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ilovethebook

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Being a thirteen-year-old, undersized, unarmed Armenian boy who could be shot, stabbed, beaten, or abandoned by the man sitting next to me, I felt that it was in my best interest to act as friendly as possible

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Being a thirteen-year-old, undersized, unarmed Armenian boy who could be shot, stabbed, beaten, or abandoned by the man sitting next to me, I felt that it was in my best interest to act as friendly as possible

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"If anyone, boy or girl, tried to push me aside, I pushed harder. If anyone wanted to fight I was ready. I moved and thought and spoke only for food" (Bagdasarian 104)

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What did Vahan mean by “and this was our fire”?

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"I did not know when I opened my eyes the next morning that it was the last day of my childhood. The day seemed no more ominous than the one before; my heart no heavier, my fears no greater. As I walked down the stairs to the kitchen, I had no premonition that my family and I were about to share our last meal together"
(Bagdasarian 23).

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See all the wonderful things Kerissa Roderick has made

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Ms. Roderick
Ms. Roderick


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Allie
Allie 
“I opened my eyes. I knew then, hopelessly, that dying on this bench in this auditorium was out of the question. I had to escape” (Bagdasarian 97)

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"And each day, I felt less and less like myself and more and more like a beggar. And as time passed, it did not seem to matter what a beggar did, or whether or not a beggar said "please" or "thank you" or who he pushed aside or where he slept or what he ate. All that mattered was whether or not the beggar survived. And I was surviving" (Bagdasarian 104).

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“I might have died with Diran and Tavel, or I might be screaming in prison or hanging from Karnigs noose, but I was no longer in our house or even inside myself” (Bagdasarian 28).

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el, or I might be screaming in prison or hanging from Karnigs noose, but I was no longer in our house or even inside myself”

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"If anyone, boy or girl, tried to push me aside, I pushed harder. If anyone wanted to fight I was ready. I moved and thought and spoke only for food" (Bagdasarian 104)

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The moment when Vahan's mother tells Sisak to take him and runaway under the cover of night.
She says, "When it gets dark... I want you to ta

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Looking into the room, I saw only darkness at first. Then I heard a sound and a part of the floor moved, and I realized it was a floor of bodies. (6.11)

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“In the outside world I thought of myself as a grown man, independent of my family, but In my own name I was merely a twelve-year-old boy who had been frightened by my fathers absence” (Bagdasarian 12).

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“I might have died with Diran and Tavel, or I might be screaming in prison or hanging from Karnigs noose, but I was no longer in our house or even inside myself” (Bagdasarian 28).

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"I did not know when I opened my eyes the next morning that it was the last day of my childhood. The day seemed no more ominous than the one before; my heart no heavier, my fears no greater. As I walked down the stairs to the kitchen, I had no premonition that my family and I were about to share our last meal together"
(Bagdasarian 23).

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The problem with loneliness is that, unlike other forms of human suffering, it teaches us nothing, leads us nowhere, and generally devalues us in our own eyes and the eyes of others. It lies upon the soul lightly or heavily, depending on one’s age and one’s luck, and swiftly transforms the heartiest of souls into a living ash of spiritual doubt and despair. It is impervious to medicine, common sense, wisdom, humor, hope, or pride. It simple comes, sits in the center of the heart where it can

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"For the first time in my life, I  was hungry and there was no food, I was thirsty and there was no water. I knew then as I had not known before that the room was real and that my home and my room and my bed had been a dream" (Bagdasarian 36).

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"If there is any trouble," he said, "take the poison and it will all be over." No one asked him what kind of trouble could be worse than death. They all seemed to know (Bagdasarian 21).

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"And each day, I felt less and less like myself and more and more like a beggar. And as time passed, it did not seem to matter what a beggar did, or whether or not a beggar said "please" or "thank you" or who he pushed aside or where he slept or what he ate. All that mattered was whether or not the beggar survived. And I was surviving" (Bagdasarian 104).

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"Perhaps I knew then that we were going to die, that we had been brought here to die and that before the sun set there would be two hundred more bodies floating in the river" (Bagdasarian 47).

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Being a thirteen-year-old, undersized, unarmed Armenian boy who could be shot, stabbed, beaten, or abandoned by the man sitting next to me, I felt that it was in my best interest to act as friendly as possible (Bagdasarian 127).

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“I opened my eyes. I knew then, hopelessly, that dying on this bench in this auditorium was out of the question. I had to escape” (Bagdasarian 97).

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"I did not know when I opened my eyes the next morning that it was the last day of my childhood. The day seemed no more ominous than the one before; my heart was no heavier, my fears no greater. As i walked down the stairs to the kitchen, I had no premonition that my family and I were about to share our last meal together"(Bagdasarian 23).

