Analysis of The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bear by Dinaw Mengestu - Book Report/Review Example

 “The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears”—Dinaw Mengestu: Introduction and Summary If there is no perfect discipline available in society, one needs to know how to carry on with what is found in discipline. Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant, and main character in this story seems to have been reconciled to this truth. He came to America not as a happy and ambitious immigrant, but under distress. It appears Sepha fled Ethiopia at the age of seventeen after seeing his father beaten up and abducted by the Derg regime. Interracial and class tensions everywhere in the world are the same. But the levels of their impact on various sections of the society vary in degrees. He decided to seek the shores of America for peace and tranquility once the intolerable limits of conflicts engulfed the society in Ethiopia. Soon he found that America too was in desperate search of precious human assets. This is revealed in the story thorough his interactions with other characters in the neighborhood. The halo of living in Washington DC was superficial. It had many dark moles. Initially, his friends and acquaintances’ circle were limited to Africans, but later he got acquainted with a white woman, Judith, and her biracial daughter, Naomi. This was the beginning of another chapter in his study of human relationships, and he benefited from the opportunity to study their lives while comparing his own with what he saw in them. From what Sepha discovers in the new world of America, the reality of displacement from a local community that you once loved is clearly communicated. Despite this challenge while shuttling to a distant and unknown nation, the hope is everything will be alright! According to Mengestu, every life is special, with nothing uninteresting about it. The big and little events that one has to confront are inevitable, and convey a new meaning to the inquisitive traveler in the chosen path of life. He is the monarch of all that he surveys comprehensively. The truth about the world he experiences is not rooted on strong and fertile ground, however, but one he must give up and surrender. He honestly observes things around him withered by moral and military disruption, creating an outcome of cross-cultural confusion where often serious misunderstandings happen. The author writes confidently that the society in Ethiopia pays a heavy price in from the cost of its situation, and conveys Sepha’s attitude amongst the suffering he sees leaving behind as optimistic. It can be understand therefore, that such strength found in this great novel is encouraging for all to experience. Culture Conflict: Stereotyping, Bias and Discrimination Stephanos quotes the metaphor of a bird stuck between two branches and compares this to his life being like a man stuck between the two worlds (p.228). It sums up the storyline of the book admirably. This is not an off-the-cuff, spontaneous observation that he makes. It comes out of seventeen years of trials and tribulations undergone by him amidst the life of culture and the societal turbulence. A series of setbacks crash all his fond hopes about life leading to much disappointment. He had no remedies for the desperate situations he was forced to face. His journey from Ethiopia to America was not in search of the greener pastures, but to find a safe haven from terror and violence within his homeland. He left his country not out of his own volition, but under compulsion. From this desperation to survive Sepha encounters life and the meaning of living in a ghetto in the bowels of the famous city, Washington DC, where and he is accommodated by his uncle in an overcrowded small apartment. After 12 months, he escapes to a ghetto-like neighborhood called, Logan Circle, where he makes desperate attempts to move up the societal ladder over being associated to the poor class. His upward mobility from his first job as a hotel bellhop is noticeable. He recalls, “My arms and legs were numb from 13 hours of lifting luggage and bending at every moment to someone else’s needs... I couldn’t believe that my father had died and I had been spared in order to carry luggage in and out of a room.” (p.142)Later, he starts a bodega in his attempt to be self-reliant. Even with step, the possibilities of his assimilating with the white community are remote. Amongst the people of his own race as well, he has limited interactions and thus he continues to be a loner. While in America Sepha has just two friends, an engineer from Kenya and a waiter from the Congo and he spends his, whereby he spends much of his time amongst those two fellow-sufferers. During the night, these two friends find themselves drinking regularly at Sepha’s store while enjoying a ghastly parlor game with the intention to measure their understanding of Africa's countless disgusting coups. The recollection of their past lives was an unpleasant experience, but their American involvement was also not good and seemed purposeless. Edward T. Hall writes, “In American culture, depending on our philosophical orientation, we blame such failures on either the individual or the social system.”(105) The waiter was experiencing the truth in this observation. Their day-to-day existence was without focus and seemed heading nowhere. The waiter remarks one night cynically, “This country is like a little bastard child: you can't be angry when it doesn't give you what you want"(p.6). Reviewing Sepha’s relationship with Judith, who entered into an inter-racial marriage, having a mixed race child that created all kinds of complication, Judith was deep-rooted in racial prejudice. Without attacking her, and without taking offence at her disposition, Mengestu explains an incident with much restraint. He writes, “I [Stephonos] was dressed for a wedding, and as I turned to lock the door behind me, I heard her say, “What a beautiful garment.” Her use of the word “garment” struck me most—it was polite, almost formal, as if the word was inserted into the sentence at the last possible moment out of an instinctive sense of cultural diplomacy. “I was dressed in entirely white” (p.18). And the author