Armenians as many other nations have been persecuted for hundreds of years and this fact of Armenian history isn’t as famous as tortures of Christians in a Moslem world, for example. Who knows very well about events that took place between April and October 1915? It was the time when 1.2 million Armenians were made to leave their homes by the Turkish government and were sent on death march into the Syrian Desert. This match was called “death”, as they were sent with no water or food. The silence used to be a rule for most Armenian families and the Armenian-American family of Peter Balakian, the author of the book “Black Dog of Fate”, was no exception. Tortures of Armenian population were a forbidden topic in his family. Nobody had ever mentioned about horrible starvation and murders of his relatives until Peter was twenty. Only then he learned that his grandmother was one of the survivors of Armenian genocide. Soon he got to all the truth and couldn’t keep silence as all members of his family and other Armenians. The result is his famous book “Black Dog of Fate” that combines facts about Balakian’s family, a story about the boy who became elder and all in this book is a history of Armenian people and their extermination in Turkey.
The title is based on a parable that was told Peter Balakian by his grandmother, Nafina. The story is about goddess Fate and two kinds of gifts that were made for her. The first gift was a young meaty lamb, its eyes were like two rubies and his body was stuffed with almonds. The second gift was a dead black dog with a wormy apple in its mouth. The main paradox is that goddess Fate didn’t take the lamb and accepted the dead dog. The life is unpredictable and just this fact is the purport of the book and it is reflected in the title.
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Balakian had the possibility to tell the facts from the biography of his Armenian family only with the help of his grandmother’s fragmentary memories and the document he could find. It was a claim made by his grandmother in 1920 against the Turkish government. The facts taken by Balakian from this document represent horrible tragic information about the terrible death of Nafina’s first husband and about atrocious tortures of Balakian’s relatives who took part in death march.
The main reason why practically all Armenians keep silence about their tragic history is the reaction of the Turkish government. There were no mentions about tragic events of 1915 in magazines or newspapers, all the representatives of mass media were silent, it even seemed that such events hadn’t taken place in Armenian history. So Balakian-Aroosian families were left alone with their tragedies. Nobody wanted to know these facts as no social or political movements were aimed to this problem. Balakian can’t leave without attention this fact and at the end of his book he blames the USA in an aggressive policy towards Turkey, he doesn’t accept a cold war ally and NATO.
As for me Balakian’s narration that includes using personal histories and family experience is very good and accessible for readers. Personal pronouns “I” and “we” make us closer to the author and helps us to understand the tragic Armenian history more thoroughly and profoundly. To my mind the most touching pages of the book “Black Dog of Fate” are those where we see not just dry facts from the Armenian history but those where the author explores his family’s thoughts and memories of the Armenian troubles at the beginning of the 20th century. We feel that it disturbs the author greatly, experience of his family and his origin induced Balakian to investigation these tragic events even counter to his family’s wish that used to keep silence.
“Black Dog of Fate” is a book about terror and hate, about Armenian genocide. Nowadays this information is open to public and you may have heard about it, so why is this book of a current importance? What makes the novel a “Notable Book”? The answer is simple: it touches Balakian and his family, he tells a story about lives and deaths of his people. William Butler Yeats, an expert of Armenian genocide, says that Balakian can so truly and vividly describe the events that you can easily imagine the picture and feel like an eye-witness of the events. The book was appreciated at its true value and it received praise from the New York Times, Huston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Although Peter Balakian didn’t experience genocide first hand, it became main experience in his life. This fact brought his together with second generation writers whose parents came through Holocaust. Balakian’s communication with these writers pushed him to begin an active work on his book “Black Dog of Fate” about Armenian genocide. We can compare two these tragic events: Armenian genocide and Holocaust. Holocaust took lives of most people and so has become famous all over the world, while tortures of just 1.2 million Armenians couldn’t attract attention of people all over the world, but their characters and flows were practically the same.
