Books to Choose from: Isolated Incident The Sleeping Car Porter A Minor Chorus Sylvia Hamilton-Tender Letter to Authors Assignments Length: 4 - 6 pages (1000 – 1500 words). Letters to Authors: Usi

November 7, 2023

Ms. Noor Naga

C/O One story

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

Dear Ms. Naga,

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English is a novel that talks about abusive relationship as well as concerning power. This novel is unrelenting since the story depicts the push and pull of the power, how the characters in the novel are powerless as well as powerful whereby there are times when they wield power while for others they are being subjected to that. The novel has brought out a clear picture of what is happening in society without trying to hide anything. The novel has depicted the areas that lead to this issue of abuse, and how things might appear to be working while at some point end up going the other direction. This has greatly impacted me through learning how you can have power at one moment and end up losing it at another level.

The loss of power has been explored in different ways, whereby all are intertwined as well as complex besides being hard to disconnect from one another. In this, there is a representation of the power of nationality which can be depicted in the novel concerning the story of the author, class, culture as well as gender. This study showed me how one might end up experiencing challenges when one lives in a foreign country. As the case of the story, the protagonist comes from an Egyptian background although she is an American.; Being a foreigner in Egypt she wields power as well as status but since she is a foreigner, her lack of know-how in navigating Egypt makes her more vulnerable since she is a woman. √√ This story showed me even if you are from a given background and you move to a foreign nation, coming back and integrating into the society might be a challenge to me since there are things that I am not well conversant with.

One of the instances which I compared myself to when I get back from a foreign nation is when the author states in the book, “I tried calling a taxi driver, I wanted to get off to the west side of Zamalek and from the response she got it was as if the taxi driver had never had of the west. No one is using the cardinal points to provide direction. The taxi driver asked, the Dokki side? Which I was not sure of. Maps are wrong. Where roads have been numbered which is rare, they have not been ordered in a consecutive manner as well as when they are named, no person is using the names. For landmarks, they have arbitrarily discounted post offices and banana sellers. Bridges are named by dates. I take the 26th of July to Zamalek and then you point where you want to get off, and the driver responds politely. This was as if the city had been designed in a manner by which it resists comprehension as well as disciplining those who left daring to return. You either have lived here and you know or you have never and never will you”.(Noor Naga, pg 31 )

The man with whom the protagonist is involving with; he is an Egyptian who was born in Shobrakheit and presently living in Cairo. Compared to the protagonist the man is poor and homeless whereby at a given point he is struggling with addiction to drugs. Besides all this the man possesses the power which the protagonist does not have; he knows Cairo very well besides being a man. The man is well conversed with the city and knows the geography, history as well as culture in a way that she is not in apposition of accessing it .

From my view of the novel after the two characters come together it displays dynamics in power which makes it more interesting. When their relationship continues it becomes precarious hence being balanced on the edge of the knife. For the novel it does not shrug off the responsibility through the depiction of both parties being guilty, but in interrogating particular ways where there is infliction of harm as well as the given way through which is manifesting.

This story made me see how being ignorant might end up affecting my life. In the case of the protagonist, she is more than just an ignorant westerner while the man she is involving herself with is not just a poor Egyptian. For these ideas they have been interrogated widely in the novel whereby each of the characters is grappling with the way they may or may not be seen in a given way by the other .

She states "I swear this isn't who I am. I'm not a violent person but we have violence which is moving through you like live current when you hate what another person has made you to be. I feel estranged from myself the longer am with her, made criminal solely due to being afraid, made pathetic due to pitying me- a poor boy though I was not”.(Noor Naga, pg 55)

On the relationship or not, the novel has brought up a lot of insightful as well as incisive times. Personally, this played a great role in enlightening me since I highlighted many and did find more which was familiar as well as new to me personally. One of the passages which is memorable from the novel is:

"I've been able to know my father, and I resent him. We become like fools in our quest to reshape into a beautiful form. We are both flexible and irrational; we stand out wherever we go and lose our skin when there is even the slightest threat. In New York, the two of us were trying to persuade Egyptians that we were in this side of the Atlantic. I used my extra Arabic to flirt with Yemenis and Halal males at my deli. At the school, my identity was straightforward: the silver cartouche at my throat had my name engraved in hieroglyphics. I may say, "We typically pat our bread both flat and round back home; there isn't much patted bread flat.".(Noor Naga, pg 31)

This paragraph, shows although you might boast to other people in a foreign country concerning your background when you have not fully understood it. In the end, you might be disappointed when you are not careful with the people you try to befriend when you return to your roots. First, as an individual I have to get a clear understanding of my background and be aware that there are good as well as bad people hence I have to be careful and try to learn the culture as well as language being used before getting into any relationship.

Sincerely,

Anhadvir Singh Pannu