How My Ideas About Autobiographies has Changed

Throughout the last two terms we read many different autobiographical text and scholarly articles that all had an impact on changing several of my ideas. However, what struck me the most this term was learning about the potential for autobiographies to give a voice to marginalized people, as well as the variety of people and stories that are out there. Previously I had considered autobiographies to be individuals’ stories, but not necessarily something that would give a voice to a group of people. Recognizing all the different types of people and groups that are marginalized, and how to see through the hegemonic stereotypes the west creates for them, was perhaps the biggest thing that changed for me this year.

Missing Sarah, as well as Post Secret, Storycorps and Humans of New York, had the biggest impact on me, raising ideas that I had not previously thought about. These sites really put into perspective how many different types of people are out there. Some of the people’s stories on the websites did not seem to label them into a specific, known group. That being said, their unique perspectives could be relatable to many other people.

After reading Missing Sarah, my view of sex workers as well as people heavily addicted to drugs, greatly changed. I didn’t really know what to think about sex workers before, except that I did not regard them in high esteem. This memoir helped me see through their profession and regard their personhood, not just for Sarah, but for most sex workers.

The Online Media representation took on a different form of storytelling that allowed even more peoples’ stories to be told. This both informed me about the many stories out there and put into perspective for me just how wide my “knowledge gap” is, as there were so many different experiences posted on the sites that I could not imagine.

Previously I would have read autobiographies as an individual’s story, but not considered the effects it could have on a group of people. Missing Sarah, Storycorps, Humans of New York and Post Secret, gave a voice to many people who could not have previously been heard. Their individual stories, as well as the many other autobiographical texts we read this year, could be applied to many marginalized people, giving them a voice and allowing the world to see them from a different perspective. Thus, my ideas about the use and potential of autobiographies has changed.

Works cited:

Vries, Maggie De. Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2008. Print.

For this blog post I would like to use Diamond Grill to extend my discussion of my previous blog post, of using fiction in an autobiography. Fred Wah labels Diamond Grill as a “biotext” (184), which he describes as a way to “dress up” or “embellish” anecdotes of his own life (184). In my previous blog post I discussed fictions incorporation into autobiographical texts as a possible means of negating the authors authenticity. With the use of fiction, readers may not be able to believe, and therefore respect or understand, writers stories, simply because it is not what actually happened. In my previous post, I looked at reviews of Tim O’Brien’s memoir that recounts his experience in the Vietnam war, called The Things They Carried, to find out if readers struggled with the incorporation of fiction into an autobiographical text. Based off of the amazon customer reviews, I found that more people struggled with the violent depictions than with the use of fiction. Even more people enjoyed the realness that O’Brien brought to the novel, that he could only have done through the use of fiction. In this blog post, I would like to focus on the use of fiction in memoirs to understand the “truth” of one’s experiences, not how fiction in a memoir is perceived, as I did in my last post.

O’Brien uses fiction to recount the feeling of being in the Vietnam war, something that cannot be done by simply stating what actually happened. It’s an “I guess you had to be there” moment, when retelling a story doesn’t feel the same as when you are in it. His use of fiction ends up making part of his book very surreal or mystical, which reflects the mystical confusion and fear the real life counterparts of the characters felt.

Looking at Wah’s memoir and the description of biotext in the Afterword, allows us to look at the use of fiction, not as just a description, but as a way of reconciliation. Wah states that his text is meant to “explain myself to myself” (185), meaning that he uses his text as a way to make sense of his own life. The use of fiction in “dressing up” his own life then, could be a way for him to reconcile with it. Maybe recounting the full “truth” of the story will not allow him to understand it. Embellishing it with fiction may allow him to see his life in a different way that allows for reconciliation. The same could be said about Tim O’Brien’s text. His use of fiction is possibly a way for him to understand his experiences as well as a way for everyone else to understand what being in the Vietnam war was truly like.

So not only is fiction a way to tell readers the “true” feeling about what an experience was like, but it is also a way for writers to make sense of their own experiences. Fiction allows writers to make sense of something that can’t be done by retelling what actually happened. In turn, readers will end up with a piece of literature with more “truth” and meaning than a repetition of exactly what happened.

