ANALYZING VISUALS
READINGS
34 CHAPTER 2: REMEMBERING AN EVENT
In one sense, the event Ellis writes about was tragic: The news his father broke to him was of an illness that led to his death a few short months later. Ellis tells us, however, that the event had an unexpectedly positive side effect: It gave him an opportunity to help his dad and get to know him in a new way. For your own essay, you, too, might consider writing about an event that had an unexpectedly positive outcome. Ellis’s essay also suggests the possibility of writing about an event that challenged your pre- conceptions or prejudices. Ellis tells us that learning about his father’s sexual orienta- tion challenged his “own juvenile homophobia” (par. 3). As you consider these possible topics, think about your purpose and audience. What would you want your instructor and classmates to learn about you from reading about this particular event?
SAIRA SHAH, a British journalist and documentary filmmaker, won the Courage Under Fire and Television Journalist of the Year awards for her reporting on Afghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, as well as the Persian Gulf War and the conflict in Kosovo. She is best known in the United States for her undercover documentary films about the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Beneath the Veil (2001) and Unholy War (2002), as well as for Death in Gaza (2004), about chil-
dren caught in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The following selection, adapted from Shah’s autobiography, The Storyteller’s
Daughter (2003), tells what happened when, at the age of seventeen, she visited her fa- ther’s Afghan relatives in Pakistan. In an interview, Shah explains: “When I was growing up, I had this secret doubt — which I couldn’t even admit to myself — that I was not at all an Afghan because I was born in Britain to a mixed family.” As you read, think about the way Shah conveys her anxiety about her identity.
CONSIDERING TOPICS FOR YOUR
OWN ESSAY
LONGING TO BELONG Sair