Theme Of Forgotten Fire By Adam Bagdasarian

Mud brown bricks are splattered with fresh red blood. Clean windows become cloudy as the souls of the departed try to escape through them. A home that served as a safe haven quickly fills with thoughts of death and everything that has been lost. What was once a place full of comfort and happy memories is now a quiet, empty house, surrounded by loneliness and despair. In Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian, main character Vahan Kenderian must endure a shift of lifestyle in which he goes from being a wealthy, privileged young man, into a pursued and lonely beggar. Between the author's purpose, rhetorical strategies, and the culture, Bagdasarian develops the themes of home is where the heart is and loneliness to advance the plot and to develop

Vahan begins the story with a large and happy family that lives in harmony in a sizeable home in Bitlis, Armenia. As the Turkish army moves in, he is slowly isolated from his family and friends, and soon ends up alone in the streets of an unfamiliar town, being pursued by gendarmes who want him dead. This loneliness continues throughout the story with Vahan, as he is forced to leave everyone he meets and builds relationships with. Vahan moves from place to place meeting hundreds of new people, but no matter the quantity of people, he feels alone. He feels alone because he is a young Armenian boy during the Armenian genocide who is forced to think about how he will get his next meal and where he will sleep for the night. This theme of loneliness plays directly into the second theme of home is where the heart is. Vahan finds several new homes throughout the story, including two horse stables, a copper-smiths shop, his childhood friends home, the streets, abandoned homes, and even his own house that is now occupied by the powerful Turkish general Selim Bey. No matter where he goes, Vahan makes the best of his situation and tries to treat it like home. He knows he will never be able to go back to his own house and live his old life, so he makes the places he is forced to stay feel like home, no matter how temporary. The theme of loneliness and home is where the heart is intertwine because although Vahan is constantly lonely throughout the story, he still finds a way to make himself feel at home. He perseveres, and strengthens himself through the many hardships he is forced to endure. The idea of making yourself at home helps Vahan overcome the fact that his real family has almost surely been killed, and death for himself could be very close. His loneliness makes him yearn for people to communicate with, therefore he pushes himself to make himself feel at