Peek and the Death of a Salesman (P7)

Jaser Alsharhan
04-16-13
P7

Peek and the Death of a Salesman

Peek reveals a fresh, interesting perspective on the “humanitarian impulse” to help others (Peek 117) in her “Humanitarian Narrative and the Posthumanist Critique: Dave Eggers’s What is the What.” As one tries to help another populace of a different culture, one is inherently valuing one culture over another. As Peek typifies in her analysis of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan, the American consumer culture is valorized as it focuses on individualism, capitalism, and self-worth. This notion is paralleled within What is the What when Valentino speaks about the idyllic depiction that each of the boys had before coming to the United States: “We conjured up an America that was an amalgam of what we had seen in movies: tall buildings, bright colors, so much glass, fantastic car crashes, and guns used only by criminals and police officers. Beaches, oceans, motorboats” (Eggers 483). It is the idolatry of the United States which subjugates the poor, “uncivilized” primates to the civilized, developed notions of what is right, moral, and socially acceptable. While these concepts are culturally subjective and relative in circumstance, America utilizes natives to disseminate its own political perspective and norms on the rest of the planet. Thus, by helping and capitulating to humanitarianism, one is inevitably glossing a slippery-slope of forceful demeanors, unbending acculturation, and disrespectful intonation towards societies of a different origin.  

There are many extended metaphors throughout What is the What which crystallize this alternative perspective on the refugee experience and the intertwining of American and African cultures. One of the synecdoches, which is a paragon among others, is Valentino’s self-loathing stream of consciousness near the end of the novel: “My eyes are closed, and I see nothing—no colors, nothing. I can’t envision getting up again. My spine seems to have left me. I am an invertebrate, and there is comfort in this” (Eggers 480).  The synecdoche of the “spineless invertebrate” serves to represent the greater helplessness and weakness which Valentino experiences while in America. The once idyllic disquietude of America is interrupted by the harsh semblance of American capitalism, egoism, and the Death of a Salesman or failure of attaining the American dream. Harsh reality.  As Peek reiterates that the “African subject[s] move along a teleological line of development from a situation of extreme violence and unforgiving wilderness to a modern, industrial space, rife with hardship, but also rich with opportunity” (Peek 121), Deng must traverse a valley of contrasts: opportunity with oppression, humanitarian effort and capitalism, life and death.

From the frustrated and torn-apart nature of the author, one is able to view a much more wholesome paradigm of the refugee experience. Rather than waiting for the eruption of pure happiness and the “fairy-tale” ending, one is forced to look upon Deng’s situation with a little bit more caution and awareness to the horrors and deplorable botches which may await every refugee. One cannot help but feel inspired by the plea for humanity within Deng’s memoir and the ultimate death of the purported “American Dream” which transcends the singular nature of his experience. 

Peace and Blessings!

Jaser