Custom essays on The Themes of Gender in the Crescent By Abu-Jaber

Abu-Jaber shows cultural prophesy of Iraqi immigrants with the help of family stories, customs and traditions, as well as fairy-tales. He book breaks cultural stereotypes and proves that each person has a unique individuality which is a combination of many personality traits. In the contemporary society there are basic stereotypes concerning each ethnic group. Such stereotypes are especially strong for Arabian people. These people are attributed certain characteristics and people make their judgments about the characters of different people using only these stereotypes. Personal style of narration, rich artistic details and good writing skills help Abu-Jaber to make her readers see real people behind the picture created by mass media and cultural research. The accounts of different nationalities are presented in easy and entertaining manner. For example, Sirine, the protagonist of the story, works in the ethnic Lebanese café. Lots of dishes from different national cuisines give the readers impression about the way of life and national peculiarities of different people. While Sirine cooks her dishes she enters in the world of her childhood memories. Despite different events swirl around her, Sirine finds comfort and stability in cooking and not only because she loves this occupation, but mostly because cooking brings her in touch with the memories from her past.
The theme of exile is an important theme of the novel. Usually exile is regarded as the fail of the ruling regime and new land in treated as an opportunity to get freedom. Abu-Jaber confronts this position. In the beginning of their relations Sirine makes an attempt to struggle with Han’s attachment to his past. Sirine counts on her own negative experience when she lost her parents who had never came home. She remembers that the past is a source of negative memories and pain and thinks that same will happen to Han if he often addresses his past history. Han teaches her other attitude to the past. Despite he also has bad memories he does not reject his past and cultural prophesy. For him his past is a part of his personality and the source of personal power. The exile separated Han from his roots and from his past but he does not let physical separation to cut off his memories and feelings. The author very vividly illustrates that the relations of Sirine and Han come into the new level when they open their hearts and share their past with each other. Their relations transform from euphoria and passion into compassion and strong feeling of devotion. Perceiving the past of each other the characters share the most intimate things, which become more important than intimate physical relations.
Abu-Jaber in her novel Crescent challenges the understanding of gender and exile among Arabian immigrants. The author does not use the statistics of scholarly research. She speaks about human feelings and emotions. Her characters are complex and deep. They are all different but all of them pay great attention to their past. They do not reject or forget their native countries. As states one of the characters of the novel: “When we walk away from home, we fall in love with our sadness” (Abu-Jaber 154). This sadness and feeling of loss and deprivation becomes the part of their everyday life. Statistics does not point out that memories and past do not disappear. Immigrants live in constant feeling of their loss despite all good conditions and new opportunities they have in their new motherland. Family traditions and customs become that anchor which helps these people to survive in this world. The importance of past memories and personal history is one of the main messages the author of the book wants to pass to her readers. People, who are deprived of their motherland and who have painful experiences in their past look for new ways to come in terms with reality in the U.S. They looks for the different ways to save their past memory and their identity. As states Sririne’s uncle, explaining why he does not like to speak about the past: “It means talking about the differences between then and now, and that’s often a sad thing. And immigrants are always a bit sad right from the start anyway… but the big thing is that you can’t go back. For example, the Iraq your father and I came from doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a new scary place. When your old house doesn’t exist anymore, that makes things sadder in general” (Abu-Jaber). The author gives her personal and emotional account of immigrants’ life in the U.S. Her novel presents important information about inner life of the immigrants. She shows things which helps them to survive and proves the importance of their past and traditions for normal life in the new motherland.

Works Cited

Abu-Jaber, D. The Crescent, W.W. Norton & Co., 2004.
Salwa Essayah Chérif, “Arab American Literature: Gendered Memory in Abinader and Abu-Jaber,” Melus, 28.4, Winter 2003.
Brinda Mehta, Rituals of Memory in Contemporary Arab Women’s Writing Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP; 2007.