Amy Waldman’s The Submission raises interesting questions about the relationship of politics to art and the compelling issue of how to memorialize catastrophe. Richard Price calls it “a panoramic novel about the politics of grief in the wake of 9/11.” Respond below with your understanding of how the politics play out in part 1 of the novel. Here are some guiding questions. You do not need to answer them; use them, rather, as branching-out points, ways to stimulate your thinking.
The novel introduces us to many different worlds: NYC high art and politics, the world of privilege, the often hidden world of illegal immigrants, Muslim politics both public and private, making it in America, the world of protest, the world of journalism and media. Choose at least one of these worlds and write about what it says to you: are the portrayals accurate and believable? Do you feel sympathy for the various players/characters?
What, in fact, do you make of the various characters? Claire and Paul and their families? Sean and his family? Asma and Inam? Mo and Laila? Whose rights are important here? Whose rights are being trampled upon? How does one’s location (ethnicity, class, gender) determine one’s perspective?
After reading part 1, speculate about the end of the novel. What do you predict as the end result regarding the building of the memorial? About the characters’ lives?
I have never been involved in the worlds of NYC high arts and politics, illegal immigrants, Muslim politics, protest, or journalism and media, so it is not possible for me to entitle these portrayals accurate or distorted. Nevertheless, from reading other fictional stories and nonfictional articles on the above-mentioned worlds, they do seem believable; their stories are consistent. Although they may contain stereotypical aspects, most authors do their research before they publish their work, or at least that is what I was told. So, I assume Waldman gives the readers a general idea of what the lives of the privileged and underprivileged must be like, though I would not take her word for word.
On the other hand, I particularly liked how Waldman depicts Mohammad Khan. Waldman breaks the innocent victim rule, and gives Mo a more humanlike character. He is not just a martyr. He is, let me quote the words of the fictional character’s girlfriend, an “asshole.” Let us be frank. The population of nice people is minuscule, and Mo is just like any one of us: he likes getting laid; he is ambitious; he hates his boss; and, he does not submit to injustice on him. He is just a regular guy who happens to be a Muslim. It is quite unfortunate that he seems to be somewhat ashamed of his background. However, Waldman drops a hint of hope in his identity quest at the end of the section. He is finally interested in a Muslim girl! It is good that there is a chance for Mo to restore his pride in his heritage, but I just hope this doesn’t turn out too corny.
Tim migliore
In The Submission by Amy Waldman (part I) I thought the world of Mohammed, the artist selected to make the memorial was the most interesting one. Reading the story of his life I could not help but feel some outrage at the ignorance and racism displayed by most Americans upon learning that his identity was that of a Muslim-American. Two scenes that displayed ignorance, paranoia, and bits of racism was the one were Mohammed is basically interrogated at the LA airport and the interview with Paul. Both situations demonstrated a clear ignorance and paranoia. Both just saw the name Mohammed and linked a Muslim person (who is probably displays more American behavior than others) to terrorism.
In the LA airport Mohammed was asked ridiculous questions like “Do you love this country.” I mean how does this even help in anything this is just crossing the borderline of racism – they suggested that Muslims hate this country even though they have made it a home. “What are your thoughts on jihad?” and other questions just outraged me that Americans: a land of immigrants still associate a tiny group with a large nationality and identity of a majority.
Paul’s first encounter with Mohammed was also one that made me angry. Paul after all with his jurors did fairly select his design. Upon finding out Mo’s identity they had second thoughts: not because of the design but because of the identity. I sensed the internal struggle in Paul as he interviewed Mo but in the end he succumbed to ignorance and started to ask Mo about his personal life like if he is a moderate which I found ridiculous. Mo’s rights are being trampled on here: he was fairly unanimously chosen to implement his designs but immediately cause a controversy not because he was a former criminal or something but he shared an identity that Americans have painted as a terrorist identity.
My prediction is a sad simple one. I feel like the hysteria that people have demonstrated, the ignorance, the association of terrorism will ultimately convince the jurors to kill the gardens. Not because the gardens are a bad plan: they did pick it after all because they loved the design, no they are going to kill it because America can’t accept the fact that not everyone is a terrorist and that a minority of extremists don’t represent a majority of peace loving Muslims. Maybe all this hatred could turn this American loving person: Mo, to a fanatical extremist maybe because he sees that people don’t accept him. This of course is an over speculation but America has turned moderates into extremists in the past through its policies: remember Malcolm X?
To the question of whose rights are most important when concerned with the memorial, I would answer that it is the right of the victims, or in this case the families of the victims. But I also believe that the winner of the blind contest, Muslim or not, shouldn’t be ignored because that goes against the very ideal that the US stands for; prejudice blinds so much that it causes people to throw away their valued principles.
