The Storyteller: Book Comparison of Powers' "The Yellow Birds" and Hosseinis' "The Mountains Echoed"
In the stories The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers and And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, we are introduced to two very decisive men. In The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers introduces us to his main character Bartle, who makes the decision to follow in his family's footsteps and join the armed forces, that send him to war. Bartle not only decided to do this but then he decided to tell his friend Murph’s mom, he would make sure to bring Murph home. These decisions to make such strong promises give Barte a strong burden to carry. A burden we hear within his chosen words. In And The Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini introduced us to one of his main characters Saboor, father of (sister) Pari and grandfather to (daughter) Pari, who makes the decision to give up his daughter (sister) Pari that sets the stage for all the lives that decision ultimately affects. Both men are strong and hard-working but they are also very naive to the implications and ramifications that their choices make to the greater picture, to themselves, and to those around them.
In The Yellow Birds, Bartle (a characterization of Powers himself) was given a voice that spoke of unsureness and questions for answers to what he had lived through and why. “I’ve come to accept that parts of life are constant” (Powers, 32) we wake up, we eat, we go to the bathroom, we sleep, and we think. The degree of effort put into these things can vary tremendously but the constant is still there as these are survival constants. “[N]o matter how long I live, and no matter how I spend that time, those scales aren’t coming level.” (Powers, 32)They couldn’t in Bartle’s mind because Bartle made decisions that he thought at the time were the best and right decisions with little projection of what the future could possibly hold for him and those around him. However, a catch 22 of our minds is that we have the capacity for overactive imaginations that can consume us. So while some religions would say that the universe was balancing itself out by taking Murph’s life, Bartle cannot see that personal balance, he can only see the broken promise and the tragic loss. “Murph’s always going to be eighteen, and he’s always going to be dead. And I’ll be living with the promise that I couldn’t keep.” (Powers, 32) In this paragraph, we are wrapped up in all the truth that accompanies one person’s decision to do what they feel and think is the right thing to do. “I never intended to make the promise that I made. But something happened the day Murph pivoted and moved through the open rank of our formation, took his place in the squad next to me, and looked up. He smiled.” (Powers, 32) Bartle was in this instant taken by the innocence of someone his age but smaller than him. Possibly taken by a big brother instinct and camaraderie that shown within Murph’s smile giving Bartle something to hang on to in this new world of unknown outcomes. Therefore, when the lies of war reared their ugly heads on the battlefield and the truth that Bartle couldn’t keep his promise to Murph’s mom and bring Murph home safely the pain set into a debilitating point that kept Bartle a slave to his own memories. “I’d eat a half-cooked meal and drink enough window-chilled beers to fall asleep.” (Powers, 178) “That was more or less my life.”... “I didn’t require much of myself. L might return a small trinket from the war back to a shoebox, take another out. Here a shell casing, there a patch from the right shoulder of a uniform: articles that marked a life I was not convinced had needed to be lived.” (Powers, 179) In And The Mountains Echoed Saboor started out the book by telling the story of Baba Ayub and the div which was a precursor to what he was about to do with his daughter Pari. In this first chapter, we are simply told the story without much additional thoughts and commentary by Saboor as to how he personally feels about this type of sacrifice.
