When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be geared towards a younger audience, perhaps a ten to twelve year-old. The boy’s extreme love for his pet and the writing style seemed to be simple. I was mistaken. The love this boy had for his camel seemed like an obsession. With in the first few chapters there was a gruesome and explicit scene involving two camels having sex. I did not enjoy this book very much, but I did enjoy that the book was given to us in a packet and I did not have to try to find it myself, so Thank You Arabic Group two! One thing that caught my eye when we did the in class exercise was that some one made the connection that the camel represented the seven deadly sins. From the way the boy acts around his camel I can definitely see, Greed, and Pride, and when you look further into the novel you can pull out the others. But in general I did not understand how important this camel was.
I wasn't in class for the discussion, so maybe I am alone in this, but I always pictured Ukhayyad as a man and not a boy. In my head he was in his 30's, because of the time that had seemed to pass between his childhood and the present, especially after he almost died in the desert. But I could be wrong, perhaps he has just reached adulthood, around 18-25? Interesting way of looking at it...
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that Ukhayyad seemed to have an obsession for the camel to the point where it seemed a bit disturbing. When he was comforting the camel in the desert and they were both licking the tears from each others faces...I found that really odd. The camel was very personified in this story, whether by the narrator or the main character.
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