Mid-Eastern Parenting

I, like much of the class I assume, felt a sense of fondness towards the father of the narrator. He as kind, loving, and cared for his son in a way that a father should. This is something that was a bit odd to me. Looking at everything that I “know” about the cultures and traditions of Middle Eastern society, a father should be strict and would not she I would just not expect him to show so much love and kindness without any kind of angry or punishment for his sons actions. This just goes to show that, as discussed in my previous blog, although I do not feel that the Arabic writing on buildings is wrong nor do I feel that Mid-Eastern people try to take over everything; all of us still have some kind of stereotype and in many cases a prejudice towards others.

The father was my by far my favorite character in the book. He was so kind and understanding towards his son, I only wish my father was so understanding when I ran the lawn mower into our above ground pool and punctured the thin aluminum draining the entire 4,000+ gallon pool into our yard. I got screamed at for days about that and yet I feel as if the father in the book would have simply given the narrator a talking to and maybe a simple lecture about being more careful or something along those lines. In a way, he is the perfect father; kind, understanding, wise, calm, and patient. These are all qualities that all of us should possess and they are qualities that I would not have thought of when you asked me what a typical Mid-East dad would be like. Until reading this book, I would have likely said that a father in the Mid-East would be strict and maybe not show how much he cared all the time. There were times in the book where I was sure some sort of physical punishment would occur but alas, I was wrong. As a I said in my previous blog, one of the only ways to rid this world of stereotypes and prejudice is to demonstrate and educate people, something this book seems to do very well.