An American Brat

An American Brat is a novel about a young Parsee girl, Feroza, who leaves Pakistan to travel to America. There she is introduced to the country by her uncle, Manek, who gives her his infinite knowledge of how to survive in America. Wanting to continue her education, Feroza heads west to Idaho to attend a junior college. She becomes friends with her roommate, Jo, and they become real close. The two of them then move to Denver to get away from Idaho. In Denver, Feroza falls in love with a Jewish man, David and is as happy as ever. However, her parents hear of this and are outraged. To put a stop to this, Feroza’s mother, Zareen, travels all the way to Denver. Consequently, her visit ultimately ends Feroza and David’s relationship. Now, Feroza is just trying to pick herself back up in hopes that she may become happy again.

The title of the novel refers to Feroza. This is apparent when Zareen tells Feroza that she has become an “American Brat” in regards to her not caring about her family (279). All of this stems from Feroza wanting to marry a non-Parsee. However, it seems that the actual “American Brat” is Manek himself. When I think of the word “brat”, I tend to think arrogant and conceited. Manek embodies this conception. Since coming to America, he feels to be superior to those back home. His attitude demonstrates this. In his return home, he speaks highly of America calling it paradise and criticizes the way of life in Pakistan (198). This attitude is also seen in his relationship with his wife. For instance, he argues to his wife that everything they need is in America and much better here (316). Although the novel may be titled after Feroza, the “American Brat” is Manek.

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Breath, Eyes, and Memory is about the story of a young girl, Sophie, who reunites with a mother she hardly knows. As the years go by, Sophie learns of the horrifying past of her mother. Consequently, she inherits this past and experiences her own pain and suffering. It is through this that makes Sophie and her mother closer to one another.

In reading this story, it was hard for me to understand why the rape of Sophie’s mother would continue to consume her entire life. I know that it was a very traumatic event, but I would imagine that she would have gotten over it as she was more removed from it, in both time and place. She moved from Haiti to the United States to get away from this, but wherever she was it would still haunt her. As she got older, it seemed to get worse and worse. But it was towards the end of the story, where we are given a clue as to why Sophie’s mother lived in this constant state of fear. Sophie’s therapist tells her that her mother never gave him a face and that’s why he’s a shadow and that’s why he controls her (209). Without a face, it could be any man that could have raped her. Thus, it seems to make sense as to why she would be consumed by this rape. For Sophie’s mother to move past this, she would have to confront her fear and give this man a face. However, it was too late for her. She let the man who raped her get the best of her.

The Joys of Motherhood

This novel is about the life of a Nigerian woman, Nnu Ego. She endures many struggles such as not being able to bear a child, having to move to a city, dealing with a new husband, and having to raise and support the children. Despite minor setbacks, Nnu Ego perseveres through all of this.

In this story, we see a conflict of traditional and modern values. This is apparent in the children of Nnu Ego and Nnaife. They expected their children to adhere to traditional values. However, these values were not in line with those of the society that they now lived in. For instance, Oshia was counted on to support the family. Nnaife clearly expressed this as he asked Oshia when he was going to take on his family responsibilities (220). But Oshia had no intentions of taking on these responsibilities. He had different values and plans of his own which included continuing his education in the States. He was never actually going to fulfill the role his parents wanted him to. All of this came as a shock to Nnaife who quickly disowned Oshia. On the other hand, Nnu Ego came to grips with this reality. She became aware that times were changing and that she could not always live life according to traditional values or force her children to do the same. The only she could do was support and love her son. “The joy of being a mother was the joy of giving all to your children” (224). She did give everything, especially all her support to her children. She also let go of things like the children she deeply loved. It was out of this love that she did not fight the new values that were settling around her.

Annie John

Annie John tells the story of a girl’s road to becoming a young woman. All her life she has had such a close relationship with her mother. They would do everything together like take baths, go to the market, and so on. She found her mother to be beautiful and perfect. This is quite clear when she says “how important I felt to be with my mother” (15). Moreover, there was a deep love that she possessed for her. However, as she continued to get older their relationship deteriorated as well as the love she had for her mother. One day coming home from school, she comments that there was a bitter taste in seeing her mother and that she no longer loved her (53). The story goes on to describe this love-hate relationship.

As I was reading, I noticed that the deterioration of their relationship was not caused by any one person but by both Annie John and her mother. It could be argued that this strain on their relationship is all Annie John’s doing but it appears to be mutual. Her mother started the pushing away. We see this in the beginning of the novel when she is told by her mother that “you just cannot go around the rest of your life looking like a little me” (26). Why would her mother start to destroy such a good thing? Annie resented this and began to push back. She began to confide in other females besides her mother such as Gwen and Red Girl. Also, she became mischievous and kept secrets. Things between both of them would never be the same. They even developed two faces of which one was for father and the rest of the world and one for when they found themselves alone with each other (87). Her mother had a lot to do with this tension.