Works Cited:

Wah, Fred. Diamond Grill: 10th Anniversary. Edmonton: NeWest, 2008. Print.

As autobiographies account the stories of individuals and/or groups, one would think that fiction has little place in their texts. Yet, fiction is sometimes used by writers in their autobiographies to help readers understand what they are truly feeling. In an interview with Carroll Coates, Dany Laferrière was asked about his use of fiction in some of his texts and he stated in response,

When I talk about my books, I always say that they are an autobiography of my

feelings. I’m not interested in recounting my life in any traditional way. There are my

dreams, my friends’ lives, my dream life—so different from my actual life, my lies, my

concept of truth, my struggle to become a writer rather than a memoir writer—all of

that is part of my life. And it all comes out in my books. The life I dream is as true as

my actual life. (916)

Tim O’Brien, also blends fiction and nonfiction in his book The Things They Carried. It is a collection of short stories based on his experiences as an American soldier fighting in the Vietnam war. In this book, I presume, the use of fiction was used to represent what the “true feeling” of being in the war was like, which may not be obvious by recounting what actually happened. The book then ends up having very surreal, mystical moments, such as in the chapter “How To Tell a True War Story”, when O’Brien explains being stationed in the mountains with his troop, when they start hearing noises such as voices and music. Getting spooked they order an airstrike, but wake up the next morning still hearing the sounds (Sparknotes).

Although both authors feel it is necessary to use fiction to relate their stories, it may create a major obstacle with the reader by compromising the authenticity of the writer. Readers realize that what they are reading is not 100 percent truth and may become sceptical of the book. So, is using fiction to reveal the “true feelings” of a story to a reader worth the compromise? I looked at the first ten reviews and the first ten lowest rated reviews for O’Brien’s book on amazon.com, to see what readers had to say.

Out of the highest ratings, readers often commented on how the author was able to explain to them what being in the war was truly like, and make them feel like they were really there, even though some of it was fiction. For example, there is a review by John T. Long that states “You become a living breathing witness, almost a character in the simple magnificent web of his true-fiction. It hits the deepest of emotional truth, goes to a core that is unexplainable, a core that only the heart knows”. This review supports that the use of fiction accomplishes the author’s purpose in revealing the the feeling of being in war.

Out of the lowest rated reviews, only three of the ten reviews said anything about fiction creating a problem with the authenticity of the writer, such as in the review by Matt, which said “I thought about that this and figured what is the point of reading a war story if it is all made up”. Just as many, if not more reviews commented on the violence depicted being the major issue, but noted O’Brien’s successful description and explanation of what being in the war was truly like. This further suggests that O’Brien’s use of fiction was more often than not successful.

So based off of customer reviews, incorporating fiction into an autobiographical text to reveal the “true feelings” of a story, perhaps outweighs the compromise of the author lacking authenticity.

Works Cited

Laferriere, Dany, and Carrol F. Coates. “An Interview with Dany Laferriere.” Callaloo 22.4 (1999): 910-21. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 28 Jan. 2017.

Long, John T., “deeply felt”. 5, Oct. 2001. Review of, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Mariner Books. 13 Oct. 2009. Amazon.com. 21, Feb, 2017. https://www.amazon.ca/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/product-reviews/0618706410/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1

Matt, “One of the not so good war stories”. 2, Sept, 2003. Review of, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Mariner Books. 13 Oct. 2009. Amazon.com. 21, Feb, 2017. https://www.amazon.ca/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/product-reviews/0618706410/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_hist_1?showViewpoints=1&filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Mariner Books. 13 Oct. 2009.

“The Things They Carried.” SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

The Power of Fiction to Represent Popular Themes of Autobiographies

Throughout last term we have discussed how autobiographies are used to represent trauma, marginalized people, and counter hegemonic stereotypes. We have focused on autobiographies, but fiction can also be used to represent the themes we have discussed.

