We Will Tell Our Children

Cassandra Cipparone
Postcolonial Literature
11/6/2019
            The text We Will Tell Our Children by Zeyn Joukhadar is filled with emotion pertaining to culture, identity and acceptance. The story begins simply. It illustrates the morning of a woman named Sam. We see a glimpse into her everyday American life which she lives. The story builds with tension as she discusses her nephew Nasir and her sister Farrah. This is when the words begin to appear, and the reader get a glimpse of her heritage. 
            As the words appear more and more on her body, the narrator divulges more and more information about Sam’s culture. It is interesting to see how the more she neglects her heritage, the more the words begin to appear. We see how she has adapted to an American life, and puts in a conscious effort to “manage” the culture she is born into. For example, she uses and American nickname, doesn’t highlight her cheek bones with bronzer, rejects Farrah’s suggestion to learn Arabic, does not travel back to Syria, and even tells her nephew to turn the news about the refugees off. Each of these actions are meant to hide a part of her that she believes is not accepted into society. By doing this she is losing a part of herself, her culture, and her identity. As she pushes her past away, and tries to fit into a mold of what she believes society wants. This only makes things worse for her. As the words appear she further removes herself from her culture and tries harder to hide it. It is not until she accepts her identity and shouts the words of others to the world that the words start to disappear. She becomes a vehicle for communication of those oppressed and it is almost as if she releases their feelings into the world when she shouts out the sayings on her body.
            Despite being a fictional story, there is much that can be connected to our society today. The labels that people of different backgrounds, cultures and identities face can be an extreme force of oppression. In a society inclined to be original, there are hardships that people of different cultures face in their everyday life. Sam’s character is used as an example of how words, actions, and feelings can be represented in a society resistant to change. 

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