Critical Analysis of "A Fine Balance" by Thanos Matthai

Matthai, T. (2012). A fine balance: The life of a Muslim teenager. In Blau, S, & Burak, K. (eds). Writing In The Works (197-200). Ebook: Cengage Learning.


    In his article A fine balance: The life of a Muslim teenager, Thanos Matthai creates a profile of his acquaintance and fellow college student Mohamed Ahmed. The profile attempts to show the tension between Mohamed's Muslim faith and college culture by describing several situations in which Mohamed's faith is morally at odds with his surroundings. Throughout the paper there is the continuous sense that Mohamed is leading two lives – one in which he is a devout Muslim and one in which he is an ordinary college student, trying to fit in with his peers and maintain a social life – and that these forces pull him in two different directions, creating strain in his relationships and confusing his sense of self. The overall aim of the paper seems to be to help readers sympathize with Muslim students who act differently from their peers due to their religious beliefs.

   By writing his entire paper in an anecdotal style, Matthai keep readers interested while also giving examples from Mohamed's life that help reinforce the theme of his article.  The scenarios Matthai chose to include are typical college student experiences that his audience will likely relate with; however, he is able to show these experiences from a different angle by describing Mohamed's thoughts in each scenario. The juxtaposition between a familiar setting and an unfamiliar point of view highlights the way Mohamed stands out from his peers due to his religious beliefs, and the feeling he describes of not fully belonging to either his conservative Muslim family or his irreligious friends. 

    While Matthai is not necessarily an expert on the topic on which he writes, he refers constantly to quotes from Mohamed and his friends, which serve the purpose of describing Mohamed's behaviour from both points of view. These quotes also reveal that Mohamed's friends do not fully understand what motivates him to act the way he does, and help reinforce the theme that Muslims are often misunderstood in our society.

    In general, this article is well written. However, it sometimes feels too fast-paced, jumping from one scene to the next with too little explanation in between. This makes it too easy to quickly skim Mohamed's story and go on to read something else without actually thinking about the issues Matthai brings up. This article will likely be helpful to those who wish to learn about the struggles that devoted Muslims undergo in North American society, but only if they have little knowledge of Islam or religion in general before reading.