LITR 4333: American Immigrant Literature

Sample Student Poetry Presentation 2001

Reader: Diane Tincher
Respondent: Kellie Keener
Recorder: Paula Kunselman-Aydt

"After the Funeral of Assam Hamady"

By: Hamod (Sam)

Unsettling America, pp. 288-92

Biographical Information:

"Sam Hamod is the author of 10 books of poems, his most recent works include: Dying With the Wrong Name: Selected Poems which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He has also taught at Princeton, Howard, Michigan, and The Writers Workshop of the U. of Iowa." (http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/hamod.html). He has also had several articles published in Ishmael Reed’s Konch Magazine, which is online. One of his articles is "The Fruits of Colonialism: Arab American vs. African American." (http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/hamod2.html).

H.S. Hamod in an article entitled "Arab American Poetry" made the following comment about the poetry of Hamod and other Arab writers: "There is a sense of belonging and also a sense of being 'the other,' the 'outsider,' who will never wholly fit into the Anglo Western European American world; but ultimately, not really want to totally fit if it means they have to give up their ethnic heritage. What they bring is not an opposition to the culture, but an addition to the general American culture so that they 'contribute' to the expansion of the culture and this creative edge is a complement that helps cultures grow." (http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/hamod6.html).

Cultural Objectives:

1a. To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative. Immigrants may experience problems of "minority" cultures in the first generation(s), and they may suffer discrimination and marginalization by the dominant culture on account of racial and cultural differences as long as those differences are visible.

    1. To observe and analyze the effects of immigration and assimilation on American cultural units or identities—in the areas of family, generations, and religion.

Interpretation:

The speaker is either a second or third generation immigrant, because there are three generations in this poem.

The stages of the immigrant narrative that are dealt with in this poem are stages four and five--assimilation and reconnection (a little bit). The narrator definitely seems to be assimilated to America’s values.

The poem is set up as a mini play, with a cast and setting. This poem also seems to be about something that actually happened.

They have just finished burying a friend of the speaker’s father and grandfather, and the speaker is driving them away from it. It is fitting that it is the grandfather who remembers that it is time to pray because the older generations are usually the least assimilated of all the generations of immigrants. It is obvious that the speaker has assimilated to American culture much more than the father and grandfather. The father and his friend are obedient to the grandfather and go to pray, but the speaker just sits behind the wheel of the car with the motor running—it is obvious that he is very uncomfortable in this situation and I kind of get the feeling that a part of him would probably love to drive off and leave them there. It is also kind of strange that he mocks the men saying that the direction they have decided is east must really be south. He does not really show the kind of respect for his elders that most would expect.

The fact that he refuses to get down on the blanket and pray with the rest of them can be interpreted in several ways. It could be that he is just uncomfortable praying in a public place—in any case it is obvious that Islam is not as important to him as it is to his father and grandfather, or he would be on the blanket praying with them. I may be going out on a limb—but, the fact that the speaker talks about standing guard while they are praying makes me think that he would be very uncomfortable kneeling down and praying because then they would all be vulnerable position—in the case of an attack maybe—I am not sure. They are after all practicing Islam in a country where the majority of religious peoples are Christian—and some Christians are not overly comfortable with Islam and might get upset seeing people practicing it so openly—so he could be scared of some kind of discrimination. He depicts the cars whizzing by them while they are there on the side of the road in a very hostile and menacing manner. When "an old woman strains a gawk at them" he immediately says: "I’m standing guard now."

The ending of this poem confuses me a little. Their singing "haunts" him as he travels to another job, but I have no idea what he means by "burying my dead." He likes taking trips and traveling at high speed, but for some reason he feels like either the dead or his father and grandfather have passed him by. He says that he would like to join them on the blanket and he wants absolution, but I really don’t see how that attitude is expressed in the poem, because he is embarrassed by what they are doing. Although, it does seem like he would like to reconnect with his ethnic roots.

 

Discussion:

Kathy: He is either embarrassed about praying or he doesn’t understand the religion. In a world that moves too fast he has no connection—in that he has lost his values.

Kellie: She feels for the father because he is doing his best to follow the old ways. He is almost apologizing for his son that doesn’t follow their old customs.

Cleo: Navajo blanket Indian experience is like Israel and Palestine.

Prof. White: Could the headlights be eyes watching him? Plus, the son is not making fun of the grandfather.

Kathy: The line about burying his dead could be about burying his past/history.

Cleo: Talks about Native American allusion.

Charles: Commented about how he still hears the singing after the funeral is over. He wants to be reconnected, he is assimilated, but he wants to go back.