“Return”
Fatima Ahmed’s story titled “Return” was focused around a girls story about traveling back to her home country. She talks of the treacherous journey from the Vietnamese countryside to Cambodia, her homeland. When she was twenty-one she was taken from her homeland of Phnom-Penh to Somalia by her father, “to save our skins.” The violence made it unsafe to stay. She reminisces on saying her goodbyes to the ones she loves in addition to her interactions with local upon her return. Throughout this story, her reflections and memories of her loved country kept resurfacing making her overjoyed to be back.
In particular, Ahmed speaks of the instance when she returned and had a jug of freshly squeezed sugarcane. She states, “I will never forget that juice, delicious, fragrant and fresh” (pg 32). This love for the food and drink from home is similar to a character described in Amara Lakhous’s book Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio. The character named Parviz had a serious hatred for Italian cooking. He greatly preferred the tastes and spices of his homeland and spoke of them often within the text. Both character’s love of their homeland’s food can be witnessed in each of these texts.
“Give Me Back My Coat”
This short story entails a very depressing tale about a man so enthralled with the idea of death. He has encountered tough times as far as unemployment and debt and loathes on the fact of ending his life. Sadness and disgust for life are the themes found throughout his short story. He talks about his reasoning behind his thoughts and methods of death. These include such things as taking pills that would not suffice due to the amount of anxiousness he would feel in addition to falling which he feared because he believed that he would uncover the meaning of life mid-fall. In the end of his short story he talks about going out and getting a drink on a cold night. While out his coat, which is one of his very few last meaningfully possessions, gets stolen. This is when, as he sees it, things couldn’t get any worse.
In the beginning of this short story, he talks about death. The author states how “Death is the only things that can save me from all of my struggles” (pg 38). This theme of struggle and sadness can also be seen in many of the faces of those I work with at the Refugee center. It is obvious that the people at the refugee center have gone through many rough struggles and display their hardships on their faces and work in solitude at the center. In both of these circumstances, the theme of pain can be seen.
“Light Beer and Peanuts”
In this short story the idea of finding ones identity is a common theme found throughout. An Indian girl was forced to give up her identity due to her fathers strong beliefs that India was, “a place to be avoided with care, a place to not get to know, to be erased” (pg 46). With no identity found in the ethnicity she found home in, she found it even more difficult to fit in and relate to the Italian society. She constantly straightened her hair and bathed in sun lotion in order to try and fit in. In the end she realized that she is too white while also being too black to ever fit in. There were just too many differences for her to find identity within one culture.
This story brought up interesting ideas surrounding acceptance within a culture. The author states, “ I wanted a whole population to accept me and put aside its traditions, its dogmas and its castes” (pg 47). This idea of wanting acceptance can also be seen in the want of the Immigrant population to be accepted into Italian society as we have learned in class. In Italy, immigrants are strongly looked at as outsiders and integration into Italian society is unheard of. This similar idea of wanting to be accepted into a culture can be found in both circumstances.
“The B-Line”
This short piece was rich in metaphors talking about borders the strife of language. This theme of language can be witness throughout by looking at the language of the musician, the wordless exit as well as the reference to their native language being, “the boat that ferries my thoughts” (pg 54). Words, as seen in this piece, are an important factor to any society. This is evident in our discussions in class about what really makes up an Italian. This topic of conversation can never go too far without the issue of one’s language being an integral part. It is the basis for understanding ones roots or if someone fits in. In the end, language is the key to ones identity and Italy is no exception.
“The Beggar”
This is a story about an old blind man who spends his time begging in front of a church asking for words. He is a poet who is in search of the words to fill his poems. Such words as “family,” “glory,” and “unconstitutionally” were some of the words he would receive in his box. The meaning I took from this short story entailed the importance of words in life. In addition, it is important to understand that every person has their own experiences and their own “words” to share and teach with others. In this the language and diction one choses is a representation of one’s identity. This idea of linking one’s identity to their language stems from many of our discussions in class. Based on one’s diction, it becomes apparent of where a person is from, their background to an extent and their lifestyle. This can be seen when we studied the North and South divide in Italy. We talked about how there were differences in the language between North and South that divided the country. Similar to how in this story one’s word they give to the blind man symbolizes who they are, one’s diction and way of talking signals to others information about themselves.
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