초록 열기/닫기 버튼
John Updike’s Terrorist, published in 2006, is often discussed as one of the most problematic works in that it fails to reflect on what Americans have felt toward the tragic event 9/11 in his great effort to describe the blood-mixed young boy. However, this paper aims to explore that the author criticizes the binary oppositions and moral corruptions in the American society through the young boy. In the novel, Ahmad Ashmawy, born between Egyptian father and Irish mother, is absorbed into Islam since he is unable to assimilate himself into the society that continuously marginalizes him as a racial other. In establishing the social relationship in his community, he realizes that the community is materialized and morally corrupted. Detaching himself from the community, he believes that he can recover and reinforce what he has lost through Islam. He decides to be a terrorist and accepts jihad as a sacred one to save his religion from the American exclusivism. However, he cannot complete his purpose when he faces the two different worlds that present the happy family with two smiling children and the New York city with capitalistic interest. Through the eyes of the young Muslim boy, Updike warns American readers that such social problems like materialism and religious and racial prejudice can cause another 9/11.