I’ve always liked reading fiction that is slightly, if not completely, based on historical context. So I was extremely pleased at how the author tied the situation in the book to the Maya Lin controversy. However, though there was a controversy involved around Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the memorial was built in the end because Lin compromised with the government and allowed a bronze statue of a group of soldiers within her memorial. However, unlike Lin, Mo refuses to make any compromise that concerns changing his design, even if it is to reduce the memorial’s “Islamic influences.”
When Mo’s character was introduced I couldn’t help but side with him. I think Mo sticking to his creation is what truly draws me to him. Though it is selfishness on his part, to force him to either compromise or lose his win is much more underhanded in my opinion. Unfortunately, in this prejudice-charged, fictional NYC it’s going to be hard for his design to win. I feel like this story is like representing the other side of what would have happened if Maya Lin hadn’t compromised with the government.
This whole fight is going to be life-changing time for all the characters because they’re about to be a part of something truly historical. I’d like to believe that the memorial would be built exactly as its artist envisioned it. I want a happy ending where Mo gets to build his memorial true to its form because I’d like to believe that even fictional NYC is capable of overcoming its prejudices.
I really enjoyed the first section of the The Submission. The controversy presented in the novel summarizes the fear that plagued our nation after September 11th. It seems an impossible choice for the jury- announce Mo as the winner and let the public be outraged, or pick a different winner and insult Mo, Muslims, and all those that support racial equality. I do sympathize with the jurors, especially Paul who seems to be working hard to make a fair and rational (and politically correct) decision. He creates a list of pros and cons to Mo being announced the winner, listing things like “principle- he won!” and “statement of tolerance,” on the pros column, and “backlash,” “raising money harder,” and “governor/politics,” in the cons column. He seems to be the one with the most objective view of the issue. Claire and Sean, on the other hand, are quite emotional about the issue, both having someone who died in the attack. Claire seems so caught up in her loss and in her support for the garden that she is unbothered by the Muslim architect, while for Sean, Mo’s religion is the main focus and he considers it a serious insult to his dead brother. While I do feel that the rights of the victims families must be protected, most of my sympathy and support goes to Mo. The part where Mo is taken for questioning at LAX is such a good description of what happens to our country when we are afraid. Mo, who is clearly just as American as you or I, must put up with being asked questions such as “do you love this country?” and “where were you during the attack?” and “do you believe you’d go to heaven if you blew yourself up?” These incredibly inappropriate questions shed light on our inability to understand how to cope with what happened. The minute we find out that a Islamic terrorist group executed the attack, anyone who is Muslim, looks Muslim, or has a Muslim name is no longer an equal citizen of America and is now a suspect.
While I do understand people’s concern on principle- they do not want a person who is part of a terrorist group designing the memorial with motives beyond honoring the dead- the fear just got so out of hand. Instead of focusing on the beauty of the memorial, the public is focused on the American-Muslim architect.
In my opinion, the almost immediate media frenzy is an accurate description of what would happen if this were real life. People advocate so strongly on both sides of the issue, everyone thinking they are right. It is incredible what people turned this memorial into. They say that this is not a peaceful memorial but a “victory garden” for the terrorists. A newscaster discussing the memorial says, “[The terrorists] remains are in that memorial. [Mo’s] made a tomb, a graveyard, for them, not the victims” (116). And these are the words that the public will believe. They will believe that this American architect from Virginia is trying to honor the terrorists who attacked America, his country, on September 11th. Because it is easier to fear than to trust,especially after an event like 9/11.
At this point, I believe that things are not going to work out in Mo’s favor. The public is so against it. Fear will drive the jury to make some excuse and pick a different winner. People do not appear to be thinking about tolerance and equality at a time like this. They are thinking of safety and honoring their dead.
The Submission really grabs my attention in the beginning of the novel, because although it is fiction, it is based on real life events that are directly related to my life. Living in New York City and seeing the debate over the ground zero almost puts this book into real life perspective. Any great authors main objective in to engage the reader, and so far the book has done so to me.
It was very amusing to me when they took the piece of paper with the winning name out of the envelope and said, “Jesus fucking Christ! It’s a goddamn Muslim!” When they found out it was a muslim, the people were bugging out and didn’t know what to do. They were questioning his American citizenship. This passage really portrays the true ignorance of the American political system and the people of America. Islam is the second largest religion on planet earth with roughly 22% of the world’s population practicing it. Are you trying to tell me that 22% of humans are terrorists and are out there to destroy America? If this was true, we would be long gone. The facts are clearly visible and I just don’t see how some people can go against this.
