Facets of Racial Profiling and Cultural Misrepresentation in John Updike's Novel Terrorist

Abstract

This paper attempts to point out how the genesis of suicide terrorism has been, not least in the
aftermath of 9/11, the subject of intensive historical and cultural inquiry. In Terrorist, Updike
composes an interracial and therefore entirely different West. In other words, Updike, in a certain
way, takes up the role of an educator. The novel also generates a stereotypical image of
‘dangerous’ and “violent” cultural and religious “Otherness”. In particular, what follows will
gesture toward some of the ways in which multiculturalism frequently acts in Updike’s work as a
lens through which he is able to examine America and its position in a wider global context.
Rather than preoccupying himself with issues of cultural identity politics or exploring alternative
models of assimilation, it will be argued that Updike’s primary interest in multiculturalism is in
its ability to offer him a perspective of critique through which to examine present-day America.
The focus in this paper thus will be on clarifying to what extent Updike’s depiction of the Arab
American Ahmad, (an embodiment, as it were, of the melting pot), fully engages or does justice
to the complexities of ethnic and cultural identity issues. I take an interest in these questions as
an American Studies scholar who happens to be an Egyptian (the nationality of Ahmad’s
absconding father) and a Muslim. I seek, in this paper, to gauge the extent to which Updike
cherishes the Orientalist undertow that sweeps so many Westerners out to sea when they attempt
to represent the thinking of the middle-eastern or Arab American or simply Muslim “Other”. A
special emphasis in this paper will be also laid on the impact of the protagonist's religious
inclinations on his feeling of alienation and disdain of the world around him. Also, the paper will
explore to what extent Ahmad’s faith helps in fermenting and cherishing his nihilist outlook. The
paper also seeks to pinpoint the hidden threads of the Orientalist discourse in Terrorist and
whether this discourse is an extension of other arguments related to the imagined intercultural
clash or the “us” versus “them” and East-West dichotomies which dominated the scene in the
wake of the tragic events of 9/11 and somewhat widened the existing gap between Islam and the
West.