However, volumes are spoken that Saboor would even entertain the thought of giving up one of his children, therefore, giving him a reason to feel a need to tell the story in the first place. We are all wrought with decisions we feel we must make in life, in the name of what we feel is right and best at the time, but much like with Bartle’s decision, it is hard to ever see the whole scope of the future implications and ramifications of these decisions. Saboor, despite “From the small red wagon up ahead, Pari cried out his name, her voice high, shaking with apprehension. “Abollah!” (Hosseini, 17) was completely dead set and headstrong that he was separating his twins Pari and Abdullah for good reason. They were poor people who lived in a hut, giving Pari up was for the better, she would be given a better life, Saboor had convinced himself of that. Because Saboor “whacked the side of his head”, “hit him again, harder”, and “threw a rock at him” (Hosseini, 17-18) wanting him so desperately to “Go home” we know that he knows how deep and connected his twins are; but again despite this knowledge, Saboor still thinks what he is doing is best. He is giving his daughter, in theory, to the div, and by legend, the div will give Pari a better life than he can. Unfortunately, life isn’t exactly like the stories we tell, while legendary and biblical type stories all have their morals and points to be made and had people shouldn’t live their lives by their words because all lives are different. It pained Saboor though, that he “saw only indifference. Endless toil.” that “Nothing good came for free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.” (Hosseini, 24) That because he could only see these harsh realities he was a slave to work “As long as Abdullah could remember, father was out searching for work, knocking on doors for a day’s labor.” (Hosseini, 27) As a slave to the hard indifference on the life he felt “Father was always too exhausted from work when Pari pulled on his sleeve and asked him to make her fly on the swing” so when he would turn her down and “she would give up” “father’s narrow face collapsed in on itself as he watched her go.” (Hosseini, 28) It was through these lies that Saboor told himself so much that begins to contrive a truth that he felt he needed to live by. Within his concocted truth he issued his twin's undue pain that even though he knew it would literally and figuratively rip them apart, he selfishly unburdened himself under the pretext that he was giving Pari a better life.
Both of these stories deal with decisions that we would think we do not face and make on a daily basis but the truth is that we do. We all face decisions that incorporate other people’s lives because that fact is that we all do not live alone. Even if we think we do, and even if it is only one other person to us, that other person has other people in their life as well. Bartle made the decision to follow in the footsteps of his family and in doing so that introduced him to Murph and also Murph’s mom. Bartle didn’t have to make that promise to her but he did and in doing so he took on a pressure he had no idea the magnitude of. Bartle is the same as Saboor in that they made decisions that affected other people’s lives but Bartle’s decision became an internal conflict that he had to work through himself. Saboor on the other hand worked through his conflict then made his decision without caring for the emotional lives of those he was affecting. His burden was lifted and placed on his son Abdullah, who in turn placed on his daughter.
All in all, the point remains that no matter who is fronting the brunt of the decisions, one’s self or an echoing through a generational line, we should take more care in thinking about the whole picture of how many lives our simple decisions interrupt and if the interruption is going to be the best in the long term.
In The Yellow Birds, Bartle (a characterization of Powers himself) was given a voice that spoke of unsureness and questions for answers to what he had lived through and why. “I’ve come to accept that parts of life are constant” (Powers, 32) we wake up, we eat, we go to the bathroom, we sleep, and we think. The degree of effort put into these things can vary tremendously but the constant is still there as these are survival constants. “[N]o matter how long I live, and no matter how I spend that time, those scales aren’t coming level.” (Powers, 32)They couldn’t in Bartle’s mind because Bartle made decisions that he thought at the time were the best and right decisions with little projection of what the future could possibly hold for him and those around him. However, a catch 22 of our minds is that we have the capacity for overactive imaginations that can consume us. So while some religions would say that the universe was balancing itself out by taking Murph’s life, Bartle cannot see that personal balance, he can only see the broken promise and the tragic loss. “Murph’s always going to be eighteen, and he’s always going to be dead. And I’ll be living with the promise that I couldn’t keep.” (Powers, 32) In this paragraph, we are wrapped up in all the truth that accompanies one person’s decision to do what they feel and think is the right thing to do. “I never intended to make the promise that I made. But something happened the day Murph pivoted and moved through the open rank of our formation, took his place in the squad next to me, and looked up. He smiled.” (Powers, 32) Bartle was in this instant taken by the innocence of someone his age but smaller than him. Possibly taken by a big brother instinct and camaraderie that shown within Murph’s smile giving Bartle something to hang on to in this new world of unknown outcomes. Therefore, when the lies of war reared their ugly heads on the battlefield and the truth that Bartle couldn’t keep his promise to Murph’s mom and bring Murph home safely the pain set into a debilitating point that kept Bartle a slave to his own memories. “I’d eat a half-cooked meal and drink enough window-chilled beers to fall asleep.” (Powers, 178) “That was more or less my life.”... “I didn’t require much of myself. L might return a small trinket from the war back to a shoebox, take another out. Here a shell casing, there a patch from the right shoulder of a uniform: articles that marked a life I was not convinced had needed to be lived.” (Powers, 179) In And The Mountains Echoed Saboor started out the book by telling the story of Baba Ayub and the div which was a precursor to what he was about to do with his daughter Pari. In this first chapter, we are simply told the story without much additional thoughts and commentary by Saboor as to how he personally feels about this type of sacrifice.