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"If anyone, boy or girl, tried to push me aside, I pushed harder. If anyone wanted to fight I was ready. I moved and thought and spoke only for food" (Bagdasarian 104)

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All these years later I still ask myself if I should have left my mother and sister.I ask myself this question almost every day" (Bagdasarian 50).
I opened my eyes. I knew then, hopelessly, that dying on this bench in this auditorium was out of the question. I had to escape" ( Bagdasarian 97).

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"I did not want to think at all. I closed my eyes and began to count. I had never counted to more than five hundred before, so I counted to five hundred, then to six hundred. At that moment I would gladly have traded my life to become a number, to be four or five or fifty-two, with no sorrows and nothing to fear" (Bagdasarian 75).

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"All I could do was walk, and keep walking, and not faint, and not fall back, and not think about where we were walking or what would happen to us there. "There" did not exist. "There" was the other side of the world, the bottom of the ocean" (Bagdasarian 43-44).

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"It was time. By now I was so frightened that I hardly realized that I was kissing my mother and my sister for the last time -even when I felt my mother's tears on my lips, even when Oskina embraced me and whispered, "Goodbye." It was not really goodbye, it was only goodnight" (Bagdasarian 52).

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“For the first time in my life, I was hungry and there was no food. I was thirsty and there was no water. I knew then as I had not known before that the room was real and that my home and my room and my bed had been a dream” (Bagdasarian 36).

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" My grandmother would have told me that it was man, not God, who made the misery in the world and that it was only God's grace that made that misery bearable. She would have reminded me that God was always speaking , but man was not always listening" (Bagdasarian 76).

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"If there is any trouble," he said, "take the poison and it will all be over." No one asked him what kind of trouble could be worse than death. They all seemed to know.

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"And when I could no longer walk as myself, I pretended that I was my father, that I had my father's face and my father's will and my father's mind and muscles" (Bagdasarian 56).

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"If I had known what lay ahead that morning, I would have cherished every word my brothers spoke, the sound of their voices, the sight of them sitting across from me. I would have told them that I loved them with all my heart and that I would never forget them as long as I lived (Bagdasarian 23).

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"I began to count, hoping by that the Sisak would appear before i reached fifty. When I reached fifty, I counted to sixty, to seventy. I knew then that he wasn't coming, that I could count to a thousand and he wouldn't come" (Bagdasarian 65).

" 'This is how steel is made,' he said, which is what our father use to say when circumstances tested our character, which wasn't very often. 'Steel,' my father said, 'is made by strong fire.' And this was our fire" (Bagdasarian 55).

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“The problem with loneliness is that, unlike other forms of human suffering, it teaches us nothing, leads us nowhere, and generally devalues us in our own eyes and the eyes of others. It lies upon the soul lightly or heavily, depending on one’s age and one’s luck, and swiftly transforms the heartiest of souls into a living ash of spiritual doubt and despair. It is impervious to medicine, common sense, wisdom, humor, hope, or pride. It simple comes, sits in the center of the heart where it cannot be overlooked, and abide” (Bagdasarian 130).

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"I felt my loneliness on my skin, in my chest and stomach"(Bagdasarian 131).

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“For the first time in my life, I actually hated God. All my life I had felt his hand in all the happiness and good fortune that my family and I had enjoyed, and now I felt betrayed. He could have made me follow Siska if He’d wanted to, instead of letting me run the wrong way”( Bagdasarian 75).

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“But when we actually turned onto the lane that led to my home, I felt no relief at all. I had walked to school on this lane, run races against Oskina, climbed trees, picked fruit, and ridden horses. Now the lane was deserted, and all I saw was myself and my family being led out of the city by the soldiers” (Bagdasarian 111).

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The moment when Vahan's mother tells Sisak to take him and runaway under the cover of night.
She says, "When it gets dark... I want you to take Vahan and run away" (Bagdasarian 50); and later, gives her reasoning, "'I cannot watch them kill you,' my mother said. 'Please.' That was all she said" (Bagdasarian 50).

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"If there is any trouble,' he said,'take the poison and it will all be over.' No one asked him what kind of trouble could be worse than death. They all seemed to know"(Bagdassarian 21)

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"All these years later I still ask myself if I should have left my mother and sister. I ask myself this question almost every day. At the time it was just a fact like so many others we had faced in the last few weeks" (Bagdassarian 50).

"If there is any trouble, he said, take the poison and it will all be over .No one asked him what kind of trouble could be worse than death. They all seemed to know" (Bagdassarian 21) .