Review Of The Novel American War By Omar El Akkad
American War is an exciting dystopian novel written by Omar El Akkad, an award-winning author and journalist who was born in Egypt, raised in Qatar, and now lives in Oregon. The author takes our imagination forward in time to a second American Civil War, that erupts from 2074 until 2095, telling the story of the struggle through a mixture of perspectives, a Southern patriot and excerpts from documents found in the military and other historical records. The reason what separates this intense book apart from other novels is the fully understood plausibility of the story El Akkad has created and how reasonably the scenario is set to portray very possible events that may occur based on the situation we witness in our world today.
Global warming and political outbreaks have completely changed the globe. The old Middle Eastern governments have finally collapsed and in their place a new authority, the Bouazizi, has risen. A global force supported and financed by fields of solar collectors stretching across the desert which used to be known as the Arabian Peninsula now too hot for human habitation. No matter how interesting these events may seem to the reader, it was merely a backdrop to the rest of the author’s storyline. America is also struggling from the results of global warming. Another catastrophe occurred when Florida has disappeared underwater with the state of Louisiana following. Huge areas of barren fields of southern land are no longer apt for cultivation. Same story went for Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina when they prohibited the use of fossil fuels, instead resigning from the union and triggering the civil battle that is breaking the country to pieces.
“The old dynamics of power now inverted,” El Akkad introduced the war we associate with the Middle East of today home to be a “reality” in the America of the future. It is the ongoing struggle between North and the South super-charged with the weapons and techniques of modernized warfare such as the usage of biological agents (here El Akkad’s expertise as a journalist) and other forms including terrorist bombings affecting millions of people at once. American War is the extended story of a country told from a personal viewpoint. This controversy is filtered through the perspective of one family — the Chestnuts. One character specifically: Sarat, who’s radicalised as a young 12-year-old who was placed in a “huge tent favela” of a camp built for refugee and told a compelling amount of inspirational Southern mythology with the promise of revenge for her father, who was tragically killed in a suicide bombing by the rebels and mother who was killed in a massacre by the Northerners. Sarat’s no wide-eyed Katniss Everdeen though; her drive is pure rage and she fights a war only few are going to survive.
“The sun broke through a pilgrimage of clouds and cast its unblinking eye upon the Mississippi Sea. The coastal waters were brown and still. The sea's mouth opened wide over ruined marshland, and every year grew wider, the water picking away at the silt and sand and clay, until the old riverside plantations and plastics factories and marine railways became unstable. Before the buildings slid into the water for good, they were stripped of their usable parts by the delta's last holdout residents. The water swallowed the land. To the southeast, the once glorious city of New Orleans became a well within the walls of its levees. The baptismal rites of a new America. A little girl, six years old, sat on the porch of her family's home under a clapboard awning. She held a plastic container of honey, which was made in the shape of a bear. From the top of its head golden liquid slid out onto the cheap pine floorboard. The girl poured the honey into the wood's deep knots and watched the serpentine manner in which the liquid took to the contours of its new surroundings.” These are one of the earliest memories Sarat Chestnut experienced before the Second American War broke out in 2074. During this period of her life, the author depicts it as sweet memories of her simple childhood without the trials of poverty, sickness, war, or death. Her mind isn’t perplexed with ways to survive as a bitter orphan seeking revenge for those who destroyed her home and beloved family. The author creates a sudden contrast to show the reader how greatly war can drastically affect ones life. Not even months later, Sarat is plunged into a whirlwind of emotions as her life turns upside down. She is being taken as a refugee at Camp Patience where she is provided with education, weapons, and training. Sarah also befriends Albert Grieves, a strong Southern patriot, who motivates her to join a militia group and seek vengeance and fight for the name of their land. Little did she know that all those “misdeeds” committed by the North were complete lies fed to her for the sole purpose of recruiting her into a life of violence camouflaged as “patriotism.” In a way, this novel is a tragedy.
El Akkad depicts her soul as being independent, kind, and smart, but suddenly a series of misfortunes completely change and divert her to a life of hatred and vengeance. Most of the novel focuses on Sarat and her family, but occasionally El Akkad offers fascinating information such as media stories, academic studies, government reports about the war, the plague and the refugees. Over the course of the novel, we will discover how the narrator came to know and love Sarat, how he suffered to see her suffer and how he witnessed good and evil do battle for her soul. But, more importantly, we come to reflect once more on the egotism and idiocy of war. I believe the author had good plausibility in why he decided to tell such a gruesome story. It is as if El Akkad is trying to subliminally point out the fact that this fictional and dreadful political war is not just a tale, but rather a sobering reality that could come into place with the economical situation we experience today.
Linking all the information I have learned from our International Relations class, I have come to realize that all political affairs are best understood in terms of power. In particular, defining power, where there’s a difference between using influence or capability. This is what is sometimes called circular logic: where power is defines as influence, and influence measures power. In the world we live in today, we see a constant battle for power. Nations fight over weapons, natural resources, land, and technology etc. I’ve also learned that one of the most effective ways of overturning a nation economically through power politics is by going forward in the name of “Nationalism.” Educating the population with the idea of patriotism helps the government gain credibility to accomplish anything they please, wrong or not. And then there’s this quote where it says, “In this part of the world, right and wrong ain’t even about right and wrong. It’s about what you do for your own.” This made me stop and think about how far Sarat Chestnut went when it came to fighting for her country. She was purposely educated in such a way where only violence was a solution to the problem. We can definitely learn a lot from some of her positive qualities, but we also should be cautious of some radical ideas that influenced her in fighting for an uncertain cause that resulted in acts of terrorism. The American Novel compelled me to think on a deeper level of what kind of time we live in today. The power struggles that occur throughout the Middle East and politics in the United States, climate change slowly worsening, and deadly calamities spreading all over the globe, I personally believe this book serves as a sober warning of what might come ahead and if we are prepared.
