At the beginning of Children of the River, the story unfolds in Cambodia. Soka has given birth to a baby (who dies later on). A warring faction, named the “Khmer Rouge” have begun to attack the city where the family, and self live. She becomes stubborn, unwilling to leave her home, since she becomes weak. Her stubbornness almost costs her family’s lives. This also leads to a conflict with her husband. Stubbornness can become a very distracting trait in people, as is Soka. However this trait will become less prominent later on during the story.
In the middle of the novel, Soka changes once again somewhat, from being very stubborn to very strict. She shows her strictness mostly towards her teenager niece, Sundara. It is sometimes uncertain of her behaviour. She believes very highly of her culture’s customs and beliefs. She thinks the Cambodian way is the only way. Her beliefs get very annoying sometimes, especially toward’s her niece. These patterns of behaviour distances Sundara from her aunt, turning her partially rebellious side towards her family. Soka’s trait keeps the story woven together, and adds a thorny edge to it as well. But this trait changes once again.
The last part of this story is essential to Soka’s last change. She starts to show sympathy toward’s Sundara’s needs. Albeit, slowly. This change is the most prominent throughout the entire story. What mostly surprises the reader is that of Soka’s allowance of Sundara’s seeing her friend Jonathan. What first sets this chain of reaction off is Soka’s allowance of Sundara to help Jonathan’s father, Dr. McKinnon with her language due to a medical urgency needed in Cambodia. I believe this is the most exciting part of the story. This change in Soka takes away some of the distance from Sundara because of her second change. This is a much needed change in Soka’s personality.
In conclusion, all of these changes in Soka’s personality change the story in their own unique way.
The Supernatural in Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Use of the Supernatural in Macbeth
Shakespeare’s Macbeth has many supernatural actions. Although all of supernatural do
not have exactly same role in the play, the main purposes of supernatural are to attract
the attention from audience [manipulation], to foreshadow future events, to show the
characteristics of individual, and to connect the idea with theme. In the play, the
supernatural occurs: witchesí appearance throughout the story, the strange behavior of
Macbeth after the murderer of King Duncan, the situation of nature in Scotland,
appearance of Banquoís ghost and imagination of dagger which was flying in the air.
Firstly, the story starts with weird sistersí conversation under strong thunder and
lightning. It is very effective way to attract the attention from audience: First Witch
says with scary voice, “When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or in rain
?” (I, i, 1-2) The very first scene is not only attractive, but also there is an important
clue for the things to be happened in the future [foreshadowing]. We learn that there is
something going to happen with Macbeth ñ Macbeth wins for his life, but he also is going
to lose for his life: “There to meet with Macbeth” (I, i, 7) “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (I,
i, 11)The speech of Witches also contains a theme. “When one wins, one must lose” is a
possible theme that can be taken from the speech: “When the battle is lost and won” (I,
i, 4) The witches continue appearing throughout the story to give us the excitement, hint
and theme.
Secondly, Macbeth loses his mind after the killing of King Duncan. Is it attractive ? By
considering the situation, it can be said that it is attractive ñ When he reenters into the
play after killing of Duncan, he is a completely different man, like a stone. We must be
surprised that if Macbeth is standing up with bloody face, bloody swords in his hands
and talks something that does not make senses at all: “Why did you bring these daggers
from the place ?” (II, ii, 48) It also shows characteristics of Macbeth. Macbeth can easily
fall into a confusion that he cannot recognize.
Thirdly, later in the story, Macbeth sees the Ghost of Banquo and the dagger in the air.
However, the Ghost and dagger are only visible to Macbeth, and no one else is able to