You might think about the questions: Is this a work of literature even though it is non-fiction? Does the truth of this story depend on its literal truth or does it convey a thematic truth too? What questions about identity and friendship and home and journeys and "promised lands" are raised by this story? Did you relate to certain people in the story more than to others, especially relative to their struggles with identity, home, and quests? Explain.
You might respond analytically by showing the relationship between how it's written and what it means. You might evaluate the story: does it succeed in what it seems to try to do? Do you like it? Respond to the short story personally: can you relate? How? Compare the story to others you've read. You might think about As I Lay Dying and King Lear (or other literary works or films). Respond by extending the story in someway: a sequel and prequel. Write a letter or poem or script in response.
Show that you have read the story, have thought about it, and have understood something about it (or even have made of use of it in some way).
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Pg. 235 “There is such a thing as a black Jew…I’d always considered the two groups to be mutually exclusive.” It is interesting that Emily and Tamar are friends because they are both different and that is what most strongly connects them. In this passage she gets a realization that a person can be both a Jew and black, which brings her closer to Tamar. While in Israel she misses seeing black people, and doesn’t realize it until it slips out. Tamar is in a place where she feels at home, the realization of black Jews makes Emily feel a stronger connection to Israel as well.
Emily believed from a young age that white people did not understand her. P.230 “I didn’t see Tamar as white any more than I did my own mother.” Throughout her journey her race is a large part of who she is. P. 228 “…not because they’d stripped me of my dignity but because they’d shoved my face into my own rootlessness. I have never felt more black in my life than I did when I was mistaken for an Arab.” Since Emily grew up in an almost all white community her whole life being a mixed race has always been extremely hard for her. Her whole life she tried to explain to people that she was of mixed race. The phrase “I have never felt more black in my life…” shows that the black part of her is negative in her eyes. She is being mistreated, because she is thought to be an Arab, and has been at other times in her life. At this point rather than being proud of her heritage she is discouraged because of the misunderstandings that come with it. She describes it as her “own rootlessness.” Through her journey her central struggle is finding where she belongs.
“…This is what my mixed race has made me: a perpetual unanswered question. This is what the Atlantic slave trade has made me: a mongrel and a threat…” This is the part of the passage where I could really feel the author’s confusion. Not necessarily what she has been dealing with outwardly her whole life, but how she has been dealing with what others judged her outwardly. She was confused because as she says, “I didn’t have the right to pedigree…” which makes defining self according to others very difficult. Emily cannot just be one thing or the other because she is mixed. She is either black where she is a “mongrel” or white where she poses a “threat.” How do you win when such opposite forces are working against you? Emily, however seems to relate only to one or the other when he identity is mistaken for an Arab and she feels Black. It is then that she is judged to such an unfair extent that she begins to first lose herself in finding herself. I think the point that she is trying to make is that it is easy to embrace your cultural background when it is solid and you are the one that has solidified it, but when you are trying to embrace yourself and no matter how you define it the public eye rules it wrong then it is really difficult to grasp something as a solid. Once that is found though, you can begin your search for acceptance from others which is another battle though in itself one worth fighting because you feel strongly about it.
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