Literary Circle
Topic 1
Kevork’s main obstacles are the Turkish soldiers in the novel Daughter of War by Marsha Forchek Skrypuch. The Turkish soldiers are found pretty much everywhere in the novel in order to make sure that Armenians like Kevork don’t live a pleasant life. Whenever Kevork notices a soldier around; he gets really nervous for fear that he will be discovered. An example of this is when Kevork sees a soldier near his booth; it says “He forced himself to look unconcerned as the soldier approached…the soldier stopped in front of his booth and slammed down a polished wooden rifle with a clatter. Kevork’s heart was pounding so hard he thought it would burst out of his chest. Had the soldier somehow seen through his Arab disguise?” (Page 5, paragraph 6-7). Kevork is disguised as an Arab in order to escape being sent to the desert to die again. The soldier coming to his booth spooks him but turns out to be a false alarm. Many Turkish soldiers treat the Armenians as if they are worthless and there are many examples of this in the novel. One of which is when the Turkish soldiers raid the orphanage, the officer asks Kevork to stand and he towers over the officer. “This is no child.” The officer says ( page 30, 2nd paragraph). He then sends him and Marta to stand with the other adults to be sent to their deaths. They were then sent to the desert, forced to walk without too much food or water. At the time of the raid, Kevork was 15 and Marta was 13. Due to the fact that they were Armenians, they had to be punished to their deaths and most of their families were slaughtered. The Turkish soldiers were ruthless people that did not care for human lives. The turks also prevent him from seeing his bethrothed, Martha again. While Kevork does the errands for the missionaries, he can not stop thinking about Martha and hopes to be able to see her again. It is because of the Turkish Soldiers and fear of being found and sent to their deaths again that he can’t find her....