IHSS In-Class/HW: Prisoner of the Infidels

 Jayla Balderas 

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

20 October 2021

                                                            Prisoner of Infidels

 Pick a section to note the style of his writing.  How would you characterize it?

The last paragraph of the Prisoner of Infidels were the narrator/translator  explains how Osman escaped how he walked in the forest for a couple of days trying to get away and how he had to lie about not being Muslim instead presenting himself as pauper a Serbian Christian. Even after he explains this all to the general the reading ends with Osman becoming a slave again. The style of writing is almost like it's a story from how insane his life is but it's told so simply in a way that makes it seem like it wasn’t the biggest deal to Osman even though we know a lot of details are missing and he goes from one large event to another. The translator's writing is modern and that's what could contribute to what I stated before. 

What role does his religion play in his thinking?  Give an example.

Religion played a role for one he was captured because of his religion. This is then always in the back of his mind and in a way is dictating the choices he makes. Each time he escapes he is escaping towards/or at least is trying to escape towards a place that will welcome him a place that holds a ounce of home would be one that follows the same religion, this could be seen in this quote, “That Bosnia is Muslim territory, and Bosnia is not far. From here it's just three days to Sava, It would be easy for you to escape there, If you wanted. You'll be seeing your fellow Muslims in two or three days.” (Respite The Prisoner of Infidels) Then after this Osman takes the man's advice and escapes from his master in hopes that he will reach Bosnia. 

What is a decision that he had to make?  Do you think it was a good one? Why or why not?

Hiding in the bins inside the house and waiting for his master to get tired of looking for Osman and having to leave. The master wanted to take him on his travels and in a way wanted to promote him and make him a trumpeter but from what Osman says right after, “From this, I understood God’s will, namely, that my master had no intentions of ever granting my freedom. And once he took me to Vienna, perhaps he would force me to worship according to his faith.” (Respite The Prisoner of Infidels.) This is what pushes Osman to make his plan of escape because he didn’t want to be forced to worship another religion and it shows how passionate he was for it even in the darkest moments of his life when people usually turn towards religion or away from it. I think it was a good decision he made because who knows what would have happened if he stayed.  

How does Osman's experience help us understand history?  Why is his experience important?

Well from the first line of Behind enemy lines, “Osman of Timisoara was captured at precisely this moment of deep imperial crisis.” (Respite of Prisoner of Infidels). It states how there was a war going on and By the end of 1688 how Ottoman Balkans fell and how it affected Osman's father as well. With this added information that creates a background from the Respite reading which is just an added layer of what's happening during this time period, it helps us understand history through his lens by the narrations of the events of his life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cultural Anthropology blog

   Nate Savarese Mr. Roddy IHSS 31 August 2021 Cultural Anthropology Blog      I read cultural anthropology blog Vol. 36 No. 2 (2021). T his blog covers many different topics. One of these topics is about things such as rural places in the world that use the labor of inmates to produce value in their economy. An example of this is rural places in new jersey where the inequalities of the inmates challenge the work that they must do to make a living. This article also has an example of when people studied ethnography in Japan. In Japan there are Buddhists that sell pet robots such as robot dogs, to people to re-define the boundaries between  life, death, amusement, and play. I have been wondering if society would accept robot dogs or cats as replacements for real ones. I think that this would offer the trade between personality and functionality. In Bolivia Juliane muller offers the thought of large corporate companies attempting to bestow a ne...
Read more

What Did Medieval Peasants Know?

  Jayla Balderas  Mr. Roddy  IHSS  16 May 2022                                                   What Did Medieval Peasants Know? A comment often thrown around is how much easier life was in medieval times. What sparked this specific article was a tweet made by a woman named Azie Dungey she said, “We give a lot more labor to increase someone else’s wealth than in times past. We generally work much longer hours. We have far fewer holidays and times of community festivity,” (Dungey).  This sparked a controversy, and brought up the question, what were things really like during the medieval times? It was stated everyone has a different variety of what they believed this era looked like in their head because it's ...
Read more

John D Rockefeller - Eli

John Davison Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. And In 1864, Rockefeller married Laura Celestia. Laura Celestia was an Ohio native and had a very successful father. Her father was active in helping the underground railroad and was an abolitionist. together Rockefeller and Celestia went on to have five children, 4 of them girls and one boy. however one of the girls, Alice Rockefeller died when she was only 13 months old. Later, In 1865 Rockefeller took out a loan to buy out his partner's oil refineries. He quickly formed more partners and expanded his oil business. he soon made the standard oil company of Ohio along with his younger brother and other young men. John Rockefeller became the president and biggest shareholder of the company. He began to make a monopoly in the Oil industry by buying out his competitors. he started selling his oil globally and eventually made up 90 percent of the nation's oil.  the gilded age is an era where we see a gr...
Read more