It was messed up to see how mistreated Mohammad Khan was at the airport and how he was being so interrogated. I think its messed up because this is so evident in America everyday. My dad is always stopped and questioned at the airport because we have an Iraqi last name: Moallem. People are stereotyped all the time just as Mohammad was.
The worst part about all this that is true in our society is that the media can take what they want out of a situation and cram bias information into the public’s head. I was always told, “don’t always believe what you hear.” You can never be too sure what is the truth and what is a lie in the modern day society, because ultimately media controls the public opinion on what they do not know.
My favorite story line was Mo’s. He is an interesting character even without his obvious role in the design of the memorial; he’s the character you can’t help but root for from the start. Starting from the interrogation at the airport, the following non-promotion from his company, and finally the fury over his winning design- I found myself hoping, while also being aware of the fact Waldman couldn’t let him win from the start, but still hoping. It is this little tug of hope that all storytellers intend for readers to feel, so I’d say Waldman is doing a fine job of drawing us in.
There were several times that I stopped and marveled over the details and little knots of heart wrenching moments. One was when Claire dwells on how when she was submerged in water, her husband was being consumed by fire, and another is when Sean comes home from the city and his wife tells him that he smells like death. Sean “couldn’t believe this repulsed her. The dust he brought home was holy- he shook out his shoes and his shirt over newspapers to save it.” It reminded me of the Ashes exhibit. While some find the ashes/dust repulsive, some find it holy, if not beautiful. Asma also shows signs of struggle to understanding the juxtaposition of her feelings. “Never had she prayed so deeply, never had she felt the contrast between the tranquility within prayer and the disturbance outside so strongly.”
Waldman does a great job of making sure that she voices not only a select group of people, but every one. Not only that, she makes sure she explains the inner conflicts in each character themselves, as well. I found that that be a powerful aspect of the novel.
Paul brings up an interesting point, “What’s in a name? Nothing, everything. We all self-improve, change with the times.” Many immigrants who come to America change their names, usually due to the inconvenience of having to continuously correct their names, whether it is in the school roster, or another public setting. This made me think of the novel, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri in which the protagonist struggles to deal with the barriers that come with his “foreign” name.
Does our name really make a significant impact on who we are as a person? The public clearly believes that since the designer has a Muslim name, he is the enemy. Claire is one of the first to recognize that there is a line drawn when she says, “But if you let them change you, they’ve won.” I think that Paul was right in his statement that a name is both nothing and everything. Depending on cultural or other practices, it may have its own significance. To others, it may not. I think it is a debatable question.
On a side note, I thought it was brilliant how the different sections of The Submission were designed; I loved the idea of the trees being “planted” into each square of at least what I presumed, was the garden.
Stephanie, I also found Paul’s question of “Whats in a name” extremely thought provoking.
It so reminded me of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet!
Amy Waldman does an amazing job at evoking tension in this book. From the very beginning she is able to depict the emotions of resentment Claire and Ariana have as opposing forces through dialogue. She also does a good job at building strong characters, I found myself sympathizing with some, and hating others. I know that the tension in this book as well as the different opinions on the the topic of anti-islam sentiment are accurately described. However I think the dialogue can sometimes be a little exaggerated.
I noticed that Waldman references a lot of artwork, and famous people. This gives me the impression that she’s a very sophisticated and well-educated writer so I appreciate her work. I’m not going to lie, I don’t particularly love this book. I think it brings about a lot of good points and it reveals a lot about actual people’s mindsets regarding 9/11 but its just not something I would pick up in a bookstore to read.
There were a few parts of the book that I thought were really well done. Around page 20 everyone gets very heated and emotional after finding out the winning architect is a Muslim and I thought she definitely made the reader feel the shock, mixed emotions, controversy, and tension. At another point Claire is in her deceased husband’s study and I truly felt sad for her. Again on page 89 Waldman managed to evoke strong emotions and controversy when Claire is talking to Mrs. Gallagher. Waldman also knows how to make the reader feel all the chaos and mayhem with the media which I really liked. Having a Muslim win the contest is more than enough controversy to bring in but to include the media was very realistic and smart.
You’d think that after the holocaust, civil rights movement, genocide, and war after war people would finally get it; hating a group of people simply because you’re misinformed or you don’t understand them is wrong. I’m not saying that people who fear Muslims are stupid and malicious, but I am saying that we should continue to grow and increase our knowledge 10 years after the attack. Of course people who were affected by the attack will always remember it, but that doesn’t mean they should have the same misconceptions about Muslims as they did one month after the event.
