Analysis_of_Black_Dog_of_Fate_by_Peter_Balakian

Name: Course: College: Tutor: Date: Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian The title of the book “Black Dog of Fate” by Peter Balakian is metaphorical and is in connection with the parable that was told by Nafina Aroosian, Peter Balakian’s grandmother. According to the parable, two appeasing offerings are made to the fate’s goddess. The first offering as his grandmother narrates is a delicious lamb that has its body filled with pomegranates and almonds while its eyes are sparkled with rubies. The second offering involves a dead black dog whose mouth is filled with apple with worms. In fate’s twist, in these offerings which are ironical there is rejection of the lamb offering while the dead black dog receives the approval of the goddess. The book title tries point out the cultural conflict that Balakian faces in the American society and as he grapples to maintain the Armenian culture his parents and grandmother had taught him. The advice to Aroosian to Balakian as indicated from the title is that he should not be taken in by appearances because things are not they appear to be and the world is different form how people perceive it. The Balakian-Aroosian extended family maintains a guarded silence over the history because even if they are happy in America there is a specter of trauma that ancestors and the family experienced. This is in relation to the extermination the Turkish government of over a million Christian Armenians in the 1915. This marked the first century genocide and it is not something the family is to be proud of given the cruelty innocent Armenians faced. In a rather moving and elegant narrative prose, the “Black Dog of Fate” in a chronological manner presents the growth of Balakian and a touching personal awakening given the history of the family where Nafina Aroosian, his maternal grandmother, was a victim and a survivor of the Armenian genocide. The aftermath of the horrifying genocide continues to be covered up by Turkish government but the fact is that it remains among the worst human crimes that have ever been committed against humanity. To Balakian family the past should be treated with silence and everything that reminds them of Armenian nation should not be discussed publically. Balakian (5) says, “My parents spoke Armenian when they wanted to communicate privately or when they were in public places….” This reminds the reader that the past had affected the family and the parents did not want their children to be haunted by the past. The book by wittingly unearthing the family secrets that remain untalked of and highlighting how such secrets affects life at present, nurtures a fresh meaning to what is meant to be an Armenian American. Right from the start of the novel and throughout the prose, it emerges out that Balakian’s family is in dilemma of adjusting to the new life and culture living in Tenafly suburbs of New Jersey and keeping alive the traditional Armenian culture. Peter Balakian is regarded as the first son in his generation of Armenians where he grew up in 1950s and 1960s brought up in American New Jersey influenced by the American culture. The fate is in the aspect that he has to bear with both ugly past and cultural conflict as Armenian American. In reference to ‘dog of fate,’ Balakian is seen in the novel trying to struggle to fit as an American among his peers while at the same time he struggles to hang on to the culture his family has nurtured in him in his upbringing. In growing in the American society, the changes to Balakian are beyond limit and constantly try to infuse new ideas to his family members and open their thinking in the American culture and as part of the process in integration into the American society. Peter Balakian as depicted by the relationship with his grandmother and mother, he is the cord that holds the family to the Armenian and American cultures as it is evident he keeps a balance between the two cultures that have significant impact on his life (Balakian 76). The novel “Black Dog of Fate” is recognized by the New York Times book review to be among the notable books because of the way it uncovers the historical incidents of the Armenian genocide realized from the background of this young man. Fitting in the genre of historical novel, the novel details historical killings that amounted to around one and half million people of the Armenians in 1915-23 by Turkish government in the reign of Ottoman. It is worthy noting the way the book presents the relationship between Balakian and his grandmother, Nafina Aroosian. She narrates to him of his background and ancestral nation that he can only relate to through narrated point of view and has never been in touch with this far away nation and therefore does not understand it. Balakian is just like the other first generation of immigrants in the American society who can only relate to their parents former nations through allusion for they have lost touch. According to the novel, Balakian has touch of the Armenian through his grandmother and after she dies, Peter says, “When my grandmother died, Armenia seemed more and more remote, and I lost my direct and visceral sense of the ancient Near Eastern world that she embodied” (Balakian 30). The author is quite categorical in the presentation of facts he knows about Armenia after learning them second hand. It is a great novel in the way it intertwines his personal growth and the historical facts about the genocide of the Armenian people. From the book is presentation of growth of Balakian who does not know historical facts of his people until he is twenty, becomes aware of his heritage, and the subsequent events that happened for his relatives end up in US. The genocide of the Christian Armenians in Turkey foreshadows the Holocaust of Second World War because of the world and the Turkish people did not condemn the massacre. The atrocities committed to the Armenian people were fanatical products of religion were the Christians Armenians were exterminated by the Muslim Turks who believed they were fulfilling wishes of their Maker. This trend who later be adopted by Hitler who led the Nazis in the extermination of the Jews. If the world condemned the genocide of the Armenian people then the Nazis would have thought twice before their extermination of the Jews. The Nazis perpetuated mass murders of the Jews because the German government led by Hitler a ruthless leader who was guided by fascism. Just like the extermination of the Armenians, the Nazis were guided the ideology to cleanse the race. The Jews murdered in mass numbers because the plot like that of Muslim Turks was orchestrated by the government. With many Jews confined in concentration camps, it was very easy to kill so many of them during the Holocaust following the government’s orders. In conclusion, the novel “Black Dog of Fate” by Peter Balakian is a great historical narration highlighting anger, sorrow, and great sensitivity in the growth of young man into adulthood, his awareness to blurred ethnicity, and the historical extermination of Christian Armenians in Turkey by Muslim Turks. In a way the novel presents perspectives that immigrants have to come to terms with after learning how their relatives ended in the American society from their mother nations. According to Balakian, people in the new society, they are faced with the struggles to uphold their traditional cultures in the midst of integration that influences their present lives in great way. Work Cited Balakian, Peter. Black Dog of Fate. a memoir. New York: Basic Books, 2009. Print