Betty Before X and Lilli’s Quest: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Luisa Assis

In the 1960s it happened a lot of racial discrimination, and unfortunately, it happens until today. The book Betty Before X, written by Ilyasah Shabazz – the third daughter of Betty X and Malcolm X, tells a story about a girl called Betty, that used to live with her Aunt Fannie Mae in Pinehurst, Georgia, but after she died she needed to move with Ollie Mae – her birth mother, in Detroit where she had 3 little step-sisters, 2 little step-brothers, and her mom and step-father, but after a conflict, she moved to Mrs. and Mr. Malloy’s house a place that she was treated like their daughter and they loved her and this book is inspired by the early life of Betty Shabazz or Betty X, who was an American educator and defender of civil rights. In the book, Lili’s Quest written by Lila Perl the main character, Lilli Frankfurter, is a 12 years old girl who lives with her family in Germany, but when her father, Josef,  is taken to Gestapo Headquarters because of an unknown crime he committed. Because of this, a friend of Mutti that works as a Hitler Police says that where they live now is no longer safe because now the Hitler Police know that they are Jews and where they live, so the family went to live with the Bayer family. When they were living with the Bayer family Helga had the chance to leave the country and go to England, but she was a very stubborn girl and said that she didn’t want to go to England, she wanted to stay in Germany fighting for the rights that the Jews lost. 

Lilli’s perspective of the world is not very different from Betty’s perspective, Lilli’s perspective is that World War 2, took lots of important people for her, so this is the perspective of the world for is an awful place that judges people by their religion, race/ethnicity, gender… Likewise, Betty’s perspective of her city and maybe the whole world is that her ethnicity is something terrible. Because of it, she suffers a lot in stores, supermarkets, and drugstores, and the people she cares about also suffer because of racial discrimination, this is why The Housewives’ League was created, it consist in making negro people only buy where they can be hired.

When Betty moved away from Ollie Mae’s house – because she didn’t even love Betty and didn’t try to ask her to stay with her, she moved to Mrs. and Mr. Malloy’s house – where she was loved and treated like their own daughter and there she started feeling like she was free, that she could do whatever she wanted, and it was kind of true because Betty got her bedroom, she entered The Housewives’ League, she didn’t even need to make her bed, but this doesn’t mean she can do whatever she wants she can only do those things if she is well behaved and contribute in her community, so this means Betty’s power with Mrs. Malloy is intermediate because she can’t do everything she wants. When Lilli’s father was alive she didn’t have any power over her father, he decided everything they were going to do and didn’t accept any questioning of his decisions, but after he was taken to the Gestapo Headquarters, Lilli’s mother didn’t know what to do to keep her family safe so she tried sending Helga – the middle child, to England, so Lilli said that she would go instead of Helga. Like Betty, Lilli has intermediate power with her mom because this idea Lilli had was a very dangerous idea because the only person who had a passport was Helga and the time was short so Lilli couldn’t make her own passport, but the problem is they don’t even look alike.

Betty goes to church daily, every day she is there praying to God, with the hope that racism will stop someday. But of course, as a child, she doesn’t have a choice to go or not to go to church, but she is already used to it and likes going to the church, because every day after she and her two best friends – Phyllis and Suesetta, go to Suesseta’s house to listen to music, read fashion magazines, talk about boys… However, since the first day the war started Lilli lost that right, she doesn’t have the time to think about those things, because she is always too busy trying to contact her family, trying to save her family, she doesn’t think about it because she doesn’t know if her family is safe, if they are dead or alive. 

Racial discrimination and antisemitism, have a lot of things in common – at least in Betty Before X and Lilli’s Quest, in those things, some of them are power dynamics and perspective. These two books show the reality of people who were present in the Second World War and the Civil right movement, and how they suffered at that time.

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One Crazy Summer and Grasping Mysteries: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Luca Junqueira

The books One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia and Grasping Mysteries by Jeannine Atkins have a lot of similarities and differences. In the first mentioned book talks about a girl that traveled to Oakland with his sisters to meet her mother, but Cecile (the mother) don’t care about them, so for the girls get out she puts them on a camp of the Black Panthers Movement, and the second book talks about brave girls who loved math, and discovered some crazy and important things.

