Mohja Kahf, "The Spiced Chicken Queen..."
Why does Kahf include the Altonjays’ in the story? Why is it important to show a much earlier representation of immigrants?
Why does Kahf keep providing the instant contrast between Rana’s life and Mzayyan’s?
“Appaled, Rana did not translate ‘She’s not dropping charges,’ she said to Hecotr a little curtly. Then she went home and climbed into the dual-control fully adjustable king-sized bed with Emad, who was ling since sound asleep.” (page 147)
Suheir Hammad, "First Writing Since"
These lines stood out...
- “I’ve never been so hungry as to yield hunger.”
- “This was bound to happen, lets not forget U.S. transgressions. Hold up, I live her. These are my friends and fam, me in those buildings, and we’re not bad people, do not support America’s bullying.”
- “Big white woman and her embrace only people with flesh can offer”
- “One more person asked me if I knew the hijackers.”
- “In America, it’ll be those amongst us who refuse blanket attacks on the shivering, who work towards social justice and opposing hateful policies.”
- “Never felt less American and more Brooklyn these days.”
- “Affirm life. Affirm life. We got to carry each other now. You are either with life or against it”
Discuss!
I believe Kahf’s created her characters in such a meticulous way that each one has a particular purpose. The Altonjays are a physical manifestation of a different kind of Arab immigrant. When it comes to immigrants, and Arab Americans in this case, there tends to be a set preconceived notion of what their immigrant experience should be like: “they have difficulty balancing both cultures”, “they are not like us”, etc. However, the Altonjays in this short story show that that is not always the case; some immigrants assimilate into the “American” culture so seamlessly that their experience is very different from others. This raises the question of: since the Altonjays are so far removed from their Arab roots, does that not make them immigrants? It’s important to point out that no matter what generation of immigrants or level of assimilation, an immigrant is an immigrant, you cant undo that immigration action, but the kinds of experience will differ. The Altonjays in some sense may still have a connection to their Arab roots, through their friendship with Rana and Emad. Rana and Emad, Mzayyan, and the Altonjays are all on the same spectrum of the immigrant experience: the Altonjays at the complete level of assimilation, Mzayyan at the opposite end, antithetical to the Altonjays, and Rana in the middle. There characters demonstrate that there is no single experience as an immigrant, even from the same area.
ReplyDeleteMzayyan and Rana are different, that much is portrayed through the contrasts: Rana, unlike Mzayyan, has a loving husband, a lavish life, knows English, and has an advantage in the society. I find this to be important in showing that although they are so starkly different, they connect on a level of being both Arab. Rana, as an Arab American, is aware of how both cultures work (we see the culture of back home through the tale of “finding Emad” and the tribalistic aspect). Rana sympathizes with this woman who also speaks the language of her ancestors. Mzayyan is not different from Rana because she chooses so or is inherently so, but because of the structural violence of policies that barely help women and immigrants, as well as the internalized misogyny of their culture. Rana, just like many other Arab-American women, wants to help this women who is put in a situation unjustly; perhaps by helping her there is a sense of dismantling the system that created the conditions that Mzayyan is in. These differences in our lives and quality of life does not remove us from our identity, or part of it. Above all, we (mostly) prioritize those who we can identify or sympathize with to an extent, rather than those who experience the same lifestyle (though that may be the case). Rana, in a sense, is a mediator for both Mzayyan, with helping her mediate between both worlds, and the readers, as she helps facilitate us into this world and identity that we (generally) are unfamiliar with.
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