Digging to America Anne Taylor – Anton Hjert

1. The first chapter of the book is narrated in a way that describes the surronding environment
were the actions take place. The narrator describes the people at the airport, the tension in
the air without any perspective on the characters emotions or thinking, just very objective.
As the rest of the book is narrated in a kind of limited omniscient third-person narrating
style shifting between the characters, this part stands out. The first chapter has the purpose
to give the reader a glimpse of what is up ahead. It tells the reader who the story will be
surrounding and what the attitude of the book will be. It also gives the reader a starting point
to excess from. The narrator in the first chapter is a limited third-person narrator.

2. As I said the narrator of the story is, from chapter two and forward, a third-person limited
omniscient narrator. Each chapter of the book has its own character it revolves around which
gives the reader the feeling that there are no main characters that the story circuits around
but instead all the characters are main characters. The narrator takes turn in telling the story
of the individuals in the book to get a wider perspective and to let the reader see the
difference in attitude between different generations, genders and origin. The most significant
change in perspective is the one between chapter two and three as the shift occurs between
the old Iranian immigrant Maryam and the American-born middle-aged Bitsy. This style of
narrating reveals the contrasts between the different characters very clearly.

3. ”The American” is described as quite nonchalant in this novel. There are many examples of
Bitsy, for example, when she either ignores or just leaves the opinion of the Iranian
characters hanging. This shows that ”the American” does not consider the other peoples
culture as important as the American way of living: ”But it's the most formative time of their
lives..You'll never get those days back.”(36), said about the way that Ziba and Sami raises
their child. It really gives the feeling of a no-it-all way of thinking, a 'my way is the best
way'-style
At the same time there is a willingness in the American characters to learn more about other
cultures and adapt their traditions to learn more about them: This is also a little bit of nonchalant
and insensitivity as they want to kepp their origin and have their own culture to theirself in a way to
keep the feeling of belonging to their home country Although, this is a sentiment that weakens
through the generations which is described in the text. Bot these interactions you can see in Dave's
behaviour towards Maryam and the way he wants to learn all about her Iranian background even
though she want to keep it for herself.
 4. Infra-ordinary is the things that can seem like nothing special and that pases us like nothing
happened but when you start to investigate and really analyse it it has a lot more meaning
then it seemed from the beginning. Onyett talks about the infra-ordinary way that Ziba and
Sami has furnished their house, in a regular American style which seems legit at first. When
you take a closer look at it you can bring forward their origin and that they come from a
completely different culture and therefor makes it kind of wierd that they try so hard to take
such a leap away from their backgound. You can take it to a generation-issue that the new
generation seem to take more lightly on traditions and pay more attentio to fitting in. Onyett
brings forward a lot of examples on infra-ordinary things about Tyler's novel like the scene
on the airport where it really is an ordinary part of life but it contains so much more than the
reader first may think. This concept makes it easier to provide the reader with dilemmas of
different origigns without making it heavy or hard to pul through. It is a way of suiting the
text to a wider public and gives the person reading the novel the opportunity to take the
information which seems quite daily and twist it to his or hers own perspective.

5. The collisions take a lot of different shapes through-out the novel. A great example of the
collisions occuring is the conversation between Ziba and Bitsy when they speak about the
relationship between Maryam and Dave: ”It was probably the first time she had ever used
the phrase, 'in our country' ”(236). The urge to point out that is a clear sign of the clash that
had occured. In this case the collision was about how a lady should act and how to be nice.
The conclusion of this is that there will always be a strain between different cultures but as
long as both parts know when to change the subject it will be bareable, and this is the
situation in hand.
”These Americans: can you figure them out?”(95), said by one of Ziba's visiting relatives in a
discussion about the nonchalance of the American people who think they are so open minded but
often reveal themselves as very egocentric, so to speak. The situation that forced this claim was
when an American person had mistaken Iran for Persi like it was the same thing. This is the most
common and dangerous stereotype and claim, partly that you put everybody in the same car and that
you read to much in to something said by an individual that can not speak for an entire population.

6. Immigration is a huge part of the theme of this book. There are the Iranian immigrants and
there are the korean and chinese babies, that are adopted by the two families, centralized in
the novel. In page 56 the two families that adopted a korean baby each has joined together
and are discussing wheather or not they are Americanizing their children or if they should
keep the infants origin closer. This is of course a dilemma with adoption from other
 countries, the question of which culture you should raise the child adopted in.
However, the largest part of the feeling of not belonging in the story is the one of Maryam. There
are many segments in the book that describes this in a very absolute way. Although, the most
significant ones is on one hand the one with Dave, when he tries to learn all about Maryam's culture
and background even though she rather keep it to herself. She does not want any outsider to get in
to her private space because she feels that she does not belong with them. And when the break up
between these two had occured the feeling gets grander ”Sometimes lately she felt as if she had
emigrated all over again.”(317).
The Novel ends in a beautiful way where the Donaldsson family come to pick up Maryam who did
not arrive to the Arrival party. This shows that you may not feel that you belong but that it is just a
matter of attitude towards the action of changing your believes.

7. In page 35-36 there is a conversation at the dinner-table between the two families that really
shows the color of the people gathered. It shows Brad's that reluctancy of things out of his
sphere it shows the ignorance of Bitsy and the natural relaxed tone of Ziba as they are
discussing things from food to how to raise a child. There is really a pattern in the different
characters dialogues throug the novel and that makes the personalities and attitudes of the
characters really shine through the text. The way you can detect the tone of the character in
the dialogues is the way they build there sentences, the words they use and the attitude they
seem to have towards an earlier statement that they are responding to. This is the areas Anne
Taylor is really skilled in, that she capture the essence of the characters and make them shine
through when they speak to each other. However, in this novel it hink that the characters
have so different opinions and attitudes that it makes it easier to catch the tone of each one
which makes it a little less impressive.
Another passage where this is noticeable is in page 176-180 where Bitsy and Matyam talks about
Dave and his feelings towards Maryam and vice versa. Here you can notice a pushy and forward
tone in the way Bitsy talks and the little less forward and almost shy Maryam. This part is
significant in the way that the contrast between these two characters are so strong that it really
makes it colorful and fluent.

8. I think this novel is about arriving somewhere new where to you do not have any
connections and try to fit in. Starting at the airport in the very beginning of the novel you get
the chance to see two babies adopted from the other side of the planet arriving to their new
lives and their new home. For babies this may not be that big of a deal except for their new
parents dilemma of how to raise them. Then you have the situation for Maryam who were
quite older when she emigrated from Iran to the US and therefor had grown up with the
Iranian culture, traditions and way of thinking. This makes for a more complicated situation
as you have to intergrate yourself into a whole new society with other values to completely
fit in. The book ends up in a situation where the American family, the Donaldsons, go to
pick up Maryam to show her that they miss her, that she belongs and that she can be who
she is without having to feel left out. The las page really ties the book together in a beautiful
way that realisticly and truthfully sums up what it really means to belong somewhere. There
have been many clashes between the different origins up to this point, as I have talked about,
but in the end they are all the same.