One idea of the novel that I have acquired from the first hundred pages or so is that The American Dream conflicts with one’s identity. In the novel, the Muslim characters such as Mo and Imam are fueled by success and are climbing the ladder just like everyone else. They strive to be an individual in a crowd and be acknowledged for their accomplishment. Their identity comes into play when all of a sudden Laila and Mo have to choose between representing their culture or making it in America. Both of them are represented as detached from Muslim culture, since Mo considers himself secular and Laila does not wear the headdress. In brief, the novel tackles the fact that American society cannot accept having dreamers with a different cultural identity than American. There might have always been this fear of change in modern-day American society however it took drastic events like the 9/11 attacks to trigger these radical cultural assumptions.
The Americans of the novel have a more stressful job within the novel because Claire and Paul especially are caught between serving the interests of all those affected. Claire on one hand seeks closure in the memorial but the fact that she represents the families prolongs the need for closure. The families, through Sean and his family, are unforgiving and believe that an American tragedy should have an American memorial but being American involves accepting different cultures as opposed to one. They act this way because they aren’t able to physically retaliate against terrorism so they instill fear to Muslims on a domestic scale. Similarly, Paul has pressure from the public but as well as from the governor. Regarding the public, I did complete agree with an idea mentioned in the novel about the public needing to find a scapegoat for the voting of the memorial even though it was anonymous because at the height of the lack of public security any answer is better than nothing. He therefore has to manage the frail mindset of the public so he will have the constant fear of not living up to their expectations. On the other end, the governor pressures him for the sake of her career because she wants to be on the same page with public opinion and is willing to place a “veto” power on the memorial decision. As the first female governor, she has the most to deal with, in the public eye, because she is expected to care for the interest of Americans. Hence, she needs Paul to be on the side of the Americans because he keeps insisting on the fairness of the elections. This brings up a whole point other point on public security in terms of undemocratic means to appear democratic.
So far, concerning the ending of the novel, I feel that journalism and media will play a far greater role as families become more involved. Opponents will play on paranoia to a far greater extent and the public hearing will reflect that. Sooner or later, Mo will gain that attention that he lacked as an architect and may become a stronger spokesperson for the MACC as he learns more about the struggle of the Muslim people in a post-9/11 society. In the end, I fear that the issue of funding may further ruin some characters’ already stressful lives because funding will somehow involve the everyday taxpayer. This will then lead to allotting more say in the end result to the people.
All in all, imagining the design is half the trouble compared to realizing it for these characters.
It is amazing how quickly the tone of a novel can drop from somewhere so high and celebratory to so low and agitated. Just with one word the excitement of picking the winner for the memorial was gone. This can only show how fragile the climate, both political and social, was after 9/11. There was both hidden and exposed discrimination. For some, this anger built to the point of protests and riots. For politicians, there was a separation between trying to please citizens and trying to follow the ways of the Constitution. For Muslims, there was a change in social climate once the news produced the fact that the crashed plane, which flew into the World Trade Center, was an act of terrorism.
This fragile climate accompanies each of the situations posed in the novel. Although The Submission dictates a fictional story, the book is similar to what happened in reality. Alike to fantasies, like Brave New World and 1984, The Submission shares an odd resemblance to what actually happened. Unfortunately this negative behavior towards Muslims has yet to be diminished. Just one year ago, there was a huge uproar against the building of a Mosque near Ground Zero. The construction had brought the public, the media and the politicians into the wrestling ring even though there was never supposed to be a wrestling ring in the first place. Protests were rallied around the Mosque. Debates were spurred about the Mosque. The worst part was it was real. It dealt with real people. This is was not a fictional story. Similar to Waldman’s novel, we see the fragile climate breaking so suddenly and rapidly it is hard to grasp.
The novel presents an accurate portrayal of the negativity shown by the public in reality. Although the situations were different, the mosque issue holds similar attributes to the story in the novel. In both situations, the public had a huge uproar against each of the presented issues. In the novel, Sean and his family represent the public who were outraged by the chosen winner. Their attitudes and speech held a great resemblance to reality. It is disgraceful and frightening to see this horrible fictional account be so realistic but unfortunately that is the case. It seems that this realistic accurate account in the novel is unbelievable; however, with the Mosque issue happening only a year ago, I am beginning to believe this unbelievable account is believable.
Reading through The Submission, the story seems so close to reality because of similarities it has to the events and poetry that we have studied. There is a constant change in point of view throughout the novel, from the perspective of Claire, a widow, to Mohammed, the controversial Muslim architect. In this way, The Submission is similar to Suheir Hammad’s first writing since, where she constantly changes the topic of argument. She goes from being thankful as a survivor to being angry about racial profiling as a Palestinian American after September 11th. Another connection is the Islamophobia and a connection to the contemporary controversy of a mosque near ground zero when stating “ They could never get away with putting a mosque at this site, so they’ve come up with something sneakier: an Islamic garden.” (Waldman 116-7) I admire how Amy Waldman uses this novel to take into account the many issues involved with America’s rehabilitation after 9/11.
