Quarter 3- Journal 10: From Sleep Unbound

This is a book that we had to read as part of our world literature curriculum for IB English 11. In this book, it starts off with a murder scene, where Samya kills her husband, Boutros. Rachida basically flips out, and screams to the village, who eventually comes to her rescue. Before anything else about that day is disclosed, the story flashes back to Samya's childhood. Her father and brothers have sent her to a monastery-boarding-home of sorts, where she lives with other girls and practices religion. This, however, is not where she wants to be. She feels imprisoned by religion and her family, and is extremely unhappy. Furthermore, she feels deprived because of her lack of relationship with her late mother, who passed when she was very little. She has had little closure from her mother, due to the cold personality of her father and brothers. When she is 15, her father sends her off to be married to a 45 year old man, Boutros. Her father has lost his job, and therefore, he gives her away because she's a burden to him. This hurts Samya, but she goes because she's obviously not wanted at home. After a few years, in which she just lets time pass, she has a child, Mia. Mia gives her life, or so she says. With Mia she is happy, and lives her life. She doesn't feel oppressed by Boutros, who is abusive physically and verbally. When Mia is six, she dies, and Boutros blames it on Samya. This causes Samya to internally die, because her sole purpose in life is gone. After a few weeks of living in a wheelchair, she kil becuase she's emotionally paralyzed, she kills Boutros. Then she gets arrested, and it ends. Analysis: What? This was a waste. All the main character did was complain about how much her life sucked... Well that's how life went back then, and everyone else got along just fine. She pays way too much attention to detail about everything, and is constantly whining. And then she kills her husband and the book ends? Isn't there supposed to be some sort of closure? My advice: If you want someone to like a book, don't have an annoying protagonist, and actually write a conclusion to a book.