When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

Lilia is the story’s protagonist and narrator. While her perspective is naïve for most of the story (she is 10 years old when the main action takes place), her ignorance is not her fault. There is evidence that her parents keep her relatively sheltered: They don’t allow her to watch all the news with them once the war has started, and her mother is proud that her daughter has a “safe” life in America. Her teachers also discourage her interest in her own cultural heritage in favor of propagandized American history.

Because she occupies these two different cultural spheres, Lilia must learn to navigate the moments when they come into conflict with one another. At home she is constantly aware that there is a war going on and that people are suffering, but at school, no one seems to realize this war is even happening. Similarly, she sees the reality of war on the news every night, but at school, she learns about war in a child-friendly way (construction paper dioramas and field trips to important monuments). Lilia’s dual cultural identity prevents her from feeling like she belongs anywhere. Her knowledge of her own heritage is secondhand, but as a second-generation immigrant and a person of color, she is also different from her peers.