It All Seemed Right – Short Story
Laura was an ambitious young American woman who had her life almost completely in order. She had a good career, was married to a wealthy doctor, and had a beautiful daughter. The only thing in Betty’s life that was
different than what she had expected for herself was the fact that her husband was Iranian. To Laura he seemed perfectly American until the day the family went on a vacation to Iran and Betty’s husband tried to keep them there by holding her hostage in his suppressed country. To escape the insane place she found herself in, the place where her daughter was forced to chant, ”death to America,” every day in school, Laura risked her life to climb the mountains into Turkey.
The environment we are raised in easily influences us because it paints our picture of normality. And in our society, normality seems to be quite attractive. Laura sacrificed her life to escape from Iran because she could not stand what normality was for Iranian women. She could not stand being covered from head to toe and to be completely under the authority of her husband. Why is it that she took such desperate measures to escape when a lot of women are content and believe their place in the Muslim world is perfectly normal?
Laura was so unhappy in Iran because Iran because it was not the “normal” society she was used to. We, as children, are sponges that soak up the ways of life that are modeled to us. For Betty, the normality she was born into was extremely far from the lifestyle of Iranian women. Women who accept the fact they must be completely covered in public, even in stifling heat. If their environment didn’t influence people, we wouldn’t have countries full of similar ways of life, ways of dressing, and even eating. The idea that people can be easily influenced by their environment can be proven by the many different cultures that make up our diverse world.