Riad Halabi isn’t as respected in the community as Ines, but has earned respect from them all. I think that he has a similar role in the community as I have in my community. Because he isn’t a preacher, or any sort of law figure. But he is respected for his advice. Ines has a lot of respect for him. Because when Riad asked her why she came to him for help, she said “Because you are the person I love most in this world, and because you should have been the father of my son”. Riad was an Arab immigrant with a false Turkish passport. He was lonely and weary with a palate split like a rabbit’s and a subsequent longing to sit in the shadows. I don’t think that his bad points affect him, because this community is very accepting. If an illegal immigrant was to come to a small village in the UK, he would last long before people reported him. And the community in the village would not accept him as one of them. So the community in Agua Santa is very different than the community in the UK.
I feel that the community handled the murder of Ines’s son well, but they were all very shaken by it. And they were also very angry. The community threw the mangoes into the perpetrators house because they felt that they had to let out their anger. The community didn’t know about the murder of the guest because the 3 veterans from the military and Riad didn’t tell anyone. I think the veterans kept her secret because Ines taught them as children, so they had too much respect for her. I think that killing the guest was the right thing to do.
The community in American dreams are very close like the community in Agua Santa. They all know each very well, which is why they act together, and make decisions together. I think that title American Dreams is what all of the community in the story wanted. They wanted big houses, cars, and televisions. They wanted these dreams because they felt that their community wasn’t good enough. Which is why in the story, they say that the community doesn’t feel that this village is their permanent home. This community doesn’t respect the village a lot. They don’t appreciate the community, because they want to have the “American Dream”.
Mr Gleason is an outsider because he stopped greeting the community in social places. He is excluded from the community because he has stopped doing what the community expects from him. And when he beings the construction of the walls, he makes him self even more of an outsider. The community thinks that he has gone crazy, and totally rejects him from their community. Carey is trying to tell us that this community doesn’t except anyone not doing what they think is normal. This is true for all communities. But because this community is very close, it becomes a lot more apparent. Carey tells the reader about what the community’s everyday activities are, and how they react, and respond to one and other. This is how Carey gives us information about the community.
Mr Gleason punishes the community, by not greeting them on a day to day basis. This makes them think about why he is not greeting them, and what they have done wrong. He then builds the wall, without explaining what it is for. When he dies, his wife knocks down the walls to reveal the model of their town. This catches the community by surprise. The community feels like Mr Gleason is an insider again. Until they find out that he has made models of them all. This outrages the council, and they decided to demolish the model because it revels a lot of the town’s secrets. This makes them feel very venerable. The village then decides to keep the model as a tourist attraction. This excites the town, because they feel that they can get closer to the American dream. But it all goes wrong, the tourist treat the people of the village like the models of the people in the model village.
From this story, we can learn that a community only respects you if you are an insider. But to be an insider you have to act the way that the community wants you to act.
Both of these stories are based on revenge. There main elements are the same, but they are very different. I prefer the Story by Isabel Allende, The school teachers guest because I feel the story has a better structure. I think that the contents of The school teachers guest is a lot more appealing to me, because it has a lot of tradition, that makes the story interesting.
