Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Broken april

Satisfactory Essays
373 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Broken april
The novel “Broken April” by Ismail Kadare, has given me a deeper insight of how violently the Albanian’s culture is, as my experience is exposed to its context, themes, and ideas. Ismail Kadare presents us a close up view through a character, Gjorg, to show how the isolated people of the High Plateau live under its traditions, laws, and cultures known as the Kanun. Throughout the novel, Gjorg seems to feel hopeless, helpless and pressured as his bessa is coming to an end and knowing he will never meet his star crossed lover, Diana, again. As Gjorg’s journey across the High Plateau, he met a beautiful woman from the city, Diana. Kadare uses Diana as a city culture and enters her to the culture of the Kanun. Both characters fell in love at first sight, but their culture differences stop them from crossing each other path. The Kanun has taken Gjorg’s privilege away from meeting Diana as his death is coming closer each day. Diana is a married woman, and she has to return to the city as her honeymoon trip is over and knowing she will never meet Gjorg again. I felt Kadare uses these two cultures as a comparison to show how our values and practices are different and we cannot do anything but just abide to the rules. Furthermore, as each day passes by, and Gjorg’s granted bessa was about to be over, it gives me a pessimistic feeling to be in Gjorg’s position. He knows his prosecutor is coming to avenge its family member death and cannot do anything about it. Gjorg was helpless. As I imagine myself to be part of the Kanun, I have learned its power of custom and law. It seems to have a strong heavy weight of tradition that is carried out through the generations. For example, Gjorg’s past ancestors, and most recently, his brother. The killing shows me a concept of honor and honorable behavior in the code. I can understand why Gjorg is pressured to avenge his brother. Kadare has put us in a position where our rights have already been written, and we cannot do anything but perceive to what the laws say. Word Count: 365

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thesis: Throughout Broken April by Ismail Kadare, Diana and Bessian’s physical proximity declines as Bessian devote fascination with the Kanun leads to the deterioration of their relationship as a married couple.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    An individual’s response to the drastic changes in their life reveals a lot about their character. In Steven Galloway’s novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo, the author follows the lives of three distinct characters affected by the siege on their beloved city. In the face of such compelling and often violent circumstances, each character learns to adapt their behaviour and attitude to fit their stark surroundings. During such dark times, individuals find their survival challenged by showing acts of kindness and mercy. Much like Sarajevo itself, Arrow, Dragan and Kenan experience the deterioration of their principles and spirit. In order to survive, they sometimes have to make powerful sacrifices in war-torn Sarajevo that they would never have considered…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Funny In Farsi Analysis

    • 251 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas develops the importance of keeping me’s own culture through her use of characterization, plot and setting.…

    • 251 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ant 101 Week 3 Assignment

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The purpose of this paper is to discuss about a culture that is selected from a list of various cultures. It identifies the primary mode of subsistence on the culture that is referred to. And it describes three major aspects that will later be more deeply researched in the final paper. The aspects that are discussed can include: beliefs and values, economic organization, kinship, gender relations, sickness and healing, political organization, social organization and social change. The culture selected for the purpose of this paper is the Kurdish people and the aspects presented in the paper are: beliefs and values, political organization, and sickness and healing. The Kurdish people represent the largest ethnic group world-wide which does not have a home country.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    April Morning

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages

    green affected me in certain ways. When we were blind folded and caught of guard…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Generosity In Beowulf

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Like the male code of conduct in Beowulf, the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also exhibits a moral code in another androcentric society. Certain characteristic are valued at both Heorot and Camelot, such as honour. Before his fight with Grendel, Beowulf removes his armour and lays aside his sword, because his opponent has "no idea of the arts of war, / of shield or sword-play" and thus it would be dishonourable for Beowulf to use this to his advantage. At the end of the Green Knight, Sir Gawain is distraught over his violation of honour by keeping the girdle; he regretfully describes "the cowardice and covetousness [he] came to commit" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2508). There are…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Looking For Alibrandi

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages

    ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ by Melina Marchetta leads the reader towards the theme of lost identity and the pursuit to find it. The protagonist, Josephine Alibrandi, displays the importance of self-acceptance through a riveting odyssey of belonging. Marchetta highlights the significance of relationships and the effect that they have towards the outcome of emancipation. The novel journeys the idea of cultural acceptance through a series of events that displays the impact of family enigmas.…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nafisi