However, volumes are spoken that Saboor would even entertain the thought of giving up one of his children, therefore, giving him a reason to feel a need to tell the story in the first place. We are all wrought with decisions we feel we must make in life, in the name of what we feel is right and best at the time, but much like with Bartle’s decision, it is hard to ever see the whole scope of the future implications and ramifications of these decisions. Saboor, despite “From the small red wagon up ahead, Pari cried out his name, her voice high, shaking with apprehension. “Abollah!” (Hosseini, 17) was completely dead set and headstrong that he was separating his twins Pari and Abdullah for good reason. They were poor people who lived in a hut, giving Pari up was for the better, she would be given a better life, Saboor had convinced himself of that. Because Saboor “whacked the side of his head”, “hit him again, harder”, and “threw a rock at him” (Hosseini, 17-18) wanting him so desperately to “Go home” we know that he knows how deep and connected his twins are; but again despite this knowledge, Saboor still thinks what he is doing is best. He is giving his daughter, in theory, to the div, and by legend, the div will give Pari a better life than he can. Unfortunately, life isn’t exactly like the stories we tell, while legendary and biblical type stories all have their morals and points to be made and had people shouldn’t live their lives by their words because all lives are different. It pained Saboor though, that he “saw only indifference. Endless toil.” that “Nothing good came for free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.” (Hosseini, 24) That because he could only see these harsh realities he was a slave to work “As long as Abdullah could remember, father was out searching for work, knocking on doors for a day’s labor.” (Hosseini, 27) As a slave to the hard indifference on the life he felt “Father was always too exhausted from work when Pari pulled on his sleeve and asked him to make her fly on the swing” so when he would turn her down and “she would give up” “father’s narrow face collapsed in on itself as he watched her go.” (Hosseini, 28) It was through these lies that Saboor told himself so much that begins to contrive a truth that he felt he needed to live by. Within his concocted truth he issued his twin's undue pain that even though he knew it would literally and figuratively rip them apart, he selfishly unburdened himself under the pretext that he was giving Pari a better life.
Both of these stories deal with decisions that we would think we do not face and make on a daily basis but the truth is that we do. We all face decisions that incorporate other people’s lives because that fact is that we all do not live alone. Even if we think we do, and even if it is only one other person to us, that other person has other people in their life as well. Bartle made the decision to follow in the footsteps of his family and in doing so that introduced him to Murph and also Murph’s mom. Bartle didn’t have to make that promise to her but he did and in doing so he took on a pressure he had no idea the magnitude of. Bartle is the same as Saboor in that they made decisions that affected other people’s lives but Bartle’s decision became an internal conflict that he had to work through himself. Saboor on the other hand worked through his conflict then made his decision without caring for the emotional lives of those he was affecting. His burden was lifted and placed on his son Abdullah, who in turn placed on his daughter.
All in all, the point remains that no matter who is fronting the brunt of the decisions, one’s self or an echoing through a generational line, we should take more care in thinking about the whole picture of how many lives our simple decisions interrupt and if the interruption is going to be the best in the long term.
Works Cited:
- Powers, Kevin. The Yellow Birds. Little, Brown and Company. New York. 2012. Pgs. 32, 178, 179.
- Hosseini, Khaled. And The Mountains Echoed. Riverhead Books. New York. 2013. Pgs. 17, 18, 24, 27, 28.
No comments:
Post a Comment