ZZ Packer, "Geese"

I thought it was interesting how in the beginning when Dina was talking to Gloria about going to Japan and she tells her that maybe she will come back and be able to understand the owners of the a local oriental restaurant. Dina point outs that the restaurant is a Chinese restaurant and not a Japanese one, and Gloria replies by saying "same difference." This shows how all people, no matter what race, categorize and marginalize people that are different from themselves. I also thought it was funny how in Japan everything with an English name was considered to be "vaguely amusing," like the amusement park Dina first worked at. This shows how some Japanese view Americans as a whole. I liked this story because all of the people living in the house are of different ethnicities and they all share memories of their favorite foods from home. Sayeed comes to live with them and tries to kill Dina, and I think it is because she reminds him of his non-Moraccan wife who left him, or the woman he had been arranged to marry but did not. Because of all this Sayeed was disowned from his family and community and went to Japan to find a new life. This would have been a reason for him to try to seek revenge on Dina. Dina came to Japan in the beginning for its "loveliness" but it was not what she expected. She was forced to live in a small space with a group of people, they all struggled with food security and eventually had to steal, and by the end Dina has sex for money with a Japanese business man. The story closes with Dina comparing herself to a kamikaze suicide bomber because she feels she is doing the same thing to herself.