"The Grotto" Response

In the short story, "The Grotto" a woman named Clara ventures off to Egypt four years after her mother dies to leave her past in Alabama. All Clara had in her life was her mother and their garden and now with her mother passing from a sickness she decides to get some un-normality in her life by going to Egypt.

When Clara is in Egypt she seems to have a culture clash with the Egyptians. For example when she was in the street and passing by six Egyptians woman covered by their Burkas she says, “dark eyes turning to me…wondering, I daresay at the nakedness of our faces. And thinking what of us? That we were brazen? A shame of God? Wicked and worldly?” (184). this quote shows how she is so different from the Egyptians and how they do not understand each other.

The theme of this paper is “otherness” and this quote is a great example of it. Clara and the Egyptians were very different from each other because of many things. The appearance for one thing is different. The woman in Egypt had to wear the Burkas while the Americans didn’t have to and were envied and looked down upon by the Egyptian woman for it. This little clothing difference is huge because it shows how the two cultures are different.

Another part of the story that shows “otherness” is when Clara went into the Grotto and met an Egyptian man names Musad. Musad was in the Grotto before Clara entered it and startled her. When she came upon him he was staring into the water and thinking when he saw he graciously offered to leave and in the process called her “dear lady.” Clara was offended by this comment because she had the feeling that he was hitting on her but his real intentions were to be polite. This shows “otherness” because they both took that phrase “dear lady” in two totally different ways.