Amir's Shameful Identity

In Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced” tell the story of Amir Kapoor (Bernard White), a Pakistan-American lawyer, who distancing himself from his Muslim religious cultural upbringing. When Amir and his wife Emily (Nisi Sturgis), a white artist who’s influenced by Islamic imagery, host a dinner party, what starts out as a friendly conversation soon escalates into something far more damaging. All “Hell breaks loose” and these four friends friendship turns into a disastrous nightmare of unexpected violence and betrayal.

 First of all, this lovely couple is sitting in their gorgeous upscale apartment in New York with high ceiling windows, hardwood floors, a luscious sofa, dining table and a portrait of an Islamic geometry patterning tiled painting hanging over the mantle.  Emily is sketching her husband portrait and telling him what inspired her into painting this portrait. Emily goes onto say the painting of Diego Velazquez reminds her of Amir. In Emily sketch it reveals an unexpected sensitivity part of Amir identity. Amir was born Pakistan descent and his religious faith was Muslim, and he made the personal and complicated decision to separate himself from the religious and cultural back ground that he was raised in.

Meanwhile, his nephew Abe, whose name is Hussein Malik (Behzad Dabu), is agitated about the arrest of an imam (Islam leader), who is arrested and imprisoned over trumped-up charges of helping a terrorist group. When Amir appears in court in support of the imam, he makes a comment about the trail. Amir’s name is mention in the newspaper and his partners suspect him of Islamic sympathies. These kinds of suspicion eventually lead to an investigation, and his partners believe that he’s a terrorist (and the truth about his background?).

Next, Emily’s friend Isaac (J. Anthony Crane) who of Jewish descent, comes by to invite Emily to show her paintings at his art gallery. Isaac notices a portrait of an Islamic geometry patterning tiled painting hanging over the mantle. Isaac, says that the painting is a beautiful piece of art work and asked Emily what inspired her into Islam artwork and playfully accuses Emily of being of Orientalism, stating that he’s forgotten she was married to a brown husband. Although Emily is not Muslim, she argues that racism should not play a factor in people lives, and  People are too wrapped up in the optics, “we’ve forgotten to look at things for what they really are” (Emily’s line).

Finally, Amir starts to drink and brags about his high paying job down at the firm. Amir explain how he works hard for the client’s down at the firm. There you can see Amir wearing an expensive suit and a crisp white shirt and stating how he paid $600 dollars for the shirt.  At one point Amir unleashes his anger about religion, politics, and racial comments. Amir’s emotions begin to spiral out of control at the dinner party as the night starts to progresses. He tells Isaac that what happen on 9/11 made him feel good inside when he saw the twin towers coming down.  At this point, Amir starts to show his true colors and his emotional demons begin to come out. He tells how he stands in line at the airport security check point and let them search him. Isaac is so upset he starts to argue that Amir is a racist and he’s just a terrorist and an animal.

The audience is shocked at Amir’s actions when he calls his black coworker Jory (Zakiya Young) the “N” word after she reveals that he’s not getting partner with the firm. Jory tells Amir that none of the other partner trust him Amir. Amir shows so much hatred when he suspects that the husband of his co-worker is having an affair with his wife. He’s starts fighting Emily and hitting her in the face and showing the audience that ok and that his behavior is what he was taught from others at home. No matter what people may think in every race and in every person we all have some degree of being Amir living inside of us.

Timeline

Born: Oct 28, 1970 Staten Island, New York

2005: The War Within starring Ayad Akhtar was released on September 30, 2005.

2006: Independent Spirit Awards starring Ayad Akhtar was released on March 04, 2006.

2008: FCU: Fact Checkers Unit starring Ayad Akhtar was released on January 01, 2008.

2011: In 2011 he played Neel Kashkari in the HBO film Too Big to Fail.

2012: His first novel, American Dervish, was published by Little Brown Publishing in January 2012 to positive reviews from critics.

2013: Ayad Akhtar was awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013.