2. Group G---zroy27

The Turks are killing off all of the Armenians. There was a revolution in the Ottoman Empire which deposed the Sultan and installed a new government called the Young Turks. This new government is making the Ottomans into Turks. This also involves still killing all of the Armenians because they are Christian and the Turks are Islamic. The first World War is nearing and global tensions are rising. The Armenian struggle is being left behind with new world struggles. The characters in my book are suffering with being the subjects of the Armenian Genocide, being systematicly killed by the Turks. They have nearly no support, and witnesses report the terrible fate of many. “In his report Doughty Wylie noted that as yet the death toll in the region was still unknown, but “the loss has been enormous [and] may be estimated at between 15,000 and 25,000; of these, very few, if any, can be Moslems.” (Balakian 154)

 Where in your novel is a character struggling with things beyond their control? What supports do they have to deal with that?

How does The Burning Tigris illustrate the effects of forced identity and societal roles on a group of people, and what does this suggest about the consequences of being seen only in limited or controlled ways

In the book, Throwback by Maurene Goo, Samantha, or as she’s called through the book, Sam, is the daughter of a first-generation Korean immigrant, Priscilla, with whom she has a… troubled relationship to say the least. After a fight with her mom that leaves her stranded in the mall parking lot over her not trying for homecoming queen, she orders a ride share service called Throwback Rides, after a talk about what happened with her mom with the driver, Samantha is thrown back to when her mom was in the running for Homecoming Queen, and now has to help her mom achieve said title to get back to her place in time and make amends with her mother, who she discovers tries/tried to hide the fact she’s from Korea to be popular. Over this time, Sam realizes why her mom is like how she is in the modern day. There are many things that go beyond Sam’s control throughout the story: the sudden coma-causing heart attack of her grandma Halmoni, getting thrown into the past by her Throwback Rides driver, Marge, and everyone’s reaction to the section in the school news she made to help Priscilla. During the book, Sam finds out that a classmate of hers, Jamie, is also a time traveler from Throwback Rides, albeit for a different reason, who is from about two years earlier than her. “What year are you from?” Please don’t let him be, like, thirty years old. Or a spy. “2023”... “What about you?” “2025”” (Goo, 244). With Jamie, she at least can talk like she’s from the time she’s actually from without sounding insane for saying things like “OMG”, or reference “Obama”. 

The book is about how the Turks forced the Armenians to give up their culture or face death, after they refused all Armenians were killed off in a genocide. This shows how the limited view of the Turkish people and their unwillingness to accept others caused the fuel for the Armenian Genocide. 

In my book, Brighter than the sun by Daniel Aleman, the main character, Sol, faces and deals with the emotional aftermath of her mother’s passing while she is also trying to support her struggling family. After the passing of her mother, Sol had to take on the responsibility of financially supporting her family because she was the only person in the family that had been born in the United States. This meant that she was able to go to school and work in the United States, so she crosses the border everyday just so she was able to pay for the bills while going to school. However while juggling school and work she deals with loneliness and grief.

Sol deals with death by carrying the emotional weight of her mother’s passing while she continues to take care of her family. She experiences grief and loneliness but does not let it stop her from pursuing her goals. Sol’s struggles include crossing the border everyday just so she is able to attend school and have a job in the United States so she can support her family financially while dealing with grief and loneliness.  “My loneliness follows me wherever I go.” (Almen 1).This quote shows that Sol’s struggle isn’t just physical, it is also emotional. 

In Brighter than the Sun by Daniel Aleman, the main character sol a 16 Year old girl who lives in Mexico. Her mother dies, she crosses the border and works in the US to help her family. Balancing her culture, she stays with her bestfriend during the week for school and work. Sol is exhausted and burnt out, she is split between 2 lives being a student and an employee.her grades and future are slipping, she's close to a breaking point. She has a lot of cultural stress from moving to the United States. She also has alot of stress from her family. She is mostly by herself barely managing. “I dont think id realized how used to ive gotten to the heaviness in my chest and the tightness in my throat”(Aleman 163) this shows how much stress she is under that she starts to feel normal with it.   

Oscar is a nerdy, overweight kid from the Dominican living in New Jersey and struggles with loneliness. Oscar meets Yunior the narrator. Yunior becomes his roommate in college. Yunior tries to “fix” Oscar by trying to get him into shape but he doesn’t really change. After Oscar got rejected he got super depressed. He tried attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge but he survives and is super injured. Yunior and Lola's relationship develops but fails.
In my novel somewhere that is out of control is when he gets rejected by a girl he really like but he gets supper depressed and attempts suicide and this is what they say “Burst him into intestinal confetti”. (Diaz 191) They say this because he miss judged his jump and landed in a median instead of the divider on Route 18.