In both books a girl is the main character, and they run to their objectives, no matter what it is. Is so important for the woman to be recognized, because sometimes they are downgraded, sometimes they try so hard to do something and in the end someone steals the credits and deletes everything that they did. In Grasping Mysteries a lot of determined women try to discover something really important for the whole world like a meteor that will hit the Earth. They try so hard, they spend a lot of nights working on their projects, so finally they will have equal rights, visibility and recognition and they fight a lot for this and for not to be downgraded. In the other book named One Crazy Summer, Delphine and her sisters was abandoned by his mother when they was so young, so the girl feels so bad for her sisters that don’t have mother to take care of them, so she do everything that she can for protect the girls and for made them happy, so this shows that the girl really love her sisters and is willing to do everything for them.

In the book Grasping Mysteries the lesson is to be dedicated, that is similar to One Crazy Summer that is to be courageous. If you are dedicated and courageous you can do everything that you want to, you can be intelligent, strong, focused, and this is

important for everyone to achieve your goals, no matter what it is, you don’t will need to be scared to try, because you just get it right trying. In the books this is related to, Delphine needs to be dedicated to take care of her sisters, and the girls of Grasping Mysteries need to be courageous trying to discover things and impress the world.

In the second book the girls were recognized in the whole world because of the important things that they do, although, in the first book Delphine do important things too, and she wasn’t recognized, she fight so hard to protect her sisters and she was not acknowledged. In the real life this happen to, sometimes people do a lot of important things, and others just do a basic thing and win a lot of premiums and visibility for it, when the people who do the important things lose it, so sometimes life is not fair. Going back to the book, The girls in Grasping Mysteries do really important things and everyone needs to agree, but Delphine needs recognition too.

Here you can see a compare and contrast essay of the books “Grasping Mysteries” and “One  Crazy summer” that talks about power, lessons and recognition of both books and we can see that girl power is important, that you need to be dedicated and courageous, and that sometimes the life is not fair.

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White sands Red Menace and Caminar: A comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Carlos D'Oliveira

Ellen Klages and Skila Brown are both writers of historical fiction. In both books, White Sands, Red Menace, and Caminar the authors write about teens but from different backgrounds. Though, they have different experiences with the army, and how they interact with them. Another point to notice is how a teenager has been affected by an armed conflict and teens’ point of view about that.

Ellen Klages’s story White Sands, Red Menace takes place in Alamogordo, New Mexico after the end of the Second World War, the book may have this name because in real life exists the ”White Sands Missile Range” that sets in Alamogordo the same place that the story occurs. However, the book Caminar has this name for the reason that the Mother of Carlos (the main character) says to him that if he listens to the sound of gunshots and screaming, he needs to go to the mountains and don’t look back. Still, the story sets in Guatemala, and in this country, they speak Spanish, and the word Caminar in English walks, so we can understand that he needs to walk and don’t look back.

in both stories there is some connection with the country’s army, however, this connection is very different in the two books in one he is ‘for the country’ in the other he is killing civilians.

in red menace, the American army defended the country in WWII and tried to protect its people as much as possible from the Germans, even going so far as to build a nuclear bomb. while the Guatemalan army carried out a ”hunt” for communists who are still in the population, the army said they were a threat to the country.

The Second World War ends in 1945 and Ellen Klages’s story occurs precisely at that time, Dewey is a girl that has only a father, and he dies in the war. She has been traumatized by the war, she cannot listen to a high sound like an explosion of fireworks, because she thinks that it is gunshots or real blasts. But the story sets at the end of the war. On the other hand, Caminar Carlos has only the mother, and the book doesn’t give any information about the father. The time that story passes in the 80 decades and is different from the other book, there is a civil war happening and Carlos has been very affected because when the army of Guatemala invades the village of Carlos and kills almost everybody including the mother, and he needs to walk many kilometers in the forest trying to escape from the army, this is a very hard assignment for an adult now think for a teen of 13 years. Although White sands, red menace, and Caminar are both historical fiction stories, in both stories there is a connection with the army. How it affects a teenager, it is more than clear that any type of armed conflict is harmful and this is intensified for young people, as they can carry this trauma for the rest of their lives. a little worse when your country’s armed forces are against the population because you feel that you can’t even trust your own army.

