Natasha's Blogs

Naguib Mahfouz approached narration uniquely in his novel, The Thief and the Dogs. Throughout the book, Mahfouz continuously shifts between third-person narration and a first-person narration, however, the first-person narration links more specifically to the stream of consciousness narrative technique. In using this technique, Mahfouz is developing the characterization of the protagonist, Said Mahran, providing the readers with clearer understandings. The stream of consciousness narrative is a technique that describes the flow of what is happening through the mind of the character. It provides insight on their thoughts, opinions and ideas on events and conflicts occurring throughout the plot. In the Thief and the Dogs, it can clearly be seen when Mahfouz switches between the two narrative techniques of third-person and stream of consciousness as he changes the font of the writing. Whenever readers are inside Mahran's mind, the words will be italicized. This pro...

Translation text A: "Found In Translation" In the modern world, we are extremely fortunate to have translators, who manage to translate magnificent pieces of literature for us to read and study. Millions of books, poems, songs and more have been translated from their language of origin into English for us to enjoy. Being able to read translated texts provides us with many benefits but also presents us with challenges. One of the benefits of reading translated pieces of literature is that it exposes us to new information on cultures and backgrounds. Reading a book written about Arab culture by an Arabic author immensely contrasts with a reading a book written about Arab culture by a Western author. With reference to the text "Found in Translation", they make the argument that Arab writers submerge their audiences in authentic Arab culture. Ever since Arabic originated books have been translated into English, (such as The Thief and the Dogs written by Naguib Mahfo...

WT2 Introduction Question: 1. How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers? To what extent is it the media's responsibility to deliver unbiased, open-minded news to the consumers? A recent opinion column, “Give Me Your Tired Arguments” by Ann Coulter sparked a substantial amount of controversy as it was extremely conservative and one-sided. The author shares her traditionalist opinions on President Trumps’ Executive Order that was signed on the 27 th of January 2017, leading the article to be extremely fixed on one mindset. Coulter utilizes rhetorical devices and argumentive language as she goes in-depth as to how Muslims or people of Arab descent, are a “danger to American society”. As this article is extremely biased, it is clear to the readers how she feels about this, but her opinions can be interpreted differently by multiple different readers. Readers who have conservative values and views may agree with her, where o...

David Foster Wallace's speech, This is Water , was a brilliant commencement speech he had written for the class of 2005 of Kenyon College. The speech ended up being his most famous piece, having addressed a reality that no one concentrates on. The speech focuses on the theory of self-centeredness. Wallace believes that there is a reality of self-centeredness so real, that no one ever considers it. He starts off his speech with a short story of how an old fish, swimming by two younger fish says, "Morning, boys, how's the water?". The water is an analogy for the self-centeredness, and the young fish, for the people. People are in a rush every single day of their lives, they do not realize that although they are the center of their own universe, they are not the center of anyone else's. Without saying it, Wallace wants readers and listeners to focus on living in the moment and being aware of the present and your surroundings. Another great author who focuses on li...

What does Zora Neale Hurston mean in the quote, "Love is lak de sea. It's a movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore"? With this quote, the author,  Zora Neale Hurston, is telling the readers that love is never the same. In telling the audience that "love is a moving thing", she compares it to how the ocean is a constantly moving body of water. Humans are bodies of water too, (but only around 60%, the rest is organs and all that). Hurston goes on to say, "it takes its shape from de shore it meets". With this, she is telling the audience that love finds its shape in the people it meets. Again, speaking figuratively, love does not literally meet the shore or the people, (personification), but no love is the same between two people. All people in love have their 'cracks in the sand', and 'sunny days', but everyone experiences it differently. To give an exampl...

A memoir: The summer of 2019 was the most terrific summer I had ever had. You see, it was my first time crossing the Atlantic ocean, and after around 20 hours of travelling, I had arrived in Montréal, Canada with my best friend. Although we only had four days in Montréal to soak up as much of the city as possible, we were planning on doing everything available. Our first full day we decided to do some shopping on St. Catherines Street. The street is 11.2 km long and has a profuse amount of stores along it. One of the first stores we had gone into was Steve Madden. Now, I have an enormous weak spot when it comes to shoes, and lucky for me, they had a 50% off sale going on. We decided to look around and after about 7 minutes of looking, I laid my eyes on the most magnificent, gorgeous, out-of-this-world pair of sandals. I'm not usually one to wear sandals, (sneakers are more my type of thing), but you have to understand, these were beyond Ms. Universe beautiful. Since I had sav...

Written in 1958, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart consists of a tragic hero protagonist who suffers when change is upon him. Okonkwo, the main characters,  inflexibility causes him to act in an inappropriate manner, (eventually leading to his death). This is all due to the fact that his father left him with only a legacy of failure when he died. Okonkwo attempts to strive as far away from this legacy as possible as it is his greatest fear. The fear of becoming his father sends him down a narrow-minded road causing him to develop considerable conflicts with himself and with those around him. The conflicts become augmented once the British arrive in Nigeria. Thesis statement: Chinua Achebe's personal history and perspective of Nigeria has greatly influenced the meaning of his writing in the book  Things Fall Apart.  Three topic sentences: Achebe's past experiences in Nigeria and in the literature world, have shown him that there a profuse amount of people who do not ...