A most wanted man 165-219

Brue has gotten more involved with Issa. After they met, Brue realized that Issa had some serious problems. He was very skinny because he was so stressed, and he thought every man that wore a suit was a secret policeman. He also started liking Annabel. He is becoming an old man, and he is rich so that he decides he will just give Annabel some money to help Issa. He gives her thirty thousand euros, which is equivalent to about fifty thousand dollars, so she can check Issa into a clinic to help him get over his fear. One of Issa's most eerie quotes is when he says to Annabel "If I sleep, I shall return to prison"(132). I am not sure if this means that he thinks he is dreaming, and that if he goes to sleep he will wake up in prison, or maybe he has nightmares about what they did to him in prison. Either one has terrifying possibilities. Issa has been tortured, they know this, and he is very afraid. Brue has been trying to get Annabel to like him, so he decides to get more involved with the Issa situation, even though he knows that if Issa is arrested he will be in much deeper trouble for being an accomplice to whatever it is that Issa is doing. Then, right at the end, Annabel is captured by the secret police. They take over the situation with Issa, forcing her to make phony calls to him telling him everything is OK. After making the call and placing listening devices in the apartment where Issa is staying, she tells the secret policeman "that was the filthiest thing I have done in my life"(197). She is very angry that she had to lie to her client, who she was trying to protect. This shows her noble morals that she has as a lawyer. She could be working with some big, rich firm but instead she works to help out these charity cases and actually do something positive.

A most wanted man 110-164

The mysterious man who showed up at their house is named Issa. He won't tell them his last name, saying it is "immaterial"(147). This word comes up quite often, basically whenever Issa is asked a question he doesn't want to answer, or a question about his past. This deceptiveness leads us to a deeper thought that maybe he is a terrorist. Annabel Richter, a lawyer who works with a company that defends immigrants like Issa, has taken Issa as a client and has hidden him in an apartment where she used to live. She is communicating with Tommy Brue, the banker, to try and figure the problem out with the large amounts of money in the accounts. Issa doesn't want this money, because to him it is tainted by his father. Brue refuses to get involved further than being able to give him the money from the account. SO they are at a standoff, because the only help that Brue is willing to give is the help that Issa doesn't want. The police have become very interested in Issa, because they think he might be a terrorist. Even if he wasn't they would be interested because of they way he came to Hamburg. From what the Police have told us, Issa escaped from a prison in Sweden, rode in a container on a cargo ship with a few other escapees to Copenhagen, where they were captured. Issa escaped again and got on a train to Hamburg. He is an illegal immigrant, so the police are trying to arrest him. Annabel Richter knows that whoever is chasing Issa from Russia will kill him if he is sent back, so she is trying to save him by keeping him in hamburg. This conflict sets the reader up for a number of interesting scenarios in the future. Will Annabel save Issa? Will Issa take the money and do something? Will Brue get more involved? any of these would be interesting, but we have no idea where this story will go.

A Most Wanted Man pages 55-109

In these pages, learn about the methods of the secret police in Hamburg. The chief says " We stay small. We stay on the street. We do detail, not grand vision" (59). This is the method that they are using to try and find terrorists. As we know, Lydia and Melik have allowed the ragged man with the fiery eyes into their house. The man claims to be Muslim, but Melik sees that he doesn't know or follow any of the Muslim customs. For instance, he doesn't treat the Qu'ran with its deserved respect, and he doesn't pray at all. They start to believe that he may be a terrorist. At the same time, these policemen are trying to track down a terrorist that is reportedly in Hamburg. The reader is supposed to get the sense that this isn't a coincidence, and put two and two together that the man in Lydia and Meliks house might be the terrorist. This twist, early in the story, plants a seed of doubt in the readers mind that makes them wonder about who the mysterious man might really be.

A Most Wanted Man, Part I (Pages 1-54)

Le Carre, John. A Most Wanted Man. New York NY: Scribner, 2008.

For my outside reading I am reading A Most wanted man, by John Le Carre. The story begins with a Muslim family living in Hamburg after the bombing of the world trade center. Because the bombers boarded the plane from Hamburg, the secret police there have tightened security around the city. LeCarre writes "Since 9/11, Hamburg's mosques had become a dangerous place. Go to the wrong one, or to the right one and get the wrong [priest], and you could find yourself and your family on the police list for a long time (3)" There is a lot of suspicion directed at Muslims, and the mosques are rumored to be filled with secret policemen looking for terrorists. The son in this family is called Melik, and his mothers name is Leyla. A thin man in a large coat with eyes that burn with emotion shows up at their front door. Melik wants to throw him out, because he could be a terrorist. Leyla, however, takes him in, because she wants Allah to forgive her for not going to the mosque in a while, and because she feels pity for the man. LeCarre write "but when he made to slam the door, he discovered Leyla standing on the stair behind him, looking over his shoulder at the boy and at the cardboard notice shaking uncontrollably in his hand (6)". Leyla convinces him to let the boy stay. We as the reader are supposed to feel the same as Melik in this case, because most of us wouldn't allow a ragged man into our house. The characters have been set up with traits, and we will see if they change further into the book.