Cross-Cultural Marriage and Family Life in Susan Muaddi Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile: Stories From South Philly

Abstract

This paper aims at examining the personal factors that affect and are affected by the cross-cultural marriage in The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly. The intercultural marriage of Hanan; an Arab, and John; an American, affects the entire unit of children, members of family and social networks. Cultural differences between the couple make their parents reject the interracial marriage and this leads to struggle and instability in the couple’s marital life. The study highlights the sociological, economic and cultural contexts that affect this interracial marriage.