Marjane & My Grandfather

Welcome to the final unit of Stories. Throughout this term, we looked into the hero's journey and what that means exactly. We dove into Joseph Campbell's meaning of hero's journey and the stages that makes a hero. The stages that a hero in the movie has to go through in order to make a hero, a hero. In class, we were asked to find a fictional character to follow their journey, and point out why. Then, we were asked to find someone in our life that we consider a hero, and interview them. We interviewed and asked them their story, and labeled their journey with an explanation. Here is my last AP for Stories.

We had to choose a fictional character in a movie, so I chose Marjane from the movie Persepolis. I chose her because the Irani revolution is something that has affected the lives of Persians, especially young women. I wanted to get the perspective from a younger girl living her life during a revolution. What started this revolution was the growing economy in Iran which caused there to be more people graduating, and less jobs being given. In Mexico, there is a similar issue going on. There are not enough jobs, with not enough wage being given either. This made Ocotlan, Jalisco a poor city. My grandfather had been married, he was 19. He had his wife and four year old daughter. He knew they couldn't be living like this for the rest of their lives, and wanted a better future for his daughter. Both Marjane and my grandfather went through a transformation in their lives by one issue, economy. Now this doesn't really cross anyones minds, but money was behind all of this. Economy in both countries was what made these two heroes. You will see how this caused them to leave their country through the two slideshow presentations, and interview with my grandfather.
Interview With My Grandfather

Transcript of interview: Translated from Spanish to English
Q: How old were you?
A: I was nineteen, your grandmother was sixteen, and your mother was barely four years old.

Q: What was the purpose of you coming here?
A: I wanted a new life. I wanted to provide for my daughter and your my wife, as any man would do in Mexico. Look, in Ocotlan, everyone in the back of their minds knows there isn’t much hope for them in the city. There’s industries which I guess is a similar job to what I have now, but you have more potential in America, and we were aware of that. Plus, we already had some family waiting for us in California, and some family in Chicago.

Q: Did you make a plan on how you would leave without getting caught?
A: I had planned everything. We would leave at night time because it was less likely to get caught by border control. We would take breaks and sleep in the desert and keep walking. We would get there in the morning. We were young. We didn’t think about the most essential items, besides the ones for your mother. Looking back, I would have done things differently.

Q: Did anything not go according to plan?
A: A lot of things. It’s not good to plan for the future. You may think you have everything in check, but anything could happen. Many things did not go to plan. Getting caught was one, which was our major issue. I got caught by border control late at night which was something I had planned not to happen. I was sent back, but headed back the next morning and started the journey over so I could be back with your mother and grandmother. Then, your grandma was caught with your mom. They sent your grandma back, but your mom got to go in a van with other children that were separated from their parents. She was picked up by our family in California which she nothing about, until your grandmother and I got back to the U.S.

Q: Did you feel a guidance by anyone through the difficult times?
A: God. I was raised believing in God. I was raised in knowing to seek God through difficult times. I knew he was watching over my family and I, and that made me feel safe. Knowing that my daughter was going to be okay.

Q: How did you eventually get here?
A: I finally made it. It took me about 1-2 months to get here. I kept taking long breaks, trying to figure out new plans to eventually make my way. When we all got here, we stayed with the family I had in California. Eventually we got a car, and moved to Chicago. We lived with your uncle, my brother, for a while, and then we bought a house.

Presentation of Hero's Journey: Persepolis




Presentation of Hero's Journey: Grandfather



Overall, this action project allowed me to open my eyes on both people. For one, I was able to look deeper into the Islamic Revolution even outside of class. I was able to see how this revolution changed the structure of Iran, and how much of an impact economy can have on a whole country. Realizing that this is not only a situation in the country of Iran, but also in Mexico. I didn’t know that I could correlate the two, a nineteen year old guy and a young girl living in Iran. They were both going through two different issues, but both had to leave their country. This caused them to start a new life and without even realizing it, they became heroes.

The Tale of Zara the Bunny & Neema the Naughty Fox

In our second unit, Fables, we learned about the cultural morals and background of stories told around the world. This term started off with looking for our own moral stories that have been passed down by our family. Finding out the morals and how they differentiate in between cultures made it interesting to understand what different cultures value and hold. For this AP, we had to create our own fable. A fable uses animals and gives them human characteristics in order to portray a certain moral at the end of the story. I created my own fable with some background to my life. Coming from an Islamic background in the U.S. could be a little difficult at times. My value in life is self control. The moral in my story is not to be influenced by others actions. I used the bunny as the protagonist in my story, Zara. She is kind, gentle, and adventurous; while the antagonist, Neema, is a Naughty Fox. His behavior is risky, devious, and sneaky. Read my fable to find out the Tale of Zara the Bunny & Neema the Naughty Fox.
     

To conclude, I hope you understood the moral of my story. Although it did take a dark turn, these are real life situations. Sometimes, you may get a little ahead of yourself and miss out on something important which may not turn out so well at the end.