Researching for my lit review, the article “Narrative and Narrative Strategies to Explore Trauma: ‘Up Close from Afar’ — An African Migrant’s Story” by Eugen Bacon, kept popping up. I did not use it for my lit review, but it got me thinking about autobiographical fiction. This essay is about the strategies used by the author to “come to catharsis”. The story he wrote, about an african who migrate to australia and then loses her sister to HIV, is directly correlated to his own history. In his essay, he focuses mostly on how writing his book Up Close from Afar, was a healing process for himself, not necessarily to represent a group of people. However, Bacon does discuss his cultural “hybridity” of being from Africa and then migrating to Australia. Therefore his suffers a lack of belonging as he is “between worlds” (Bacon). He also recognizes that his book is what he calls “autoethnography” a genre of writing that represents a group of people. Thus, Bacon’s book demonstrates the power of fiction in representing marginalized people and trauma.

Delving deeper into the possibility of fictional representation I will continue with our current theme of graphic storytelling by looking at Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics introduced the first mainstream African superhero, the Black Panther. According to an interview of Stan Lee (co creator of many of Marvel’s comics) by Huffington Post writer Joshua Ostroff, the Black Panther was created in response to the lack of black superheroes in comics in the 1966, when race was a more prevalent issue than it is today. Lee claims in the interview that the character was not created as a social enterprise, but, I do not doubt that his creation had an impact. In accordance with my claim, Lee was quoted saying “these new stories provided a medium for social commentary” (Ostroff), suggesting that his comics did indeed have an impact on social movements.

Wanting to “Get away from the common perception”, Lee made The Black Panther a “brilliant scientist” living in a very modern and advanced place, hidden underground beneath “thatched huts with ordinary ‘natives’” (Ostroff). Lee further states, “And he’s not letting the world know what’s really going on or how brilliant they really are” ( Ostroff). This further strengthens the idea that the Black Panther is more than just a superhero, meant for entertainment, but a counter hegemonic symbol for African Americans – a theme shared by many of the texts we have read in class.

A few other examples of Marvel Comics representation of marginalized people include Daredevil – a blind superhero, Hawkeye who is deaf, and the X-Men that was inspired by the civil rights movement and suffered from extreme racism for their “mutant” abilities (Ostroff). Recently Marvel has further pushed social ideas: “Ms. Marvel is now a Muslim teen” (Ostroff), the Hulk is Korean-American, Ice-man (a mutant character) is gay, and many of the more widely known characters like thor and wolverine are now women (Ostroff). These new comic heroes permeate a genre that was once widely dominated by white male figures symbolizing the need to recognize and represent marginalized groups.

Bacon’s essay, and Marvel Comics superheros, are a fictional representation of the themes we have discussed in class, demonstrating the power storytelling has to represent trauma, marginalized people, and counter hegemonic stereotypes.

Sources:

Bacon, Eugen. “Narrative and Narrative Strategies to Explore Trauma: ‘Up Close from Afar’ – An African Migrant’s Story.” Australasian Review of African Studies 37.2 (2016): 129-46. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.

Ostroff, Joshua. “Marvel Comics Icon Stan Lee Talks Superhero Diversity And Creating Black Panther.” The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 01 Sept. 2016. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.

Life Narratives as a Tool for Healing

In Missing Sarah, Maggie De Vries says she is writing “to make it real for herself” as well as “to make it real for you” (Prologue XV). This suggests that there is an aspect of healing to writing life narratives, even if one is relieving the tragedy they are trying to escape. Perhaps Dany Laferriere also wrote to heal in The World is Moving Around Me, when he writes “as long as I am writing, nothing moves. Writing keeps things from breaking down” (183). This quote makes it sound as if he used writing as a kind of therapy to heal from the traumatic event he witnessed, somewhat like Maggie de Vries.

This then leads me to a list of questions: does writing help “ground” people, calm them, or help them understand or organize their thoughts? Or is it the notion that one can “escape” reality, pausing their remembrance of a haunting tragedy, like Laferriere, that leads them to write?

In help make sense of these questions, I found a journal article called Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors, that also uses life narratives as a tool for healing. It is a study done by David Lane, Keith Myers, Maurice Hill, and Donna lane, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake that uses storytelling and life narratives as a “culturally sensitive” way to help Haitians cope. The article claimed through previous research that storytelling allows people to make sense their lives, and is vital to making sense of trauma. So, they used the cultural importance of storytelling to help Haitians heal. The study had participants follow a story that called Gold Stone – that contains the main traumas of a natural disaster such as death and loss – while sharing their own traumatic experiences. They then would try to identify a meaning behind their personal stories, “reconnecting with their sense of self to establish wholeness” and finally  “write” what their life could be like after the trauma. The study was rather successful, showing that individuals that has undergone the study had significantly less PTSD symptoms (Hill, Lane, Lane, Myers).

