Faizullah Admires America

Tarfia Fiazullah's parents immigrated to New York in 1978. In 1980, Tarfia was born. 30 years later, Faizullah returned to Bangladesh to interview several woman that were involved in the corruption of the Bangladesh government in the 1970's. Faizullah made her interviews into poems, and published her book, Seam. When I figured out the true story behind her poems, I began to realize that Faizullah made several references of her preferring to live in the United States as opposed to her parents homeland of Bangladesh. Faizullah says:

In America, the bodies
of men and woman march forward
in protest, rage candling
their voices-in Vietnam, monks
light themselves on fire, learning
too late how easily the body burns (p. 5).

Faizullah displays the difference between American men and woman and Bangladesh monks in their times of oppression. Faizullah admires Americans for their courage to fight back against the power and earn rights before it was too late. She denounces Vietnamese monks because they did not fight back against their oppression until it was too late. Faizullah embraces being American when she says:

Dark horde of men
and woman who look like me-
because I look like them-
because I am ashamed
of their bodies that reek so
unabashedly of body-
because I can-because I am
and American, a star
of blood on the surface of muscles (p. 12).

Faizullah returned to Bangladesh to learn that she was no different than any man or woman their. After learning about Bangladesh, she comes to embrace the fact that she is an American. She does this by again denouncing her heritage. Although, Faizullah sort of bashes the American culture by saying she can judge the Vietnamese people because she is American and that is the right she has--but again, she is saying that she is an American. Faizullah's visit to Bangladesh made her realize how good she has it in America when she says:

Two weeks ago I crossed two oceans wide as
the funeral processions to your grave (p. 17).

Faizullah explains that her return to Bangladesh was like getting ready to be laid down in her final resting place. She feels that the people in Bangladesh are constantly at risk of surviving. When Faizullah displays her uncomfortableness with the Bangladesh culture, she is implying that she is better off in America than in Bangladesh. I believe that through her studies of 1970's in Bangladesh, interviews with woman involved, and stories heard from her parents, Faizullah appreciates the American environment that she lives in compared to the Bangladesh customs.