Dinaw Mengesu's Home At Last

Many families move to America, leaving behind parts of their culture, history, friends. In Dinaw Mengestu’s “Home at Last” and Lorraine Ali’s “Do I Look Like Public Enemy Number One?” we see two very different methods of adapting to the big move to the United States. Dinaw’s family is very tied to their home back in Addis Ababa, Ethipoia, making the move punishing. Meanwhile, Lorraine is a child of an Arabic father and white mother. Her family lives in the United States as well, but with visits to family in Middle East. “Home” can have very different meanings, based on its’ context. For Dinaw’s parents, home is only a memory. For Lorraine’s parents, home has become two places: the US and the Middle East. The two families have very distinct

To counter this, her father would “act American” when out in public, and use names like “Mr. Allen” rather than Ali when making reservations. Unlike Dinaw’s family, Lorraine’s is able to keep in touch with her family out of country. However, even though they do visit family, much of the generation to generation tradition was lost, similar to Dinaw’s. Lorraine’s father never teaches his children his native tongue, or introduces them to his religion. Lorraine and her siblings grow up like any other American, just with family in separate parts of the world. This is quite the opposite of what Dinaw’s family did. Instead of constantly having parents shoving the idea of who she should’ve been down her throat, Lorraine is raised to be what her parents are not, in hopes that it will lead to a better life where they are.
Lorraine says, “At home, my American side continued to be shamefully ignorant of all things Arab…” Her father’s intentions were to set up his children as best he could to be good American’s, but this leaves the siblings in the dark about their own family. Their own sense of home is developing in America, but they still are Arab and have direct family that live in the Middle East. This must fill Lorraine with her own sense of dysphoria. To grow up as American as anyone else, but still be singled out for