The Inheritance of My Father: A story for listening

 The Inheritance of My Father: A Story For Listening by Astrid Roemer 

    This story follows a girl as she travels to her father's home country of Surinam, to discover her roots and meet her grandmother. "After that night I began to think about everything, who my parents were, about my mother, where my father is from"(349), the narrator immediately is revealed to be struggling with who she is as a person and has many questions of where her parents came from and how they come from two very different cultural backgrounds. The narrator speaks about how she would go outside and be call names due to her ethnic background. Her father is of Afro-Caribbean descent and her mother is of white American descent. This causes much confusion for the narrator as she is called "half-breed" by her own grandmother among many other derogatory names and racial slurs. At the beginning of the story the narrator has questions about herself and her ancestry that cab only be answered by visiting her father's homeland. "I would not have all the fuss from my mother's family of how brown I am, of how blonde I am becoming"(350), this line shows how the narrator celebrates her grandmother's culture but wishes she was entirely black and not mixed and didn't have the questions that came with that. Being of mixed-descent causes a struggle on both sides of the family that you are not just culturally half of each group but also physically. Her mother's side of the family was clearly not good about celebrating diversity as they leave her feeling alienated. "Even though he does not really love my mother, my father at least loves his own mother and me"(359), this line drives home the narrator's shocking revelation that her parents' marriage was forced and not by choice. Ach-Ach resents that he was pulled from his homeland and forced by a woman's father to be with his daughter. It seemed like there was chemistry between Ach-Ach and his wife but not necessarily to the extent of marriage that was forced by his wife's father, who was a Christian preacher who had to see his values met to the point of marriage. A preacher couldn't have his daughter run off with some man and be intimate with a man in any capacity and still look good unless they were to be married. It seems like this entire pairing was forced by a man who merely wanted to save face. It is unfortunate that Ach-Ach was pulled away from his homeland for so long but it is truly great to see him have the opportunity to return home. I believe diversity should be celebrated despite any challenges it might bring but I don't think that marriage should be forced. It's not sad that two people from different backgrounds and far away places got married, it's sad that they made such a serious decision and weren't truly happy and left their daughter in the crossfire. I think that eventually, the narrator will come to terms with this hard truth as she embraces her Caribbean heritage and learns of her homeland. 

Comments

  1. shawnNovember 22, 2020 at 4:36 PM

    I found it interesting how you pointed out the daughter's predicament in this racial problem between the families. The mother is all white and the father is all black. Their families in the story have obviously disagreed with them about this decision of intermixing different cultures. However, now they have a child that is stuck in the middle because she can not seem to identify with either culture because she belongs to both. She is attracted to both sides, and struggles to understand the racial tension involved.

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