Chapter 16 & 17

Reza dislocates his shoulder during the match to qualify for the Air Force’s National Wrestling Team. Reza’s quest to defect is complicated by Hassan’s imprisonment—Hassan may be hung in revenge.

1. Loyalty 
2. Desire 
3. Love

1. What are Ardeshir’s impressions about being a Sepah?
2. Why was it significant to Ardeshir that Reza “went left” in the wrestling match.
3. Describe how the members of the family are coping with Hassan’s imprisonment.
4. How do the physical state of Nimtaj and Soraya reflect their emotional states?
5. Consider Reza’s and Soraya’s relationship in the beginning of the story.  How and why has it changed?

Sketch a picture of Reza and Nimtaj’s visit with Hassan. 

1. “He’s got a right weak knee,” Ardeshir said as he pointed his own right leg. “Shoot it.”  Reza shook his head and flexed his biceps.  “Don’t need to.”  And then he looked at Ardeshir, slightly annoyed.  “Don’t tell me those things.”  
2. Reza’s mind saw Hassan sitting next to him in the truck as they drove to the prison.  He heard his screams as he awoke from his nightmare; the nightmare that now he lived, alone.  Did somehow he know?  But Abbas missed a fierce determination Reza sensed in Hassan and Reza believed he would survive.  
3. Abbas looked harshly at Reza. “It’s been hard on everyone.  Rasha, Meri and even Farah come when they can.  When they can be escorted by their husbands, so they are not beaten or arrested.”  Abbas shook his head in disgust and disbelief. “I don’t know the life we live anymore.”  Amir looked away in shame of his support of Khomeini’s return.  It was not supposed to be this way. 

Imagery is the “mental picture” that readers experience through description of the five senses. Copy a sentence for each of the five senses used to describe the prison from Chap 11 or Chap 8. 

Against the dramatic landscape of world altering events, Reza’s heroric journey unfolds.