Tuesday, June 20, 2006:  Indian & Pakistani American Literature

Text Objective Discussion Leader:   Carrie Arnett

 “Thank God for the Jews” by Tahira Naqvi

Objective 1: 

• Can various ethnic groups share both differences and commonality?

Objective 2: 

• Assimilation as melting pot
• Old World versus the New World
• “Model Minority,” a term given to “ideal immigrants”
• Open to economic and educational opportunities to further advancement into society, while maintaining ethnic identity in religion
• Stages of the Immigrant Narrative: 
1.  Stage 4:  Assimilation to dominant culture and loss of ethnic identity
2. Stage 5:  Rediscovery or reassertion of the ethnic identity

Passages: 

After Ali had left for the hospital around eleven to attend to an emergency, she had settled comfortably on the sofa in the living room to watch the Eleven o’Clock Movie on channel 9.  The Snows of Kilimanjaro.  Gregory Peck.  The man who had invaded her daydreams many an afternoon when she was a teenager.  Even now he smiled and she wished she was Ava Gardner  (Top of 230).

• Model Minority: educated/ hospital job, Assimilated in the dominant culture
• Hollywood has romanticized her:  American Literature
• She uses “Corningware” and “Farberware” 

Whenever Fatima remembered to, she recited, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet” while she rinsed the meat with cold water.  Remembering to undertake that little ritual made her feel pious and wise beyond her years (Bottom of 230-31).

• Assimilated into the dominant culture / loss of ethnic identity

Usually she just threw everything into the trash and started all over again with something else.  If her mother saw her, she would cringe at her wastefulness (Bottom of 231).

• Traditional ways of the Old World conflicting with the modern New World.
• Financially well off

They’ve already forgotten their ways.  Imagine not eating halal.  What will it be next, pork?  (Top 232)

• Old World versus New World

…Tetley, which had become their choice after a protracted dalliance with the likes of Earl Grey and other “Indian” teas; the Americans had done something right with tea after all. (Middle 232).

• Assimilation
• Their taste buds are yearning more for the American flavor than the Indian teas.

Suddenly she felt guilty for not having offered prayers to read the Quran in what was surely a very long time (233)…    

And isn’t a Jewish prayer different from a Muslim prayer?  (236)

·        While assimilating she has experienced a loss of ethnic religion

 In the story “Thank God for the Jews,” it is clear that Fatima has assimilated into the dominant culture.  However, she still struggles between the traditional ways of the Old Pakistani World and the New American World.  And though this story illustrates many issues faced by immigrants, it also creates a connection between two unlikely groups.  When Fatima’s friend Samina points out that there is no real difference between “kosher” and “halal” meat, the reader realizes that even though Jews and Pakistanis are different, both partake in this same religious tradition.   The story beautifully, illustrates how people tend to focus on what is different, instead of searching for a common bound between two different groups.  How can this message/ theme connect and apply to other narratives we have read in class?  How does this story relate to the immigrant narrative and/or the minority narrative?

“Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” by Chitra Divakaruni

Objective 2: 

·        Stage 1: leaving the Old World

·        Stage 2: Journey to the New World

·        Stage 3: Shock, exploitation, marginalization

·        Traditional versus Modern

Objective 3:

·        To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative (American Dream or American Nightmare?)

·        Immigrants may suffer discrimination and marginalization by the dominant culture.

·        Color Code

Passages:

 On the tiny silver plane: I slip it into my purse, then take it out, laughing at myself.  The American chocolate melts in my mouth, just as sweet as I thought it would be (71).

·        Leaving the Old World and the Journey to the New

·        She envisions America to be like the chocolate, sweet.  She will face harsh realities in the New World.  She romanticizes the quest for the new world

·        She even pity’s her friends because they will never have the opportunity she has been given.

I should have listened to Mother after all…Should have let her arrange that marriage for me with Aunt Sarita’s neighbor’s nephew (71). 

• Arranged marriage (Traditional Old World versus New World)

      Contrasts her fantasy of marrying the college professor

Narrator:  I touch their feet like a good Indian girl should, though I am somewhat embarrassed.  Everyone in the airport is watching us, I’m sure of it.  Aunt is embarrassed too…Then she kisses me on both cheeks, but a little hesitantly – I get the feeling she hasn’t done something like this in a long time (72).

• There is a feeling of shame and embarrassment associated with the traditional culture.

Uncle:  “Don’t be too sure of that”… “Things here aren’t as perfect as people at home like to think.  We all thought we’d become millionaires.  But it’s not easy” (75).

• The American Nightmare
• Limited opportunities

Uncle:  “The Americans hate us.  They’re always putting us down because we’re dark-skinned foreigners, kala admi.  Blaming us for the damn economy, for taking away their jobs.  You’ll see it for yourself soon enough” (75).

·        Color Code

·        Racism

Narrator:  Now the others take up the word, chanting it in high singsong voices that have not broken yet, nigger, nigger…I want to scream, or weep.  Or laugh, because can’t they see that I’m not black at all but an Indian girl of a good family? (80)

• Assimilation: Shock of the dominant culture
• Color Code

Uncle:  “Bastards…Bloody Bastards.  I want to kill them, all of them.”  He raises his arm…the back of his hand catches Aunt Pratima across the mouth… (81-2).

·        resistance to the dominant culture

·        alienation

Narrator:  Will I marry a prince from a far-off magic land

Where the pavements are silver and the roofs are gold? (83)

·        re-evaluation of dominant culture and her traditional culture

At the ending of “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs,” the narrator stands outside the small apartment on the balcony, watching the snow fall.  As she allows the snow to cover her hands, turning them from brown to white she states, “and now it makes sense that the beauty and the pain should be part of each other” (83).  What do you think the “beauty” and the “pain” represent at the ending of the story?  How do both relate to the immigrant and minority narrative?