Not Just a Fly on the Wall

            Attia Hosain alludes to division in the first line of her short fiction story, “The First Party” when she contrasts “the dimness of the veranda” to the “bewildering brightness” inside where the party is taking place (Dean Baldwin 533). The reader soon learns that this party, an event where people come together in happiness, would only prove to one new bride how far she stood apart from the others. Having grown up experiencing a diaspora in her culture, Hosain is qualified in depicting a scenario where a newlywed Eastern wife attends a party with her Westernized husband. The story can serve as a micro sized example of the sort of cultural clashes that occur through a diaspora.

            “The First Party” exemplifies the struggles that have arisen out of the result of diaspora or to be more specific, the issues between a traditional Eastern bride and her Westernized husband (Hosain 1953). This postcolonial story, like others becomes a tool of mediation as Hosain’s literature “comments on” a “particular point of view”, that of the traditional Muslim woman (Dean Baldwin 13). The story depicts just a few of the issues that may arise for a young Muslim bride and her “morally bankrupt” Westernized counterparts and husband (Dean Baldwin 517).

            Silenced by her differences the young bride quickly learns she does not feel comfortable in this alien atmosphere. As party-goers sit and introduce themselves to the bride while her husband mingles, she feels her brief answers “cripple conversation” (Dean Baldwin 534). Not only did the bride have trouble understanding the language of the Western women, she also did not share the same experiences, dress, or apparent affinity for showing of skin as she disapproves of “their preoccupation with limbs and bodies” (Dean Baldwin 534). Sizing the women up again, the Easterner feels “oppressed” by “her bright clothes and heavy jewelry” in contrast to the more simple style of the Western women (Dean Baldwin 534). From the bride’s perspective, since the women did not dress-up for the party, “no one seemed to care” about keeping customs (Dean Baldwin 534). A distinct change in her attitude occurs as “her discomfort changed to uneasy defiance” (Dean Baldwin 534).

            Another culture clash occurs for the bride as she waits alone at the table and her husband mingles returning only to introduce someone. The bride realizes her husband has been drinking instantly sending her from “uneasy” flower-on-the-wall to, to “shock”, to “distress” and finally to “disgust” and anger (Dean Baldwin 535). While the husband, familiar in Western ways continues to have a good time, the Eastern wife “could not forgive him” because it was “wicked” and “sinful” to do so (Dean Baldwin 535).

            Again cultures clash as the already upset wife witnesses a woman near the juke box. Turning her nose up at the music, the Eastern bride preoccupies herself with a girl who is dancing next to the music. She watches as the Western woman’s “bare flesh of her body” exposes itself through her movement and the bride flashes with anger again (Dean Baldwin 535). According to the Eastern bride, the Western women’s clothing “adorning their nakedness not hiding it” prove the Western women to be “disgusting, shameless, hussies, bold and free to men” (Dean Baldwin 535).
            Like others affected by colonial imperialism or a diaspora, the young bride is forced to face the unknown and unfamiliar. She must contend with the frustration of not being able to communicate, not sharing similar experiences, or embracing the same codes of conduct. The Eastern bride seems miffed at the partygoers disregard for customs. Frustration turns to disgust and anger when she realizes her husband has committed the sin of drinking. A stranger in a strange land the woman questions her ability to be righteous of her beliefs” that are “deep-based on generation-old foundations” unlike the Western behavior of her husband (Dean Baldwin 535). Ultimately, the wife must swallow the fact her husband has become a “destroyer” and that for her “above all others” her life must be one with his (Dean Baldwin 535).

In the Interview with Attia Hosain from May of 1991, she states she was “already conditioned” to believe that religion would not divide us. Based on the text, how might Hosain resolve the situation between the Eastern wife and her Western husband? Use text to support your answer.

Works Cited

Dean Baldwin, Patrick Quinn. An Anthology of Colonial and Postcolonial Shortfiction. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2007.