The swimming contest by Benjamin Tammuz is a story of an Arab boy and an Israeli boy. This took place around the time where there was huge tension between the Arabs and the Jews. There had been much division and segregation amongst the two people. Most of the time, the youth is not up to date with any sort of political conflict or racial division that is occurring at the time. Hatred for the other group is a learned behavior that some youth have not learned yet. Such as the two boys in this story. The Jewish boy states, “We are out for peace, not war.” The writer chooses children because they show no interest in the political agenda of the leaders in their community, especially when its war. These two boys instead engage in friendly competition,
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Later on in their lives, the youth become indoctrinated with the political views of their culture. The youth must buy into the propaganda of the time to enlist to fight in the Yom Kipper war. Tragically, the Jewish man had to witness his childhood friend, Abdul-Karim, die because of the war. Watching this brought him so much sadness. The writer also uses children as their narrator to show up the power of childhood friendships. Even the though both individual belonged to opposing forces, they still had care and love for each other, and did not want to see either party die for the cause of this war. The writer shows us that sometimes, children still remain loyal to their childhood roots. They never forgot those whom they spend great times with and shared cherished moments with. In the next story, “A meeting in the Dark”, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the writer uses a young boy to narrate the story. The young boy’s name is John. His father was a clergyman and was well respected amongst …show more content…
The man then tells him he sells bibles. The man replied he also sells a variety of things, not just bibles. The writer opens up this story with the two engaging in a religious conversation. This tells us there is a spiritual meaning behind this story just by reading the opening scene. The writer later on adds spiritual references such as “diabolic book”, so the reader can understand the culture of the people in this story. Later, the main character finds out, the man selling the bibles is planning to return to him home country soon. The man is actually from Scotland. The main character makes a deal with the man so that he could obtain a bible from him. He wanted to obtain the bibles by offering him a few rupees and the Holy Scriptures. We see here the importance of being in tune with their religion. The people in the region highly value any sort of religious instruments. The two come to an agreement. The man selling the bible did not really bother to even check the money. Perhaps, he was happy to know he was able to provide someone with a bible. The man made his sale and left. The main character never found out his name. Having the book itself is what brought him great joy. The writer is expressing through this story, the joy of finding pleasures in the small things in life. The main character thought more highly of the book than it seem. He valued
Later on in their lives, the youth become indoctrinated with the political views of their culture. The youth must buy into the propaganda of the time to enlist to fight in the Yom Kipper war. Tragically, the Jewish man had to witness his childhood friend, Abdul-Karim, die because of the war. Watching this brought him so much sadness. The writer also uses children as their narrator to show up the power of childhood friendships. Even the though both individual belonged to opposing forces, they still had care and love for each other, and did not want to see either party die for the cause of this war. The writer shows us that sometimes, children still remain loyal to their childhood roots. They never forgot those whom they spend great times with and shared cherished moments with. In the next story, “A meeting in the Dark”, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the writer uses a young boy to narrate the story. The young boy’s name is John. His father was a clergyman and was well respected amongst …show more content…
The man then tells him he sells bibles. The man replied he also sells a variety of things, not just bibles. The writer opens up this story with the two engaging in a religious conversation. This tells us there is a spiritual meaning behind this story just by reading the opening scene. The writer later on adds spiritual references such as “diabolic book”, so the reader can understand the culture of the people in this story. Later, the main character finds out, the man selling the bibles is planning to return to him home country soon. The man is actually from Scotland. The main character makes a deal with the man so that he could obtain a bible from him. He wanted to obtain the bibles by offering him a few rupees and the Holy Scriptures. We see here the importance of being in tune with their religion. The people in the region highly value any sort of religious instruments. The two come to an agreement. The man selling the bible did not really bother to even check the money. Perhaps, he was happy to know he was able to provide someone with a bible. The man made his sale and left. The main character never found out his name. Having the book itself is what brought him great joy. The writer is expressing through this story, the joy of finding pleasures in the small things in life. The main character thought more highly of the book than it seem. He valued