The Submission

Mo’s choice to postpone marriage until his career is established is quite common among traditional cultures. Even though he is well past the age when he should be married, he is not yet satisfied with his position. That he’s passed over for a big promotion suggests he won’t be satisfied for a while yet, if ever.

The quick scene on the subway, in which some black teenagers throw condoms at passengers, is important because it causes Mo to stop and think. His thought process isn’t fully articulated, but he believes the older black man tries to restore some order because he feels responsible for the misbehavior of members of his race. Mo is clearly projecting his own inner turmoil and uncertainty onto the black man. He wonders whether he is responsible for his people, the Muslims who wrought such terrible havoc on New York and the entire country. The thought is confirmed when he returns home and watches Lou Sarge and Issam Malik engage in an emotionally charged debate about whether Muslims should be searched in airports. When Yuki, Mo’s Chinese girlfriend, pronounces it racial profiling, Mo shockingly takes the opposite side. Mo, like many of the Muslim characters in the book, carries his own burden of guilt concerning 9/11.

Later, Mo attends a seemingly purposeless workshop on how architecture can support defense. He and the other attendees make off-the-cuff suggestions, mostly from medieval design, when Henry asks about structures to fit the requirement. Henry’s name is one of several instances of irony in this chapter. Henry Moore, this character’s namesake, was a famous sculptor known for the fluid, feminine lines in his pieces; one of his most famous works is called “Mother and Child.” The real-life Henry Moore’s sculptural style could not be further from defensive architecture. Yet the character Henry suggests using trees as a first line of defense against a blast. This is another example of irony: The image of trees, which will bring Mo’s garden to life, being blasted and used for defense is wholly antithetical to the intent and design of Mo’s memorial garden.

When Mo goes to Afghanistan, he experiences some aspects of Muslim culture, though it’s very different from both his American culture and that of his parents, since Muslim countries are as different from each other as European countries are. The Muslims in Afghanistan speak Pashto and Dari, not Arabic; Mo’s family most likely speaks Urdu. Still, this contact intrigues him. He sees scars of the Russian invasion that stick out in this place. Finally, when he eats dinner, he sees what the invading European and American cultures have brought to Kabul: scantily clad women, rich food, alcohol, and marijuana. The locals are left out, but Mo, an American, is not only present but also part of it. This is yet another example of irony, since Mo is often excluded in America, which sees his ethnicity before his individuality and status as a citizen. In truth, he straddles these two worlds, the American and the Muslim.