The Submission

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

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Chapters 22-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 22 Summary

Because Asma has been outed, she chooses to self-deport. She packs her bags full of American things and thinks of her relationship with her husband and with God. Because the Mahmouds were so surprised about the $1 million they’d not been told about, they ejected her but then forgave her upon discovering that Asma was leaving. Asma imagines opening a school to bring about change in her country. If she opens a school, and then each student in turn opens a school, pretty soon a large impact will be made. Asma puts herself in God’s hands. All she is and all she has, including Abdul, are his to do with as he will. Maybe it is his plan to take her back to Bangladesh.

As Asma and Abdul are leaving the building, loaded with packages and bags and surrounded by friends and reporters, a scream sounds out. Asma is stabbed. Nasruddin pushes his way through the crowd and takes charge. He sees that Abdul is taken to safety and then grabs Alyssa, whom he recognizes as the woman who wrote the piece about Asma for the Post. Even though he has nothing but contempt for her, he drags her to safety, handing her to a cop and saying, “Protect her. She is responsible.”

Chapter 23 Summary

At first Alyssa is freed from the terror of the mob, but then she becomes angry that she isn’t back in it. She loses an hour of reporting time and has only other reporters to interview. She decides to stake out Khan’s loft in Chinatown, but after a long wait she realizes he isn’t there. She quickly changes locations—to Roi Architectural Firm. Long after all the other employees have exited the building, Khan finally strides forth. Alyssa accosts him with queries, asking whether he feels responsible for Asma’s death. Khan repeats one simple response as he pushes her away: “I am an American.” Alyssa tries to take credit for outing the fact that he won in the first place. He ignores her. They look up and see a crescent moon, signaling the end of Ramadan.

The view from his parents’ window impresses upon Sean just how big the area’s Bangladeshi community is. Everyone speculates about who killed Asma. Sean announces that he’s quitting the fight, that Claire Burwell has “turned” and he helped her do that, so that’s enough. After all, he won’t be creating a new memorial. His mother Eileen is outraged. Stopping the memorial has been the entire family’s raison d’être since the news broke. Sean, however, says he needs to find another way to “be.” Eileen tells a story about when she left Frank when Sean was a baby. She only returned because she was “nothing without a family.” Eileen cruelly tells Sean that he is either in or out of the family—there is no middle ground. Sean takes her hand and leads her to bed.

Chapters 22-23 Analysis

The Muslim community’s kindness to outsiders is shown when Nasruddin saves Alyssa from the crowd. He does, however, indicate that she is responsible for Asma’s death due to her article announcing Asma an illegal. Alyssa, like Sarge and Debbie Dawson, is a comical character. Instead of pausing for a moment to consider all the mayhem she has caused, including a murder, she cannot wait to get back out on the street to cover the story. She is the Sarge of the tabloid world, who is the Debbie Dawson of TV. All three are caricatures who embody the worst of America; they are self-serving egotists who target and manipulate others to advance their own agendas, regardless of morality or consequence.

As characters speculate on who killed Asma, their worldviews inform their assumptions. Debbie, for example, is certain that a Muslim man did it. Eileen, Sean’s rigid mother, says it’s a shame—leaving a little boy alone and all—but that it has nothing to do with their fight against Khan’s memorial. She blames Mohammed Khan for the incident.

When Alyssa interviews Mo, asking if he is responsible for Asma’s death, he repeats one statement: “I am an American.” The book dances around this question throughout, showing that Mo is American rather than explicitly identifying him as such. For example, Mo is not comfortable at the MACC meeting. He doesn’t understand why he and Laila have to keep their relationship a secret. He feels no obligation to follow in his father’s path as an engineer or in one of the other vocations favored by South Asian immigrants. Except for fasting during Ramadan, he mostly leads a secular life with the trappings of Americana. In response to Alyssa’s barrage, Mo finally articulates his identity: He is American.

In that same scene, Mo and Alyssa see a very symbolic image when they look up at the sky. It’s the crescent moon, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and reminds Mo of his heritage. While Mo sees himself as purely American, and he clearly is, a vestige of his deepest cultural roots stays with him, as suggested here by the moon, hung in the backdrop of the night sky. This symbolic significance is completely lost on Alyssa.