continues, “[….] on rare occasions that I still wore it, I did so expecting the taunts and stares of my neighbors and their children” (p.18). This is depicted as racial bias of the worst kind. Assimilation and Multiculturalism While in American efforts for contact with the favored white society is attempted where Sepha and Kenneth, the engineer, visit a car dealership “on the outskirts of a distant Virginia suburb” Kenneth, who intends to buy his first car and has dressed well, donned a suit for the occasion. Sepha and Kenneth wait for 20 minutes for the salesman’s attention and exclaimed, "No one was coming to us, regardless of what we wore or how long we stood there. Come on, Stephonos. Let’s go.” Kenneth finally says, “They don’t have what I want” (p.12). Mengestu molds the character with great control, showing tremendous restraint, and Stephonos accepts the bitterness related to his experiences, without a sense of self-pitying and helplessness. Creating such a character shows deep understanding of prejudice. The author must have undergone such experiences personally and the discerning reader can understand this fact clearly from Mengestu’s inner world. America swears by multiculturalism, but Mengestu articulates the necessity for the immigrants to remember the memories of their native country as well as the life build in America. Sepha’s friend, Ken, experiences the truth of the American dream to some extent, found in his finances improving whereby he finds himself in a position need some expensive dental work that improves his looks and launches him to an upward lifestyle among those that are good looking, fortunate and comfortable. Ken though is inclined to deny such comfort. This is found in Ken’s words with the author stating, “You can never forget where you came from if you have teeth as ugly as these,” (p.2-3) he said. The author further observes, “He grinned once more. He tapped a slightly brown front tooth for effect.” (p. 2-3)The author explains in his own style, through different characters, the philosophical truth and his love for hard realities of life. He understands that the ordinary people are the creators of the destiny of the nation and they are also the victims of social and government neglect. Their contribution is hardly noticed and no recognitions are given to them. Yet, they carry on with their sincerity knowing no other way. They function in accordance to their sincere nature, in tandem of what dictates within their inner world. By depicting the approach to life of just two characters the author has succeeded in picturing homeland agony of Africans and the process of their assimilation in the mainstream life of America, not completely successful though. Though this is the story of an Ethiopian immigrant, it embraces all African immigrants and their struggles to assimilate into America. Sepha’s daily conversation between his two friends, Ken from Kenya and Joe from Congo, is a life force that sustains the three immigrants in America. Their jokes are serious and humorous, relating to bitter topics of cruel African dictators and their extravagant lifestyles. Ken has successfully tackled the hurdles in achieving the American dream in being successfully career-wise. Despite this, Ken will not return to Africa, but at the same time, this does not mean he has found his inner contentment in American society. His heart is still like a muffled drum, and as such, he recoups his sagging spirits at the end of the day with the company of his African friends with the ‘universal friend of the depressed people’, found in the bottle of whiskey! Diversity The bridge of diversity is difficult to negotiate, often impossible to cross, and the traveler has to beat the retreat in the face of the odds like an avalanche. This is the reality in American society. Gary R. Weaver writes, “Perceived conflict of interest, which is what gets people into negotiation, may be illusory—based on a misunderstanding about the other’s aspirations or a misconstrued meaning of the alternatives that are readily available.”(504) Stephonos encounters such an experience when Judith, a white history professor with her talented young daughter moves in next door and the test of life in living in ‘diversity’ begins between the two. From this relationship an emotional bond develops between them, but Stephonos is unable to transcend his profound sense of inferiority causing the affair to become muffled. In the meantime, the rapidly transforming community is challenged from racial tension. Many blacks who have been residents for a long time are evicted. The racial fire rages, a brick is hurled at the window of Judith’s car (as a protest of the white mob that resents her interactions with an African) and shortly thereafter her house is completely devastated by fire. This goes to prove that the concept of ‘unity in diversity’ is a myth. The semblance of unity can be devastated by a single incident, leading to a series of unpleasant consequences which disrupts the social harmony of different races. In such a context, Joe sarcastically re-enacts an evening waiting on tables at a restaurant where senators and congressmen gather: “It was terrible at the Colony today. Absolutely terrible. The natives went crazy. We ran out of the risotto. The women were tearing off their pearls. The men were spitting in their wine. We almost had to teargas the place” (p.171). Apart from the major incidents of racial violence, the day-to-day happenings are the barometers gauging the tensions and sense of strong racial bias. The author intelligently tackles a serious political issue by pointing out how mutual love and the connections between individuals can offer the healing touch to the national problems like class conflict. Mengestu introduces romance and tender fatherly love as a substitute formula and this is a good bend that he provides for the plot to make the story interesting. But if we take the ground realities obtaining today how many Judith’s, Naomi’s and Stephanos’s are there in the American society? Their meeting together was just a matter of contexture and the circumstances were unique. Naomi was probably recalling the memories of her father, but it goes to the credit of Stephanos that he maintained the essential dignity and purity of