The Main Thematic Concerns in Kamila Shamsie’s Short Story “Our Dead, Your Dead”

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The main thematic concerns that emanate through Kamila Shamsie’s short story draw into focus the ambiguity of the effects of the 9/11 attack. Specifically, this story represents the outcome this attack had not only on the USA but all over the world. “Our Dead, Your Dead” allows the reader to see the two sides of the same coin, it pops out the battle between the west and the east and it reveals the impact terrorism has world-widely. First of all, through Ayla’s character the reader get the chance to have a profound look on the double cultural perspective. Her thoughts allow us to become an unbiased observer of the events by getting away from any prejudice or racial discrimination that this theme would emerge in our minds otherwise. Having lived in Pakistan and America as well, Ayla follows the events not from one perspective but from two totally different angles. She feels sorry about the 9/11 attack and she mourns for all those people that have lost their lives due to the destruction of the twin towers. Furthermore, she admits that her office was there: “In the second tower, I wasn’t there that morning but many of my friends didn’t make it out” (89). On the contrary, as a Pakistani, she grieves for her country’s victims too. “If you don’t mourn our dead, why should we mourn yours?” (89) she wonders. Thence, she seems to share the Pakistani opinion on the subject as long as the American one. A second concern that this story unveils is the cultural gap that there is among the countries and specifically, in Kamila Shamsie’s story, between Pakistan and America. The spatial setting uncovers information about the life in Pakistan but simultaneously we take a hint of the west way of life. Although the Pakistani seem to have not the greatest estimation about the west kind of life, they seem to have trapped unconsciously in it. “Saba was pressed into the corner of the

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