This study can help us make sense of why people write life narratives, as well as how life narratives can be used to heal. Both Missing Sarah and The World is Moving Around Me may be written just as much for the purpose of healing than for what their main focus suggests: countering stereotypes. The study can also help us to make sense of why writing is so important; not only is it a way to communicate with others, but it is a way for people to “come to grips” or understand themselves.

Sources:

Laferriere, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Lane, David W., Keith J. Myers, Maurice C. Hill, and Donna E. Lane. “Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors.” Journal of Loss and Trauma 21.6 (2016): 560-74. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Vries, Maggie De. Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2008. Print.

The Western Perspective of Haitians Vs. Laferriere’s

Dany Laferriere’s memoir, The World is Moving Around Me discusses the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. Laferriere makes a point in his memoir to counter the western stereotype of the Haitian people. This stereotype being, poor, violent “wild men” who believe in voodoo (Laferriere 75-76). In contrast, Laferriere believes them undeserving of this “curse” (76) and describes their “energy and dignity”(76), perseverance, and hope (32), after the earthquake, as well as in their everyday lives. I researched two news articles, published right after the earthquake happened, from popular western sources to see how the Haitian people were being portrayed in relation to the western stereotype and to Laferriere’s description of them. Both sources held similarities that backed up the stereotype.

The two articles I found – one from BBC News, and the other from the New York Times written by Simon Romero and Marc Lacy – mostly reported quotes, perspectives, and statistics (such as the death toll of UN personnel) related to western culture instead of Haitian. In fact, besides mentioning Haiti’s tendency for natural disasters, and the devastation this catastrophe was for it (primarily because of Haiti’s extreme poverty, bad construction, and political state; or as Romero and Lacy put it, “Haiti’s many man-made woes”), they barely mentioned Haitian people at all. When they did, it was from a western perspective, describing the chaos and panic happening around them, not the resilience and spirit of the Haitian people like Laferriere describes.

For example, both the New York Times and BBC News quote Henry Bahn, an official of the United States Department of Agriculture, saying “Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken”; and another quote by Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, said “You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming” (BBC News). Contrary to these reports, Laferriere wrote, “I expected to hear screams and cries, there was none of that” (15). Both sides, Laffaire’s and the western perspectives, gives two different ideas of Haiti. So, to what extent does each account accurately portray the people of Haiti? And, does the western stereotype effect the way Bahn and Domersant saw Haiti?

BBC News also briefly mentions that “there have also been some reports of looting overnight”, further supporting the crime and violence stereotype of Haiti.

I also feel it worth noting that both sources paint western countries in a virtuous light as they send aid to Haiti.

Both BBC News and The New York Times report information that paints Haitian people in a contradictory way to Laferriere description. This could suggest that Laferrier’s memoir, in addition to it being a trauma narrative of the earthquake, it is meant to bring to light the virtues of a group of marginalized people (Schaffer and Smith); Haitians who are negatively stereotyped in western eyes.

Sources:

“Haiti Devastated by Massive Earthquake.” BBC News. BBC, 13 Jan. 2010. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

Laferriere, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti

Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.

Schaffer, Kay, and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” 27.1 (2004): 1-24. University of Hawaii Press. Web.

Romero, Simon, and Marc Lacy. “Fierce Quake Devastates Haitian Capital.” The New York

Times. The New York Times Company, 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

What a Different Form of Life Narrative Tells Us

Whitlock discusses in Soft Weapons how modern technology has changed autobiography. In high school I worked on a play called And Then They Came For Us: Remembering the World of Anne Frank, that was another form of life narrative utilizing modern technology. It was a multimedia production; meaning that in between scenes, the character’s real life counterparts talked about their experience on a projection screen. The play revolves around two of Anne Frank’s friends, Eva Geiringer-Schloss (whose mother married Otto Frank, Anne’s father, after the war) and Helmuth Silberberg or “Hello” (who was mentioned in the excerpt of Anne Frank we read). The form of this play has a different effect on the audience than other types of life narratives, affecting their emotions and understanding.