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Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein and The Night Diary: A comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Murilo Murad

How would you act if your country was going through a war? Both books  The Night Diary and Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein  have similarities and differences, both of them talk about some kind of conflict, the first book mentioned about the civil war between religions: Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus in India. On the other hand, the second book talks about an international war between the United States against Iraq. Both main characters, Ali, an Iraqi boy from the book Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein, and Nisha an Indian girl from the book The Night Diary think that war can just generate problems for its countries and communities, like people dying and economic problems, but they don’t have the power to interfere in this kind of situation.  It is also important to mention that Nisha didn’t have the same support and company from their family as Ali had, because she lost her mother.

For some people, it’s hard to deal with big conflicts and wars, because most of the time, in general, people don’t agree with this kind of conflict. That’s the case of Ali, the main character, and the author of the book Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein, and Nisha, main character of The Night Diary book. Both characters think that war can generate deaths and casualties to its countries, but they don’t have the power to intervene in these situations, because they are just children. About Ali, the main character from the story called Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein , he feels terrible about this war against the USA, because he loves the United States, especially tv shows, American videogames and their culture. On the other hand, Nisha is Indian, and she is seeing a lot of kidnappings and deaths near her house. She’s feeling alone, afraid and sad in relation to this civil conflict. 

One aspect that is contrasted is that both books depict the difference of upbringing that the characters had, Nisha and Amil ( her brother ) lost their mother when they were born, while Ali has his mother and father presents to help and guide him through his life, besides having three brothers as a company for him. Nisha shows care for her mother, even though not seeing her, because she writes email-s for her ” mother ” in most parts of the book, this shows love and care from her.

Another aspect of difference that can be identified in both books is that the conflict from The Night Diary book is civil ( by different religions ). This conflict came because of concerns about equality between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, one day people from Sikhs invaded Nisha’s house in India: “yesterday some men entered here in the afternoon” said Nisha (page 25). The other conflict is an international war between the United States and Iraq, the first war that was heavily televised in the history of the world.  

In conclusion, both books and main characters have some things in common, both stories talk about some big conflict. The Night Diary story mentioned about a civil war between religions, and the book Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein mentioned about an international war between the United States and Iraq. In addition to the wars, both main characters think and feel the same way about conflicts, they feel afraid and insecure and think that war can just generate problems to its society, or even to the world.   

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The Taste of Rain and Nine, Ten: A Story a September 11 story: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Juliana Oliveira

In this essay the central idea is compare and contrast two different books that happened in different  historical events,  the first book is  The Taste of Rain that is about the second Sino-Japanese war that happened during 1937-1945, the narrator of this book is called Gwen, she narrates all this war in China and what happened to her, during  the book she lives in a school for two and a half years with 139 girls .Also the second book called Nine, ten:a September 11 story is one story  about the attack that happened in September 11, USA. In this book there is 4 different narrators Aimee, Naheed, Sergio and Will, but also there’s omniscient narrator.In both books we can observe similarities and differences between them, one difference between them is that  both books occurs in different dates and in different countries.Even so, they have two similarities to each other, one of them being that both have child narrators, making the perspective of the story completely different than if it were an adult telling it and that in the book The Taste of Rain and Nine, Ten: A Story a September 11 story the characters has different types of narrators. Another similarity that we can also observe is that in both main characters they learn that no matter how different you are from the other person, you should always respect them, help them if they need it and that if you see an injustice happening to someone even if you are not close to the person, fight for that to change.

The book The Taste of Rain talks about the Second Sino-Japanese War or War of Resistance which is how the Chinese call this war, this conflict takes place between 1937-1945 but in the book the narrator only narrates between 1941-1945, when the Japanese invaded China people who are not from China have to wear a red armband with the initial letter of the country they come from, an example of this is Gwen the main character of the story, because as she is American she ends up having to wear it a red armband with the letter A. Yet, in the book Nine, Ten: A Story a September 11 story the time in which it takes place, the country and the consequences of this conflict are totally different. This book takes place in 2001 in the USA, it tells about a terrorist attack that took place on September 11, this attack took place because of a conflict that had begun in 1970 with the United States and Al-Qaeda, which was a terrorist organization that in time was led by Osama bin Laden, who was an Arab multimillionaire, unlike the book The Taste of Rain, the book Nine, Ten: A Story a September 11 story had as one of the consequences the attack on the twin towers.

