"American Dream" - “Rasha”
Bayoumi writes, “Rasha was born in 1983, in Damascus, Syria but when she was five years old, her family was granted a tourist visa to the United States, and they moved from the Fertile Crescent to Avenue U in Gravesend. At the time Hafez al-Assad’s Syria was anything but fertile. Embroiled in violence, the nation saw Assad’s iron fist battering his growing and increasingly daring opposition. Bombings against the regime were frequent, as were mass arrests and torture…Rasha’s father wanted better things for his family, so as soon as they arrived in the United States, he applied for their political asylum.” The tourist visa is an opportunity for Rasha’s family to pursue the American dream. Considering that Syria is in turmoil, America offers hopes of a tranquil and productive existence. The political asylum is an opportunity which would guarantee that the household would not be deported to Syria at the expiration of the tourist visa. Rasha’s father wants his family to live the American dream, far from the chaotic Syria.
Identity - “Sami”
Bayoumi expounds, “Nor did he (Sami) particularly identify with his Arab background. Sami’s parents are Arab Christians; his Egyptian mother, a waitress at a local diner, came to new York from Cairo in 1974, and his septuagenarian father, a Palestinian from Haifa, arrived in Brookyln in 1949, mere months after the establishment of Israel, what Palestinians refer to as the nakba, “the catastrophe.” Sami is evidently alienated from his heritage Egyptian- Palestinian heritage. Him not recognizing the heritage and embracing it is an indicator of his identity crisis. He suppresses his Arabic Heritage by identifying as a “Brooklynite.” Evidently, Sami is mortified of identifying with Arabs although he bears the Arabic blood.
