Essay Questions

Explore the influence of familial ties on individual characters using illustrations from John Updike’s Terrorist.

Updike in the novel presents the concept of family and its impact on personal lives. Throughout the story, characters uphold the idea of family ties though vaguely. For instance, Ahmad throughout the novel is concerned with representing himself with his father’s name. Additionally, Ahmad establishes his sense of intendment, ambition, and intention from his mother’s support and derives a sense of adjacency to his father from his name.

Additionally, Jack, Ahmad’s guidance and counseling officer, upholds familial ties. Even though Jack has an affair, he still maintains his psychological commitment and obligation to his wife. As such, Jack has to wait for any opportunity to return home despite despising Beth. Throughout the novel, the influence of family on characters is presented.

Illustrate the representation of Muslim-American identity using John Updike’s Terrorist.

The representation of the Muslim protagonist in John Updike’s Terrorist is one that has been criticized heavily. Ahmad, the protagonist, is a high school boy fraught with identifying with his Arab-Muslim identity in a country that is multi-ethnic. Updike uses the standpoint of Ahmad to provide a representation of the Muslim-American identity.

In the novel, when Jack tries to stop Ahmad from detonating the bomb, the two characters begin talking and Ahmad asks Jack about his religion. Through his remark, an acceptance of the teacher of Jewish descent is implicit: “Before Israel, Muslims and Jews were brother’s—they belonged to the margins of the Christian world, the comic others in their funny clothes, entertainment for the Christians secure in their wealth, in their paper-white skins. Even with the oil, they despised us, cheating the Saudi Princes of their people’s birthright.” The “us” creates a bond between both the Muslims and the Jews, as they are perceived as brothers by the protagonist.