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Current Social Issues Reflected in the Characters of Sabaa Tahir's an Amber in the Ashes Series

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Current Social Issues Reflected in the Characters of Sabaa Tahir's an Amber in the Ashes Series SLEZSKA UNIVERZITA V OPAVE Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě Mgr. Silvie Novotná Obor: Angličtina pro školskou praxi Current Social Issues Reflected in the Characters of Sabaa Tahir's An Amber in the Ashes Series Bakalářská práce Opava 2021 Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Radek Glabazňa, Ph.D., M.A. Abstract This bachelor thesis will focus on the first three books of the planned tetralogy An Ember in the Ashes written by Sabaa Tahir. The aim of this work is to analyze how the current social issues are reflected in the characters of the books. Firstly, the author and her work will be introduced. Secondly, the main social issues that appear in the books will be identified. Lastly, the way these problems are reflected in the behavior of the characters and how they are subsequently addressed will be examined. Keywords: Sabaa Tahir, Young Adult literature, social issues, fantastical dystopian novel, discrimination, oppression, suppression of civil rights, regime brutality, violence, abuse, imprisonment, slavery, crimes against humanity. Abstrakt Tato bakalářská práce se bude zabývat prvními třemi knihami z plánované tetralogie An Ember in the Ashes spisovatelky Sabyy Tahirové. Cílem práce bude analyzovat, jak jsou prostřednictvím vybraných postav reflektovány současné společenské problémy. Nejprve bude krátce představena autorka a její dílo, následně pak budou identifikovány základní společenské problémy, které se v knihách objevují. Nakonec bude zkoumán způsob, jak se tyto problémy odrážejí v chování jednotlivých postav a jak se s nimi postavy vypořádávají. Klíčová slova: Sabaa Tahirová, literatura pro mládež, společenské problémy, fantastický dystopický román, diskriminace, útlak, potlačování občanských práv, brutalita režimu, násilí, zneužívání, věznění, otroctví, zločiny proti lidskosti. SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě ZADANÍ BAKALÁŘSKÉ PRAČE Akademický rok: 2021/2022 Zadávající ústav: Ústav cizích jazyků Studentka: Bc. Silvie Novotná UČO: 44495 Program: Filologie Obor: Angličtina pro školskou praxi . Téma práce: Current Social Issues Reflected in the Characters of Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes Series Téma práce anglicky: Current Social Issues Reflected in the Characters of Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes Series Zadání: Tato bakalářská práce se bude zabývat prvními třemi knihami z plánované tetralogie An Ember in the Ashes spisovatelky Sabyy Tahir. Cílem práce bude analyzovat, jak jsou prostřednictvím vybraných postav v knihách reflektovány současné společenské problémy. Nejprve bude krátce představena autorka a její dílo, následně pak budou identifikovány základní společenské pro­ blémy a způsob, jak se tyto problémy odrážejí v chování jednotlivých postav a jak se s nimi postavy vypořádávají. Literatura: Tahir, Sabaa. An Ember in the Ashes. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. Tahir Sabaa. A Torch Against the Night. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2016. Tahir, Sabaa. A Reaper at the Gates. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018. Pitney, Nico. "Meet Sabaa Tahir, Who's Written 'The Next Game of Thrones.'" The Hu- ffington Post. October 18, 2015. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sabaa-tahir-ember-ashes- profile_n_561e8470e4b028dd7ea608d6 Rutkoski, Marie. "An Ember in the Ashes,' by Sabaa Tahir." The New York Times. May 8, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/books/review/an-ember-in-the-ashes- by-sabaa-tahir.html Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Radek Glabazňa, Ph.D., MA Datum zadání práce: 19. 11. 2019 Souhlasím se zadáním (podpis, datum): Mgr. Marie Crhova, Ph.D., MA vedoucí ústavu Prohlašuji, že j sem tuto práci vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré prameny a literaturu, které jsem pro vyhotovení práce využila, řádně cituji a uvádím v seznamu použité literatury a internetových zdrojů. V Opavě dne 12. 7. 2021 Mgr. Silvie Novotná Poděkování Na tomto místě bych ráda poděkovala vedoucímu své práce Mgr. Radku Glabazňovi, Ph.D., M.A., za jeho laskavé vedení, ochotu a vstřícnost. Table of Contents Introduction 1 1. The author and the Ember series 2 1.1 Sabaa Tahir's life and work 2 1.2 Young Adult literature 4 1.3 Background of the series 7 1.4 The storyline of the series 8 2. Social issues 18 2.1 Inferior social groups 18 2.2 Treatment of slaves 21 2.3 Upbringing of young soldiers 24 2.4 Punishments for crimes 28 3. Impact on the main characters 33 3.1 Elias 33 3.2 Laia 36 3.3 Helene 39 Conclusion 44 Bibliography 46 Appendix 48 1 Introduction Current social issues are problems of present society that affect many people all around the world. They are caused by factors beyond the control of the individual and prevent the society from functioning at an optimal level. Since they trigger a response in people across all generations, these