Villawood just goes to show that refugees, immigrants, or people who immigrate from certain foreign countries such as Afghanistan, or Sri Lanka are seen as a danger to society or the rest of the world at that. Countries that promise to act as a safety harness to dangered immigrants around the world are safe to do this in many ways. For example, the narrator states that when one of their colleagues passed away, they would mourn by placing pictures of him in the center, but the guards would see the pictures and tear them down because they did not see the detainees as people with humans, or humans at all. One of the guards even goes as far as trying to grab a Muslim detainee’s son, and when the mother asked her not to touch her son, the officer yells, “you are in detention, I can touch whoever I want.” This just goes to show that even when these people are experiencing troubles back in their own countries, a chance to escape means a chance to end up right back in the same situation just in a different place.

” He might have made a different choice if he’d known about me.” (Pg. 7)

Based on the quote above by Nadia, it is transparent that she was angry, not only at her father for leaving but at her mother for not telling her father about her. She strongly believes that had he known that he had a daughter in America, he would not have left to help other children when he had one of his own in need of him. I feel that Nadia has every right to feel this way (the anger) towards her parents, having to grow up and be told that her father did not want her. to you. or let alone care about you enough to stay is a hard pill to swallow at such a young and fragile age.

I would even go as far to say that it justifies why in the beginning Nadia states,

” “I am not sure I can drop everything and come to Miami now,” I told my father’s wife, even while realizing I was sounding like a moody teenager. “I have school.” ” (Pg. 3)

Nadia is now 25 and has never come into contact with her father, so her acting the way she is acting in the mentioned quote above is sensible and appropriate. How is it that you expect her to care for someone who has the label of being her father, but was never present in her life?

Notice how in her writing Jamaica Kincaid repeatedly states “Or worse, Europe” whenever she brings up tourists from North America and Europe or artifacts/manufacturers from the two continents. Right there you can tell that the author has built up hatred for Europe or the English and that has to do with the fact that Antigua used to be controlled by the British, and though they are their own capital now, Kincaid despises the fact that Antiguans fancy when the Royals (the English) visit their Island, the very people that enslaved and colonized them. 

Because the British colonized Antigua, Antiguans were brought up by English schooling and were brainwashed with the English ways and because they have been overtaken by the English for far too long, they have become accustomed to their ways. Thus, instead of bringing up a new Antigua that benefits them, they remain “passive objects of history.” 

Notice how in the early reading of chapter 17, Julis makes a note that in the sunnier times of the year is when he thrives, the flowers start to blossom and so does he. But when the seasons begin to shift, and it begins to become colder, that is when he is more closed in and would rather isolate himself. Isn’t it possible for this to be another excuse for his forced isolation? Because it is Nigeria, it is rarely ever cold as it is in New York, probably some rainy days but the sun is pretty much out most days and the temperature is also in a good state. Why say whether affects your emotions when you are the one in control of it unless it is indeed an excuse.

From the first paragraph alone, you can tell that Julius is longing for the desire of a “home” or rather, to be home but it is transparent that he does not know what that feels like. He wakes up from a dream of him and his sister running in a marathon in Lagos, yet he has no sister, and though he does not know where he is when he wakes up it is not Lagos. At the beginning of the story, we had a sense that Julius wanted to be separated from his origins and his family, but it seems here that all he wants now is just that: a family and a place to call home, but first, he has to break out of this bubble of forced loneliness.

When Dr. Gupta brings up the horrific events of what happened in Uganda under the control of Idi Amin, which forced him and his family to flee Uganda, he states that the thought of Africans makes him spit. During the time he said this, Julius was the only one of African descent present. Later on, in the train station, two white children asked Julius if he was a gangster, and why he was not dressed as one. This situation reminds me of the incident of 9/11, during which the ISIS group crashed two planes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Many people began to look at ALL Muslims as terrorists (because the ISIS group identified as Muslims themselves). This just goes out to show that when someone of a specific decent, religion, ethnicity, or identification commits any wrongdoing that affects not just them but everyone who identifies as the same ethnicity, race, or even religion.

At the beginning of this chapter, Grace, a housekeeper, and one of the main characters in the text seems to believe she is nothing like Fiona McAllister and her Misses, Shirley Haskins, who are white women. Grace mentions in the text, “And why did she give in to the woman’s nosiness and speak about such foolish things? It’s like being unfaithful to her own name, making herself ungracious, when Grace is a name from no less than the holy book itself.” Basically saying, with such a name like hers, she must not stoop down to  Fiona’s level, she mustn’t be nosy. Grace’s name is the centerpiece of this chapter. She believes that she must keep her holiness, but she ruins that when she steals Fiona’s scarf at the end of her chapter. She begins to feel the guilt afterward and feels the need to confess her sins. “From airs and graces comes disgrace,” she is now a disgrace for stealing the scarf without hesitation. This goes to show that even the most “perfect” people are not perfect.

I believe that the author is resurfacing the idea of slavery and white supremacy. At first, a white woman marches into the office of a black successful man, she intends to use his past against him. She then states when Kerry threatens to call the police that they will take him before they take her. Thus, she uses her whiteness over his blackness, and she does this again when she traps him in the room with no escape. Thus, making it transparent that she is in control, and he is under her control. Slavery and white supremacy also develop again when Kerry speaks on his real father, Johannes Joubert, who is also his former lover’s father. He states how he took advantage of his mother who believed she was safe at the hands of a white man, but she was not, she was used, again whiteness was used to take advantage of those who did not share the same whiteness. 

The author writes this poem speaking of what I understood to be a war that has traumatized their family as well as themselves. The poem is a bit unclear to me. The writer speaks of a spell, a spell that helps people who encountered this trauma deal with it. They state, “That you don’t need a visa or cash or a ticket. To cast this spell. You can travel. To these places. In your dreams. In your extreme way of making art.”  I do not fully understand whether the writer means the spell can be used to forget about the trauma, or leave it behind and continue on with life in a way you see fit.

 I think by “shocked, suspended as it were over a bottomless pit” the author means to say that Sirajuddin was facing a deep trauma and confusion. He is unaware of what he should do since he just watched his wife die, and his daughter is now missing. Thus, the bottomless pit can symbolize the endless trauma that Sirajuddin continues to face during this time. 

 The short passage about the lost daughter and her worried father intrigues me, but at the same time leaves me in confusion. I am intrigued as soon as I began to read because it started with commotion, we as readers do not know what happened, all we know is that children and family members have either gone missing or are dead, which leaves me wondering what happened. The words “ Attack…fire…escape…railroad station…night” capture my attention almost immediately because it signals that something horrid has happened and it leaves me guessing for answers. Throughout the passage, the Sirajuddin (the father) is looking for his daughter, Sakina. He then proceeds to ask armed men to help him find his daughter and within some days, they complete this task but do not share this knowledge with Sirajuddin. The daughter is injured and is taken to the hospital where her father finds her, and to his and my shock, she is alive. This leads to my confusion because when the guards found Sakina they seemed to be in her best interest, but why not tell her father? Why leave her hospitalized?