The Assassination of Light at the River's Flow

At the beginning of the story, Raha seemed very optimistic. I could tell by her writing that she was very creative and poetic. She made it sound like her school was a safe haven from the fighting and problems happening in "the external world" (page 67). Raha sounds like she enjoys her school and that she has a lot of friends from all over the Middle East area. I know that for a girl to go to a school like that in that area, she must come from a wealthy family. Even though she may sound stuck-up, I feel that she is just naive and doesn't really bother herself with the "unimportant things" (page 67) that are on television. 

In the part of the story where she makes a reflection about her mother and father (on page 67), it is a little interesting how Raha says "They say that men are strong, but I wish you were stronger in front of my mother" (page 67). This is probably meaning that she wishes he would speak up more, instead of letting her mother do all of the talking. Another interesting part of the story is when, on page 67, it says "Days are stops, hours are alarms, seconds are reminders... of what?" I realized later that this quote turns out to be a countdown or a notification that her time of her happy school-life is running out (it is a foreshadowing of events that occur later on). 

I noticed that Raha's mother orders her father around and did most of the talking during the "argument/ discussion" about Raha getting married. This links back to earlier, when Raha mentioned that she wanted her father to be stronger to her mother. Raha's mother got really mean and aggressive after Raha said she refused to marry Fahid. She abused Raha and it didn't seem like it bothered the mother at all. On page 69, the Raha says "my mother's heart was the heart of a dumb hangman, who had killed his feelings to do his job." This is really saddening to see a mother turn and hurt her child in this way. 

What I am still trying to figure out is what the title means. I'm guessing light could refer to Raha. But the river's flow? On page 69, Raha reflects on her mother once taking care of her hair and calling it "a beautiful deep black river." Also, on page 67, near the beginning of the story, " the flow of water and the murmuring of doves" was mentioned as well. I am kind of unsure about that.

Also, at the beginning, in the stage directions, the author sets the ominous scene by saying right from the start that the event is assassination. I had mixed feelings about this story. It seemed very happy at the beginning, but then worsened and worsened (for Raha) as it progressed. This story is relatively short, but its size doesn't stop it from evoking emotions.