With a Little Help From My Friends:
"My family and I had always wondered why American had such a mistaken image of Iran."
I think that a lot of people in America think of people from the Middle East as a totally different species. I mean, a lot of people, including myself had a totally different image of Iran and places like that before learning about it. I used to think they were really poor, and had no power, which isn't true one bit. This relates to Sundara, because a lot of people don't know her real story or anything about her home country.
"My mother was practically sad to return to Iran."
I think that she has a right to be sad to go back to Iran, but then again, wouldn't you want to go home after being away for a long time? I know I would. This isn't like Sundara's story because she doesn't get to go back home, to Cambodia, at all, she has to stay here, where it is safer for her.
A Dozen Key Chains:
"When I was eleven years old I told my parents that I wanted to go to camp."
I can relate to this, because when I was eleven or twelve I went to sleep-away camp for the first time. It was awful. I had no fun, I was homesick the whole week. Then I went back the next year and had a much better time. Sundara has a quite different story in comparison to this, for her camp isn't a fun thing, it's a place where your closest friends and family go, so they can escape death, not a place for arts and crafts and swimming.
Another student mentioned that after she read Three Cups of Tea she thought all people from Pakistan were poor and illiterate. I think we always need to be careful of not stereotyping-we have to be aware which is a challenge especially when we are always receiving one way messages in the media. We need to be critical consumers of media.
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