A crisis helps us to discover who we are
Injuries can be life-threatening but they can also be life-changing. They often lead to reflection as in the case of Najaf who spent three months in a hospital ward with a broken leg. After months of pondering life’s difficult questions and thinking about “mysteries”, Najaf realises that it is important to be practical and to use one’s hands to make, produce and create things. Lying in bed, Najaf presents a series of questions as he tries to penetrate the “mystery life life”…. quote … However, as he becomes increasingly frustrated, evident in his self-talk strategies, and as he contemplates the “fruitless attempt” of trying to work out if the “hammer” or the “nail” comes first, he realises that he gets more satisfaction out of working with his hands. “……” Summing up his enquiries, he realises that “……”
Adverbial
By trying to “see into the mystery of things”, Najaf realises that man is what he does with his “hands”. In doing so, he realises that he may never work out questions such as the “hammer” or the “nail”. Rather, a person is defined by their actions.
Through his leg injury, Najaf became much more appreciative of his arms and legs. He realises that a man is “what he does with his hands and legs and with his heart”. He believes it is important to be practical in order to stop overthinking about the mysteries of
Najaf’s leg injury allows him to contemplate the ‘mystery of life’ but doing so get him back to thinking about ‘things that were not nearly so great and important’.
Through his leg injury, Najaf became much more appreciative of his arms and legs. He realises that a man is “what he does with his hands and legs and with his heart”. He believes it is important to be practical in order to stop overthinking about the mysteries of
Najaf refers to the setting of the ‘crowded hospital ward” to show the inadequacy of the health care system. Mazari’s ‘fruitless attempts to understand life’ leads him to understand that he receives more satisfaction from working ‘with his hands’.Quotes: – incorrect quoting and generic sentences
‘It caused me [to] gasp and sweat and grit my teeth all through the day and night’ emphasises how much pain Najaf was going through. He also uses tripling to get his point across more.
Najaf uses a metaphor which compares the cut on his leg to a plough that cuts through the earth: “The flesh of my leg has been torn open in the way that a plough cuts through the earth”.
Najaf uses the imagery of the plough to capture the harmful nature of his injury. He uses farming imagery because Afghanistan is a farming community and this enables him to portray, in a relatable manner, the life-threatening nature of his injury. The simile also captures the depth of his painful wounds.
Najaf uses a tripling device – ‘it made me gasp and sweat and grit my teeth” – to convey his excruciating pain.
Mazari’s conflation of imagery and simile when he describes her wound as being ‘torn open in the way that a plough cuts through the earth’ seeks to convey the horrors of war that Afghanis are subject to in their daily lives.
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