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Introduction
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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