In addition, we can note that both books have different types of narrators, the amount they have and the type of power each character has, for example, the book The Taste of Rain has only one narrator in the entire story, and she is just one child named Gwen who narrates the whole story from her perspective and the information she has, being more limited than the information an adult has access to. Gwen has a strong leadership power among the girls who live with her, about Miss E. and to convince everyone to do the right thing and to convince them to tell her something they want to know. Different from the book  Nine,Ten: A Story a September 11 story that has an omniscient narrator and four main narrators called Aimee, Naheed, Will and Sergio, having access to different perspectives and different opinions about some events, contrary to what happens in the book The Taste of Rain where we only have access to Gwen’s perspective. The omniscient narrator narrates with the perspective of someone who is outside, that is, with a completely different perspective of who is experiencing the story. In this book we can notice that each character has a different type of power, for example Will has a lot of power over his brothers and to convince her mother to do something, unlike Aimee who doesn’t have much power over her family or her friends, only at certain times she manages to have enough power to convince someone to do what she wants, the same happens with Naheed, Sergio already has more power over his friends, managing to convince them to do what he wants or to participate in lake with him.

In the previous paragraph we can analyze the difference in types of narrators found in the books, and the types of power in both book, but we can also find something in common which is that both main characters learn valuable lessons about respect each other.One evidence of that is that in the book Nine, Ten: A Story a September 11 story the main character are totally different, Naheed, an American Muslim from Columbus, Ohio; Will, a white boy from Shanksville, Pennsylvania; Aimee, a white girl from Los Angeles, California; and Sergio, a black boy who lived in Brooklyn and in all the moments that this characters meat each other or someone that is different from them they do not judge you and whenever they can they help you and when that characters see someone being wronged they fight to what is right, we can see that during the terrorist attacks they help all that they can, and another example is when they are at home and something wrong happens to someone in the family, they go there and fight to defend them.The same happened in the book The Taste of Rain that Gwen when was isolated in the school with another 139 girls don’t matter how different they are.She always helps others and when she sees something that is not fair to some of these girls she fights so that this injustice does not happen whenever she can, like when she has to be in the school during the war, and when some of the Japanese do some injustice to them she is ready to fight and to do the right thing.

In conclusion, can noticed  that both books have so many aspects to contrast that we can see in the paragraphs above, but they also have some aspects to compare.In the books The Taste of Rain and Nine, Ten: a September 11 story we learn that even though we are different from each other we must always respect and help them, that depending on who is narrating the story will have a different perspective if someone else is narrating, that each one has a different type of power in their life, that a book can have more than one type of narrator and that sometimes even two conflicts happening on different dates can have things in common and that don’t matter your age, culture and religion you always can do the right thing. 

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A Long Way from Home and Listening for Lions: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Lucas Serafim

A long Way from Home by Alice Walsh follows the story of a teenager called Rabia. Rabia and her family used to live in Afghanistan but they are moving to New York to escape the brutal Taliban. Years ago in Afghanistan, Rabia’s family was much bigger because she had two older brothers, Amir and Yousef who were killed. Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan tells the story of Rachel who is a teenager. Before she lost her parents they  used to live in England but she was born in Africa. The hospital is full of people because of a very dangerous virus called Influenza, Rachel’s father is one of the only doctors in the hospital. Throughout both stories It’s clear to see that the main character’s families are very different, the family has different power levels and also in both stories big tragedies are happening and killing a lot of people.

It is clear to see that both main character’s families are very different. In a Long Way from Home, readers can identify that Rabia’s family need to save themselves but in the same time they are resilient precisely because they have to face many types of problems, they had to leave their country because of a terrorist the loss of two brothers, the father in jail and the prejudice they suffer in the United States because they are muslims but they keep moving forward. On the other hand, Rachel’s family are supportive and always try to help people who cannot help themselves. In Africa the virus Influenza is happening and killing people but Rachel’s father is one of the only doctors in the local hospital that is full of sick people, as there are many patients, his father has to teach men and women from other communities to be his    assistants. At the begging of the books, it is evident that Rabia’s family were almost forced to leave their own country to protect theirselves and escape the terrorists group mainly Taliban, on the other hand, Rachel’s family moved to Africa to save and help people from Influenza because hospital there was almost no doctors.

