Different Ways to Pray

“Different Ways to Pray” adds to the works of Arab American literature—a literary tradition that extends to the 1800s and since the 1960s, has seen a substantial increase in voices. With an influx of Arab immigrants to America between 1960-80, Arab Americans turned to writing as a form of self-expression, writing about their ethnic heritage and culture. With war breaking out in the Middle East in the 1970s and 80s, many Arab Americans struggled to understand and define their identity, which they did through literature, poetry, and writing. The Arab American literary tradition, while drawing on many American literary traditions, also “touched, sometimes glancingly, sometimes directly, on Arab identity and probed what had been lost during the generations of assimilation” (Majaj, Lisa Suhair. “Arab-American Literature: Origins and Developments.” American Studies Journal. 2008.). Nye’s poetry squarely falls within this tradition, as her poems often apply pressure and question what it means to be an Arab American and an artist.

“Different Ways to Pray” is largely a poem about the Middle East, Islam, and Arab culture. Citing specific cultural words such as “Mecca” (Line 23) and “Allah” (Line 40), Nye clearly alludes to Muslim prayer. Yet growing up straddling two cultures, languages, and identities, Nye’s “Different Ways to Pray” acknowledges concepts of immigration and a lost homeland (both of which are apparent in Stanza 5). While the poem is told through a distant third person perspective, it functions as a bridge between different worlds of prayer within Islam.

Like much Arab American poetry, “Different Ways to Pray” also functions as a bridge between the Middle Eastern world and the Western world (e.g., America). The poem seeks to establish understanding between a prominent Middle Eastern religion (Islam) and the rest of the world. Unlike other poems in the Arab American literary tradition that seek to reconcile or defend the Arab way of life, Nye’s poetry suggests “that Arab American identity is not something to be preserved or denied or escaped or romanticized: [I]t is just another way of being human” (Majaj, Lisa Suhair. “Arab-American Literature: Origins and Developments.” American Studies Journal. 2008.). Using differences to highlight similarities, Nye’s “Different Ways to Pray” argues that humanity is bound by its similarities—not its differences.