Where We Learn: Student Choice Short Story by https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw An analysis of theme, character, and setting in "Seventy Thousand Assyrians" by William Saroyan. en-us 2017-04-23 21:18:47 UTC 2025-11-06 23:50:14 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Shakinghands.png Theme: Individuality within Community BlueFlower123 https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167711593 "I want you to know that I am deeply interested in what people remember. A young
writer goes out to places and talks to people. He tries to find out what they remember. I
am not using great material for a short story. Nothing is going to happen in this work. I
am not fabricating a fancy plot. I am not creating memorable characters." 

" I am merely making a
record, so if I wander around a little, it is because I am in no hurry and because I do not know the rules. If I have any desire at all, it is to show the brotherhood of man."
Perhaps these particular quotes could represent community because of all the people who make up a community. Each person is an individual with their own personalities and memories who compose who they are. Based on the first quote, each person has different memories of their community that are important to the person to whom they belong to whether they actually make a significant impact on the external world or not. Based on the second quote, the "records" are the evidence left behind that makes each person who they are in the present: their strengths, weaknesses, desires, fears, etc. Each person has characteristics that can contribute to the community and make it diverse. 
]]> 2017-04-23 21:27:06 UTC https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167711593 Character: Badal BlueFlower123 https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167721827  He was tall, he had a dark serious face, thick lips, on the verge of smiling but melancholy, thick lashes, sad eyes, a
large nose. I saw his name on the card that was pasted on the mirror, Theodore Badal. A
good name, genuine, a good young man, genuine. Theodore Badal began to work on my
head. A good barber never speaks until he has been spoken to, no matter how full his
heart may be. 

"We were a great people
once," he went on. "But that was yesterday, the day before yesterday. Now we are a topic
in ancient history. We had a great civilization. They're still admiring it. Now I am in
America learning how to cut hair. We're washed up as a race, we're through, it's all over,
why should I learn to read the language? We have no writers, we have no news-"

Badal said, "I cannot read Assyrian. I was born in the old country, but I want to get
over it." 
Based on the third and fourth quotes, maybe Badal is one of those people who is trying to avoid his personal past and is trying to start over. Maybe his home life had been terrible and that is why is trying to avoid it, and he has started his new life as a barber. Maybe him not seeing the point of learning to read his culture's language symbolizes him trying to avoid anything associated with his past. All readers know about him is that he was born in "the old country," but we don't know anything about his home life. Maybe the part in the first quote about good barbers never speaking unless they are spoken to despite how full-hearted they are could be a clue that Badal is hiding something about himself out of fear of judgement. 
]]> 2017-04-24 00:33:24 UTC https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167721827 Events and Theme: Newfound Knowledge of Others BlueFlower123 https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167722244 We began to talk about the Assyrian language and the Armenian language, about the
old world, conditions over there, and so on. I was getting a fifteen-cent haircut and I was
doing my best to learn something at the same time, to acquire some new truth, some new
appreciation of the wonder of life, the dignity of man. (Man has great dignity, do not
imagine that he has not.) 

He said, "I am an Assyrian."

Well, it was something. They, the Assyrians, came from our part of the world, they
had noses like our noses, eyes like our eyes, hearts like our hearts. They had a different
language. When they spoke we couldn't understand them, but they were a lot like us. It
wasn't quite as pleasing as it would have been if Badal had been an Armenian, but it was
something
In this scene, the narrator thought the barber was Armenian like him, but it turned out that the barber was in fact Assyrian. This scene could represent that the people you know are a part of your community and there are new things to learn about and from each person. The fact that the barber turned out to be Assyrian instead of Armenian could possibly represent that not everyone is who they seem at the surface level; they each have several layers of who they are so you can be caught off guard when someone reveals a new, deeper layer of themselves.
]]> 2017-04-24 00:38:57 UTC https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167722244 Character: The Narrator BlueFlower123 https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167722385 "These remarks were very painful to me, an Armenian. I had always felt badly about
my own people being destroyed. I had never heard an Assyrian speaking in English about
such things. I felt great love for this young fellow." 
Based on the part of this quote about feeling "great love for this young fellow" after Badal talks about the destruction of his people in English, maybe the narrator enjoys it when he hears others talking about what pains them, especially when they are willingly and specifically telling it to him. 
]]> 2017-04-24 00:41:14 UTC https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167722385 Setting: Community within a Barber Shop BlueFlower123 https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167983016  I was a young man in need
of a haircut, so I went down to Third Street (San Francisco), to the Barber College, for a
fifteen-cent haircut.

Third Street, below Howard, is a district; think of the Bowery in New York, Main
Street in Los Angeles: think of old men and boys, out of work, hanging around, smoking
Bull Durham, talking about the government, waiting for something to turn up, simply
waiting. 
The barber shop represents community because at barber shops, whether people are there because they are employed there or they go because of needing their hair done, they interact with other people. If you're a customer, you interact with the barbers. If you're an employee, you interact with customers all the time. No matter which case it is, you can converse with others about different topics. You can learn about the other person's life and you can discuss things that both of you care about.
]]> 2017-04-24 22:58:24 UTC https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167983016 Theme and Setting: One Species BlueFlower123 https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167988099  I do not believe in
races. I do not believe in governments. I see life as one life at one time, so many millions
simultaneously, all over the earth. 

If I want to do anything, I want to speak a more universal language. The heart of
man, the unwritten part of man, that which is eternal and common to all races. 

 I think now that I have affection for all people, even for the enemies of
Armenia, whom I have so tactfully not named. Everyone knows who they are. I have
nothing against any of them because I think of them as one man living one life at a time
The narrator believes in the universality of humankind and he desires that humankind could see each other as one species. The setting of this short story is a barber shop and that relates to this theme because a barber shop is a place where people from different cultures and backgrounds come for a common goal, which is something as simple as getting a hair cut.
]]> 2017-04-25 00:19:11 UTC https://padlet.com/BlueFlower123/vavocjq4oaxw/wish/167988099