Essay Sample: How Is Disgraced a Tragedy

Disgraced is a tragedy whose transplantations manifest through modern day Manhattan and presents Amir as the main character in the play. Amir is a Pakistani-American corporate attorney that made sure to alter his name to Kapoor from Abdullah and enjoys it when his boss makes an assumption that he is Hindu. Raised by his folks as a staunch Muslim, Amir has made sure to let alone his faith which he deems to be a retrogressive way of thinking and the Quran which he refers to as "a single much-extended hate mail letter to the entirety of the human kind."As such, the things Amir is after come across as very different to the recommendations Islam offers for all its faithful (Afzal-Khan, Fawzia, Neilesh, and Jamil, 44). What Amir desires is to make partner, looks to drink wine and feast on chorizo and embrace the vision of success. As Isaac, an art dealer with a very serious interest in Amirs wife dares to say in a way that is rather patronizing; you have similar ideologies of what I consider to be a good life as I do.

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There are several ways that disgraced presents itself as a tragedy and this comes across as the confusions the authors have regarding matters revolving around identity, stereotypes, and ultimately the culture shock that makes characters that are not 100% American find it difficult to fit in 100% to the western world. There are several tragic characters in the play, but the one that is most pronounced is Amir. This is especially because his life assumes a twist of fate that makes his social and economic life a complete mess. Amir receives a lot of bad press for defending a Muslim cleric; he is painted as a lawyer only concerned with Islamic affairs and cases; such proves to be the tipping point of his career. The tragedy in the play is not any different from the classical meaning of tragedy because in most literature texts tragedy occurs in the most unlikely of places; the people it affects are the most times unsuspecting and happen to get caught in the undertow in a way that makes them feel they were ignorant, aligning to the cliche ignorance is bliss idea. Such is the case with Amir in Disgraced; an alpha dog and a successful corporate lawyer whose life takes around a boy turn for the worst. Within a western world that is rather Islamophobic, his association with Islam makes individuals in his close circle think differently about him. Little did Amir know that yielding to the wishes of his Caucasian wife Emily and his nephew Abe to defend a Muslim cleric "accused of funding and being the mastermind of terrorist activities" make his carefully constructed life start to unravel (Barzinji, Latef Saeed, and Hasan Barzinji, 21)

Nevertheless, the shorts belonging to Amir Chravet only just veil self-loathing and self-doubt together with startling rage. Just as the Greeks said through one of their many adages, one can never outrun his or her past. With a faith that he is fleet enough, Amir brings upon himself tragic repercussions. The play arrives at its dramatic and tragic climax in the course of a dinner party scene which may put all its audiences off night time meals forever. In the play, the party around the dinner table had not even finished eating their starters when Akhtar brings the subject of a post-ethnic, post racial and even a society that is vaguely harmonious.

The play is full of toughness, and its structure can be juxtaposed to the types of Swiss watches Amir would have sported for. Upon reading or watching the play, they are bound to feel that the aborted dinner was slightly less dangerous. All the same, there is need to mention that the act of violence which finally concludes it is very much shocking and inevitable if the story is to be deemed a tragedy.

The drama in the script gives it balance, and some contrivances portray Amir as a persona that is surrounded by controversy. Despite the controversy, he is rather attractive and charming, even a little lightweight and has a brilliant weighty take on his character. In the course of the play the performance Of Amir deepens; whats more, his tumble into the tragic comes across as very affecting and precisely calibrated. On the other hand, his wife Emily is a serious painter, she is sweet and exceedingly beautiful; seen most of the time to show a real love for her husband but it is very easy to look at her as an airhead; another tragedy that comes across in the play. Another reason why this play can be looked upon as a tragedy is that, despite all the characters in the story being endowed with comical instinct, there is less confidence the moment the play assumes a much more dramatic turn. The tragedy comes about when characters like Amir refuse to take credible opposition. In addition to that, the drama in the play comes about as a result of violence that ensues in the course of the evening meal when too much information that affects characters; information that should have otherwise been kept under wraps; comments that came out as overtly racist.

