TASK 2B

TASK 2B:
In the extract from the novel Honour by Elif Shafak in Appendix 1 we read about Iskender

Toprak, an immigrant boy in the UK, his sister Esma and his friend Arshad.

Write a text in which you discuss what the extract reveals about being an immigrant and

compare this to the experiences of another immigrant character in a film or literary text

from your course.

It must be a dream of all immigrants, to live a life in a new country that can offer you almost everything, where you have nothing to worry about. There are so many different reasons why people have to leave their own country, to go to another. Some people move because they can find better jobs, and earn good money. Others move because of better education, which will lead to a more positive future. Like I said, there are so many different reasons; war, poverty, natural disasters, political reasons, etc. However, being an immigrant must be rough. Immigrants that succeed reaching a better life in a new country, have to adopt to the culture, environment and the way people behave in that country. For some, this can be scary and very difficult.



FREEDOM WRITERS
Based on a true story, Freedom Writers is truly an inspiring story about a young committed teacher named Erin Gruwell and her class known as the “unteachable” college students, according to the other teachers. Ms. Gruwell has difficulties keeping the peace between her classroom of mixed nationalities; Asians, Blacks, Latino, and one white guy. Many of the college students in Freedom Writers only trust people of their same “kind” or in the same gang as them. What i mean by same “kind” is basically nationalities (Black, Asian, etc.). For example, in the beginning you could clearly see that they all separated into groups according to their race. With so many nationalities, there will always be some sort of problems; racism, fights, and etc. The college students can't be to close to another because that might start a problem with a rival gang. Almost everyone know somebody
(friends or family members) that has been killed by gang violence. Freedom Writers also gave the viewpoint of a white male college student in a class where he was the minority. This guy didn't belong to any of these gang related groups. This guy made it clear that he felt uncomfortable, since most, or basically everyone else were not white. You could almost say that that he were an immigrant in that class. In other words, it's a class full of immigrants, which can lead to conflicts and fights between these immigrants. However, the movie Freedom Writers is not about immigration, but about a young white committed teacher who inspires her class of  “unteachable” students to learn tolerance, making more out of themselves, and chase education.



HONOUR
In the extract from the novel Honour, we are first introduced to a nameplate. Her sister would want all “THE TOPRAK FAMILY” or else, all the family member's names on it. But, Esma's sister would personally leave the nameplate anonymous, because they had not really settled, they were only passers-by. The family were also a half-Turkish, half-Kurdish family, and they also lived in London.
They didn't really live there, they were only passers-by. They were half-Turkish, half-Kurdish, but they lived in London. All of this belong together with a typical immigrant-family.

My conclusion for both the extract from the novel Honour by Elif Shafak and the movie Freedom Writers directed by Richared LaGravenese, is that they both show some aspects and characteristics of what immigration is. The extract from the novel Honour shows regular immigrants who doesn't find themselves comfortable in London. In the movie "Freedom Writers" we didn't see that much about immigration, but about college students with different nationalities who must fight their way through every day, in fear of dying. More or less, these teenagers have to get accepted in the social network, and hopefully not be judged or harmed because of their background or skin colour.