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Granta 77 is a series of essays edited by Ian Jack. This book
consists of 24 essays and the writer for each essay is chosen from
different parts of the globe. This adds color to the collection of
essays as every writer belonging to a different country provides the
audience with his opinion and experiences about the role of America in
their lives. For some writers of Granta series of essays, America
brought a positive and pleasant change in their lives, while other
writers are not happy regarding the role of America in their life.
Therefore, the title “what we think of America”, rightly suits the
matter provided in the issue.
As far as I believe, America is the largest supporter to humanity
and social and economic rights, disregard to any discrimination.
However, this illusion or over expectation might have been the reason
for a dissatisfactory approach to those who did not earned a healthy
experience of America’s role in their life. It is explicitly expressed
in the view of the editor as a personal experience observed from the
narrator, “Hanan-al- Shaykh” between the lines of Granta 77, that
America itself practices cruelty and injustices to immigrants and other
minorities in the social, cultural, religious, economical as well as
political affairs.
How Good Is It?
Therefore, in the essay “What we think of America”, extracted from
Granta 77, the editor discusses a few reasons behind the different
feelings of the world about America, its people and its foreign as well
as domestic policies. This essay is based on the experiences of a
novelist “Hanan-al- Shaykh” who was an immigrant in America. America is
a world of dreams and life there is assumed to be life in heaven for
people migrating from underdeveloped countries or rural areas. As
expressed in Granta, “My cousin sent America… When he returned… sheep
were slaughtered in his honour and he became an overnight celebrity.
Our house was the focus of attention, as if we were all famous”
On the other hand, the sister, nephew and niece of Hanan-al- Shaykh,
due to their bitter experiences believes that America is not good as it
does not provide complete shelter and collaterals to the immigrants
with in America. This is observed by the situation presented in this
essay of Granta 77 that “My mother sighs from the depths of her heart,
as if she hopes this will find my sister and her three children a place
to live. They are going to be made homeless the day after tomorrow. My
mother has never been homeless in Beirut, despite the war and the
violence. 'It's as if we're born with our houses on our backs in our
country, like tortoises,' she says.” This also makes Hanan-al- Shaykh
realize that they are not privileged as other citizens of America
because they are not originally Native Americans. So all along this
makes the narrator and editor feel that America is good for all but not
for the immigrants or at least not good for Hanan-al- Shyakh’s sister
and her family.
At the same time, America is also a land of opportunities. People
impressed by the development and modernization of America desire to get
even small things of daily use as gifts from their relatives who come
back their home state. But only a person practically facing the
hardships of life can know the myth and reality of how good America
actually is? Granta, shows that the narrator is an eyewitness of the
inhuman attitude of the Americans towards Hanan-al- Shaykh’s sister’s
family. Therefore, the immigrants in America are not prioritize as
achieving the right to work, get loans to rent a house and earn their
living as compared to the unskilled and unqualified nationals. As
narrated by Shaykh, “She had no references allowing her to open a bank
account, no permanent address, no acquaintances with influence or
status or property, who could give her credit and support her until she
found her feet, equip her to rent a flat, buy a car, open a bank
account…She had to find a job at once, and it was impossible. The
competition for jobs was like a war, showing her what a harsh society
she was living in.”
Moreover, according to Granta, life at America is so materialistic
that even the next-door neighbor does not bother to ask what is going
on next door. As presented the case in Granta, Shaykh’s sister and her
kids were under severe debt crises, and there was no one to provide
moral or financial assistance. Therefore, the editor of Granta observed
that, Although America is the world’s largest social services provider
as well as health care provider, but failed to provide any collateral
for the immigrants narrated by Shaykh in Granta.
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