The symbolism in this novel strongly enforces the severity of the situations Waldman explores in The Submission. For example, she describes Claire as swimming in water as her husband Cal dies in fire on 9/11. There is also Sean who is in “some new kind of underwater”(Waldman 55) due to the helplessness he feels in the search for his brother Patrick on 9/11. There is a theme of water, the source of life, counter intuitively causing pain and guilt. There is also this visual description after Mo’s coworkers say blatantly anti-Muslim comments, “Mo stared out the window. The sun, in the gray sky looked like it had been sunk in dirty water.”(Waldman 44) It is as if she projects the how islamophobia poisons the community onto the sun since it is now dirty. This also serves to acknowledge the injustice of islamophobia and fill in the gap Mo leaves behind in an attempt at seeming indifferent in the beginning.
The memorial garden is the place to bury all the grief to the catastrophe and convey all wishes for peace, but so far this huge form of art, even before the construction, brings a lot of conflicts. People in the novel “The Submission” have a very difficult problem to be solved. Only with his great talent and creative design, a Muslim designer won the competition on a design contest, which offers the winner a job to direct construction of the memorial, but people protest to the result and object him constructing it. The designer Mohammad Khan deserve his position, which he get from a fair competition, but that he is a Muslim caused a huge objection from the public.
It is true that the terrorists who attacked the twin tower and killed thousands of people are Muslim and some extremists do believe that killing innocent people is a way to serve their god. However, that does not mean that all Muslims are terrorists. Most of them are like any other citizens. It is unfair for Mohammad Khan, the Muslim designer, to be in middle of a controversy when he gets a job that he deserves. But at the same time, I do understand how the public, especially the families of the victims, would feel when they heard that a Muslim designer would construct the memorial garden. Because the Muslim terrorists killed their families and neighbors, the hatred and resentment toward the Muslim world would seize their minds.
It is very ironic that a Muslim constructs a memorial to commemorate the victims who were slaughtered by the Muslim extremists. But, to put it in another way of view, it is a good way for the Muslims to say that they also feel sorrow to loss of the victims and that they want peace as much as any other people in the world do. Accepting Mohammad Khan and his design and appointing him to a job to construct the garden in spite of the public’s nose would be very difficult decisions for the politicians, but it is a beginning of reconciliation between the public and the Muslim world. The more the public accepts Muslims into the boundary of their normal lives, the more they would overcome the prejudice toward the Muslim world. This is what Mohammad, Lalia, and all MACC members want and what they are working for.
I eagerly look forward to read the continuing chapters and know how they work on this problem. Although the ending of this story is already written in the book, I hope all people to find the best solution of this complicated issue.
The novel begins with the committee discussing the two designs that made it to the final. They decide that to implement the garden design until they discover the name of the winner, Mohammed Khan. Without any knowledge about Khan, the committee starts to reconsider whether or not it would be “appropriate” to build a memorial site on ground zero that was designed by a man with an Arabic name.
As the third person narrative shifts (as it often does) to Khan, referred to as Mo, we learn that he is not the person his name might suggest. Mo was born and educated in the United States. In his adolescence, his parents did not raise him in a devoutly religious environment. In fact, Mo does not genuinely consider himself a Muslim. Rather, he prefers to associate himself nationally with the United States.
When the media received the news that a man with an Arabic name had won the contest, they began creating false stories. That was believable because conservative news outlets like to focus on stories like this. Paul wanted to remove Mo from the contest or at least put the design under Mo’s boss’s name. I felt that Claire, whose husband died on nine eleven, served as the counter to Pauls’ desires to remove Mo from the competition.
I found Mo’s resilience to be very pronounced. He entered the competition, as he said, because he thought it was the right thing to do. He knew that he was a talented architect and that his design could potentially win. He also knew that he was probably the only “Muslim” person to enter because when the news reported that a Muslim man had won, he knew that it was him. With that being said, I believe Mo has no intentions of removing his name from the memorial design. He identifies with America and, although he was not directly affected by 9/11, felt it was his duty to design the memorial. I don’t think Paul can stop Mo, especially with Claire in the way, because Mo fairly won the contest. And in the end, the power of the memorial will speak for itself. It will not be remembered for the division that preceded it.
Using a fake selection committee’s struggle to choose a memorial that will best suit the public, Waldman explores many sensitive topics associated with the 9/11; some of those topics being islamophobia, the mourning of the dead, the healing of our nation, and the media’s role in society.
