Sunrise Over Fallujah

I started reading my book for my groups topic of modern war in Iraq, the title i am choosing is Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Myers. I only got through the first chapter but i know this book will be of great value to our class. How do i know this? it was an assigned summer read for my sixteen year old cousins junior year of high school. I was up north at my cottage last weekend with most of my extended family, and my cousin who is overly anxious to head off for college asked me about my classes. When i began telling her about our class and how we will be focusing on middle eastern literature she stopped me mid sentance and said "oh my God, Johnny! I hope you have to read Sunrise Over Fallujah for that class". She gave me a brief summary of the book and when i got home sunday night and looked on Dr. Allens website and found this title under suggested reads I knew that I had to take it.

So far in the first chapter what I have learned so far is that it is an American perspective of Operation Iraqui Freedom. In the first chapter I was introduced to three characters; Birdy, Marla, and Harlem and got three very different outlooks on the was. Birdy, the main character, is struggling to find the actual reason for why he enlisted. From his uncertainty I believe that the rest of this story will weigh out the pros and cons of fighting this war, and will hopefully clarify exactly why we are fighting this was in the first place.

Since I atended a catholic middle school when 9/11 happened, I was unable to view this historical event most of you likely saw in class. When I got home my parents sheltered me and wouldnt let me watch any televison that night. So pretty much for the last eight years I have been clueless about what is going on over seas. I am optomistic that this book will open my eyes to what I should have been aware of in the first place

What the hell is a thesis statement anyways?

I am sitting in the library right now trying to make sense of my shoddy rough draft i have conjured up for the paper on Aunt Safiyya. I guess the reason for my confusion could be attributed to the fact that since I was in eighth grade I have been brain washed into understanding that the most important feature of a paper is the thesis statement. So for now I am going to listen to what others recommended in class today, the scary thought of SAVING THE THESIS FOR LAST!!! My other issue in constructing a well written paper complete with fluid transitions combining well thought out ideas and supporting arguments is that again, I have been brain washed into believing that writing a paper in the first person is a huge no-no.

So right now it is hard for me to make any advancements with my paper since my conscience is fighting my brain right now. Every time I start a paragraph with the words; I believe, I found, I...., etc my conscience takes control of my fingers and gravitates towards the back space button on my key board. I know that this is not a very constructive blog in terms of being productive for class but it is an issue that i am hoping many of you all are having in beginning to construct this paper and seeing that my blog page is a bit scarce, why not vent a bit eh?

Which brings me to my next problem, how do you jazz up your blogger profile? I am completely lost when it comes to customizing web pages or profile pages. I challenge you to find me on facebook and tell me differently after viewing my profile. So anyways if you have any tips or a step by step instruction method to help me out please feel free to comment.

Aunt Safiyya

My first impression of Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery was not a very good one at all, it was irritating to have to keep flipping back and forth to the glossary through out the first chapter and the introduction hardly sparked my interest. At first i thought the story was going to be about a Muslim boy who made friends with a monk at a Christian monastery and would try and make sense of the Muslim/Christian dispute that has been going on for many years.

Boy was i wrong!

Thankfully chapter two picked up with the death of Harbi's uncle and all the drama leading up to it, i must say it was interesting to find that these people were acting in such ways as their ancestors of Mesopotamia and Hamurabi's code. It was also captivating to watch Aunt Safiyya's gruesome transformation.

Chapter three was by far my favorite chapter in the whole novel, the outlaw Faris and his men and learning about the hard labor required of prisoners kept the pages burning through my fingers not to mention the suspense of what would happen to Harbi with Safiyya's son gradually getting older. I thought it was also moving the way that Bishai healed the muslim mans leg towards the end of the chapter where all the oulaws were gathered in defense of Harbi even though it was Faris who shot his own man.

Chapter four was just depressing and shattered all my hopes for a revenge plot time hardly had passed between cahpter three and four and eventually everyone died by the will of god and Safiyya went crazy.

This book was hard to follow with all the Arabic names and vocabulary, i thought there was just as much to learn from this novel as any other american literature so i am thankful to find out that Middle Eastern literature is not going to be filled of anti-american slander.

"Reel Bad Arabs"

Reel Bad Arabs introduced me to the importance of understanding Middle Eastern countries including but not limited to Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Israel. For many years the headlines on television and in news papers have stereotyped people of Muslim descent as barbaric and heartless terrorists, enough to make me falsely assume that all Muslims share the same beliefs and that i should be frightened of them. To make matters even worse Arabic people have been and continue to be portrayed in movies that many Americans watch, as villains or dirty and uneducated neanderthals that degrade their women and live for the sole purpose of terrorizing the world. Without ever taking the time or effort to learn more about the people in these countries as a whole of course the only opinions I have ever had about them has been based on the negative stereotypes that I have grown seeing on television and reading in newspapers.

The image we get of the landscape of the Middle East from movies is that it is a dry and dangerous dessert that we misinterpret for being a threatening place. We get the impression that their male leaders are too rich and too stupid and have over sexed obsessions with white American women, while keeping their women masked and more so as possessions than people.

In all reality what we see in movies and read in the papers is far from the truth, although there are extremists living in the Arab world not all of their people sadistic terrorists. We as Americans falsely judge the Arab community by what the media relays to us (almost entirely about Arab extremist) without taking the time to research the community as a whole.