Balance of Culture and Social Life

Matthai, Thanos. (n.d). A Fine Balance: The Life of a Muslim Teenager

Writing in the Works, Third Edition, p. 197 - 200

            We all have our different cultures and as students, we maybe have to make tough decisions in order to find a common ground that allows both culture and social interaction to not interfere with one another. In Thanos Matthai's (n.d) reading, he writes a profile to analysis the daily life of Mohamed Ahmed. (Matthai, n.d, p. 197) a student who tries to balance his faith and school life. Matthai provides scenarios in which Mohamed has encountered to draw his readers in and to relate them to their own lives. He also emphasizes certain parts of his writing such as "Mohammed has had to make tough choices, sometimes forcing him to almost lead two separate lives" (p. 197). Matthai allows these lines to be the ones that are places in the center of his reading. By doing so, it has a bigger impact on the reader size since it emphasizes that Mohammed had a hard time trying to balance his faith and social live.

           Since Matthai is writing a profile, he gives his reader a background information on Mohamed so that the reader has an idea of where Mohamed is coming from as well as a life story of what he has been through. This embedded life story could only be possible if Matthai was interviewing Mohamed. There are hints in his writing that suggest that he was talking to Mohamed while writing such as, "'When I look back at things now ... ' says Mohamed as he looks around his dorm room" (p. 200). This description of this action can be observed if Mohamed was sitting in front of Matthai. Aside from interviewing Mohamed for his past, Matthai also interviewed people that Matthai knew, such as his cousin Kareem Ahmed (p. 198). By interviewing other people, another point of view is integrated into the reading and allows the reader to understand the kind of person Mohamed is from another perspective. 

            Majority of the reading is used to talk about Mohamed past: the kinds of friends he has made, the way he was brought up as opposed to other American Muslims, the situations that he has been through that affected him personally and how it has changed him into being a social person who is able to balance both his social. Matthai ends off his reading by asking Mohamed about any regrets he may have and if he would have done anything differently that could change the outcome of his current self. (p. 200)


Sources: Thanos Matthai, " A Fine Balance: The Life of a Muslim Teenager" from

Writing in the Works, Third Edition, p. 197- 200