To go along with what Joe said, I believe that Mo will not back down to Paul. Mo knows he won and will expect to be treated just as any other winner would be. At this juncture, I am not really sure what the best decision would be. Would it spark violence against the muslims in the long run to choose the controversial/rightful winner? Or would it be the beginning of an era of tolerance?
I would like to think we live in a world where people aren’t blind believers in cultural stereotypes, but we are. Having accepted this, and having considered the fact that choosing Mo’s design may be counter intuitive in the fight against cultural discrimination, the consequentialist within me thinks that the panel should reconsider the winner. They should reconsider no matter how unfair it is to Mo, simply because sacrificing one person’s happiness for the happiness of a community is the moral thing to do.
However, Mo did rightfully win at the end of the day. There is no arguing that it would be unfair if his prize was taken away from him.
Waldman has created a very complex conundrum that I look forward to seeing resolve.
The novel introduces us to many different worlds: NYC high art and politics, the world of privilege, the often hidden world of illegal immigrants, Muslim politics both public and private, making it in America, the world of protest, the world of journalism and media. Choose at least one of these worlds and write about what it says to you: are the portrayals accurate and believable? Do you feel sympathy for the various players/characters?
What, in fact, do you make of the various characters? Claire and Paul and their families? Sean and his family? Asma and Inam? Mo and Laila? Whose rights are important here? Whose rights are being trampled upon? How does one’s location (ethnicity, class, gender) determine one’s perspective?
After reading part 1, speculate about the end of the novel. What do you predict as the end result regarding the building of the memorial? About the characters’ lives?
I could relate the best to the world of protest in the story because I was able to witness mob power because of the “Ground-Zero Mosque” controversy. In the novel, the controversy rises because people do not like the designer, Mo, because of his Islamic heritage. As a result, they protest spinning wild tales of memorial becoming a paradise for terrorists who crashed planes there, ignoring the fact that Mo was not even a practicing Muslim. In the same way, the people against the “Ground Zero Mosque” also objected to the Islamic center because they felt that it would be a symbol for radical Islam’s victory against the West, ignoring the fact that the “mosque” was actually more of a community center made by moderate Muslims, who would shed light on their culture.
I feel sympathetic to Mo because he is being cheated for his success just because of bigotry. Although he seems selfish for hiding his plans for the memorial from his best friend, he was still a very good architect who deserved to be congratulated for his designs, which are artistically ideal for a memorial.
I believe Claire is trying her best to help Mo out and she is facing problems because of public disapproval of her choice. They do not want her to represent the families of the dead because quite a few families affected are opposed to the memorial. Claire’s right to have a fitting memorial is violated because the conservative public opposes such a measure. Paul is trying his best to make sure that a memorial is completed. Although he supports the design, he fears public disapproval will weaken fundraising efforts, which might prevent construction of a memorial. For this, he attempts to diffuse tension by hiding the victor and trying to convince Mo to quit. Sean is an unsuccessful slob who manipulates public anger so that he can get social respect that he does not have in his life. He manipulates his family, who blindly follow his rage, believing in conspiracy. While looking at the victims, Inam is representative of undocumented immigrants who died on 9/11, while Asma is representative of their families. Asma lived in constant fear of deportation and poverty, until she receives government money. Her rights are violated because conservatives refuse to treat her properly in spite of the shared trauma, while some people in the local Bangladeshi community are sexist. Mo and Laila show success that requires hiding a part of personality. The conservative public hates his designs because of his Islamic heritage, while the Muslim community, represented by MACC, refuse to allow Laila to show her assimilation to American culture because she is not permitted to hold hands with a man like Mo. Mo and Laila’s rights are very important because they are not given credit for their success in America as a result of their hard work, while Asma’s basic human right is violated by sexism. Mo also is affected by religious bigotry.
A person’s location determines his or her perspective because their that determines their experiences. For example, Asma’s perspective of the WTC memorial is shaped by her location as a (formerly) poor, female, undocumented immigrant. Her lower class due to the undocumented status prevents her from voicing her opinion, while Sean’s manipulations hold wild regard because of his legal status.
In the end, I predict that Mo will succeed in making a memorial for his design because he seems to be undaunted by people telling him to quit. Moreover, I believe that people will probably calm down eventually and realize that the design is perfect for a memorial as it represents rejuvenation from destruction.
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Upon reading part one of Amy Waldman’s The Submission, I was instantly captivated by the characters that were the jurors. Claire struck me as the most fascinating of them all, for she was the only one there who had lost a family member, and her passionate fight for the garden memorial really had me sympathizing with her. Reading the way she described the memorial, “Beauty wasn’t a crime, but there was more than beauty here… reminders that a garden, for all its reliance on nature, was man-made…”(p.4), really drew me into her passion for it.
