Martyr!
Chapter Ten
by Kaveh AkbarThe chapter depicts the narrator’s life working at an industrial chicken breeder farm in Fort Wayne, where the chickens are genetically modified for rapid growth and efficiency, stripped of immune systems to maximize productivity. The narrator describes the sterile, laboratory-like environment, contrasting it with traditional farming imagery. Their daily routine involves meticulous biosecurity measures, including showering and wearing scrubs to prevent contamination. The chickens, referred to as “industrial,” reach slaughter weight in just 35 days, a fraction of the time required for backyard poultry. This work provides stability for the narrator and their son, Cyrus, though it underscores the unnaturalness of industrialized food production.
Life outside work revolves around modest routines with Cyrus, who is remarkably self-sufficient from a young age. The narrator prepares simple, economical meals like stews and rice, while Friday nights are reserved for frozen pizza and movies—a cherished bonding activity. Sports, particularly basketball and favorite players like Reggie Miller, serve as a cultural bridge in their immigrant community. The narrator also grapples with personal struggles, hinted at through their reliance on bulk gin, which they humorously speculate might be a British plot to keep them subdued, reflecting their complex relationship with coping mechanisms.
The work environment is a melting pot of immigrants, with limited but meaningful interactions centered around food and language practice. The narrator’s job involves collecting eggs from barns, a messy and precise task requiring care to avoid damaging the fertilized eggs. Conversations with coworkers often revolve around culinary traditions from their homelands, though biosecurity rules prevent sharing actual dishes. These exchanges highlight the isolation and camaraderie among workers, who rarely discuss their pasts but find common ground in their shared immigrant experiences and the universal language of food.
The chapter closes with reflections on parenthood and purpose, as the narrator recalls a hadith about a starving man given a baby to care for instead of direct aid. This metaphor mirrors their own life—Cyrus becomes their reason to endure hardship, though the narrator admits to feeling distant from him at times. Cyrus’s independence and hidden talents, like teaching himself chess, reveal a depth the narrator only glimpses. The chapter poignantly captures the quiet sacrifices of immigrant life, the struggle to find meaning, and the unspoken love between parent and child.
FAQs
1. What were the key differences between the industrial chickens described in the chapter and traditional backyard chickens?
Answer:
The industrial chickens were bred for maximum efficiency in converting feed to protein, reaching slaughter weight of nearly seven pounds in just 35 days—a process that might take a year for backyard chickens. Unlike traditional chickens, these birds had weakened immune systems since they lived in biosecure barns and never encountered natural environments. The narrator emphasizes they couldn’t survive exposure to real dirt or bacteria, calling them “magic” for their rapid growth with minimal feed. This contrasts sharply with the image of chickens pecking in dirt or splashing in puddles, highlighting the artificiality of industrial poultry production.2. How does the narrator’s relationship with Cyrus reflect themes of parenthood and cultural adaptation?
Answer:
The narrator portrays parenthood as both a responsibility and a lifeline, referencing a hadith about a starving man given purpose through caring for a child. Cyrus is described as self-sufficient from first grade, yet their bond is nurtured through shared rituals like Friday movie nights (Westerns and comedies) and basketball games. The narrator also emphasizes cultural adaptation—they discuss Muslim NBA players as points of pride and use sports as a bridge to connect with coworkers and Cyrus’s school community. However, there’s emotional distance; the narrator admits Cyrus often shared more with his uncle Arash than with him, revealing the complexities of immigrant parenting.3. Analyze how the chapter uses food to illustrate the narrator’s immigrant experience and workplace dynamics.
Answer:
Food serves as a lens for both isolation and connection. At home, the narrator cooks economical stews with cheap ingredients, while workplace biosecurity rules forbid bringing outside food, creating a paradox: unlimited free vegetarian meals (like bean burritos) are provided, but sharing cultural dishes is impossible. Conversations about cassava, tamales, and Iranian food remain theoretical, highlighting how immigration fractures culinary traditions. The bulk gin purchases—joked as a “British” tool to keep Iranians “backwards”—further underscore how consumption habits reflect displacement and coping mechanisms in a new culture.4. What contradictions does the narrator reveal about their work at the breeder farm?
Answer:
The job is framed as scientifically advanced (“more laboratory than farm”) yet physically grueling, involving digging through feces-covered eggs. The chickens are called “machines,” emphasizing their engineered efficiency, but the care required—like avoiding crushed eggs—hints at their fragile biology. Workers must shower and wear scrubs like medical professionals, yet the environment is filthy. The narrator also critiques the system’s ethos (“A chicken was a machine”), even as they take pride in the birds’ unnatural growth rates. These contradictions reflect the tension between industrial agriculture’s promises and its dehumanizing realities.5. How does the hadith about the starving man relate to the narrator’s life with Cyrus?
Answer:
The hadith mirrors the narrator’s experience of finding purpose through parenthood after displacement. Initially skeptical of the story’s logic (questioning why God didn’t simply provide food), the narrator later embodies its lesson: Cyrus becomes their reason to endure hardship, much like the infant motivates the starving man. However, the relationship is complex—Cyrus’s independence (“basically an adult from the beginning”) contrasts with the hadith’s idealized dependency. The narrator’s reflection suggests parenthood’s redemptive power isn’t straightforward but rooted in small, practical acts of care, like shared pizza nights or basketball games.
Quotes
1. “A chicken was a machine that converted grain into protein. That was the line. Easy enough.”
This quote encapsulates the industrial, dehumanizing perspective of modern poultry farming, where living creatures are reduced to mere production units. It introduces the chapter’s critical view of industrialized agriculture and sets the tone for the narrator’s lived experience in this system.
2. “Industrial chickens, that’s what we called our birds. They were like magic. Grew like weeds and you barely had to feed them.”
This paradoxical description highlights both the wonder and horror of genetic manipulation in food production. The quote reveals how efficiency has been prioritized over natural biological processes, creating creatures that can’t survive outside controlled environments.
3. “I bought gin in bulk, giant half-gallon plastic bottles with British names… Filthy medicine. But what was the alternative?”
This poignant quote reveals the narrator’s struggle with addiction as a coping mechanism for his difficult circumstances. The rhetorical question underscores the sense of entrapment and limited choices faced by immigrants in challenging living situations.
4. “God stories always seemed to work that way. Sideways, convoluted. Like one of those elaborate chain-reaction machines built in the most deliberately nonsensical way, using a track and a spring and a candle and a balloon to ring a bell.”
This metaphorical reflection on religious narratives demonstrates the narrator’s philosophical questioning. It represents a key moment of introspection about faith, purpose, and the complex ways people find meaning in hardship.
5. “Cyrus grew, I worked. What more to say?”
This stark, minimalist statement captures the essence of the immigrant parent experience - years reduced to their most basic components of survival and child-rearing. Its brevity speaks volumes about the narrator’s resigned acceptance of this limited existence.