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages

    From merely the last two decades, women have begun to show out in society with their vast achievements and accomplishments. In the early days of the Iranian revolution, a young woman named Azar Nafisi started teaching at the University of Tehran. However, in 1981, Nafisi was expelled from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear an Islamic veil. Seven years later, however, she did indeed resume teaching but soon resigned in protest over the increasingly cruel punishments of the Iranian government toward women. She dreamed of working with students that carried a great passion for learning. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi and her seven students join together every Thursday morning at her home and discuss classic texts of Western literature that have to do with prominent figures. In the conditions Nafisi lived in , however, it was illegal for women to form small study groups that didn 't have to do with what the government wanted them to learn about. Nafisi, herself, knew the risks and how dangerous it would be to betray the laws of the Iranian government. At that time, women were forced to live by dreadful laws; laws that made women dress a certain way when being seen in public. They were only allowed to dress up in black robes and head scarves, only their face and hands being uncovered. With the conditions that Nafisi and her students lived under, it is more dangerous to withdraw into their dreams rather to resign themselves to a disturbing reality because of how restricted the laws were forced upon the citizens of Iran.…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Afghan Woman

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Afghan Woman Prisoner,” a heart-throbbing article that opened my eyes into seeing what is really going on around the world, while I live a life where I worry about not liking certain food for supper. Ethnocentrism played a huge role in the article, especially the society of being a woman, living in a lost civilization in Afghanistan. Gulnaz was raped by her cousin’s husband, who “forced his way into her home, tied her up, and then raped her.” However, when courageous enough to report it to Afghan police, she was accused of adultery and sent to prison. Afghan were too proud of ruining their reputation, saving face was the only thing they can do to maintain their name in the village and so sending her to prison was their way of saving face.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Texts often give us an insight into aspects of different cultures. The novel Parvana by Deborah Ellis explores various facets of the Afghani culture. One of the prominent features of this text is the impact of war. In addition, Ellis looks into the treatment of women in Afghanistan. Another point that is examined in the text is the Afghani food and clothing. To illustrate these aspects, the author has used a large range of provocative techniques and ideas.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Danes fall plagued with Grendel, a terrible fiend who kills Danes for twelve years without fear of consequences. Beowulf travels over seas to repay an inherited debt to Hrothgar, the Dane ring-giver. Beowulf boasts of how he will end the devastation Grendel brings by doing a service to the Danes. Beowulf intends to kill Grendel. The heroic code focuses heavily on assisting allies from enemies. Attempting to take Grendel’s life demonstrates Beowulf’s resolve to the heroic code. The quotes spoken by Beowulf: “he will find me different” and “I will show him how Geats shape to kill” point towards a more self-centered motive for following the code. Beowulf’s commitment to the heroic code formed not through a belief in righteousness, but rather, through a desire for glory. Glory attracted Beowulf to the values found in the heroic code because if he killed Grendel, Beowulf’s achievement would give him a spot in history as a legendary warrior.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ethnographic Reflection

    • 1281 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Raybeck describes several adventures and misadventures involving field research in his account of the year and a half he spent in Kelantan. He also discusses the understanding, humility and scars that these experiences may leave behind. Raybeck provides in-depth descriptions of Kelantanese society and culture. He addresses topics such as political structures, the status of women, kinship, linguistics, and economics. Additionally, he demonstrates for us how challenging yet rewarding anthropological fieldwork can be, and we see how he builds rapport in a research setting in order to ensure that the information he acquires is reliable.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The attempts of promoting progressive changes in this society are contrasted with ruthless laws of traditional Taliban. Despite the fact Afghanistan as a whole saw many progressive changes before and during the communist rule, a desire to return Afghani culture to traditional Islamic values saw the degradation of the rights for many members of society. It is through the setting of the novel and the interactions between its characters, that the reader notices these contrasting viewpoints. Though some people in Afghanistan, such as Laila’s teacher and father, believed that the progressive changes brought about by communist influences were a good thing, there was a majority of society who yearned to return to traditional Afghani values. It was this acceptance of traditional Islamic culture that allowed the Taliban to seize control and pass restrictive laws. Overall through the history of this country, it is evident that strict cultural values and progressive changes cannot…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to a United Nations report published in July two thousand eleven, thirty-nine percent of women in Turkey have suffered physical violence at some time in their lives compared to the twenty percent in America. The article written by Elif Shafak, Rape, Abortion, and the Fight for Women Rights in Turkey, was very effective and persuasive because not only is what she’s saying is true, but it’s also sad and appeals to a more emotional or good willed person. Shafak, an award-winning novelist, is the most widely read women writer in turkey. She holds a Masters degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and PhD in Political Science. Importance rings throughout her article and screams for help in Turkey for these women. Appealing to the feminine and emotional aspects of the human being Shafak makes her strategies significant.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Hargeisa festival which lasted for a whole long week, practically starting at dawn and finishing at dusk throughout the week, was meant to achieve three objectives:  To inform, to entertain, and to educate. For this purpose, to the festival was invited an appreciable number of renowned artists, writers, poets, intellectuals, playwrights, professors, and prominent social figures. The sponsoring organisations of KAYD and REDSEA On-line had, this time also, true to their principled tradition in such undertakings, chosen such pertinent themes as Censorship, Intolerance, Need for Reading Culture to be debated and discussed as a vital and integral part of the festival programme.…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays