The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson is an emotional, yet thought provoking memoir that holds the reader's attention from start to finish. Simplistic clarity, and honest wit is used to tell her story while demonstrating the complexity of the world, and the problematic way different cultures see each other. Although at times I found it to be anti-climactic her message still shone through and left me thinking about it long after. This memoir allows the reader to feel as though they are on Wilson’s journey, and succeeds in spreading a message that needs to be told.
The Butterfly Mosque deals with many serious topics and issues that are often faced between different cultures. That being said, one of my favourite things about this memoir was the way that Wilson
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Throughout her journey Wilson is constantly doing what she believes is best, and following her own truth. Although a lot of the decisions that she makes are certainly not the favoured ones, she follows through on them because she knows that it is the right decisions for her. Despite the fact that she had hesitations, and dealt with many individuals attempting to lead her astray from her own paths, eventually she was able to participate in many different journeys that she longed to accomplish. She was constantly facing a battle of what everyone else thought was best for her, and what she knew was best for her. An example of Wilson following her heart in an unorthodox manner is when she confesses her love for Omar, quickly she decides that it was the right decision and states that “Once you discover that the world rewards reckless faith, no lesser world is worth contemplating.” Wilson’s courage allows readers to feel as though they are able to follow their own hearts, and spreads a message that never will always need to be
Naomi Nye was born to a German-American mother and a Palestinian-American father. However, she normally writes from her Palestinian-Arab perspective. In several of her poems within The Heath Anthology—“Ducks,” “My Father and the Figtree,” and “Where the Soft Air Lives”—Naomi Nye reminisces about her Muslim heritage and childhood as it correlates to her present identity. In addition, she incorporates the effect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on herself and on Arab culture in her work. Ultimately, Naomi Nye’s poetic work should remain in The Heath Anthology as her style demonstrates how historical events and a deep-rooted heritage can enrich a sense of identity and culture.
Wilson also demonstrates that not all individuals follow one path in life. That when one comes to the end of one road, a rebirth may be necessary to continue down another road, such as Martha Pentecost and Herald Loomis had to discover. Wilson also shows the reader that acceptance of the death of an old life can lead to illumination, rebirth, and the possibility of love in ones new life.
When first discovering the winner of the memorial competition, Frank Gallagher displayed the generalizations he has formulated about Muslims following the death of his eldest son, Patrick, “Frank Gallagher, Sean’s father, was on the phone with a reporter:... They killed my son. Is that reason enough for you? And I don’t want one of their names on his grave” (62). For the entirety of the novel the Gallaghers possess an evident bias towards the Muslim religion as a whole.
In Islam is a Foreign Country, anthropologist Zareena Grewal demonstrates that “the ‘Muslim World’ [consists of] a place and a people outside American geographic and cultural borders” (6). While the term Muslim World calls to mind images of the Middle East, Grewal shows that Muslim identity is based on ‘moral geographies’ that unite Muslims throughout North America, Africa, and Asia. By focusing on American student travelers to Muslim countries, Grewal shows how identity and authority in Muslim American communities has been challenged and transformed by race, tradition, and ideas of legitimacy. Islam is a Foreign Country successfully communicates personal stories and complex analyses that challenge commonly held narratives about the place of
This man let her get killed though. How dare he be upset. He didn’t love her… not like me. He did not provide for her. Not like I did. She was unhappy. Wilson was bound to know that. I mean, she was having an affair- with me. He knew she was having one. Then he let her slip from his fingers- irresponsibly.
...s utterly absorbed in the joy and amazement he experienced on the trip to Mecca. Mr. Haley inexplicably highlighted the fact that Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam because of jealousy. This particular book is interesting because it deals with a character in modern American history that was controversial as well as charismatic.
About two years ago I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s memoir “Infidel” and was immensely moved by her story, especially the atrocities she went through in her childhood in Africa and the way she struggled to flee from an oppressive life. At that time, I could not imagine that anyone (except fanatic Muslims), let alone victims of the same oppression that she was, would not share her feelings and views. However, the reading of Ian Buruma’s Murder in Amsterdam sheds light on bigger and obscure components of this story, which clearly influenced some people to disapprove her behavior – even Islamic women. Like in Hirsi Ali’s story, Ian Buruma also identifies nuances in the main episode of the book – an episode that at face value could be described as a murder of a fierce critic of Islam, Theo van Gogh (Hirsi Ali’s friend), by a Muslim extremist, Mohammed Bouyeri. According to Buruma, although the common theme is immigration – involving two guests, Hirsi Ali and Bouyeri, and one host, Van Gogh – there is no single explanation for what happened. Instead, each of these three characters, he explains, was influenced by a blend of personal experiences and external forces. It was thus the clash between their diverse cultural values and personal identities that ended up leading to the tragic morning of November 2nd, 2004, the day of Van Gogh’s murder.
As she is forced to explore the differences between herself and her new community , she comes to a realization that culture isn 't a concrete idea or written down in a code of laws, culture is something that stems from ones imagination. Muslims have reasons to why they are skeptical and hateful towards Americans. When American expatriates go to Middle eastern countries to “help” and they are rejected they become “anti-Arab” pessimists. Wilson declares that people who have lost so much because of the Westerners can not be expected to believe that they are now going to be helped by the same enemy that destroyed them. She states “they fail to realize that people who have lost dignity and opportunities to the “clash of civilizations” can not be expected to welcome peacemakers who have lost nothing” (Wilson
Thomas W. Lippman gives an introduction to the Muslim world in the book Understanding Islam. He has traveled throughout the Islamic world as Washington Post bureau chief for the Middle East, and as a correspondent in Indochina. This gave him, in his own words, "sharp insight into the complexities of that turbulent region." However, the purpose of the book is not to produce a critical or controversial interpretation of Islamic scripture. It is instead to give the American layman an broad understanding of a religion that is highly misunderstood by many Americans. In this way he dispels many myths about "Muslim militants," and the otherwise untrue perception of Islamic violence. In this way the American reader will become more knowledgeable about an otherwise unfamiliar topic. However, the most significant element of Lippman’s book is that it presents Islam in a simple way that makes the reader feels his awareness rise after each chapter. This encourages him to continue learning about the world’s youngest major religion. Understanding Islam dispels many misconceptions about the Muslim world, and presents the subject in a way that urges his reader to further his understanding of Islam through continued study.
Although “Araby” is a fairly short story, author James Joyce does a remarkable job of discussing some very deep issues within it. On the surface it appears to be a story of a boy's trip to the market to get a gift for the girl he has a crush on. Yet deeper down it is about a lonely boy who makes a pilgrimage to an eastern-styled bazaar in hopes that it will somehow alleviate his miserable life. James Joyce’s uses the boy in “Araby” to expose a story of isolation and lack of control. These themes of alienation and control are ultimately linked because it will be seen that the source of the boy's emotional distance is his lack of control over his life.
In Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s, Infidel, Ali narrates her life as a woman in the Muslim world and details her perpetual conflict of religion vs. modernity. Hirsi Ali’s oppressive upbringing under Islamic values has fueled her protests against Islam describing it as a backwards and abusive religion. However, Ali’s transition from a society dominated by religion to one of freedom and individual autonomy presented new and unexpected obstacles. In Holland, Hirsi Ali finds that although Dutch liberalism has created a peaceful and functioning society it has also created problems within Muslim immigrant community. Within the Muslim immigrant community Hirsi Ali finds that many of the challenges she faced while in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia are
In “Araby”, author James Joyce presents a male adolescent who becomes infatuated with an idealized version of a schoolgirl, and explores the consequences which result from the disillusionment of his dreams. While living with his uncle and aunt, the main character acts a joyous presence in an otherwise depressing neighborhood. In Katherine Mansfield’s, The Garden Party, Mansfield’s depicts a young woman, Laura Sherridan, as she struggles through confusion, enlightenment, and the complication of class distinctions on her path to adulthood. Both James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield expertly use the literary elements of characterization to illustrate the journey of self-discovery while both main characters recognize that reality is not what they previously conceptualized it as.
Hamid’s fiction deals with varied issues: from infidelity to drug trade in the subcontinent and, in the light of contemporary developments, about Islamic identity in a globalised world. His first novel, Moth Smoke (2000) won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2000. His other novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Decibel Award and the South Bank Award for Literature. This book serves as a testament to his elegant style as he deftly captures the straining relationship between America and Pakistan.
Araby is about escaping into the world of fantasy. The narrator is infatuated with his friend's sister; he hides in the shadows, peering secluded from a distance trying to spy her "brown figure"(Joyce 38). She is the light in his fantasy, someone who will lift him out of darkness. I see many parallels to my life as a boy growing up in the inner city of Jersey City. We looked for escape also, a trip uptown to Lincoln Park, or take a train ride to New York City where we would gaze at the beauties on 7th Ave.
In many cultures, childhood is considered a carefree time, with none of the worries and constraints of the “real world.” In “Araby,” Joyce presents a story in which the central themes are frustration, the longing for adventure and escape, and the awakening and confusing passion experienced by a boy on the brink of adulthood. The author uses a single narrator, a somber setting, and symbolism, in a minimalist style, to remind the reader of the struggles and disappointments we all face, even during a time that is supposed to be carefree.