Like "Mother's Love", Susan Darraj's short story "Sufficing" explores the relationship between mother and daughter, but rather than abuse, the two deal with the issues of cultural identity and acceptance. An immigrant from Palestine, the narrator, Layla, struggles to grasp American culture, and fears that she will not be "American enough" for her daughter, Hanan (15). While Layla is proud of her Palestinian culture despite her troubled upbringing, in which she barely escaped alive from a soldier in Ramallah and grew up as a refugee, she also wants to be sufficiently American to please her family. Layla struggles between her two identities - between being Arabic enough for her Arab-American husband, who wants to "keep in touch with his culture", and American enough for Hanan, who is embarrassed by her mother's accent and teased for her name at school (14). |
Like many children born outside of their country's majority ethnicity, Hanan desires to be like the children she sees around her, unable to find pride in her differences and accept herself for who she is. Layla's deep love for her daughter makes this realization difficult for her to accept - when Hanan does not want her mother to visit her school on Parent's Day, Layla's heart is shattered. She is unable to function normally for the remainder of the day, distracted by a vision of "Hanan's face in the semidarkness" as she fears that her daughter will never accept her Palestinian mother (15). The final sentence of the story, "I hope that I will be enough", summarizes Layla's mindset towards her daughter: Hanan's happiness is all that matters (16). Near the end of "Sufficing", Layla addresses a letter to her daughter, expressing how Hanan's words and actions that day hurt her. Hanan's reaction to the letter is not revealed; instead, readers are left with a final scene of Layla sitting at a table with a half-burnt attempt at a fried Western dish, juxtaposed with a traditional Arabic fattoush salad and Jasmine candle as she waits for Hanan's return. This contrast of cultural foods on one table is intentional. Layla's love for Hanan is unconditional, but Layla is proud to be from Palestine, and wants to be accepted for who she is. |