“Everywhere there is evidence of anxiety, depression, and self harm”.

This line and its corresponding image were especially powerful as they showcase the true terror and trauma that follows the lives of the refugees from the countries they came from and now Villawood. The quote is broader than it first appears. Literally, everywhere, there is evidence of anxiety, depression and self harm. Not only all over Villawood, but also all over the countries that the detained refugees fled from. The next set of images shows artwork done by the refugees that depict the trouble that haunts their minds. I think this is especially significant, as it points out the disheartening truth that the oppression and traumatic experiences the refugees face is what somehow brings keeps them going: “it is a good way to make friends and get to know people”.

This ties back to anxiety and depression being everywhere as well. Anxiety and depression is depicted in their artwork and experiences. It is gut-wrenching to read the line, “like so many refugees in detention, his artwork depicts the frustration of being indefinitely detained with no certainty of release.” The uncertainty of being released causes such emotional pain, anxiety, and depression that is expressed through artwork. It is important to depict these truths in such artworks, as they need to be broadcasted so that society can understand the horror and terrible experience refugees face in detention facilities such as Villawood.

-Hannah Khanshali

“So he knew about me. The bastard knew. And still he’d chosen not to get in touch. He had chosen a country over us, as my mother said. Because it was nobler to take care of hundreds of children?” (10)

This line by Danticat is very powerful as it finally reveals her true emotions regarding her father and her feelings toward him. In previous passages, she writes that her mother recently confessed that she did not inform her father of her existence. That being said, the narrator went her entire life thinking that her father abandoned her, regained a sense of closure once she heard that he didn’t actually know of her existence, just for it to break apart on her when she finds out he did truly abandon her after knowing of her existence since her teenage-hood. Her feelings come to life in this sentence for one of the first times in a straightforward way, similarly to how A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid is written. She asks herself questions, saying to herself over and over again how she was abandoned, digging up trauma shoved away for years, and the readers enter her thoughts as she makes realizations.

This line is proper foreshadowing a line closer to the end of the text where refers to her students as “her kids”, “I had not seen him either live or die, so I was at best a well wisher and at worst an intruder. Besides, I had to get back to work, to my kids” (17) . This line reveals her true stance on her trauma, and how she never wants to abandon the children in her life, even if they are not their own.

-Hannah Khanshali

“The place where the library is now, above the dry goods store, in the old run-down concrete building, is too small to hold all the books from the old building and so most of the books, instead of being on their nice shelves, resting comfortably, waiting to acquaint me with you in all your greatness, are in cardboard boxes in a room, gathering mildew, or dust, or ruin.” (P43)

Kincaid reveals her thoughts of how upsetting it is that self-ruled Antigua seems even worse than how it was when it was colonized by the English, that the government is corrupt and how Antiguans cannot even trust their own healthcare. She focuses on one specific example, of the library, which she brings up often. The library is a representation of the effects of colonialism and such corruption. Kincaid also notes how in Antigua today, many young/most young people are illiterate. The run down library, where books are away in cardboard boxes collecting dust, has been in disrepair for decades. It used to be beautiful and hold such fond memories for Kincaid. Now, similarly to how the library has been neglected, the welfare, healthcare, and education of Antiguans has been neglected; They have zero faith in their own support systems and government, and the government officials do not even trust the healthcare.

In this way, the library is a physical representation of the decline of Antigua in terms of happiness and wellbeing. The effects of colonialism have had a remaining effect even though now Antigua is self-ruling.

-Hannah Khanshali

Here are two quotes, the first from chapter 20 and the second from chapter 18. I recognize that both elaborate on the theme of pain in Open City. Julius describes his assault, the mugging that happened to him out while walking on the street. He felt great pain and also mentions how he “took the blows in silence” (192). He describes how the situation could have been worse, which infuriates him as he invalidates his own feelings, because the situation would have been much better if it had never happened. After learning of Moji’s sexual assault, it was clear to me that Julius’ mugging foreshadowed the reader learning of Moji’s assault. Julis invalidates his own feelings, saying “how it could have been worse”. This invalidation of ones feelings is present often in sexual assault victims, like Moji. Moji has lived with the pain of being sexually assaulted by Julius, and she faces the fear of being another woman where her assault will not be believed. She describes the pain she has endured for years while Julius has acted as if it had never happened. It has haunted her, time and time again, and it is something that she could not forget unlike him.

Julius expresses that what happened to him was “worse than safety and an un-violated body”, which is a truth of Moji’s experience. She was violated, but had to deal with the pain on her own for years. Even though Julius’ response to pain is similar to Moji’s in a way, Julius does not know of the emotional and physical damage he placed upon Moji regardless of his experience with pain.

As a few of my peers have mentioned, Moji’s pain reminds me greatly of Veena Das’ “Language and Body” regarding the physical and emotional pain women have endured. A similar theme is present in The Return, with Sakina’s assualt.