Readers can notice that the families of the main characters have different power levels. At the beginning of the stories, it can be seen that Rabia’s family are the ones who has less power because, as i mentioned before they lost their oldest child for a group of terrorist which is why they left their own country to avoid wars, genocides and for women’s right to be very downgraded with Taliban there. While Rachel’s father is one of the only doctors in the hospital saving people’s life and teacher and boss of his assistants he has more power there. He helped people with Influenza and even people who had other types of problems/diseases, the patients in the hospital see him like a savior. Even when Rachel’s parents died, she moved to England to become a doctor to save peoples lives like her father.

During the book it is clear to see that both stories talk about very serious tragedies and the consequences. It can be noticed that A Long Way from Home happens when the attack on the World Trade Center is happening. In Listening for lions It is evident that the virus Influenza is happening in Africa. When Rabia was almost landing on New york, the terrorist attack happens and kills a lot of people, and by the terrorist group are islamic extremists,  not only Rabia and her family suffer prejudice instantly but the whole group of muslims in united states. In the same way, Listening for lions shows a very dangerous virus that is happening in Africa and other places and even with the excellent doctor that Rachel’s father is, he couldn’t take care of everything and he and his wife ended up catching the same disease and passing away.

In conclusion, both books have completely different stories but can have something similar. Throughout both stories It can be noticed that the main character’s families are very different, the family have different power levels and also both stories have big tragedies happening and are killing a lot of people. Both stories can pass almost the same meaning that is people who was affected by tragedies even tho one was a attack on purpose to kill and the other was a virus that wasn’t on purpose

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Nine, Ten and Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Helena Nader

Although Nora Raleigh Baskin novel nine, ten: a september 11 story talks about  the 9/11 Twin Towers attack, it can be compared to the book Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy, because both books share similar elements, such as perspectives and power. But of course they also have differences. We can see these differences by looking at the messages that the author wants to pass the readers through the story. This is called a mtheme. The book nine, ten: a september 11 story follows 3 young adults from different religions and they have to lead with their differences. On the other hand, in Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein we have an Iraqi boy called Ali, who loves the United States and feels betrayed by the country he loves the most because in the late 90’s, the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, decreed war with the United States.

Both main character’s power can be compared, because the authors let this very clear in the story development. Ali, the main character in Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein, even says in page 74 “I feel powerless in my actual position”, as well as in nine, ten: a september 11 story that the character’s power is too short. If there isn’t a quote as in Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein, the character’s power can be noticed by looking at the way the character feels or acts. The author usually gives the reader’s some hints for the reader to discover how much power the character has in that situation. After all, we can say that both character’s can have their power compared to one another, because they share similar situations: war and attacks. And they also share the same feeling: pain.  And when we mix these two things, we can discover the power the characters have.

The theme of the stories can be contrasted, because even if there are similar situations, the story can have different themes. In Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein, Jennifer Roy is trying to pass the message that when people can’t do anything to improve the situation they’re in, they feel trapped in that situation for the rest of their lives, and this is so emphasized too many times, for example when Ali lost his little sister Shireen. On the other hand, the book nine,ten: a September 11 story suggests that we have to respect each other no matter our differences. And the characters only accept this by the end of the story, but in the story’s development, they struggle a lot with discriminative problems. It’s incredible how two similar books can have totally different themes!

Overall, the character’s perspective is one of the most important elements of a story, because it affects the whole development of the novel, especially if it is first person narrated. In Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein, Ali’s perspective is directly related to the situation he is passing through, so in the very beginning when there is no war in Iraq, he is living a boy’s normal life, but when the war starts, he starts to get very upset and painful, but in the end he says: ” I think the war made me a man” giving the idea that he internally growed. In the same way, the book nine,ten: a september 11 story is told from multiple points of view, but it’s very clear for the reader that the 3 of them also grew internally.

After everything that has been stated, it can be concluded that the books share similarities, but they also have differences. It can also be said that the book nine, ten: a September 11 story it have a certain complexity comparing to the book Playing Atari With Saddam Hussein because Jennifer Roy let the details more clear to the reader, while Nora Raleigh Baskin give some hints for the reader to think about the aspects she is trying to discuss through the hints.

