"The Grotto" response

In the wonderful short story, "The Grotto," written by Robert Olen Butler, a forty-five year old single woman, named Clara, takes a vacation to Egypt. Her trip comes four years after her mother's death, and after a very long lonely period at home taking care of her house and her mother's spirit. Her mother was her best friend and basically all she had in life, because she never married. However, she also had her garden and her passion for nature. She goes to Egypt to leave her boring life in Alabama, and try to discover a little more about herself.

In Egypt, walking through the hectic streets with her hotel tour group, she is disturbed by something she sees. She sees a donkey cart with six Muslim women inside, completely wrapped in their burkas. Only the women's eyes can be seen, and their cold, dark stares penetrate Clara and her friend Alice. Clara thinks to herself, "...wondering, I daresay, at the nakedness of our faces. And thinking what of us? That we were brazen? A shame to God? Wicked and worldly? How little they could know of me. Or I of them, for that matter."

That is a great example of the "otherness" or awkwardness she must feel as an American tourist coming to Egypt or even more importantly, as a Christian woman meeting Muslim women. The vast differences between religions and culture are outstanding, especially on the subject of women. The most obvious difference is that American women have all of the same rights as American men. Muslim women do not. They must wear burkas that cover their bodies from head to toe and never show their faces in public or else risk being arrested. They can only dress casual when inside their homes in front of family members. Seeing as how the six women Clara saw were on a donkey cart, they must be slaves or women being sold for sex. That is absolutely illegal in America. When their eyes met Clara's, I wonder if they were jealous of Clara and wishing that they were American, or if they hated Americans and therefore hated Clara for not covering herself up in public also.

Later in the story, Clara visits a grotto inside of a beautiful garden, and meets a english-speaking Egyptian man named Musad, who invites her to sit in peace and reflect on her thoughts. Clara is very uncomfortable with him there at first, and wants to do everything she can to leave without being disrespectful to the gentleman. After talking a little bit however, and some personal reflecting about her mother and her reasoning for her trip to Egypt, she bursts into tears over her mother's death. Musad shares with her that his mother also past away a year before. They share a few crying moments together, and Musad manages to mumble the words, "I am sorry also."

This second example shows that the difference between the cultures and religions is still huge, but that all humans have similar feelings and experiences. We are all brothers and sisters in this world. We are all part of the human race. Clara feels very awkward at first being in the same place with a giant Muslim man and wants desperately to leave but ends up finding comfort enough to cry with the man and let our the emotions that she might have been hiding and keeping inside since her mother past away. It just goes to show that the culture and race divider can be broken, and humans just need to try a little bit harder and it would make the a much more peaceful and wonderful place to live in. The "otherness" that exists doesn't have to exist if people would just take the time to get to know each other a little bit better before judging them right away. When Clara sees the women on the street, they both make judgements about each other quickly just by seeing each other. That isn't right. Clara made the judgement that Musad was weird and wanted to leave but Musad didn't see anything awkward about the situation, because he was just a kind gentleman trying to help someone out. Clara spent a little more time with him, and was able to let her feelings go. Clara and all of us learned a great lesson from Musad, and that was not to judge a book by its cover, and to take the time to get to know people or things before deciding if we like them or not. If everyone in the world decided to have this attitude, we could have world peace and live much happier, more fulfilling lives where love overrules hate every single day.