-hannah khanshali

This quote from chapter 12 stuck with me greatly due to the manner in which Julius references the past. Open City switches back and forth between time periods, with Julius telling stories and interactions with people who would not be alive today. This sentence summarizes and clarifies the way the past is portrayed in Open City. Life is experienced in continuity, we do not recognize its discontinuity until it is labeled as the past. Open City is told by Julius, our unreliable narrator, in a continuous manner, with breaks and new sections in the text when the time period switches. This discontinuity in the text is only noticed when it has become the past, or a different time period. This style greatly interests me as it also helped me understand the meaning behind the structure. It is very open, flowing, just as how life and New York is.

Julius mentions how the past is a vast open space, expanses of nothing. I believe this is especially true when trauma causes a person to block out certain memories or events of their past that caused much distress. This is true for Julius, as he admits this in this passage: “Nigeria was like that for me: mostly forgotten, except for a few things that I remembered with an outside intensity” (p141). Julius has forgotten much of his past in Nigeria. This is further emphasis on his disconnection and provides insight on relationship with Nigeria.

-Hannah Khanshali

Chapter 1 of Open City is such a striking introduction to the life of Julius and his interactions with New York City, the Upper West Side, and his own mind. I have selected two quotations from chapter 1 of Open City, both of which connect to form a similar message that intrigued me greatly.

The first quotation appears early on into our introduction of Julius on page 4, but establishes an important recurring theme of isolation. Julius encounters thousands of faces, that seemingly should create an atmosphere of unity and togetherness, but is instead profoundly isolating. This is a very relatable statement to New Yorkers; Julius is surrounded by people who are living their own alternate lives completely separate from his own. Walking alone in a crowd of people is a reminder of how you are alone in your own thoughts and experiences, in your own life that feels like an alternate reality. Julius, a psychiatry fellow, seems to psychoanalyze himself frequently in this introduction, showing signs of anxiety. Cole makes specific word choices in this statement, such as “impress of these countless faces” (5). The emotional mark of the many faceless individuals is a reminder that you are surrounded by strangers where you are unknowing of their lives and activities, creating feelings of isolation and anxiety.

The second quote from page 18 elaborates further upon this idea of isolation, but instead of it being another countless face, it is through an interaction with Julius’s neighbor Seth. Hearing of Carla’s death was a major shock to Julius, as he doesn’t even know of such a detrimental event in his neighbors life, whom he shares a wall with. The syntax in this quotation emphasizes the disconnect between their lives, the almost ignorance that you experience in New York, a place so busy it is isolating. Julius is so wrapt up in his own life, his own distress, he cannot even notice a shift of behavior in his closest neighbor. Julius is surrounded by people in an apartment building, his own home, but he is more isolated than ever, enclosed in his own life.

-Hannah Khanshali

“She is still awake at midnight, amazed by the woman who has taken a silk scarf that does not belong to her, and wonders what to do. She rolls away from the child who shares the bed, and slides out to grope in the dark for the the thing she has taken, the exquisite thing she has taken for herself. Not stolen. She is not a thief.” (p35)

This is one of my favorite quotations in the short story, due to the juxtaposition in each sentence. She is awake in the middle of the night, due to her action out of character; Her name is Grace, she should be pleasant, delightful, holy. Instead, she has done something very different from her usual self: taken something tangible she loved from the visiting woman overseas. I find it interesting how she rejects the idea of her stealing the scarf, even though she admits to taking it in the sentence before. She fluctuates between guilt and appreciation for herself and her deserving the scarf. When she was a child, she would look in the mirror calling herself “Miss Grace” giving her confidence; It was in this moment her mother warned her that from “airs and graces comes disgrace”. Airs and graces in this phrase means having a superior or proud way of behaving. The white women in this story tend to show airs and graces to Grace, with their fancy facial products and small talk. After grace steals the scarf, a representation of these airs and graces, she feels thrilled, but falls to guilt and regret taking a toll on her mental state. She repeats her mothers words. In my view, Grace has never had an adequate view of herself. She sees the scarf as beautiful and graceful as she touches it, “in the glorious silence, hears the swish of silk”. The lavish items and lifestyles of the rich white women seem graceful to Grace. She wants to be called Miss Grace, with a title, to make her “lovely”. Her stealing the scarf was not the ungracious act. It is the superficial conversations, judgement of each other by the characters, and societal gap between the english and scottish women and Grace that is disgraceful.

There are small instances where Grace avoids being “ungracious”, such as her silence when Fiona wanted to join her for tea. This silence was not what was ungracious, however. It is her idea of superficial items and etiquette that is ungracious. This is not unique to Grace, however. Fiona’s artificial small talk is ungracious as it fuels the gap between social status.

