Help with essay topic. In the country of men.

[NeedHelpWithStudy]

Hey guys, i was wondering if you guys could help me with an essay topic. Cannot seem to think about a point to write about. Here is the prompt : "How does the dominance of men affect Suleiman" . The prompt is based on the novel In the country of men. Thanks in advance for your help.

[brenden]

Oooh! I think this is from VCAA, right? I had the best time doing ItCoM with vTextbook. I reckon it's a mad book. Tell me more about your thoughts with the prompt and novel.  I know that you have thoughts about the prompt. They just seem too obvious, or too simple, or "not enough for an essay" right now. But don't worry about being wrong or anything like that, juts lay your thoughts on me! GO!

[NeedHelpWithStudy]

I was going to talk about the revolutionary committe (muhabarat), how they have dominance over not only suleiman but everyone there. Also about Sheriff, how he hadd the power to tricking suleimann into getting Nasser caught. Moosa and Baba they have dominance over suleiman since Sulleiman feels as if their present is bigger and he does not have control over them. He is only the man of the house when his bab is not arround.

[brenden]

Awesome! Great. So, I can see that you've honed in on the "dominance" aspect of this prompt, but if the prompt is

"How does the dominance of men affect Suleiman"

Then there's a LOT of room here to talk about the "...affect Suleiman" part. But are we talking emotionally/psychologically? Physically? Or does the dominance of men influence the events in Suleiman's life?

You mentioned that Suleiman is only the man of the house when his bab is not around. Let's think about this a bit more. So, being the man of the house "feels like a compliment I didn't want" (or something like this?) -- it's SUPPOSED to be good, but it feels wrong for some reason. What we can get from this is the VALUE of masculinity in Suleiman's society (dominance of men). When we think about this more, there's something missing here: Najwa. Why isn't she just the "woman of the house" - and who cares what Suleiman is when Baba is gone? THIS is what's truly screwing Suleiman; the way in which is mum has been dominated by men.

Consider the relationship Najwa has with Suleiman - very emotionally volatile (volatile = unpredictable, up and down). But why is Najwa this way? Why is she an alcoholic? Because of the way men have dominated her life - the High Council, Faraj, losing her virginity even, etc etc. So, you can answer the prompt through showing how NAJWA influences Suleiman, but by showing that this is ultiamtely because of the dominance of men.

Ok... so there's one example. What I wanted to show you is that you can think in different ways. It doesn't need to be all about WHO DOMINATES SULEIMAN. It can be about different stuff, (especially the lastpart of the prompt).

"How does the dominance of men affect Suleiman"

You could answer this like...

Subliminally?
Emotionally?
His Health?
Psychologically?
Physically?
His imagination?
His innocence?

And ANY amount of themes you may have thought of. See - think outside the box. You could even change it to ""How does the dominance of men affect Suleiman's innocence/feelings/guilt/morality/masculinity".. etc etc etc (just put 'themes' on the end of the sentence).

Let me know if you have more thoughts now that you might have different ways to think about the prompt