In all honesty the popularity of this play comes as a surprise to me as it touches on a very controversial topic but El Guindi does a fantastic job of making every character look like a bad guy. The main theme or the play itself is the situation. El Guindi uses the situation to illustrate the various feelings that were in the air around the time the attacks had taken place. Feelings that incriminated a whole race and made it seem as if those who accused them were horrible bigots. But are the same time those were doing the blaming showed a great sense of patriotism those being blamed almost felt that they indirectly played a role in the incident that took place on that day. One of the underlying motifs that Yussef addresses is the fact that the freedom that is enjoyed in America is seen as a luxury around the world but the populace does not realize.
In the drama Carl states, “Believe it or not, safeguarding the innocent is as important apprehending the bad guys.”(pg 174) As if to say for the safety of the community’s freedom some must lose theirs. El Guindi uses this as a theme that the audience must realize as the watch Khaled be subject to physical abuse without any substantial evidence of his involvement in the attacks. But he also makes it apparent that it is not just people who look like Khaled that have been subject to such treatment through Bartlett’s statement, “Yesterday the Irish and the Poles, today it’s you (Khaled). Tomorrow it might be the Dutch.” El Guindi’s way of saying for society to keeps it balance someone must receive the blame/hate for crimes/hardships faced by the greater population.
I completely agree with you. Guinidi does do a great time of showing a lot of the emotions circulating around after September 11th happened. At the end of the play, it was hard to determine without a doubt whether or not Kahlid was actually a terrorist. That decision was left up to the viewer. The author does not take a position on the issue to leave it open for the audience to decide.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in the scene that this touches on a very controversial topic. I really liked how you incorporated your quotes into your blog and then gave a significant explanation of why this quote was meaningful. In my opinion, the quote you used that Bartlett stated is probably the most powerful quote in the entire drama. I believe society will always feel the need to blame someone else and view others in a demeaning light.
ReplyDeleteI agree very much and find it so interesting that you bring up that El Guindi does a great job of making every character seem like a bad guy. I am always the one who wants to give everyone the benefit of the doubt in every situation, but El Guindi really made me unsure of who to trust. I guess with all of the racial profiling going on even until this day since the 9/11 attacks, I really wanted to trust that Khaled was innocent, but by the end I was so unsure who to trust.
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