Black Dog Of Fate Character Analysis

Peter Balakian’s memoir, Black Dog of Fate, was published by Basic Books in New York in 1997. The subtitle—“An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past”—could easily be the summary on the back of the book. Balakian was born in the United States to Armenian parents. His mother was born in the country, while his father was born abroad, specifically Constantinople. His maternal grandmother, her first husband, and their two young daughters experienced the Genocide. Although his grandmother and aunts survived, his grandmother’s first husband fell prey to exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, and the cruelty of the Turkish officers. His father’s family was able to escape the Genocide for the most part, though they too were victims of a dying culture …show more content…
The children had no knowledge of Armenia, Peter did not even know where it would be on a map. They had no tangible connection to the place, no memories, save for the cryptic folktales Peter’s grandmother would tell and the cuisine. The adults, though American by residence, were Armenian both by blood and heart. They could not look at the world in any other way than clinging to their customs, their language, their food, in the wake of a world that had recently tried to take all of it from them. Balakian did not know of the genocide until he was in his mid-twenties. He had no clue of the atrocities his family had gone through scarcely forty-five years before—and his parents were not eager to educate him. They wanted him to know, but they did not want to be the ones to teach him. For example, in eighth grade, Balakian had to write a paper on a Near Eastern culture. His father was ecstatic for his son to learn about Armenia, but none too forthcoming about information. After searching fruitlessly for information, Balakian finally wrote his report on Turkey instead. He earned an ‘A’ on the paper but his father, though pleased at the good grade, was horrified and angry at his subject, shouting, “Don’t you know what the Turks did to us?” (94). He did not know. His parents were still too traumatized to willingly bring it up and he was too wrapped up in the thrill of the freedom of 1960’s America to …show more content…
It raises this question in the minds of many people as it was both a New York Times Notable Book and a PEN Albrand Award Winner. For this, I am thankful. I am very happy that this story is well-known, and that despite the lack of official American acknowledgment, people know that the Armenian Genocide happened. Balakian does a wonderful job of documenting his journey as well as the more literal one of his ancestors. His research and sources are strong, many are firsthand accounts, and in lieu of stories I may never know about my family’s history in the Genocide, he accurately and effectively portrayed what happened to the Armenians in the early twentieth century. As the one hundred year anniversary of the beginning of the genocide approaches, I do not expect any official recognition from either the American or Turkish government, but that is okay—for now. I know that Balakian’s book is out there, and it says what the American government feels it cannot: that the Genocide happened. To identify as an Armenian-American in today’s world is difficult, but it is made easier by books like Balakian’s that make it even harder to deny what our ancestors went