The anonymous competition for the best design of a memorial for the dead of 9/11 was interesting from the very start, and Waldman seemed to have introduced it to us in medias res. She skipped over the start of the competition to the debate that would decide the winner, which I deemed very affective in her writing. The politics, however, do not truly come into play until Mohammed Khan’s name is revealed as the designer. This is when the jurors start to show their true colors.
Richard Price wrote that The Submission is “a panoramic novel about the politics of grief in the wake of 9/11,” though I cannot wholly agree with him. There is more than politics coming into play here; it seems more like blatant discrimination. To call this argument against a Muslim designer “politics” would be a slight upon the pride of America and what this country has strived to obtain for so long: equality. Any American who reads about how Waldman portrays these New Yorkers, such as Sean and Alyssa, should feel ashamed that such people live in their country and still maintain a discriminatory outlook on life. Living in New York, I had never really encountered such obvious maliciousness towards Muslims in newspapers and therefore I believe Waldman to be exaggerating the public’s reaction a bit. I’ve heard of such radical reactions in other states in the U.S. but not so much in New York.
To be perfectly honest, I do not really like Waldman’s style of writing. She puts too much of her own personality into the characters’ dialogue, making them ironically alike to each other, when I envision the exact opposite. It may be too early in the book for me to rightly judge, but so far I’ve been a little disheartened, and oftentimes very embarrassed, as the story progresses. She is trying to reveal a side to America that has taken a few hundred steps back in in it’s development towards equality, which I don’t believe to be rightly true. In fact, New Yorkers would have probably vouched for this Muslim architect in reality, because it would go against all that we stand for to do otherwise.
It may be idealistic of me, but I believe that by the end of the book, the jurors will hold to their decision. The garden will hopefully be built, and Amy Waldman will stop perverting New Yorkers into racist, discriminatory people.
Honestly, I feel relatively distant to “The Submission”. It is a historical fiction novel with a part of fiction that feels almost completely unnecessary. I would be a lot more forgiving if this was made years ago. It was published this year, specifically because there were large-scale protests against an Islamic community center a few blocks away from ground zero last year. Similar events have conspired. It makes the book seem unnecessary at best and exploitative at worst.
I found some parts interesting (like the part where Mo is interrogated in the airport) because it feels like one of the few times that it feels like the fiction part is actually necessary. The thing is that I understand that the fiction aspect of it gives an easily controlled emotional aspect of it, which is why it worked in such an instance. It is one thing to be told middle easterners are being harassed at airports; it is another to actually be inside an interrogation room with a man who is being (in my opinion) emotionally violated, to the point where he is hesitant to spit out gum. I also liked the monolith idea. While I can accept why it was rejected, I feel that it acknowledged the loss of life while reminding us that we don’t have to ignore that people died, and accept it and live (I.e., terrorists lose). It also sounded cool.
Claire’s presence was a bit odd. I really am not sure why she is there. I understand that Waldman placed her there for the sake of having someone who was widowed on 9/11, but I am not sure why she is there… logically. Why is she on the selection committee? However, I was genuinely surprised when she was the voice of reason in the committee, which satisfied me a lot.
I also like Mo, the architect. He won’t be marginalized in these events. He also brought up how there are millions of people in the modern world who won’t ever receive a memorial, people who many won’t care about. It raised the question of the mindset of the families involved, the mindset of local and international politics, and I enjoyed that. The only thing about Mo is that he is not a Muslim. He is an atheist. If the message is that this should not matter, then it makes no sense why the center of the story is not Muslim. The only plausible reasons I can think of this is to show that people are extremely xenophobic and wouldn’t care to learn basic facts (similar to Obama) or to discuss internalized racism sometime further into the novel… which would be brilliant if Waldman pulled it off (though the latter is a really big stretch). I was also confused why he went to the MACC.
Also I was confused about what Inam and Asma were doing in the story. If anything, their impact seems minor.
A minor thing that I want to discuss is Roi, who actually was tempted to enter the competition, but chose not to because he is a Frenchman who was in the Communist party. It was a really interesting to see the two of them in that moment. The parallel between the two was interesting, and Mo being complemented by his superior, who I felt Mo didn’t have that much respect for. It was a warm moment for me.
Regardless of my distance, I am enticed to see what will happen next. I may find my initial assumptions to be false, which I hope I do. It feels like this has potential.
To be a very meaningful social commentary.
and story.
