The main craft element that really struck me was the constant smushing together of opposites in the same paragraph: rich and poor, the red Ford Focus (kind of lavish for a nun’s vehicle) in front of the nunnery, the idea of the old person and new person, talking about the Holocaust over pastries, trying to sound playful and not disgusted when telling Andrew to hush his mouth. All of these things and a few others carry on a theme of division throughout the piece, which I find brilliant since a Fatou struggles to decide whether or not she is a slave and also because she seems to be experiencing what is often termed as. “double-consciousness.” She is living and working in London, but as Andrew states and from what we can tell, she is not like other girls who live in London. Because of this lack of identity and confusion as to her place in the world, Fatou reminds me a little of Nazneen and Hasina. Like Hasina, she is struggling to make ends meet and keeps getting knocked down. Like Nazneen, she has trouble with being spiritual, so life is a little more bleak than it would be and this loss of spirituality from living in London instead of Cambodia makes her identity fade a little. All in all, Smith was very clever in how she gave meaning to things in the story, and this was overall a great read.

Last post and last night in London. I’m going to miss this place, but I will definitely take pieces of it with me. :’)

I can’t believe I’m writing my final blog post. It is so bittersweet.

The Embassy of Cambodia left a very loose ending which  disappointed a lot of readers; however, I enjoyed Zadie’s Smith’s style, and I feel as if it was designed to make the readers think. I could not determine who was actually telling the story, but I assumed that it had to be someone that had been paying close attention to Fatou as she journeyed through the neighborhood. This character brought the Embassy of Cambodia to life. I had no idea what this was, or what the people on the other side were doing, but it sure made me want to climb inside and see for myself. I think the story shows how we can be on the outside of someone’s life and looking in, imagining what we want about someone. Fatou imagined the lives of those who were on the other side of the wall just as the people who watched her on the side of the streets formed their opinions of her sitting on the sidewalk. They could only imagine “a violent conclusion or a hopeful return” for her.  I think this implies that people should take a moment to just check on someone! I see this all the time in Atlanta especially! People are so focused on their own lives, where they have to be, what they have to do, and they won’t stop to see how someone else is doing. But it only takes a few seconds to ask someone, “how are you?”

I try to make someone’s day even when I can’t brighten my own. I believe if any one of those people would have stopped and talked to Fatou, the story would have ended differently. But now we don’t know what happened with Fatou, or how life turned out for her. And we never will!

Zadie Smith made the characters seem so real and she raised some very intense points in this short story. I could relate to Fatou’s battle with her faith and religion. I feel that this story was short and complete and it served it’s purpose of making the reader’s think.

I noticed some of the characters in this story are in ways similar to those in Brick Lane. When Andrew was introduced, I remember thinking he was similar to Chanu. He’s interested in education, likes to explain things to Fatou, has a (probably smaller) belly that Fatou sees fold over on itself, and is characterized as a dreamer. Fatou also thinks he is a good man, even though he has flaws. Fatou’s relationship with his is different than Nazneen’s with Chanu because she chose to continue the relationship, however, Andrew is the person who initiated the relationship. Like Nazneen, Fatou has limited resources and opportunities in the new country she is in. Fatou is in some ways more more independent that Nazneen was initially because she worked and went out into the world, yet the circumstances she was living under really left her just as poorly off as Nazneed would have been. Nazneen had no way of supporting herself, and had no significant about of money to fall back on if the need arose, and Fatou didn’t really either, because even though she was working, she had no money, and probably would have had no references to get another job. I wonder how Fatou will get through after having been fired, and if she will end up marrying Andrew. If she does marry Andrew, I wonder how much of a factor necessity will be for her.

Professor, I goof up and submitted the wrong story review for the blog so I am going to blog about Kor tonight since I blogged about Cambolia last time. I had written them out but I accidently copied and pasted the wrong one from my computer

for the mysterious Kor I feel that this story has influenced a lot of popular works and especially young adult novels, because I have read in my own personal lecture time so many books with the concept of a terrible situation (not always war, but some negative force) and the characters making an imaginary world to cope with the horrors they face. I talked about Pan’s Labyrinth in our group meeting, etc. I’m sure that this story is not the first of its kind to have this theme, but it’s definatley the most overt that I have seen before a certain time.

Now, what I found very surreal was the concept of the moon how it took on its own life. The moon is so stereotypical as a force that is pure, lovely, Devine, etc. I have never read a story where the moon was a force to be feared and dreaded/controlling. During the Blitz tour that we took we learned that the enemy planes would boom Britain at night time in the cover of the darkness. However, the full moon and its light was scary because that would mean the enemy would have b.etter sight and a heighten ability to harm more people. That bit of history really brought the story to light for me

1. I loved the establishment of the other in Fatou as the “other”. She is the one who can’t use the nice warm pool and all the nice facilities that the rich guest can use. She has the use the trashy beach, with all the pollution. In general I liked the establishment of the theme and how the theme carried on

2. However, I am a bit confused about the point of view shift. Because in the beginning we started with an indirect third person then there was a shift to a very intimate first person. I’m a bit disappointed that we won’t meet tomorrow because I would like to hear everyone’s thoughts on that