Whitlock mentions how images, such as that of Osama bin Laden, can have an impact of the perception of the rest of the world (pg 5). similarly, in the multimedia production, the audience is seeing as well as hearing accounts of the Holocaust instead of reading. This may integrate a deeper level of emotion into the narrative. Instead of imagining a scene, the way a phrase is delivered and viewed can perhaps be more direct, making a bigger impact on the audience and acting like a “punch” to the their emotions. This also may help the audience connect with the characters as their personhood is more easily conveyed. For example, Anne Frank, is portrayed by an actress in the production. You gain a different perspective of this well known figure when watching her and hearing her being described, then when reading about her from her own point of view. Having a figure right in front of you almost makes her seem more “real”.

The multi character aspect allows the audience to hear several accounts of the holocaust being told from multiple standpoints. Somewhat like a testimonio (Smith and Watson pg 282), this takes away from the individual narratives and turns it into a collective retelling of history. It allows the watcher to piece together the impact Nazi Germany had on people.

This includes the effect it had on non – Jewish Germans. A few scenes of the play featured a Nazi youth soldier, (a young boy in training to become a Nazi soldier. Not a specific person in real life but the idea of one). During one scene, this character talks about the Nazi’s giving him a puppy to take care of, and later, after bonding with the dog, having to kill his puppy. Not only that but the uniform of Nazi youth soldiers is almost identical to boy scouts; this visual helps put the Nazi’s influence into perspective. Often audience member would come up to the cast afterward asking if killing the puppy was true, acting like it was the most horrible thing about the play when the main focus was about teenagers being sentenced to internment camps. Was it the way the line was delivered that created such emotion in the audience or would it have been the same if they read it instead of heard and saw it? Was it so shocking because one seldom hears of Nazi’s struggles in comparison to the people they oppressed?

Different forms of life narratives convey different meanings. Watching instead of reading life narratives could allow the presence of the person behind the words to be more easily recognized by the audience. In addition, hearing the account of multiple characters and multiple groups allows the audience to piece together a fuller account of the event.

Still, James. And Then They Came For Us: Remembering the World Of Anne Frank. N.p.: Dramatic Pub, 1999. Print.

Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography : A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. Second ed. Minneapolis: U Of Minnesota, 2010. Print.

Whitlock, Gillian. Soft Weapons: Autobiography in Transit. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2007. Print.

Equiano as the Cover Portrays Him

The Cover of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, features several interesting details: a sketch of Equiano, the name of the book, and the way the author is printed. How these things are presented tell the reader more about Equiano and how he is distinguished not as a slave but as a free man.

The picture of Equiano on the cover details him in nicer, westernized clothing (although the clothing is still very plain) (see picture below). One would not typically associate this type of cloths with being a slave. Although the book is a slave narrative, this picture seems to focus more on him reaching the status of a free man, in a westernized culture, than on being a slave.

A few pages into the book, there is the same picture in completeness. It reveals him holding the Bible, open to ACTS 4:12 (Lamore). First, this tells readers that Equiano is educated, which is not a common trait for slaves. This portion of the Bible “gives the history of the Christian church and the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as the mounting opposition to it” and it details the conversion of Paul, from persecuting Christians to being one of God’s disciples (GotQuestions.org). The specific section, 4:12 states “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (GotQuestions.org). This reflects how equiano has taken on the western idea of being Christian and is educated.

What I find most interesting is that the title of the book details three different “identities”. The first, “Olaudah Equiano” is his birth name (also the biggest name on the cover), the second, “Gustavus Vassa”, is a name one of his masters gave him (Williamson), and the third is, “the African”. The fact that his birth name comes first signifies him as being “himself” and speaks of his African descent. The appearance of the name his slave owner gave him could represent him being westernized as well as having been a slave (he is also commonly known by this name (Williamson)). Referring to himself as “the African” further recognizes him as a slave (given the time period) and his heritage. However, given it states “the African” and not “the slave”, it leads me to think he is trying to distinguish the two, in a time and place when the terms could almost be interchangeable.

