they can kill her—so she won’t go to heaven, where all the virgins go." Her nostrils flared in the middle of her rough, square face. "Men of God," she said.

Parvin is disgusted by the recent murder of a thirteen-year-old girl. After being arrested for "acts incompatible with chastity," the girl was interrogated and then killed. Parvin insists that men sexualize women so that they can serve their own purposes, and women are voiceless and powerless to change their fates. It occurs to Sarah that "no one else she knew ... would ever dare speak so critically of Islam." Parvin wants to bring the girl's fate to the attention of a wider audience, but Mahmoud cautions that doing so could be dangerous, particularly during this time of religious celebration and focus. In the end, Parvin is missing and no one is sure if her outspoken criticism has led to her disappearance.

You might also look for quotes that demonstrate themes of oppression, rebirth, vulnerability, isolation, and injustice.

The stories "The Boat" and "Tehran Calling" share similar concerns with close relatives and those who fulfill surrogate roles for them. The characters are thrown together with people to whom they are not biologically related, which results in close social bonds as well as invokes memories of those they have lost or left behind. Another important factor is the main characters' involvement with sociopolitical difficulties, whether war in Vietnam or a repressive regime in Iran respectively.

In "The Boat," primary themes include human resilience in challenging circumstances and the tight bonds that form between people in such times. In a crowded boat fleeing Vietnam, Mai is alone but draws strength from her relationship with a woman named Quyen and her young son, Truong.

Hearing Quyen sing both strengthens her resolve to survive and makes her feel guilty over neglecting her mother.

She had been a daughter selfish with her own loss. From that day on, she never again heard her mother sing.

The conflicting feelings and memories that grip Mai as she tries to resist feeling too close to them are shown as connected to her desire to get past grief over losing her parents.

As the crossing becomes more difficult, Mai grows ill but resolves to survive even as others give up. She also decides that she should honor Quyen's request to help her son.

She would look after Truong as if he were her own child.

It might be helpful to structure your essay by first finding themes which these two short stories by Nam Le share. Although you are working with two different plots and sets of characters, the stories share some common truths about the human experience.

You might consider that both stories demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit. In "Tehran Calling," Sarah leaves the comforts of her known world following a breakup with her lawyer boyfriend. Instead of wallowing in despair, Sarah is moved to action and allows pain to propel her into new experiences. Her friend Parvin is determined to expose the corruption of her government and boldly writes a play which she plans to use to expose the truth; she recognizes the danger inherent in this path, and her efforts are seemingly discovered just before she disappears. Still, Parvin demonstrates a fierce resilience that refuses to be silenced by the threat of retribution.

In "The Boat," you might trace Mai's path toward freedom, which begins with the separation from her homeland. She endures numerous challenges, such as illness and hunger, in order to attain safety from the conflicts she left behind in Vietnam.

Other themes the two stories have in common might include political corruption, isolation, and oppression. What truths are revealed about the human spirit through characterization and conflict? You might, for example, consider that Sarah's willingness to sleep with Parvin's boyfriend demonstrates that it is possible for even those with noble intentions to fall into corruption.