Peter Balakain’s book is of current importance nowadays. Not just Armenian people who suffered and came through terrible tortures must know their history, it’s more important for all other people to analyze this tragic experience and try to avoid it in future. Having such experience in history as Holocaust and Armenian genocide, people won’t keep silence for years, they will try to obtain justice.
The first step in this direction has been already made by Peter Balakain. Armenian violent past is obvious now, even though not all may be perfect in Balakian’s book. Two last chapters are hardly ever suitable for such kind of book as they present a tad preachy, but we can forgive this. The main idea is described clearly and this book is really worth reading.
___________________________________________________________Balakian had the possibility to tell the facts from the biography of his Armenian family only with the help of his grandmother’s fragmentary memories and the document he could find. It was a claim made by his grandmother in 1920 against the Turkish government. The facts taken by Balakian from this document represent horrible tragic information about the terrible death of Nafina’s first husband and about atrocious tortures of Balakian’s relatives who took part in death march.
The main reason why practically all Armenians keep silence about their tragic history is the reaction of the Turkish government. There were no mentions about tragic events of 1915 in magazines or newspapers, all the representatives of mass media were silent, it even seemed that such events hadn’t taken place in Armenian history. So Balakian-Aroosian families were left alone with their tragedies. Nobody wanted to know these facts as no social or political movements were aimed to this problem. Balakian can’t leave without attention this fact and at the end of his book he blames the USA in an aggressive policy towards Turkey, he doesn’t accept a cold war ally and NATO.
As for me Balakian’s narration that includes using personal histories and family experience is very good and accessible for readers. Personal pronouns “I” and “we” make us closer to the author and helps us to understand the tragic Armenian history more thoroughly and profoundly. To my mind the most touching pages of the book “Black Dog of Fate” are those where we see not just dry facts from the Armenian history but those where the author explores his family’s thoughts and memories of the Armenian troubles at the beginning of the 20th century. We feel that it disturbs the author greatly, experience of his family and his origin induced Balakian to investigation these tragic events even counter to his family’s wish that used to keep silence.
“Black Dog of Fate” is a book about terror and hate, about Armenian genocide. Nowadays this information is open to public and you may have heard about it, so why is this book of a current importance? What makes the novel a “Notable Book”? The answer is simple: it touches Balakian and his family, he tells a story about lives and deaths of his people. William Butler Yeats, an expert of Armenian genocide, says that Balakian can so truly and vividly describe the events that you can easily imagine the picture and feel like an eye-witness of the events. The book was appreciated at its true value and it received praise from the New York Times, Huston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Although Peter Balakian didn’t experience genocide first hand, it became main experience in his life. This fact brought his together with second generation writers whose parents came through Holocaust. Balakian’s communication with these writers pushed him to begin an active work on his book “Black Dog of Fate” about Armenian genocide. We can compare two these tragic events: Armenian genocide and Holocaust. Holocaust took lives of most people and so has become famous all over the world, while tortures of just 1.2 million Armenians couldn’t attract attention of people all over the world, but their characters and flows were practically the same.
Peter Balakain’s book is of current importance nowadays. Not just Armenian people who suffered and came through terrible tortures must know their history, it’s more important for all other people to analyze this tragic experience and try to avoid it in future. Having such experience in history as Holocaust and Armenian genocide, people won’t keep silence for years, they will try to obtain justice.
The first step in this direction has been already made by Peter Balakain. Armenian violent past is obvious now, even though not all may be perfect in Balakian’s book. Two last chapters are hardly ever suitable for such kind of book as they present a tad preachy, but we can forgive this. The main idea is described clearly and this book is really worth reading.
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If you need a custom research paper, research proposal, essay, dissertation, book report or term paper on your topic, EffectivePapers.com will write your research papers from scratch. Starting at $12/page you can order custom written papers online. We work with experienced PhD. and Master's freelance writers to help you with writing any academic papers in any subject! High quality and 100% non-plagiarized papers guaranteed!
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