Amina's Voice

Hena Khan

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-8

Chapters 9-22

Chapters 23-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Quran Memorization and Recitation Competition

The competition is a major recurring motif throughout the narrative, as it is introduced at the narrative’s outset and recurs as a major source of tension and conflict for Amina. Through this motif, Khan explores the many dimensions of Amina’s Pakistani-American life. On the one hand, we see Amina’s difficulty with pronouncing Arabic. This difficulty is surely compounded by her American, English-speaking life. If Amina had grown up in Pakistan, then it is highly likely that Arabic would not be as much of a struggle for her. Amina’s difficulty, therefore, can be directly tied to the complexity that she must navigate as a Pakistani American child who is being asked to excel in both Arabic and English-speaking contexts, while also feeling the pressure of being able to speak and understand Urdu. Three languages would be difficult for most adults to juggle, let alone an eleven-year-old child. This motif therefore demonstrates the unique pressures and demands of Amina’s life—and the ways that her inner strength and intelligence become her north star in her personal triumph and development.

Music

The notion of music appears in both concrete and symbolic ways in Khan’s narrative. On the one hand, Amina’s musical talents are depicted as merely a natural part of herself—which she cultivates into a skill. On the other, music is a motif used to explore Amina’s hybrid Pakistani-American identity. As a presence in her life, music is decidedly American: Amina loves the American TV show The Voice, which greatly impacts her own understanding of herself as a musician. She also loves American pop artists such as Adele and Taylor Swift. Ultimately, she celebrates her musical gift by singing the song of an American artist: Sam Cook. Her love and practice of music is also the grounds for Thaya Jaan’s orthodox, Muslim Pakistani rejection of her. Music is therefore a thematic vehicle by which Khan explores the tensions inherent to Amina’s first-generation Pakistani-American experience. By the end of the novel, Thaya Jaan has embraced Amina’s musical talent as a beautiful and valuable part of her—and not something that brings her farther away from God. Therefore, through this trajectory, Khan communicates that Pakistani-American children should be seen, nurtured, and respected for who they are—and who their contexts have guided them to be. In Khan’s view, the orthodox mandates of a more traditional conception of Islam do not make room for the complexities of the multicultural first-generation Pakistani-American experience.

Emily Heller

The character of Emily Heller symbolizes the American counterpart to Amina’s identity and experience. Her early bullying of Soojin and Amina on racial grounds depicts the way that American society stratifies and hierarchizes people based upon white supremacist standards. As Emily grows as a character and she and her family demonstrate solidarity, compassion, generosity, and respect for Amina and her Muslim community following the attack on the Islamic Center, Khan symbolically communicates that, just as triumph and strength are possible for those who are victimized by Islamophobia and racism, so the perpetrators of Islamophobia can embark on a journey of redemption. Emily’s overcoming of her previously prejudicial and racist behavior, and her arrival at a place of sincere love, care and respect for Amina symbolizes the oppressor’s journey away from bigotry and toward a more fully human respect for diversity. Emily’s symbolic journey also gives Khan’s depiction of American life dimension and nuance, as it does not focus only on the Pakistani-American experience, but on the white American experience as well.