Post 9/11 Trauma and Identity Loss of the Female Protagonist in Laila Halaby’s Once in a Promised Land

Abstract

The field of Arab American literature is a fertile and a rich sphere for conducting researches and investigations, especially when it comes to the literary works produced by Arab American women writers following post 9/11 trauma. Therefore, the present study basically focuses on the identity loss of the female protagonist in Laila Halaby’s novel Once in a Promised Land. Salwa as an Arab-American encounters many difficulties and hardships with her husband in the United States, immediately after September 11 terrorist attacks. Moreover, this research paper tries to shed a light on the repercussions and effects of these events on the female protagonist’ behaviour. The present study also seeks to globally depict the image of Arab-Americans being reshaped through the American media, and how they regard the American social discrimination, as well as anti-Arab racism. Besides, this study is an attempt to demonstrate and prove to what extent September attacks affected Salwa’s marriage, her new attitudes towards her husband, her Arab-American friends, and her American colleagues. Furthermore, the present study drastically emphasizes on what it means to be an Arab after the 9/11 events and how the social, professional, political, and personal positions are impacted by these events. Most importantly, through the analysis of Once in a Promised Land, the research paper aims at investigating Salwa’s hybrid identity, that she neither affiliates to the American society nor to the Jordanian. Consequently, the scope of the present study is relatively linked to the idea of how Salwa gives up on her Jordanian origins as an Arab woman in order to cope with the American Dream, and to become an American consumerist citizen.