Whiteface, and the Veil--Impositions or Adaptations?

So far I am truly enjoying "Graceland" by Chris Abani. The plot jumps back and forth in time between 1983 in the slumtown of Lagos and the late 1970s in Afikpo, a wealthier region of Nigeria. Back in Afikpo Elvis, the main character, still had his mom, who hadn't yet died of breast cancer, and his grandmother, who he both feared and loved dearly. His father drank, but still managed life as a functional drunk, even holding a job as superintendent of the school district. However after his mother dies, his family is unable to cope, and his father's drinking becomes out of control. He loses elections for office and moves himself and Elvis to Lagos, where the young boy must adjust to life in the slums. It is there that he decides he wants to dance for tourists to make money, dressing up as Elvis, and dancing.

I never realized when I started the book how it could have so many similarities to the nonfiction book I just finished, "Reading Lolita in Tehran". After all, Nafisi's book takes place in Iran, and Abani's book all the way in Nigeria. However both places are suffering from wars that revolve largely around religion. In Iran, Khomeini establishes Islamic rule, much to the exclusion of other religious minorities and secular constituents, and in Nigeria battles rage between Christians and Muslims. Of course wars have long been religion-based, from the Crusades all the way up until present day, so this similarity does not come as shocking to me.

What did surprise me, however, was the obsession with the West that occurs with the characters in both books. In "Reading Lolita in Tehran", Nafisi discusses this strange phenomenom at length. Her students seem to either blindly reject the West and its "imperialist" and "decadent" culture, or to fantasize about it without considering its shortcomings. Nafisi ponders that both oversimplicfications can be dangerous. At one point, her students put Fitzgerald's "Gatsby" on trial. The prosecutor, a Mr. Nyazi, states, "Our revolution is opposed to the materialism preached by Dr. Fitzgerald. We do not need Western materialisms , or American goods. If anything, we could use their technical know-how, but we MUST reject their morals." Even here there is an ambivalence, a nod to the West's technical know-how, but a rejection of its morals. This trial went on for some time in one of Nafisi's college classes, and this fact alone shows how the youth struggled with this existence, this notion, of the 'Other"-the West. They listened to Michael Jackson, they read Jane Austen--but here they were, in the Islamic Republic, in a very different environment. They could either deify or reject this "Other"-what other choices did they have? They could dream of living this "American lifestyle", or they could spit on it. This either/or mentality seems prevalent in Nafisi's Tehran. You are either Muslim, or secular. You are either pro-Revolution , or anti-change. You either wear the veil, or you are a whore. These are the choices--but when you look deeper, there are choices in-between the exteremes. You can wear the veil, but wear it askew. You can wear red nail polish under your gloves. You can find fault with Gatsby, but also symphasize with him. You can love Iran, and feel that you belong there, but you can also choose to leave--to Canada, like the young Iranian woman Mitra and her husband, to America, like Nafisi and her husband--to the West. Or you can admire the West and still admire Iran--and stay there, like Nafisi's friend "the magician". This either/or is much more complex under the surface of propoganda speak.

In Abani's "Graceland", the locals also obsess over the West. They drink Coca-Cola, they read Entertainment magazine, and they dream of leaving to America. Abani writes, "Elvis mused over his mixed feelings. His fascination with movies and elvis Presley aside, he wasn't really sure he liked America. Now that the people he cared about were going there, he felt more ambivalent than ever." His friend Redemption deifies all things Western, and divulges his plans to go there with an American visa he has obtained. Yet Elvis occupies this middle ground, this in-between the either/or. He grumbles about Lagos, remarking about how crazy it is that so many people die by crossing the streets at the wrong section, and that the government leaves the bodies to rot because the family cannot afford the fine the government charges to pick up the body. Yet Nigeria is his home, the land of the Kola nut, the land of his mother, and his grandmother.

I am also interested in the idea of external imposition, or adaptation. In Nafisi's 'Reading Lolita in Tehran", there is much debate about wearing the veil and the chador. Some women feel that it is their choice to wear it, and they want to wear it out of respect and propriety. But some, like Nafisi, despise the veil, regarding it as an imposition of the Islamic Republic, and one that renders women "Invisilbe" and "irrelvant". In any case one only has to look at the drawings in the graphic novel "Persepolis" (one of my favorites) to see the striking effect of what it looks like when all women wear the veil and chador, so the only part that can be seen is their eyes.

In Abani's "Graceland", a central part of the novel is that Elvis dresses up as the white singer and dancer, even putting talcum powder on his face as a form of whiteface. Early in the novel, Abani writes about Elvis' encounter with a woman at a bustop. He writes, "She paused in front of him, taking in his clothes and wig and talcum powder running in sweaty rivulets down his face. 'Who do dis to you?' she asked. But before he could answer, she turned and walked away laughing." Indeed Elvis has done this to himself--or has he? Like the veil, perhaps some can view this cotume as an external imposition. Yes, Elvis is not required to wear this mask as women are required to wear the veil in the Islamic Republic, but does he really have a choice? How else is he going to make money? Is this an imposition, or an adaptation?

These ideas of the mask, of costume, of personal freedom, of choice--they may seem black and white, but really these issues are extremely complex under the surface. What masks and costumes do we wear here, in the United States, a democratic country? What is our choice, and what isn't?

In any case, I am only a quarter of the way through "Graceland", but these issues were running through my mind. I'll update when I have something to say. Until then--