Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar: Analysis of the Cover and its Connection to the Main Character

This essay analyzes the cover of Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar and its connection to the main character, Amir. The story is about a successful Pakistani-American lawyer facing personal confrontations and challenging questions about faith, race, and art. The cover shows a well-dressed man in an urbanized city, similar to Amir's profession and economic status. Two scenes from the play are compared to the cover, showing Amir's pride, confidence, and aggression. The book cover is a reflection of the main character's personality and achievements.

Running head: DISGRACED BY AYAD AKHTAR
DISGRACED BY AYAD AKHTAR
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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The book Disgraced is written by Ayad Akhtar, the America playwright, screenwriter,
novelist and actor with Pakistani heritage. Ayad Akhtar is widely known for Disgraced which is
about a successful Pakistani-American lawyer. In this paper, the aim is to focus on the cover in
terms of the ways it relates to the main character of the story. The essay will aim to draw a
connection between the cover and the character by bringing forth two scenes from the play in
order to make the explanation of the connection.
Summary:
Set in New York circa 20121, the play is about an ambitious south Asian lawyer. As
mentioned in the play, “SETTING: A spacious apartment on New York’s Upper East Side”. He
is faced with several personal confrontations over the course of several unsettling truths
regarding himself, his situation as well as his perspectives. There are certainly some of the most
challenging questions focusing on aspects such as nature and purpose of faith, the relationship
between non-whites and white races in America in the contemporary time and responsibilities of
creating art (Akhtar 2015).
The cover: The cover of the book is a man who is wearing an appropriate suit looking
well dressed. The man seems like someone who belongs to a corporate world and is
professionally successful. The person is proud of himself and his achievements, the
achievements that perhaps comes from professional success. The background of the man
standing in the middle is an urbanised city with corporate high rise building.
The connection between the cover and the character: Amir is a successful lawyer in a
prestigious New York Firm in his thirties. Since he is a busy lawyer, he is often occupied with
phone calls. He has a wife who is a Caucasian artist. Amir, the protagonist is the main character

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of the story. Amir can be defined as an ambitious as well as hardworking person as his
profession. Slowly as the story goes on, he is revealed as a bitter and aggressive person who
becomes an angry liar and a racist. He is also a non-practising Muslim however he faces hard
times letting go of the things he has learned as about his religion in his childhood and the
relationship that his religion holds with the rest of the world. This can be observed from his
statement, “AMIR: Islam comes from the desert. From a group of tough-minded, tough-living
people. Who saw life as something hard and relentless. Something to be suffered...”. In the story,
he is portrayed as a person who does not wish to become popular or successful as the non-
Muslim around him. However, he wishes to grow in his career while approaching the level of
success that he always aspired to become even though not quickly.
Analysis of two scenes from the play: In the opening scene, scene 1, when the charter of
Amir is revealed, it is shown the way he is half-dressed in a formal dress, and he is dressed in
house informal below his waist. Through this picture, the character can be observed as someone
who is working at home with an extremely busy schedule. He holds his head high and looks very
proud of his posture. With this specific image, Amir is a person who is proud of himself for what
he has achieved in his career. He is a confident, brave and wealthy lawyer similar to the man on
the cover page however often the victim of racism as stated by Emily.
“Emily: A man, a waiter, looking at you. Not seeing you. Not seeing who you really are. Not
until you started to deal with him. And the deftness with which you did that. You made him see
that gap. Between what he was assuming about you, and what you really are. “
Also, the Asian complexion is showed by selecting a man who is brown such as a person similar
to Amir’s ethnic background. In the opening scene, a glimpse Amir’s and Emily’s apartment is
shown. It is a very desirable apartment in the New York’ Upper East Side. The apartment is

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representative of professional and the high economic status similar to the cloths of the man on
the cover page, polished and expensive.
The second scene is scene 3, that can be compared with the cover page is the characters
that can be observed in the dinner scene. The dinner scene consists of four characters, Amir’s
black-American colleagues, Jory and her husband Isaac along with Emily, Amir’s wife. In this
scene both Amir and Jory ambitious professionals of the same race and it can be assumed that
they both together would share a panache for beating the social issue of racism in America.
Although the scene began with a proper introduction and polite conversation, it does not flow in
the same direction. The polite liberalism conversation turns into something that is more than
what it should have happened. Amir was already annoyed about losing the coveted partnership
and other things that made him “AMIR: Why are you annoyed with me?”. He gets drunk as well,
the conventional method for professionals to cope with stress. As Isaac states:
“ISAAC: I had no idea your husband was such a mess. And a fucking alcoholic to boot.”
Although the discussion and aggression were taken on the debate of religion and national
affiliations, the genuine reason was much more personal. The behaviour of Amir is of someone
who has been very established and achieved and never failed. The picture that is observed on the
book cover is the man who would behave in this specific way. Therefore, the book cover is
certainly saying about the main character of the story, Amir.

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References:
Akhtar, A., 2015. Disgraced. New York: Dramatist Play Service.