Hello Class!
We are almost done with the first half of the second semester and we have read some really interesting readings so far. My personal favorite was “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer. For me the novel stands out because it not only focused on the larger effects of 9/11 on the larger mass such as the people of the country, city or families living in that place but it magnified its focus on a more intimate or private level. Foer narrated a heart-warming story of how the 9/11 incidence brought changes in a normal household of New York by eloquently expressing the underlying complexities of human relationships caused by 9/11- even for a relationship deemed as stable as that of a mother and child.
Thinking about this also made me realize how the various novels we read in ASTU class share a common ground. Apart from all the books being narrated by the child protagonists, it also bring into notice the deeper impact of these traumatic event on the private life of an individual as they showcase how these events bring instability and hinder many aspects of in depth personal relationships. While, Foer highlights the rocky and unsteady relationship between Oskar and his mother and how they eventually found out the importance of supporting one another in order to surpass the burden and loss they suffered because of 9/11, Marjane Satrapi shows the journey of Marji from a little girl to a young women who encountered various changes in her understanding of personal relationship with her parents, her uncle, her friends and even god during the Iranian Revolution. It also showed how the not so favorable circumstances resulted in her going away from her parents. Obasan was also a moving story told by a five year old girl Naomi about the struggles and challenges she faced during the second world war as a Japanese Canadian and brought into limelight the pain of separating with her mother for years.
When we think about the major traumatic events we often think about larger picture and how it affects bilateral relationships between countries or states but what we often ignore is analyzing the effects of those events on the in depth private relationships within the affected community. The books we have read in ASTU so far with heart-touching stories beautifully highlight the importance of understanding of personal relationships in order to understand a deeper impact of the trauma on the affected communities and countries as a whole.