Homogeneity and Hybridity in Selected Plays by Betty Shamieh and Diana Son

The American society was described as a melting pot capable of fusing all ethnic cultures into a single one. However, today the United States proves itself to be a collection of Europeans, Native Americans, African Americans, Arab Americans and Asians fragmented within the borders of the country. This fragmentation of the American social structure has been noticeable by the development of notions; there is a complex development of the Ethnic American term. The term ‘Ethnic American’ is used to describe each Americanized immigrant to the United States and his or her descendants. However, the complexity of the rapid social integration and interaction among the Ethnic American diverse descendants had led to the appearance of a more complicated term. Thus the ‘Multi Ethnic Americans’ described the ethnic American descendants who celebrate a unique complex identity of more than one Ethnic culture. They endure an American identity of free will beside their ethnic background cultures. Ethnic American immigrants have faced great challenges in being regarded as fully Americans. Up till now hyphenated Americans are being excluded, marginalized, and discriminated according to their ethnic looks and ethnic cultural background. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the unheard voices of two playwrights: Arab Palestinian American Betty Shamieh (1969) and Asian American Diana Son (1965). Both of them flourished through raising the contemporary Multi-ethnic American women’s voices in the contemporary American society. They have agreed on showing the dilemma of being “the other”, who have minority groups to mainstream culture against “the others”. This study also shows how Shamieh and Son differ in suggesting “Hybridity” as a solution to Ethnic-American dilemma.