Recently in our Astu class, we are reading the novel Disgrace. Written by J.M Coetzee, Disgrace tells the story of David Lurie, a twice-divorced, 52-year-old professor in the setting of post-apartheid South Africa. Throughout the novel, animals play a huge role in Disgrace, especially after David moves to the country. Some of the dogs that Lucy cares have names and their own personalities. From the image that the author portrays from dogs emphasizes the novel’s interests in social status and personal disgrace.

In a broader perspective, Coetzee implies dogs in a way to symbolize the status of diverse people in the society. For example, from the quote that Lucy says, “I don’t want to come back in another existence as a dog or a pig and have to live as dogs or pigs live under us.” Despite the fact that dogs are adorable and are human’s best friends, people still believe that they should be under humans. Furthermore, when the author uses to describe Petrus, he refers to himself as the “dog man.” As his social status ascends throughout the novel, he jokes that he is “not anymore the dog-man.” From the tasteless joke, readers can see the statement as an assertion of Petrus’s growing social status is no longer at the same level as dogs.

However, it is different from David’s perspective. Although dogs show his status, they also reflect his personal, internal trials and tribulations. As the situation gets worse towards him, David’s character gets more regulated of a dog. For example, he compares himself like a dog that is beaten for its sexual instincts during his conversation between Lucy about his humiliation at the University following his affair with Melanie. Moreover, he spends more time in the animal clinic to put dogs into sleep. While this decision represents letting dogs out of their misery and suffering, it also shows the pathetic way for them to go.

As the novel goes on, the correlation between dogs and people experiencing disgrace is more noticeable. During the second half of the story, David becomes attached to one particular dog at the clinic that suffers from a crippled leg. Even though he thinks that there is a disgrace in death, he also sees dishonor and pain the way that the dog is being alive. Disgrace ends with David putting the dog for lethal injection. When he does so, we can see that David is somehow trying to save the dog from a disgraceful life than a shameful death. David also does this to relieve his disgrace. In conclusion, the persistent presence of dogs from the novel lets the readers consider the shame and stigma that humans go through, even though it plays out through the lives of animals.

In the book Mrs. Dalloway that I recently read during our ASTU class is mainly about Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class housewife’s day. In the novel, Virginia Woolf uses different characters to represent different memories and traumas that the British society had during the Post World War 1. For example, Clarissa Dalloway represents the memories of the upper class, and she beautifies her world trying to concealing the hideous truth and darkness of reality. On the other hand, Septimus Smith is the personification of the collapse of the imperialistic pride and power of England after the war, exuding the pain and suffering that he is unable to keep hidden. These accounts can be comparable with the recent global issue like Vietnam war could be relevant to the memories and traumas that happened from the early 20th century.

To begin with, the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder that Septimus had can be connected with memories and traumas from American soldiers who participated in the Vietnam war. Like other youngsters who want to join the war, Septimus served the military because he had the nationalistic pride and wanted to preserve his idyllic England. However, when Septimus becomes a war veteran that that fails to contain his emotional stress. He shows his inner turmoil, even though he knows that society expects him to repress those emotions. Just like other troops returning from war, Septimus experiences PTSD, despite the efforts that his wife and doctor want him to return to his civilian life by conforming the ideas of the society, Septimus founds out that he can’t be blend in to the society. As a result, although he sacrificed his entire youth to his country, he was just one the victims that got inspired by the  propaganda of the aristocracy, which was just a illusion that disappeared after the war. He represents the soldiers that went to war to maintain the fame that their country had, though society expected the soldier to be the same man when he returned from battle. If there were any questions or doubts about the belief system, the soldiers are not viewed as heroes, but as dissenters. Just like the British government have done towards Septimus, the U.S government also recruited troops by evoking the nationalism that every young man has. However, the aftermath isn’t that ideal because of the traumas and distress that soldiers had, they couldn’t be conjoin towards the society.

To sum up, Sunzi once said: ”Hence to fight and conquer in all your Battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in Breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. And the greatest victory, the greatest battles are the battles that won without having been fought,” Septimus’s memory in Mrs. Dalloway can be connected with global issues like Vietnam war and can be relevant with other issues around the world.

  “Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change.” (Hamid 57). According to the book Reluctant Fundamentalist written by Mohsin Hamid, the author illustrates the dynamic change of stereotype that Americans had towards Pakistanis, especially to Muslims after the post 9/11 terror. To explain how post 9/11 has influenced the recognition towards Pakistanis, Hamid uses Changez, the protagonist of this novel to experience different types of discrimination that he encountered in the US. To overcome this situation, Changez tries to fit in the image that the Americans want, by trying to emphasize to have that true identity as an “American”. The reaction that the Americans deliver to him created Hamid to make him not patriotic towards his country, and let him make some crucial decisions in his lifetime.

  At the beginning of the novel, Changez consistently convinces the strangers that he is not a terrorist that terrorized 9/11 and the bias that people usually had in Pakistan. He loved a woman named “Erica”, which is somehow relevant with “AmErica”. Also, he introduced himself that he lived in the United States for four and a half years and shows love and respect towards this country by expressing that his pleasant memories are from this country. Besides, he showed respect and appreciation towards the company he is working, Underwood Samsons (U.S.), since most of the workers are from America, which indirectly represented the country.