But in the end, their relationship could never be broken. Though she despised her mother, Annie John still had love for her mother and she too for Annie John. What signified to me that this relationship would last is when her mother tells her that “it doesn’t matter what you do or where you go, I’ll always be your mother” (147).

The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf

What struck me just as much as Khadra was how her cousin Afaat and her friends acted. Khadra was in a Muslim country and not just any Muslim country, but the Muslim country were Islam started (177). She expected the people here would adhere to Islamic laws and customs. Furthermore, she thought she would be home here. However, she had never so far from home. These girls Khadra was with took their veils off and were wearing lots of makeup. She was also in the presence of boys. Drugs were being offered to her as well. No one seemed to care that what they were doing was wrong. All they were concerned about was just having a good time. Kharda, on the other hand, could have none of this. Everything that was going on around her made her sick and want to leave.

Even more striking was the expectations that Afaat and her friends had of Khadra. Khadra was American and they thought that she would be engaging in the things that they were doing. They also thought that she would approve of these things. This is clear when Afaat says, “Is this not as fun as what you do in America?” (178). But Khadra was not a typical American. She never did any of these things. Afaat and her friends’ notions of what American are probably influenced by the media. In the end, everyone’s perception of each other was not what they had envisioned.

Kindred

Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred tells the story of a modern black woman, Dana, who goes back into the antebellum South. We follow Dana through all her hardships and struggles. In reading the novel, I had noticed the role of education. To have an educated slave was a threat to an owner. A slave who was educated could possibly write his or her own pass and head North (101). Consequently, an educated slave was more vulnerable to leave their owner. From a business point of view, losing a slave was like losing a commodity. In any kind of business, losing commodities meant also losing profit. Thus, I can see why Weylin prevented his slaves from learning to read and write. He wanted to keep his commodities and maintain his profit. Besides the business aspect, having a slave leave meant that other slaves would attempt to leave as well. Having a slave leave gave the others hope that they too could leave. Another implication of having educated slaves was that they could teach the others slaves and that would just cause more problems for the owner. Furthermore, discouraging slaves from learning seemed to be another technique just like using physical violence that would keep them in check.

The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a collection of short tales narrated by the character Esperanza. These rich and colorful tales relate to us her heritage and upbringing. Throughout these tales, Esperanza is focused on this idea of home. Her house on Mango Street is not the ideal home she had envisioned. It was not aesthetically pleasing to her eyes. She wanted to have a real house. Cisneros sums up Esperanza’s feelings when she says that “the house on Mango Street isn’t it” (6). Even though it may not seem like the perfect house, it has given her so many things that no other house could give her. It has shaped and formed the person she is. It has also given her countless memories and experiences. These memories and experiences are the tales she is sharing with us. Moreover, it is not what we see outside of the house but what we see inside that is most important. Inside her house we see this notion of “the house made of heart” (Cisneros 78). A home is not truly a home without the people in it. Esperanza’s house is filled with so many people like her family and friends. These people make up the heart of that house and give it life. Not only does Esperanza not like the house but wants to leave Mango Street. However, she cannot because it will always be with her. It will be with her in her thoughts and whatever else she does. No other house will come close in replacing the one on Mango Street.

The Bluest Eye

During the course of reading the novel, I had noticed that many of the characters experienced a self hatred. This self hatred stemmed from not being accepted by society. In order to alleviate this, they believed that making themselves somehow white would be the answer. One of the characters who possessed such hatred was Pecola. From the beginning of the novel, it was evident that she was unhappy with herself. She believed that her unhappiness was related to her ugliness. Imagining if she could only have blue eyes, Pecola assumed that all her problems would be gone. Moreover, I believe that she not only wanted to have blue eyes but to be white. Along with this wishful thinking, her infatuation with Shirley Temple and wanting to eat Mary Jane candies exemplifies her longing to be white, and thus be accepted by society. To be white was considered perfection and to Pecola being white would give her happiness she so desperately needed. Another character who displayed self hatred was Mrs. Breedlove. She too felt that she was ugly. Influenced by the movies, she tried to emulate the likes of white women such as Jean Harlow. As with Pecola, Mrs. Breedlove found that being white was that gold standard. With that notion she assimilated herself into white culture. Her work in the Fisher house illustrates this. Just being in the presence of white people gave Mrs. Breedlove meaning to her life. Furthermore, these characters desired acceptance and being white was the only way to do so.