Analysis of This Is Not Who We Are: Arab-Americans in a Post-9/11 World by Naomi Shihab Nye - Article Example

Text Analysis In the article, “This Is Not Who We Are: Arab-Americans in a Post-9/11 World”, the Naomi Shihab Nye, attempts to show the lives of Arab Americans especially in a world that is characterized with terrorism acts perpetrated by Arab individuals. She is attempting to explain that although these acts are carried out by individuals from her religion and race, not all Arabs are involved in this. This implies that not all of them should be victimized for what a few of them have done. She explains how her life in the U.S has changed mostly due to her background identity. Nye’s article is very persuading to the audience. To make it more persuading and interesting, Nye uses a unique poem style. The author attempts to make the audience view the Arab population from a different perspective. To do this, she first explained how the Arab population has been criticized and then makes the audience aware of the fact that not all Arabs are involved in the violence. The author manages to convince the audience by providing reasons that should not be forgotten such as the idea that the violent portion of the Arabs does not represent the entire population. This implies that the act of violence should not be generalized as an issue undertaken by the entire Arab community. Most of them are peaceful and condemn the acts carried out by the violent ones. The author achieves this purpose since she persuades the audience successfully. The audience intended for the text is the entire U.S population as the author attempts to change the perception of the Arab individual on the eyes of Americans who have suffered various attacks perpetrated by individuals from this community. The text has a sharp focus, which is maintained appropriately. The author manages to maintain the focus by reminding herself and the audience of the main issue that she is intending to pass, which is the contempt that the Arab population in the U.S has to live with every day of their lives. In one instance, she stated, “I refuse to let that hope go” (Par. 8). This implies that she is hopeful that the lives of the Arab people in the U.S would improve and that the other races would stop viewing them as the perpetrators of September 9, 2011 attacks on the Americans. Nye also manages to persuade the audience by acknowledging that a portion of the Arab population is to blame for various attacks on the U.S. She then uses this to let the audience know that it is not the responsibility of the entire Arab population. This can be seen as she states, “Because men with hard faces do violent things, because fanaticism seizes and shrinks minds, is no reason for the rest of us to abandon our songs” (Par. 9). To show that the majority of Arab community advocate for peace, she adds, “All people related to the Middle East who despise bad behaviour” (Par. 11). This is a way of persuading the audience to change its perception. Therefore, Nye manages to maintain a sharp focus. The text is highly organized. This is clear as the author explains the most important ideas that would persuade the audience more and then uses good transition between ideas. She first explains what she has gone through and what the entire community has gone through due to the stigma and then acknowledges the existence of violent Arabs after which she states that it is not all of them. The transitions used in the text help the reader in moving through the reading in a smooth way making it easier for them to understand the direction of the text. In addition, the ideas are tied together according to relevance. Since this is a persuasive piece, the author has provided adequate evidence. The type of evidence used ranges from personal life to that exhibited by the entire Arab community. This makes it easier to persuade the audience to refrain from generalizing the Arab population. The author also appeals well to ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is shown by maintaining that it is not ethically appropriate to criticize all individuals following several acts committed by a select few. Pathos or emotional appeals can be seen when she stated, “an Arab-American might be feeling sicker than most people these difficult days” (Par. 17). On the other hand, the whole text is a form of a logo in that it attempts to make the audience see the reasoning behind the persuasion. The title of the text is also suggestive and gives the audience a glimpse of what to expect. The title “This is not who we are”, attempts to tell the audience that their perception is not correct. Therefore, after reading the title, the audience already has an idea of what to expect. The author is emotional in this article. To project this persona the author states, “I am simply an Arab-American in deep need of cultural uplift to balance the ugliness that has cast a deep shadow over our days” (Par. 4). The persona is very important with respect to the audience. This is because it helps in persuading them further as they present an appeal to be sympathetic on the issue being discussed. In the same way, her tone can be described as sympathetic. This is because she is attempting to appeal to the audience or the American population to consider changing their perceptions of the Arab Americans so that their lives would be better. With regard to language, Nye uses formal language. Since she attempts to get the attention of the large American population, it would be easier to use formal language to ensure that all individuals have a greater chance of understanding her message as she intended. She also uses specialized vocabulary. Her word choice is unique and sophisticated implying that a specific portion of the population, especially the low learned ones, may experience issues attempting to understand the text. The structure of the sentences has been carefully thought to ensure that it does not bring jargon and that it can only be interpreted in one way; how the author intended. Specifically, she uses a poem structure to make the text more interactive. A poem structure can be seen in these lines, “All gentle immigrants—how much harder their lives may be now. All citizens who trust the great potential of humanity. All children who want to be happy. All mothers and sisters of violent men” (Par. 8). The author is also avoiding any fragments in the construction of the sentences. In fact, the sentence structure presents a pattern that is easy for the audience to recognize and follow. Moreover, the author also uses sentences that are brief and to the point. Particularly, there are images that stand out and have certain effect on the writing. While these images help the author in passing the information easily, they are also responsible for causing further persuasion. For instance, Nye maintains, “I grew up in St. Louis in a tiny house full of large music—Mahalia Jackson and Marian Anderson singing majestically on the stereo, my German-American mother fingering The Lost Chord on the piano as golden light sank through trees, my Palestinian father trilling in Arabic in the shower each dawn”, which helps the audience in creating an image in their minds concerning the background situation of the author (Par. 8). This provides additional information for the audience to use when pondering on whether to change their perception. These images also help the audience in authenticating what the author is saying. It is also clear that the author uses figurative language in several instances. For instance, the usage of simile can be seen severally. Two of the key instances where simile is used include at the beginning of the text when she states, “an elegant man who wears starched white shirts and black suits and plays like an angel” and “I wish for world symbols more than SUVs wearing American flags like hula skirt” (Par. 1 and Par. 12). This indicates that the author is sensitive to the use of these styles that mostly fall under the poem category. Although symbolism is not used, the author has resulted to using a different style, which is personification. Here, a fourth grader hands the author a folded note that said poem was eating her problems away. Nye does not repeat her words or ideas throughout the text. For emphasis, she uses different approaches in place of repetition. For instance, she uses differing perspectives of the same issue to stress on the importance of not generalizing the Arabs as violent people. There are several instances that she uses different ideas to stress her point. For instance, in Par. 30 she states, “And how are we educated human beings so old and so stupid?” This is used to show that people are too naïve to see even the slightest mistakes that the society is committing. Among these mistakes is the fact that the author has been attempting to explain which is that not all Arabs are violent. Works Cited Shihab, Naomi. “This is not who we are: Arab-Americans in a Post- 9/11World” Oprah.com Apr. 2002. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Arab-American-Writer-Naomi-Shihab-Nye-Confronts-Life-After-911 Read More