Sand Queen Doubts

When I first began reading Sand Queen I was expecting it to take on an autobiographical tone, or one more like Tim O’brien’s The Things they Carried, and was taken aback that it read like the start of so many novels that read purely for enjoyment. I am enjoying Kate’s narrative and her style of writing. She is not vulgar like the men who are on her team, nor does she get upset over petty little things. While reading this book, I come back to thinking of stereotypical gender roles.  I wonder if Kate is mild mannered because of her background and upbringing or because that is the way she believes that she is supposed to be? I wonder the same about the men in her platoon that I have read about so far. Are they rude, obnoxious, neglectful, disrespectful, and sexist because that’s who they truly are, is it to pass the time, or do they feel pressured to behave this way because of a belief that this behavior is what is expected out of them. Are the men afraid to show their decent sides (I’m not speaking about all of the characters, DJ seems to be okay).        

            Then I think about Naema and the grief that her family has gone through and is still experiencing. I think about how the American’s have so negatively impacted their lives. I wonder about the American-Iraqi relationship, and how seeing life through her eyes has really opened mine. My heart goes out to her and her family. She makes me consider how morally right America is in their mission in her home country when she conjures up a list of questions to ask Kate on page 51. It’s heart wrenching. To learn of just some of the ways her life has been terribly disrupted casts a shadow of doubt in my mind of the American cause in Iraq and Baghdad.