Month: January 2017

Welcome back. The past weeks my ASTU Global Citizens class has been analyzing The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a novel by Mohsin Hamid. The American Dream, post-9/11 Islamophobia, and cultural stereotypes are amongst the many themes Hamid represents through the experiences of the protagonist, Changez.

How should a foreigner behavior in order to adapt to American cultural norms? Changez faces a constant reminder of his foreigner status from essentially everyone he encounters–ranging from his colleagues, his friends, even his girlfriend, Erica. Changez lacks an cultural identity even prior to 9/11; making his “smile” at the bombings on page 72 a gray area situation. We are introduced to Changez as a man who falls in love with the United States, fascinated by the American Dream and all of its opportunities. However, we are left unaware of which country Changez’ holds allegiance to. It is that “smile” that leaves the readers on the fence about his loyalty to the United States, and it cements our knowledge that Changez may not be who we originally thought.

Recently in our class discussion, my classmates and I analyzed the scene in the novel where Changez is travelling on a business trip to Manila. On this trip, Changez behaves and speaks like what he believes is a true American. He witnesses a glare from the limousine driver. Reasons for this glare are ultimately left unexplained, and Changez attempts to formulate a backstory for the “undisguised hostility” in the driver’s expression. He is confused by this look,  believing that he shares a “Third World sensibility” with the driver. (pg. 67) For an historical context, The United States had occupied the Philippines for 48 years, most likely causing the driver to have a deep-rooted hostility towards Americans. Changez faces racism when he is overly American, yet he also faces racism when he is not American enough. While reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I could not help but pity Changez. He does not have a sense of belonging in any country he visits–Pakistan, the United States, or the Phillipines. In the first chapter, I immediately associated Pakistan as being Changez’ homeland–the country where he ultimately returns to and considers his “home”. However, throughout reading the novel I began to realize that citizenship speaks volumes. With that being said, Hamid continuously reflects on the theme that citizenship does not comprise identity. To me, Changez is a nomad–a traveller who although is experiencing new cultures, never really develops his own, individualized sense of culture.

 

Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed their winter holidays. So far in our second term, my ASTU Global Citizens class has tackled Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco, a journalistic graphic book documenting Sacco’s experiences in Gorazde. While reading it, I couldn’t help but compare it to Persepolis, another book we had read last term, since they both included illustrations. Although both books reflect on the history of particular countries, Bosnia and Iran respectively, there were key elements that distinguished the two books. Although I enjoyed reading both, I especially loved reading Safe Area Gorazde, mainly because of the thoroughly detailed sketches, and the sophisticated adult humor that went into the captions. With Persepolis, I enjoyed the cheeky, child-like humor; for example, when Marji envisioned God as Karl Marx. In my opinion, Safe Area Gorazde offered a more relatable sense of humor. Since Persepolis’ humor is from a child’s perspective, therefore the humor is not as vulgar. Sacco’s wild experiences in Gorazde range from his escapades in the discotheque, his drunken nights with Riki and Edin, and his cringeworthy attempts at flirting with the ladies of Gorazde.

War is the common theme between Persepolis and Safe Area Gorazde. The atrocities witnessed by both Satrapi and Sacco are both lightened by its comedic narrators. Marji, the narrator the Persepolis uses her awkward puberty experiences such as smoking with her friends, to depict her failures and successes throughout her teenage years. Sacco provides humor with his comical, sometimes uncultured foreign remarks and his responses to Riki, a soldier obsessed with the Americana lifestyle. Another element we briefly discussed in class was this idea that since Persepolis was written from a child’s perspective, it lacked realistic blood and gore. When Marji imagines a victim being severed into pieces, it is almost geometrical–lacking rigid lines and spilled blood. Sacco, on the other hand, does not shield his readers from the atrocities; instead he carefully sketches the severed body parts and the disintegrating corpses.

Satrapi and Sacco employed humor in a respectful way that did not retract from the dark themes of their stories. I would say that both Satrapi and Sacco succeeded in this by dividing their chapters. For example, in Persepolis, Satrapi would go back and forth with her chapters; she begins with a comical chapter about Marji’s adolescence, characterizing her as a troublesome, curious child. The next chapter would weigh in on the casualties of the war. Sacco would start with a chapter on his rowdy night at the club or a good time with funny-man Riki. The next chapter bluntly depicts Muslims being slaughtered in masses. Both Satrapi and Sacco have manipulated the way in which they tell their stories, using humor at their disposal.