Television as the Bridge Between Lives

The impact of global television in the lives of others is something that people often take for granted. Sure, television can contribute to desensitizing but also is one of the only ways for people from different parts of the world to see into the lives of others. Although, the portrayal of the lives of people in different cultures is often skewed or based on stereotypes, but the television shows still have an influence on the lives of many, particularly children.

The impact of television does not begin with the author and narrator of the memoir, but with Sophia Al-Maria's father. Right from the beginning of the memoir, the readers see how important the television is to Matar's community, and on page 5-6, Matar lists in great detail the shows that are on and how they impact his life. For example, on page 5, Matar uses the Arabic translation of Olive Oyl to nickname his sister, a nickname that Al-Maria uses when her aunt is older. Matar has the schedule down to the specifics, and his attentiveness demonstrates not only his attachment to the television, but also his community's as well.

The television served as Matar's glimpse into the Western world- a way for him to visualize the dreams he wants to accomplish. It served as his purpose to go to the United States; it represented a life where he would become wealthy and successful. It also serves as a bonding tool for him, "twice a week he visited Sophia, and they watched Mork and Mindy together. The running joke between them was that if he could comprehend Robin Williams's fast talk he could understand anyone in English" (Al-Maria 36). The television serves as a bridge between Matar's life in Qatar, and his new life in Washington.

The attachment to visuals continues from Matar to Al-Maria herself. It is an interesting coincidence that Al-Maria is unable to fall asleep unless she is in the movies, forming a connection to film from the beginning. The tape that her father sends to the family is also a bridge between Al-Maria's two cultural worlds, and also between her parents. The video of her father represents a world that she has never gotten to know, and her place in Washington is the only world she has known. Al-Maria's attachment to another world begins to grow because of what she saw in the video. Al-Maria states "having a second world to belong to immediately made me cast doubt on my place in the first...seeing the video permanently cracked the world into two halves for me" (51), and I saw this as an interesting parallel to her father's experiences watching the television. Al-Maria sees the video as a gateway to her father's life, and by association, another part of her life. Her father had seen the television as a way to enter a new world to really pursue his dreams. Al-Maria knew she was missing out on something, as did her father, and they both wanted to make their connections true.

The use of television not only showed Al-Maria a glimpse into another part of her identity, but it also showed her what she didn't have. Al-Maria grew up without having a stable connection to her father, and the television shows, specifically family sitcoms, gave her unrealistic expectations on how a family should be and how she wanted her family to be. Al-Maria states on seeing her father for the first time in years that "-I grasped for the appropriate way to address him or greeting to open the floodgate of the father-daughter conversation I imagined we were supposed to have, the kind that TV dads had with TV kids in their TV homes" (116), and this quote reinforces the idea that Al-Maria centered most of her cultural cues and ideas about how her life should be based on television. Her mother tried to avoid letting her watch these sorts of shows, so she didn't know what she was missing, but Al-Maria added the lack of a nuclear family to her list of identity issues, including her struggles between the world she was raised in and the world she wanted to be part of.

Best,
Dani