In all honesty, I didn’t know what to feel after reading this portion of “The Submission.” As Muslim, I did feel the remarks against Islam at heart, and I was able to relate to being misunderstood and scrutinized by those who are reluctant about my religious identity. The hate towards the religion has been real since the tragic September day. To see it again through the pages of this book brought a complicated feeling that’s hard to express. But nonetheless, I found this a powerful asset of the book.
The portrayal of Islamophobia, the uncertainty about the religion, the views of both the questioner and the questioned, and the pain of 9/11 were well conveyed from pages 3 to 119 . Amy Waldman brought the discomfort of a Muslim designing the memorial and the frustration of a citizen who’s holding against misconception in a vivid and realistic way. Her words can build quite a suspense at times, especially at the moment Paul found out about winning designer is a Muslim. Waldman’s line “A dark horse indeed” was perfect for this moment. Imagery like Claire submerge under water while her husband Cal was consumed by fire was vivid. I like her writing style very much and I really want to see how this story reaches its resolve!
I think 9/11 is such a peculiar kind of event, even among other terrorist attacks because of the distinctly different responses it caused. I feel it safe to say that while New Yorkers tended to feel a particular way following the attacks, the rest of the nation did not necessarily empathize. While “the Heartland” viewed the attack as an affront on “the American Way”, the city of New York and inhabitants saw it instead as simply a crime of hate, without sense. Perhaps because the city was the very site of the destruction of the Towers its inhabitants felt much more violated than other citizens— felt the attack was not metaphorical but simply a heinous act simply for the sake of destruction.
In terms of a memorial, this differences of how the attacks are perceived or remembered would color the memorial itself. For those most affected– those who lost family and friends, the memorial would best serve its purpose if it memorialized them. Yet for “the rest” of the nation, those who saw the fatalities of the attacks not as 3,000 individuals, but instead as the wounding of American principles, then a memorial should be one of nationalistic pride. These two very different visions of what a memorial should achieve would be most likely not be achieved in one structure. I think the battle between Ariana and Claire captured this conundrum well in the opening pages of the novel.
A memorial for a catastrophe of such great magnitude such as the attacks has a greater commitment to those whose lives were lost than to those whose egos were bruised, I believed. And while in the novel Ariana’s “Void” was not necessarily overly nationalistic, it most certainly was not a piece aimed at healing.
The novel sparks my interest as to what the actual proposals for the site were like and the logic behind selecting the memorial that is now in place in what once was Ground Zero. Although perhaps less dramatic than the events in the book, I’m sure being part of the choosing of the design for the 9/11 memorial would be an interesting and moving experience regardless.
eghan Bravo
The Submission by Amy Waldman captured my interest from the very beginning. I believe so far, that she undoubtbly created a story that is at the very least captivating and extremely relevant to the time and circumstances we live in. The delicate and sensitive issue the novel addresses leaves me at times wondering how I myself even feel.
While I can see how the fact the debate whether to keep the winning Muslim design goes against the basic principles America was built upon, I also see the sensitivity of the subject. Where as I would normally agree with Claire that no matter what race the designer that he should be kept but I find myself struggling to come to that conclusion. What I mean, is that if I was ever put in that position, as a juror on some type of board facing that decision, so shorty after 9/11 I do not know how I would act.
Claire’s character has many traits that I admire deeply. Her passion and drive, she is a hardworking individual and seems to be loyal to what she chooses to believe in. I admire that she could stand up for the Garden and it’s Muslim creator with such strong belief in it. As the family of a victim, I find this very honorable because it would be easy of here to make the assumption that all of Muslim culture is bad, which is incredibly false. Claire did not let the horrible tragedy of 9/11 wane her sense of American pride and principle, which is strength in her character itself.
I see the novel ending with the Garden being chosen, hopefully at least. Most of me roots for the Garden and it’s Muslim creator, who is just another average guy, but I do sympathize with the victim’s families. That is what is causing my personal struggle to choose which side to take.
Throughout the first portion of the reading there is an emphasis on identity. Underlying identities like Paul’s son, Jacob, having no real self-sustaining profession, or Asma being an illegal immigrant and the wife of one killed in the twin towers highlight how representation in this country grant certain opportunities to some and take away from others. Of course the most evident example of how identity plays a role in this novel is through the Jury’s selection and the public’s denial of Mohammad Khan. The name represents Islam. The issue becomes that people fear what they cannot identify themselves with, what they do not know.
As to the lives of the characters I don’t see why they wouldn’t be considered realistic. What would be skeptical about their lives? And as to the garden, I feel that by not allowing Mohammed to head the design for the garden would only emphasize how bad the terrorist attacks handicapped not only New York but, the nation as a whole. America cares too much about its image to allow such an appearance