Furthermore the way the book’s authors name is printed as “written by himself” (in white with a black background, making it one of the brightest parts of the book), could further establish Equiano’s independence and sense of “self”.

What I find intriguing is that the only place where “slave” is written is in the review, which is outdone by the rest of the cover. This further leads me to believe that Equiano is not being portrayed as a slave but as a free man or his own man.

With all of these aspects combined: the westernized clothing, the Bible, his three “identities”, and how the author’s name is written; the cover seems to portray Equiano as having independence in a western culture, not of being a slave. These things help establish for the reader an identity of Equine that is not of a stereotypical slave.

(image from amazon)

Bibliography:

“Book of Acts.” GotQuestions.org. Got Questions Ministries, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Or, Gustavus Vassa, the African. Ed. Shelly Eversley. N.p.: Modern Library, 2004. Print.

Lamore, Eric D., ed. Teaching Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative: Pedagogical Strategies and New Perspectives. N.p.: U of Tennessee, 2012. Google Books. Google. Web. 7 Oct. 2016.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Or, Gustavus Vassa, the African. Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.

Williamson, Jenn. “Summary of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. Vol. I.” Documenting the American South. The University of North Carolina Library, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.

After reading the excerpt from I am Malala I was struck by several quotes. To try and make sense of them, I looked at the distinct cultural values of Pashtun people. They follow a cultural code called Pashtunwali (PG10) that is ingrained within their being and unites them under the same principles.

Honor is perhaps the most important aspect of the codes; as it is stated in I Am Malala, “Without honor, the world counts for nothing” (pg 10). “Nang” being the backbone of the codes, may reinforce the other aspects, some of which bring about violence and others peace and community.

The nature of violence could come from the component called “Basal” or, justice and revenge (Ali). Looking at a quote from the excerpt can exemplify this: “We fight and feud among ourselves so much that our word for cousin— tarbur— is the same as our word for enemy” (pg 10). I found this quote very intriguing as earlier in the excerpt it is stated that “In our culture, every man is your “brother” and every woman your “sister.”(pg 5). The two seem contradictory, but perhaps, like families, cultures also have a relative they feud with.

A more uniting value is, “Melmastia” or hospitality; another key portion of the codes. Hospitality implies one transcends race, religion, economic status, and previous relations (Ali). A similar idea, “Nanawatai” or Sanctuary, means that you offer people protection (Ali). Yet another aspect of the code is “Imandari”, which means righteousness; striving for goodness both in word and in deed,” (Ali)

My favorite quote is, “maybe I would take off my shoes and hit them, but then I’d think if I did that there would be no difference between me and a terror­ist. It would be better to plead, “OK, shoot me, but first listen to me. What you are doing is wrong. I’m not against you personally, I just want every girl to go to school.” (pg 6). This seems contradictory to the Pashtunwali idea of honor and revenge. Pleading is not normally considered and honorable thing, but is reason? Instead of reverting to violence, it seems she wants them to understand. Is violence, no matter how severe, the reason why she says throwing her shoe at them would make her “just as bad”? Are people in general too quick to violence, and instead need to need to listen and reason? Furthermore, she does not seem to portray the man who shot her, as an evil terrorist worthy of “Badal”. During an interview published by The Guardian, Malala says, “…people are brainwashed. That’s why they do things like suicide attacks and killing people. I can’t imagine it – that boy who shot me, I can’t imagine hurting him even with a needle. I believe in peace. I believe in mercy” (Shamsie). Does she see the man as a “brother” versus an enemy?

Looking at these values, is there a balance between honor, justice, righteousness and hospitality? Can you achieve them all without violence? Can you achieve one but not the other?

Sources:

Ali, Yasmeen Aftab. “Understanding Pashtunwali.” The Nation. Nawaiwaqt Group of Newspapers, 06  Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

Shamsie, Kamila. “Malala Yousafzai: ‘It’s Hard to Kill. Maybe That’s Why His Hand Was Shaking'” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education. N.p.: Little, Brown, 2013. N. pag. Print.

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