the relationship and his yearning as nonsexual. Something that is innovative for the novels of the time, dealing in racial subjects! Reconciliation Mengestu highlights the tragic importance of race in American life and how it still divides the society from all ends, notwithstanding equality and freedom granted to all races under the provisions of the Constitution of America. The sufferings of an immigrant are on two counts. The pangs of separation from the home country and the compulsion to live on edge dangerously with untold apprehensions related to racial tensions. To attain normalcy caught between the two opposing forces, the two cultures that are not compatible to each other, is near impossibility. Charles M. Hampden-Turner et al. write, “Cultures vary considerably in how specific they are, that is, how precisely and minutely de-fine (put an end to) the constructs they use and to what extent they prefer diffuse, patterned wholes, put together in overall configurations and systems.”(123) Nevertheless, the efforts to accelerate the process for reconciliation have to go on. America has no other alternative to survive as a nation; the immigrants too have no other options, as the chances of returning to their homeland are remote because of many factors. The author has widened the scope of the genre of his novel by giving it the romantic turn to highlight the issue of reconciliation, which until now has not met with any noticeable success. A stranger comes to the community. She is a white American woman, Judith McMasterson. The author writes, “Before Judith, these were the only reasons white people had ever come into the neighborhood: to deliver official notices, investigate crimes and check up on the children of negligent parents” (p.16). She heralds a personal change in the life of Stephanso, and a relationship of affection for her and her daughter. The author has deliberately created this character to introduce a new element in the process of reconciliation between the two races. Judith, is a history professor and is a Native American, her divorced husband is a Mauritian, an economics professor. Their designation of ‘history’ and ‘economics’ is symbolic, as the clash between the two races is related to the history and economics of America! The eleven year old daughter, Naomi, is born out of wedlock. This inter-racial chemistry must have worked to the advantage in the growth of the cordial relationship between Stephanso, Judith and Naomi. Yet the introductory stage of Stephanso’s and Judith’s relationship creates a subtle racial bias observed in the disposition of Judith. She had married an African in her past, and as such, now has a feeling of affinity for Stephanso right from the first glance. The author describes the repercussions of the thin layer of racial bias cleverly evident at the time of their introductory meeting. He describes, “She rubbed her hands over her daughter’s head and then whispered something into her ear. The girl leaned her head back, looked up at the mother….when the girl turned back around and faced me I felt a hint of embarrassment and shame that come over me. I knew I was being judged by this child, as she refused to avert her gaze from mine” (p.19). Their homes at the Logan Circle is presumed to be the beginning of an inter-racial reconciliation, but nothing much comes out of the plutonic relationship between Stephanso and Judith except sweet, vague imagines. But from that experience several layers of psychological sufferings is revealed in Stephanso, while adding a few pages to the history of an immigrant’s experiences. The processes of being an immigrant to making efforts to establish a life in an unfamiliar country like America is a tough option, giving excruciating pain to the inner world of Stephanso. For such individuals to forget their homeland (Stephanso was an immigrant for circumstances beyond his control, he did not come based on his own volition) and accepted the consumer culture, and cutthroat competition way of life, was a difficult task to accept. Conclusion Assuming that for the sake of the requirements of the intended plot, Mengestu has succeeded in creating a ‘solitary reaper’ (character) in Stephanso, based on the actual experience immigrants from African countries or any country who reaches the shores of America. Such immigrant struggles is difficult to comprehend initially, even in the best of positions, Sepha’s intense remembering of his homeland is a human quality not to be discredited. African-Americans, who have been America for centuries, also face acute economic, social and cultural problems. For running a store one need not take to the course of ‘aloneness.’ To take care of customers, one needs to be a good public relations man. Isolation is essentially a characteristic of the inner world of an individual. Immigrants do not like to be alone, and their first and foremost effort is to get connected either with individual families and/or religious/social institutions. In America there is no dearth of religious institutions. Every small and big city and the countryside have a religious institution, associating with which one actively participate in religious activities. On the social activities front, there are many Non-governmental organizations engaged in serving the people and getting involved in their agenda is another way to mix freely with the society. Where then is the question of suffering from aloneness? But as is true in the storyline, Stephanso struggles to find his own identity, constantly doubting the intended purpose of his existence in America. But if it is true that the whites enjoy the isolation of the immigrant community, for those people this novel is a good read. But I doubt whether this process eliminates racism as a popular theme found in the novel written by Mengestu. Works Cited Hall, Edward T. Beyond Culture. New York: Random House Inc. 1981, Print. Hamden-Turner, Charles M (Author) Trampenaars, Fons (Author). Building Cross- Cultural Competence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, Print. Mengestu, Dinaw. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. New York, Riverhead Books, 2008.Print Weaver, Gary R. Readings in Intercultural Relations. Boston: Pearson Publishing, 2000, Print Read More