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The Boy Who Dared and She Loves You: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Sofia Simoni

In the book She loves You by Ann Hood, and The boy who dared by Susan Campbell, both of the main characters have a lot of differences and also similarities.Trudy from the first book is a girl that participated indirectly in the Vietnam War living in the USA in the time of the protestants. She used the Beatles music as a way to distract herself from everything that was happening in the USA, for example the dead of President Kennedy and the protests that were really loud at the streets.In the book “The boy who dared”, the main character is a boy called Helmuth, that lives in Germany in the time that Hitler was applying to be their president, he was in favor of Hitler, but then his ideas started changing when he started to fell observed. The president activated an emergency decree, having access to the private information of everybody,because of the Reichstag that was burned, using the fire to claim the communists. 

Helmuth used the radio as a way to feel connected to the protestants, because he wasn’t old enough to go cheer for Hitler win, starting to imagine him in the streets, just like Trudy that also used the radio to listen to the Beatles. Both of the main character used this object to feel connected to something, as a way to distract themselves to the real world.Through the stories we can see that Trudy and Helmuth always fight for their rights,not caring for others opinions, like Trudy that never gave up to go to the Beatles concert and Helmuth that it didn’t matter what people sad about Hitler he always keep his opinion, but always stayed in alert from what was happening to German not falling for his ideas. 

The main characters have different perspectives of their families because Trudy has a good connection with her parents principality with her dad, having in common the types of music that they listen, like the Beatles and Frank Sinatra, wanting to go to the concerts and laugh when her mom doesn’t understand her style of music , but Helmuth is different because his father is dead and her mom is dating a guy that he hates. He was bad for her and also friend of the Nazis, being able to do anything for his attentions,not defending jewish people when they needed and also triting Helmuth with no respect, and ignoring the fact that he was part of the family too.

Both of the authors of the book designed their character to demonstrate what was happening in their lives as a way for us to learn more about the Second World War and the Vietnam War, using the perspective of the characters for the readers to have an idea of what it was happening at the time.Ann Hood create her characters in a less hard way to explain the tragedy that was happening in the Vietnam War, designing Trudy to work on a indirect participation in the conflict.Differently from Ann, Susan Campell, uses her books for us to have an idea, of what it was happening in the Second World War, for us to see the perspective of Helmuth with the conflict, using the direct participation of the character in the war for us to realize what they were being through. 

So in conclusion both of the main characters are students trying to live a normal life while passing through a difficult time of war.The way that they deal with their problems is very similar, because both feel connected to something in common,like the radio, feeling distracted and in a good feeling of comfort, forgetting all of their problems while listening to this object. Helmuth prefers to intervene in politics, daring and risking his life for his country.Trudy is a normal teenager that loves the Beatles,and risks her to go to the Beatles concert. This characteristic of risk is a thing that both of them have in common,using this characteristic in a good way for them to dare themselves, like when Helmuth was living in the time of the Second World War and Trudy when she dared going to the Beatles concert alone.

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Towers Falling and Without Refuge: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Konstantinos Katsampoxakis

 “Protect your loved ones.” That is a lesson that can be seen in Towers falling by Jewell Parker Rhoades and in Without Refuge by Jane Mitchell. These stories share some differences but they have aspects that they share  resemblance, in both of the novels the main characters are shown protecting their loved ones but in different ways, both of the main characters go through historical wars but with completely different experiences, but in the same way the two characters go through poverty in similar ways. Ghabi who is a 13 year-old boy which grew up in the outskirts of syria and was always a happy child but as the terrorist group ISIS came into Syria everything changed for the worst, people started dying, hospitals were closed and eduction was almost impossible to find.  On the other hand Deja, which is the same age as Ghabi, never experienced war, but has experienced poverty coming from a poor family.  

Both of the main characters in this story protect their loved ones, Ghabi from the novel Without Refuge by Jane Mitchell displays him saving his brother from a bomb attack that ISIS had planted by putting his body in front of the bomb this left him with a lot of mental and physical trauma but he was grateful that his brother made it out alive this can be seen on page 60 where it states “Thank God that my brother is alive”, on the other hand the character from Towers falling by Jewell Parker Rhoades takes care of them and stands up for them how she does this is when her parents aren’t at home she will make them food and bath them.