It is quite noteworthy that the play makes a point of posting a lot of difficult questions to the audiences that get drawn to it on religion, individuality, and assimilation. Perhaps the questions are asked in a manner that is less efficient, but it is very challenging to imagine any one individual member of the audience to read or watch the play and leave unstirred or unprovoked (Asif, 13).

Another reason why the play Disgraced can be deemed as a tragedy is because the moment Amir Kapoor is cajoled irrespective of deep reluctance to put in a good word for a teacher of the law i.e. Imam that is unjustly accused, the media make him seem to appear as a lawyer committed to the rights of Muslims; such brings about a course of a chain of events that destroy the career and home of this brilliant and successful lawyer. It is also worth mentioning that tragedy presents itself in the numerous plot twists that define the entirety of the story; most of which manifest in rapid succession; all the complexities that come with the play revolve around the subject of race politics, one that becomes very emergent from the whole plot (Ali , 23).

Amir happens to be radically against the Islamic faith; a tragedy where a man raised staunchly and religiously refuses to accept his faith anymore. Being against Islam, the man Amir speaks very freely about his shortcomings. It is also worth mentioning that in many ways than one the play speaks of some of the injustice that comes with Islam as a religion; right from a possible endorsement of wife-beating to the role of the religion in terrorism. In some ways, the tragedy becomes less pronounced when the wife to Amir i.e. Emily, appropriates a lot of Islamic visual traditions in the work she does. Emilys work has managed to capture the attention of louche art tout Isaac and skeevy; an individual who looks to make her work the centerpiece of an exhibition.

Tragic also is the case of individuals who are attracted to Islam just because they are looking for a place to belong. An example is Emily who is drawn towards the Islamic faith just because of its unique aesthetic qualities. The fact that Amir is assumed a stance that can be described to favor pro-Israel Isaac and is also vociferous presents Islam to be full of shortcomings; it is tragic that the argument of the play feels a bit one-sided. For instance, there is no mentioning in the play of the reason why the giving of alms to the poor comes across as the "central tenets of Islamic faith."

Within the course of happenings that take part in the play, it is very much possible to tell that it has proven the tragedy of identity and the feeling of insignificance that shocks Islamic people in America. In other words, the story presented, and the persons therein come across as equally bleak on the possibilities for all the Muslim people that have chosen to live in the American society. Note that all of the characters of Islamic origin within the play are either frozen out, exploited, victimized, or radicalized (Akhtar, 8).

Disgraced happens to be a compelling presentation of literature and through the tragedy of characters within the play shows what is going on in the real world. About tragedy is the tendency of the play to completely ignore the possibility of Amir to realize redemption from the negative mis-happenings that affect his life. In essence, the life of Amir is what comes out most powerfully as a tragedy. With this story there is also no reasonable and realistic discussion of the role of the Islamic faith in the United States; such would have brought about the planting of more seeds of hope. The story can also be seen as a domestic tragedy with an unyielding political message; several proportions of the story attack on Islam and on the individuals that victimize the Islamic, a knot which comes across as confrontational to the audiences of the story and presents a challenge to untangle it. The downside of society, as shown in the play is its inability to place a positive outlook on people; the society is fault finding and will judge according to trivial matters of race, politics, and religion.

Works Cited

Afzal-Khan, Fawzia, Neilesh Bose, and Jamil Khoury. "Roundtable: Ayad Akhtar and the politics of representation and reception of Muslims on American stages." Performing Islam 5.1-2 (2016): 7-27.

Akhtar, Ayad. Disgraced. A&C Black, 2013.

Ali, Ragab Selim. "Loss of Identity in Ayad Akhtar's American Dervish." International Journal of Literature and Arts 3.5 (2015): 80-87.

Asif, Saljooq. "Muslim Identity in 21st Century America: Ayad Akhtar's Works as Autobiography." Elements: Boston College Undergraduate Research Journal 11.1 (2015).

Barzinji, Latef Saeed Noori, and Mariwan N. Hasan Barzinji. "Religion and Identity in Ayad Akhtars American Dervish: A Cultural Study."