-hannah khanshali

Kerry: “It wasn’t your mother Old Joubert was betraying, you cow! It was my mother he betrayed! (Calming down) It was my mother he exploited. A poor ignorant girl out of the bush, she came to work for your damned family a young woman unaccustomed to the ways of white men, full of goodwill and trust and your damed father (softly) our father used her.”

This particular quotation was verbally very powerful and thought provoking. The way Kerry flips between the use of your father and our father is very powerful as it makes the rift and shame of his existence clear. Kerry outlines this terrible act of their father that was unknown to Gloria; She did not even know that they are siblings. He acknowledges how his mother was mistreated and raped, and the shame he feels for his father; that his existence was created from his mothers abuse. It is obvious in his diction that this internal conflict is a weight on his conscience, as he says, “your damned father” but follows it softly with “our father”. In response to Gloria’s statement, “my father was betraying my mother with a house maid?”, Kerry yelps back to Gloria that her mother was not the one betrayed. It is clear in her statement where race divides point of view and societal expectations. She, being a white woman, views the situation as the unbelievable notion that her white father was betraying her mother with a house maid, generalizing Kerry’s mother and frowning upon her as less than, making it as though it was the “house maid’s” choice. When in reality, their father assaulted Kerry’s mother against her will, betraying both of their families. This example is a representation of how acceptable behaviors in apartheid states and areas of slavery are segregated by race: those in power can dust off the outrageous acts committed against minorities and minority women especially. The newspaper title says it all: “Coloured South African Achieves International Fame: First Eminent Black Psychiatrist to Practice in London’s Harley Street”. Kerry immediately denies the truth of this title. It is shameful to him that this is an achievement, when this should be a commonality. It is a representation of how limited black south africans are with opportunities and rights in general.

-Hannah Khanshali

“When I was a child, I lived with a mother who was still traumatized.

By these Experiences.

Did her way of seeing the world.

Or recollecting it.

Cast a spell on my own brain?”

These words by Bhanu Kapil are so powerful as her thoughts are fragmented throughout the poem like a spell. Her story is told in a melodic way; each thought IS broken with a period so that the information truly sinks into the readers mind. The phrase, “Did her way of seeing the world.” stands alone on a line so it is truly thought about. This specific line alludes to the trauma her mother faced, and how it has shaped her own thinking and writing. She also mentions, “When my family crossed that line. That border, that boundary. That nothing more could be recalled. Indeed, when I sit down to write, I also feel exhausted I blank out. As I do when someone tells me they love me.” These excerpts are connected; The spell that was cast on her own brain is what causes her to feel exhausted when she writes, and she is numb to love like most of those who have experienced such horrible things. Her mind suffers. It is a perfect analogy of her inherited trauma. She didn’t experience the partition, but she was raised with a family who did, and it shaped her thoughts and childhood. Her behavior in her daily life is shaped by a trauma she experienced ‘second hand’. She writes this spell with the intention of reversing the suffering of her family and all of those who have had a similar experience, and to motivate others and herself to reverse the emotional exhaustion that was built up as a child.

-Hannah Khanshali

(I couldn’t figure out how to respond to Dylan’s post directly)

Hi Dylan! I really enjoyed reading your analysis of “subversion” in the the two short stories. I agree completely: Manto uses this subversion and creates a trust with the reader that is then almost broken later on, and it is done very efficiently throughout the stories. This subversion is one of my favorite things about his writing. It almost makes it as if you are experiencing the situations with the Sirajuddin himself: you believe and are trusting of the soldiers when they begin to take care of Sakina. No malicious intent is relayed here, no true foreshadowing. The rape wasn’t directly stated either in the end, the reader can assume that is what happened. Once again, you are experiencing the situation as SiraJuddin is; You only hear the doctor’s reaction, Sakina’s condition, and Sirajuddin’s happiness to be reunited with his daughter regardless of the terrible reality.

“Other details were missing. Had he brought her to the railway station? Had she got into the carriage with him?…All questions. There were no answers. He wished he could weep but tears would not come.”

This specific passage from the short story “The Return” by Manto struck me purely based on the syntax and how it provokes the exact feeling in the reader that it is meant to convey of SiraJuddin. The short sentences ignite panic, a sense of fear, and mangled surroundings. The way I imagine panic settling in is when details disappear, words mesh together and questions don’t have answers; There is no solution in sight. This exact feeling is so well encapsulated in this particular phrase, as Sirajuddin is settling into panic without his daughter and his realization that his wife has been brutally murdered right before his eyes. It is one of his lowest points. It is unsettling for the reader to read such short and straightforward sentences that packs such a high emotional load, and it works so perfectly in conveying the trauma and chaos that emerged from the moment he woke up to his realization of his wife’s death and daughter’s absence. His loss of memory and confusion is also expressed through his questions that are entered mid sentence. “Had he brought her to the railways station?” The reader cannot answer this question, bringing Sarajuppin’s stress onto the reader as well, giving these short sentences contain such a powerful emotional charge.

Hannah Khanshali