Reading Response 2

The following are responses to assigned readings from The New World Reader: Thinking and Writing about the Global Community, edited by Gilbert H. Muller.

“Justice for Women” by Ellen Goodman

2) An angry, bitterly sarcastic tone pervades the text of Ellen Goodman’s article “Justice for Women,” which calls on the Bush administration to take a stronger stand for women’s rights by adopting a UN anti-discrimination convention. By using an informal, sardonic tone, Goodman approaches topics of grave seriousness — rape, genital mutilation, stoning women to death for “adultery” — as someone who is simply fed up; she’s mad as hell and she’s not going to take it anymore. This is not to say that there is not a well thought-out structure for the piece, but it is clear that Goodman is approaching the issues like you might see an enraged, acerbic barfly approach them. For example, Goodman puts sneers in her verbiage by continually, almost excessively, putting words in quotation marks: “inflicting the ‘law,’” “the crime of ‘adultery,’” “needed more ‘study,’” and so on (133-134). Goodman also achieves her sarcastic tone by using almost shockingly informal colloquialisms to describe geopolitical situations. Goodman refers to women as “the punching bags of injustice” and tongue-in-cheekly says Saudi Arabia is “no poster child for women’s rights" (133, 134). These and other stylistic elements give the reader the impression that Goodman has already seen the same, tired poltical excuses for not respecting women’s rights, and now she wants action.

This tone, of course, impacts what material Goodman selects for the piece. Goodman needs to establish the fact that women’s rights violations are occurring repeatedly in the world, so she uses several powerful examples, including an “honor rape” in Pakistan and the stoning of a woman in Nigeria, and then simply refers to countries that have abused women. Interspersed with these examples, Goodman emphasizes that the Bush administration is playing both sides of the coin by including quotes from Bush regarding women’s rights in Afghanistan and then showing that his State Department is suppressing passage of the convention. Goodman underscores the administration’s inactivity by describing how the previous three presidents have signed human rights treaties. These examples serve to tell the reader, “Duh. All these presidents, including Bush, agree that human rights is necessary. Why is the president’s administration doing nothing, then?” The tone and content of the article compel the reader to side with Goodman, and agree that something finally needs to be done.

“To Any Would-Be Terrorists” by Naomi Shihab Nye

1) In her compelling open letter “To Any Would-Be Terrorists,” Naomi Shihab Nye sets up an interesting relationship with her potential terrorist group: she is both a part of them and separate from them, like a family member that doesn’t want to associate herself with a black sheep that’s done a very bad thing. Nye repeatedly asks this audience questions using the word “you,” but finishes the essay by saying she’s their “distant Arab cousin” (314). Nye shares their heritage but not their objectives.

In establishing this black-sheep style, Nye uses a tone one might expect of an angry mother and uses words that tell this audience she is both one with them, but is furious. There is almost condescension in some of Nye’s diction when she is addressing the would-be terrorist audience. She asks them questions that one might ask a child that hasn’t learned a lesson in manners, like “Arabs have always been famous for their generosity. Remember?” (312). There is both arrogance and precision in this tone of speaking: yes, these lessons are obvious, but for terrorists, they aren’t. Nye hopes the potential terrorists understand these fundamental principles that have been wiped clean when they decided to take lives: these are people; they are nice; they don’t like killing people. Attempting to make this audience listen to her and swallow her superior style, Nye continually reinforces that she is a part of them, at least in terms of racial heritage. Nye tells the audience that she “know[s] what kind of food [they] like” and that she “feel[s] a little closer to [them] than most Americans could possibly feel” (311). To back up this connection Nye reminds her audience of her Palestinian father and her many Middle Eastern relatives and friends. Yes, this writer is scolding them, but she is not an entire outsider in doing so.

At the same time, Nye is addressing the wider American audience, reminding its members of their positive, compassionate attributes, and hoping this compassion will continue. Nye speaks about how Americans are empathetic to the situation in the Palestinian territories, how they are angered by the killing of Arabs, especially in Iraq, and how many of them have expressed solidarity with her, fearing she would be persecuted for her Arab background after Sept. 11. In doing so, Nye is hoping these Americans will continue having, and more Americans will adopt, a caring attitude towards the Muslims and Arabs in their communities. Thus, Nye’s essay is a plea for understanding from both Middle Eastern and American cultures.