And then there was Nasir”: Analyzing Moorehead’s Use of the Single Story in Human Cargo

And then there was Nasir”: Analyzing Moorehead’s Use of the Single Story in Human Cargo

            In chapter 9 of Morrehead’s Human Cargo “Going Home” we are introduced to Nasir; an American of Afghan descent who had fled the turmoil in his home country with his wife and two children. The author describes her trip to Kabul to talk to refugees now returning to Afghanistan after many years in exile. Her fortuitous encounter with Nasir while traveling to the war-torn region provided a unique opportunity for personifying the returning refugees experience within a single story.

            Moorehead paints the scene at the Dubai airport as a confused jumble of aid workers, media, and obviously westernized Afghans waiting for the flight to Kabul. She brings the reader from the scene to a sharp focus of one person by saying, “And then there was Nasir” (Moorehead, 248). This is an interesting technique in that it excludes the noise, the crowd, the interference of the airport in favor of an acute exploration of the single story held by Nasir that can (if told properly) encapsulate what many returning refugees experience when going home.

            The author begins by providing a thorough physical description of Nasir as if they are important clues for the reader to follow. He was “clean-shaven, and he wore pale gray trousers of lightweight wool, brown loafers, and a checked poplin button-down shirt, newly ironed; his hair was cut short and very neat” (Moorehead 248). The reader is left to assume that such clues is what initially led to her contact with this man. If Moorehead was to truly understand the repatriated Afghan, Nasir represented her best chance.

            Nasir shares his story and Moorehead’s unique methodology of introducing her best example of this unique situation profits from the exhaustive description. Nasir takes on a personality through his articles of clothing reminiscent of Tim O’Brien’s methods in The Things They Carried. A lot can be deduced by one’s artifacts. Nasir’s glasses, belt, shoes, briefcase, and telephone when juxtaposed with his “dark” appearance give him away as an expatriate, westernized, but intrinsically Afghan.

            Following Moorhead’s observational technique, she then moves to her sensing of a mood or feeling that draws her attention to the man beyond that of trivial inquisitive approaches of dress and artifact. She says, “His manner was tentative; like his faint foreign overtones, it had something unsure about it, almost wary” (Moorehead, 248). In fact, Nasir had much to be unsure about. He could only sense by the bomb damaged Kabul airstrip littered with ruined hangers and burned-out wrecked airplanes that his country had suffered great destruction. What would he find beyond the airstrip fence? The suspenseful use of emotive language in this section demonstrates something Moorehead performs well. She places the reader within a character by which they can view the situation.

            Just as Moorehead has prefaced her interlude with Nasir dramatically by simply stating “And then there was Nasir” she ends the encounter with equally powerful scene-building. Nasir, like all passengers was given a form to fill out with questions about identity and address. He fills it out and the scene hangs in anticipation based on how he will answer the last question….”What is the reason for your visit?” Moorehead does not disappoint. “As I watched, Nasir’s pencil descended. In English, in a firm, large, rounded hand, he wrote: Coming home” (Moorehead, 249). It is as if all of his preparation for this moment, all of his anxiety about what he will discover, all of his experiences in exile have come together in one pivotal, one powerful moment that is masterfully conveyed through the author’s prose.