How Beautiful We Were

America acts as an amorphous symbol of liberation and democracy for many of the characters in this book, despite their knowledge that Pexton is an American company. To the children in Kosawa, the US is a symbol of power. One time a child speaks English to an American overseer: “For days afterward, we couldn’t stop asking our friend to tell us how it felt to attract the attention of a man from America” (72). The American man is seen as so powerful and untouchable that merely speaking one sentence to him merits days of reminiscing.

A major goal of the adults in Kosawa is getting the story of their plight to be heard by Americans. While pleading for his life, Kumbum promises that this alone will fix the problems in Kosawa: “American people like to hear stories of what’s happening in faraway places, so my nephew tells them stories about what’s happening in our country” (97). There is a level of cognitive dissonance as people in Kosawa separate Pexton from the Americans that use its oil; the US created the problem in Kosawa yet is looked to for ending the problem as well.

At one point, two Americans come to see Kosawa for themselves: “They wanted to be hugged […] but they didn’t ask for a hug, and as much as we could have loved to hug them in appreciation, we did not deem it proper to behave as such with Americans” (138). The American NGO is thus depicted as a naïve and self-congratulatory organization—its representatives consider merely coming to look at Kosawa worthy of praise and “appreciation.” Kosawa’s villagers agree, at once too worshipful to offer the hugs that the Americans seems to crave and desperate to be seen as “proper.” The NGO can do little other than request hugs—while they express concern for Kosawa, they cannot change the situation, making their presence more symbolic than practical.