above normal with the way she voiced her opionions but if th was anyone who could change her mind or make her convince herself that wrong was right and wrong was okay then it was him.
4. Amina's husband: does he have any positive qualities? Any negative qualities?
I see alot
He's grumpy, annoyed all the time and has Amina do everything for him. Like his own personal slave. Yet he doesn't appreciate her and cheats outside or rather has an affair with women and he drinks.
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