topics are often addressed by fiction, including Young Adult literature. Tahir often dealt with social issues during her work as a journalist. Some of them influenced her to the extent that she decided to process and explore them further in her writing. She examines topics such as social and racial discrimination, poverty, immigration crisis, regime brutality, treatment of prisoners, or imprisonment and torture of regime opponents. In the books the social issues often escalate into crimes against humanity. Tahir not only describes the pressing social issues, but she tries to find their source. She shows that many of the issues are caused by society's attitude. She also points out that these issues shape and influence the people who grow up experiencing them every day. The aim of the thesis is to identify and analyze the social issues that are represented in the books and explore the impact of the issues on the behavior of the main characters. The following questions will be addressed: What issues affect the main characters? How are they affected? What is the constitutive factor of the character's reactions to specific social issues? Does the main characters' view of any of the social problems change during the story? A close reading method will be used. The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter introduces the author and her work. It focuses on Tahir's biography, describes the inspirational sources of the story and the main characters, and defines the category of Young Adult literature. The plot of each book is briefly summarized. The second chapter identifies the current social issues that are presented through the storyline, how the issues are perceived by the majority society, and how they affect the lives of the characters. The third chapter analyzes how the main characters respond to the social issues that directly affect them, how they deal with them, and how it changes their personalities. All findings are summarized in the Conclusion. 2 1. The author and the Ember series 1.1 Sabaa Tahir's life and work Sabaa Tahir (nee Saleem) is a Pakistani-American novelist and former journalist best known for her An Ember in the Ashes series. She grew up with two older brothers in Ridgecrest, California, where her parents owned an eighteen-room motel. The town is about 80 miles from the nearest bigger city and being one of the only Pakistani families there made Tahir feel very isolated: '"I didn't fit in because I looked different from everybody else [...]. I heard people call [us] names or tell [us] to go back.'"1 Thus she developed her reading passion at an early age because she realized that the books, especially the fantasy genre, provided her with an escape from real life.2 Tahir's parents were born in Pakistan but moved to Great Britain where they spent their young adulthood. Both Tahir and her brothers were born there. When Tahir was one year old, her father, who worked as an engineer, had taken a job in an oil company in Texas and the whole family then relocated to the southwestern United States. However, during the economic downturn in the 1980s, her father lost his job and decided to purchase a motel in California.3 Tahir's parents started their own business to have some stabile income and meanwhile they looked for a job in their field. Since the motel was not the financial success they had hoped for, they had to work hard to support the family. Their primary business has branched out through the years: they had the motel, a drive-through-diary, a gas station, a clothing store, and a computer reselling business. Tahir's mother also worked a retail job in order to provide health insurance for the family members.4 1 Neda Ulaby, "Former Journalist Sabaa Tahir Writes Dystopian Fantasies Inspired By The News," WEAA, September 03, 2016, https://www.weaa.org/post/former-journalist-sabaa-tahir-writes-dystopian- fantasies-inspired-news#stream/0. 2 See Anthony Breznican, "A Torch Against the Night author Sabaa Tahir lights fantasy with dark truths," Entertainment Weekly, September 02, 2016, https://ew.com/article/2016/09/02/author-sabaa-tahir-ignites- dark-truths-torch-against-night/. 3 See Breznican, "Fantasy with dark truths." 4 See Nico Pitney, "Meet Sabaa Tahir, Who's Written 'The Next Game of Thrones,'" Huffpost, October 15, 2015, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sabaa-tahir-ember-ashes-profile_n_561e8470e4b028dd7 ea608d6. 3 Although Ridgecrest is a small and remote town in the Mojave Desert, it is no underdeveloped area. In 1940s a Naval Ordnance Test Station, today known as Naval Air Warfare Center, was established at China Lake. The continuing needs of the high-tech industries and the Naval Station's programs for testing arms and guidance systems offered employment to many scientists and engineers, ensured the town's growth, and provided jobs for the locals. As Tahir recalls: "The average education level in the town is like, a master's degree [...]. They built the Tomahawk out there. The Sidewinder missile. There were always weird flashes of light at night. It was a weird little town [... ]."5 Tahir grew up in "a strict household with a traditionalist Muslim upbringing"6.
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