How Arabeeya Came To Be

I am a sophomore at GCE. This is my first action project for my humanities course called Stories.  In this class we learned about new writing techniques and how to use adverbs, adjectives, similes, metaphors, etc. For our Action project, we had to come up with an origin story. We were introduced to the word etymology, which is the study of the origin of words. We read a few stories about the beginnings of time come from religious texts and morals. Our goal was to create our own story of something. It could be from how the world began to how Kleenex was created.  I wrote my story based on the beginnings of the Arabic language specifically Moroccan Arabic, Darija, which is a mix of French, Spanish, and modern day Arabic.

         Marruecous NB (2018)

                                            

In the far north continent of Afra-rabiya was a country by the name of Marruecous. Marruecous was a bustling, busy, colorful country. During the day, the country belonged to the hardworking men. Men who built mosques or castles. At night, the women were able to go out. Usually, the women would go to the Souk, marketplace, which was always livelier at night. Marruecous was known for their souks. Listening to the gnawa (native) instruments put listeners into a trance all throughout the marketplace.

Marruecous was a kingdom with the smallest royal family. The king, Amir Yousef III, and the princess, Amira Nouhaila. They both were the only family in the world who did not know how to speak any words. This made the connection with Nouhaila and her father very difficult.The people of Marruecous were called the Moorsi people. The people of Frahnce all came from high education. Their native language of Franceya. There was a great amount of Frahnc’s living in Marruecous. This caused a good majority of Moorsi people didn’t know how to speak coming from such indigent towns, people began to develop of language Franceya.

Throughout this time, Amira Nouhaila had been continuously talking to Prince Alexandre, prince of Frahnce. She would sneak out with him on busy nights at the souk because of how crowded and boisterous it was at the center. Although she finally knew how to speak, she was not allowed to speak Franceya in front of her father. Her father and Alexandre’s father, Roi Alexandre III, were not allowed to know the two had been meeting so often or else a war would break out. mind you There had already been a conflict between these two countries that created tension between the two fathers.

Before Nouhaila went out for the night, Nouhaila had seen her dad that still didn’t know how to speak. Nouhaila was secretly speaking to one of the gladiators of Marruecous who was able to understand and speak Franceya. The conversation consisted of the king and prince of Spahnce which was a neighboring country to the north of Marruecos was coming for a week visit. Nouhaila didn’t pay much attention to it and went her own way with Alexandre like she always did.

The day had finally came where Nouhaila had to meet with the king and prince of Spahnce. Her father had been preparing the meals and had a plan of what was happening the whole week. When the king, Rey Nicolás, had finally arrived with his son, Principe Idriss. Nouhaila knowing no Spahnce was finding it very difficult to be next to the prince of Spahnce, and maybe a bit more difficult because she had always had a love interest in this prince. Don’t get me wrong, she always loved Prince Alexandre but Principe Idriss was someone she always admired. Idriss was staring at Nouhaila from across the room. Suddenly, she fainted. When she woke up she started speaking gibberish, or at least she thought it was gibberish. Idriss had the power to convert anyone he had a love interest for to speak his language. Now that Nouhaila could speak Spahnce, they both got to know each other. Nouhaila still hadn’t spoken to her dad, until one day. Amir Yousef heard the two speaking for the first time. Yousef because furious, the sense of frustration managed to make his way to his hand. The feeling of a pulse-like motion came through his hand causing him to swing against Idriss’ face. The rule in this palace was if the prince of any other country ever interfered with the females living in the palace, a war would break loose.

Nouhaila was instantly sent to her room. She sobbed and sobbed the night away until the moon and stars turned into the sun and clouds. As hard as she tried avoiding her dad, she knew that she had to speak with him about last night. The day felt long. The whole day she tried figuring out how she was going to communicate with her father. She went to the fouyer and sat down next to him. A guy who seemed older than her sat right across from her. She tried figuring him out. He had olive-toned skin. His hair was faded from the sides leaving him with the top of his hair which he had off to the right side of his head. His hair was curlier than hers. The color was a light hazel to go with his eyes. Nouhaila’s father didn’t want her speaking to anyone unless it was her husband. This had been the man that her father had chosen to be her husband. The couple were expected to get married the next day. Her father couldn’t tolerate her being with these men who spoke other languages. For years, Amir Yousef III had tried to establish his own language. With the war breaking in Marruecous and more people from both Spahnce and Frahnce, this made Marruecous become divided. Nouhaila never told her father that she had been with these two guys in order to help create Marruecous very own language. She was truly just trying to be able to speak with her father for the very first time. She always knew she had to love her father but never knew why.

Being married, Nouhaila had more time which meant she could help her father develop a language. She started writing. This writing looked like art, like scripture. She started creating her own alphabet, which turned into words, which turned into sentences, which turned into a conversation. One day, she walked herself to the palace, there had been a microphone at the top of the castle that was used for prayer recitations. Instead of performing a prayer, she spoke these words which she named Arabeeya, and instantly she heard a ruckus from the moorsi. People began to cry. The Moorsi’s were finally able to speak to their loved ones. Amira Nouhaila had the power all along to convert her people, the Moorsi people, to officially speak the language of Arabeeya. While this meant that she could finally speak to her father,she was able to connected everyone. She finally realized how important language was to her and her people, and that is how Arabeeya came to be.

Conclusion:

What I learned from this AP was the skill of storytelling. it's quite the process and something to get used to. Using the right adverbs and adjectives may sound easy until you actually put them into a story. I enjoyed this unit, and will continue to use my skills that I use it in the real world.