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Summary Of Born In Amrika By Mona Masami

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Born in Amrika by Mona Maisami was written when she was a junior at Franklin and Marshall College in 2002. It is a short story written about the internal struggle Maisami has with her Iranian heritage. She is seeking a way to connect with her ancestral background and tries to build that connection with her cousin, Nina who moved to the United States only 3 months prior. Maisami takes her cousin to the park to “learn how to be more Iranian” but the entire event turns into Maisami criticizing the very traditions she is trying to learn. From there, the potential bond Maisami could have had with Nina was damaged and in turn, her ability to gain greater cultural insight.

I liked the story because it showed an honest view of the struggle Maisami …show more content…

The author feels as though she gets berated for her inability to speak Persian and her skin color as shown in the first paragraph when she says, “My overseas relatives say that I don’t even look Iranian anymore, as though it has faded out of me like the color from a pair of old jeans.” She was excited to have the opportunity to learn as much as she could from her cousin Nina but the opportunity changed into the author criticizing Nina and forcing her views on her. Mona Maisami never acknowledged the irony in her attitude toward Nina after how badly she felt from the family making jokes at her expense. It can be deduced that Maisami does not see the problem with the way she handled the entire situation and because of this, she came across as selfish and insensitive. This is what adds value to the story: it is solely from the unfiltered perspective of a person who fails to realize the hypocrisy of her attitude. It is important to realize that everyone has their own beliefs based on their upbringing and heritage and everything along the way plays a part in that mentality. Without first understanding that and accepting others’ beliefs and backgrounds, we fail to make any progress towards building connections across

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