Both of the characters in these novels live through historical wars, Ghabi lives through the syrian war against ISIS during this tragic war he has to go through some of the worst experiences of his life, this is including seeing his city getting bombed, seeing his relatives bleed to death because of bomb attacks and even going through mental and physical pain after surviving a bomb explosion as is it noted in page 58, while on the contrary Dejá’s country passed a very difficult time but she never experiences the terrifying horrors war provides because she is safe and sound in her house and never has the fear of bombs exploding near her or someone coming inside with a gun to kill her and her family.

The two characters share a very harsh experience of living in poverty, they both grew up in poverty and never really had money for fun things so that made them in a similar situation make them be closer to there family because  since they both hand nothing to do they tended to stay close to there families and this in both of the characters started making a unbreakable bond with their parents, continuing another way that both of these characters go through poverty are there living conditions Ghabi lives in Syria during the war so his house is damaged and filthy, similar Deja’s house is not taken care of because there is no water in the house and her family don’t have a sufficient amount of money for supplies to clean and restore the house. How poverty affects these characters is by in many ways for example in the case of Deja she feels like a outsider because of her clothes and her dirty shoes, on the other hand Ghabi is pushed into a wrong path because of poverty which is stealing, he does this so he can survive during the brutal war that’s going on. 

In conclusion, the novels previously mentioned have some aspects in common but the majority of the aspects that have been compared are contrasting. Elaborating more, these novels compare and contrast how both of the characters protect their loved ones, go through historical wars but don’t share the same experiences, but one aspect that they do have in common is that the two characters go through poverty in similar ways.   

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Broken Pieces and Missing Action: A Comparison

Publicado em 6 de dezembro de 2022 por Rubens Camera

The book Missing Action written by Dean Hughes, that happens during II World War, specifically in 1941 after Pearl Harbor attack, the book tells the story young boy named Jay, that is 12 years old and lives in Delta, where he had to move, because of his dad that went to fight in Asian battlefront with the Japanese. Differently from the novel Broken Pieces written by Aan E. Burg happens during the Vietnam war around 1955 and 1975, and tells the story of a Vietnamese boy that was rescued in operations of the US army and moved to the USA.

Between both of these conflicts, the Pearl Harbor attack (1941) and the Vietnam War (1955-1975), even having in consideration the time distance it’s already possible to identify many similarities of the consequences of these attacks to the characters, such as affect their familiar base, both of the characters lost people because of the war, ethier xenophobia one of them suffer even being because of different aspects and the patriotism about the country they are.

First aspect to discuss is the xenophobia presented in both of the stories.In the book Missing Action is seen either with indigenous more specifically Navajo people, and with the Japanese. The clearest example presented in the book is when the American government put many asian-american and japanese that lived in the USA, in a kind of a prison so they don’t get information out of the USA. The fact it’s they are normal people, and this prejudice is so present in the society that even the main character that suffers xenophobe because he is Half Navajo thinks Japanese are bad people and they “Deserve” this. This prejudice is also seen in the book Broken Pieces, in many moments like when the main character suffers bullying in his college for being Vietnamese. In both historical periods and books we can see a example of xenophobia from the same world region (USA) but different points of view: one suffers directly from the asiatic xenophobia, while the other is xenophobic and suffers from xenophobia for being half Navajo.

Either it’s possible to see in both books a different view of the Patriotism presented by both main characters and other important ones. In the novel Missing Action we can see a friend of the character that is Japanese, and his dream is to represent America in the army, to show “That I am american…” this can be saw either as a authors view of patriotism or the historical epoch, that while in Missing Action the character show their patriotism for america. Differently from the book Broken Pieces, the characters don’t really show this and have more knowledge of other countries and other cultures valorizing more their culture.

Another of the aspects are the lost that both characters have, a interest think that they happened almost as the same way, in the book Missing Action the main character, Jay, lost his dad because he was called to the obligatory enlistment that was happening how exactly he died isn’t said, but he never came back home after a attack to Japan marine forces, and this makes his mom move to Delta to live waiting for his dad, that they still don’t have news, and in the book Broken Pieces the main characters dad went to war in Vietnam to fight the Americans and defend his family but he never came back, what lead his mom to put the main character in a helicopter to go into USA, where he was adopted by a American family.

As was analyzed in both books, we have a war conflict and the consequences of this wars in their countries, with this is possible to see that the war is always a lost, don’t matter the situation all the places suffer either being not directly, and even in the same place, we can see many different views and how is to be in this situation.

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