  During my childhood, I didn’t have any negative bias towards Muslims, since one of our neighbor who lived beside me is a Muslim family and they were hospitable. However, since George Bush declared Iran as the “Axis of Evil” and being educated in an International School that is based on American curriculum, created the certain unexplainable hostility towards these normal and innocent people. In my opinion, the novella The Reluctant Fundamentalist has a similar function with the previous memoir that we read in the class Persepolis. This is because both of the authors are not westerners, so the demonstration isn’t stereotypical and stimulated since they do not let the readers view Muslims or people who are from the Middle East as the typical image that they can imagine. In Persepolis, Satrapi does this by implying Marjane as a normal teenager and other Iranians as normal people. Compared to Persepolis, Hamid does this by the other way round, by portraying an Islamic individual being unique but normal from the majority.

  Furthermore, The Reluctant Fundamentalist engages the readers to be in an individual perspective from certain countries like Changez from Pakistan to put themselves in the particular situation where the majority of people have a negative prejudice towards them. The book agrees that it is true that the action of 9/11 terror is an unacceptable case that cannot be forgiven, though there are other innocent countries and people like Changez are being suffered from the aftermath.

“Freedom always comes at a price” (Marjane Satrapi). Based on the Book Persepolis, Mariana Satrapi portraits a perspective of a growing child and her turbulent family towards the political climate during the Iranian Revolution and then experiencing Iran-Iraq war that happened afterward. This graphic narrative demonstrates her challenges from the new regime, such as being forced to wear a veil or exaggeration of heroism that is implied from propaganda, and how she deals with them while as portraying most Iranians as normal people like in any nation. The current trend of political climate these days are social issues like Niqab (face veil) and gender identity, and foreign issue policies like immigration. The book mentioned about these issues in a child’s perspective.

For example, at the beginning of the book, she mentioned the ‘black veil’ as the symbol of oppression towards freedom. Although women failed to overthrow the black veil policy during that time, there are changes against this subjugation slowly around the world, by banning these veils around the world, like France and other European countries.

Moreover, on issues like immigration, the book doesn’t demonstrate about people immigrating from a country to another, but it shows the complaints and antipathy towards the immigrants. The grumbles and moans towards the immigrants in the book (Persepolis page 92-93) are similar with the modern immigration issues, like the rise of unemployment and crime rates. From her memoir, she advocates towards the immigrants, while some people were discriminating towards the strangers, which can be somehow understandable since those people aren’t prosperous like Marji’s family.

According to the book, Marji’s family is wealthier than other people. Eventually, although the kid suffers the same pain that will lead through traumas in future, like losing her people who are beside her and realizing the brutality of war. From the episode of ‘The Shabbat’ (Persepolis P135-142), her town was bombed, and Baba Levy’s house was one of the victims of it. However, they suffered less from the revolution and Iran Iraq war since they had the financial advancement that can overcome this situation. For example, when the government was cracking down towards parties and alcohols (Persepolis P108-P110), Marji’s dad bribed the soldier a few bills to overlook them once.

During the 1970s to 1980s, there was the boom of the democracy movement, those different countries tried to overthrow their original governmental structure like the democratic movement that happened like countries overthrowing the colonial government. As society moves towards globalization and modernization, people would generally become the approach to new ideas, which would clash with the current ideas and sometimes the state.
The Iranian revolution in 1979 overthrowing the Shah can be portraited as “the Arab Spring”. From Persepolis, it provides a lesson today regarding what shouldn’t be done after overthrowing of the government. Based on the revolution, citizens had a common goal, which is to overthrow the original government. However, when they accomplished their goal of removing him from power, they had to create a new government. In a country in which political dissent had been suppressed for decades, the only faction that was organized and influential enough to take power quickly was the fundamentalist faction led by Khomeini, which created the new discontent towards the regime again. Based on CIA’s Factbook, the median age of Iranians are 26.8 years old, which means that these people haven’t experienced the revolution and they are opposed to the current government. Their dissatisfaction towards the government is expressed during the election protests that happened at Iran in summer and fall of 2009. Especially in the Green Movement, where people demanded more opened democratic system for a liberal society. This type of movement brought the motivation of the democratic movement from Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt that happened in 2011.

Furthermore, the memoir is published after the 9-11 terror, the event that let people have a social bias towards Muslims. Eventually, the book challenges the idea that all Muslims are terrorists. From the identification of Americans had towards people who lived in the Soviet Union, they thought they are all monsters and barbarians. However, when the U.S.S.R collapsed, people realized that Russians were ordinary people. Just like this situation, the book illustrates Iranians as normal people, which they enjoy western cultures, like fashion, music, and alcohol.

To sum up, Persepolis is a reflective book that doesn’t have any stereotypes towards Iranians and portrays them as normal people, which made people change the perspective of Islamophobia.

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