Chapter 5

A year after the attack Mo is pestered by his mother to get married and have children. He is nearing forty and his mother wants him to have a family.

Mo is expecting to be promoted to project director at his architecture firm. Emmanuel Roi, the firm's founder, calls Mo into his office and tells him Percy Storm, some other architect not important to the story, is being promoted. Mo presses for a reason, but comes up empty handed. He wonders if it has to do with his religion.

On the subway, Mo watches four African-American teens throw condoms at passengers. No one says anything except an older black man who yells at them to stop. Mo views this intervention as the man feeling tainted by the action of other blacks.

At home, Mo tells his girlfriend Yuki about the incident. They start to watch Fox New and get into a fight over the ethics of airport security. The fight leads to the two breaking up.

Mo goes to a lecture by Henry Moore, a defense expert, on how to create building to be defensively sound. He is sent to Kabul, Afghanistan on behalf of ROI to compete for designing the new American embassy. After his flight, Mo notices how drab and sad the architecture is. He takes a nap in his rough hotel room. Once he awakes he heads over to the embassy for a debriefing and a tour of Kabul. For dinner they go to a French restaurant where the other architects comment that it's like a Muslim paradise. When one jokes that he's surprised the Muslims aren't "blowing themselves up to get in" another comments, "'Some don't have to'" while looking at Mo.

Chapter 4

Claire is swimming at her home. She remembers swallowing her pride and quiting her job to become a stay-at-home mom. While she came from meager backgrounds, her husband was born into wealth. While this makes her life comfortable, she feels that she is now at the command of her husband. She still loves Cal, but she wish that she wasn't "the social secretary for a four-year-old." Cal even paid off her student debt, which Claire apprecieated but was hurt because she felt it took away her self-sufficiency. It turns out, that the day she is swimming is 9/11.

The day after choosing the Garden, Claire goes into her late husband's study. Cal was a man of wealth, but rebelled against his family. He apprecieated the arts, attempted to reform the Democratic party, and created a charity to support teen mothers through their schooling. He kept a collection of all these things and more that interested him in organized folders.

While in Cal's study, Claire's son, William comes in. He has a drawing of himself and his father in the future Garden. Claire tells him sometimes it will rain in the Garden. In response he draws an umbrella over the two of them.

New facts about Claire:

• Dartmouth undergrad, Harvard Law School
• rags to riches story

Paul awakes in his house and is questioned by his wife, Edith, about who won the competition. He doesn't respond and instead looks at a photo of himself with Governor Bitman. He then receives a call from a reporter named Alyssa Spier. She asks if a Muslim won the competition. Paul neither confirms nor denies the claim and quickly hangs up.

Paul arranges an meeting with the editor of the Daily News, Fred. Alyssa works at this paper. Paul convinces Fred not to allow a story to run with the delicate information.

Chapter 3

A week after 9/11 Mohammed (Mo) Kahn is flying home from Los Angeles to New York City. He is stopped by two security agents, one called Pinball, who interrogate him.
Questions asked:

• Where were you born?
• Do you love this country?
• What are your thoughts on jihad?
• Aren't you a practicing Muslim?
• Know any Muslims that want to do harm to America?
• Do you believe you'd go to heaven if you blew yourself up?
• Do you know any Islamic terrorists?

The interrogation goes nowhere and after fingerprinting Mo, he is allowed to go back to NYC. When he gets home, he finds that his baggage had been rummaged through yet due to the atmosphere of the city, Mo is not that angry. He wonders about what type of Muslim really does represent Islam and how he fits into the religion. And he reminisces about the buildings while eating in a small, Indian restaurant and only feels nostalgia for the towers. 

Mo works for an architecture firm, ROI. Generally brusque, he becomes more polite since the attacks which annoys himself. He is cocky and has a lot of pride which often makes him unlikeable. He is not very religious and describes himself as agnostic. His parents immigrated to the US in the '60s.

Chapter 2

"Jesus fucking Christ! It's a goddamn Muslim!" yells Bob Wilner, representing the Governor at the jury. The jury starts to discuss their predicament and their descriptions reveal them to be all upper-middle class intelligentsia (art critics, university professors, ect.) Most everyone seems to be reconsidering their choice, except Claire who is steadfast in her support for the Garden and it's architect, Mohammad Kahn.
Ethics discussed:

• Tolerance to Muslim community
• offensive to the families
• Narrow-minded Midwesterners
• Is Mohammad Kahn a terrorist?
• Fairness of process
• Protection to Muslim community/backlash

During this time, Ariana reveals Claire's suspicion to be true that the designer of the Void is an acquaintance of Ariana's.

They reach an inconclusive decision, but because it's so late, Paul dismisses the jury. He urges them not to speak to the press. As the group disperses, Paul unfairly thinks to himself, "Did Muslims ruin whatever they touched?"

Chapter 1

At the Gracie Mansion, a room full of jury members trying to decide on which memorial should be built to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. It has been two years since the attack. On one side, Claire Burwell, the only person on the jury who had lost a family member during the attacks, is trying to convince her peers that the Garden should be built. Meanwhile, Ariana Montagu, a New York artist, is pushing for a structure called the Void which is a giant, dark structure. The two go back and forth, describing why each of their designs should be deemed the winner. Claire goes as far as to suggest that Ariana knows the designer of the Void meaning Ariana would have an unfair bias.

Paul Rubin is the chairman of the jury. He is a friend of the governor which is how he obtained the role of chairman and takes pride in his leadership skills. He is a retired investment banker and appreciates the arts. It is also revealed his heritage is that of Russian Jewish peasants. Paul is shown to respect Claire more than Ariana, and even sexually find her attractive. However, Paul refuses to commit to any design as Chairman unless there is a tie.

Claire then follows Maria, an art curator and fellow juror, outside to convince her to vote for the Garden. While attempting to persuade Maria, we learn that Claire lost her husband in the Twin Towers and since then has been the poster child for the widows of 9/11. She successfully convinces Maria to vote for the Garden.

Eventually, it becomes a close deadlock, but the Garden wins in the end.

Paul then reminisces on the events of the attack. He remembers his wife, Edith, calling him and sobbing and his Muslim driver, Sami, saying, "I hope it's not the Arabs." Later Sami would ask to go back to Palestine to be with his dying father which relieved Paul who replaces Sami with a Russian driver.

In the present Paul makes a meager, sentimental speech and opens the letter to see who won the architecture competition.

Introduction

To whom it may concern,

This blog gives a brief synopsis and analysis of The Submission by Amy Waldman. This site is not a substitution of the novel and does not mean to compete with the book. However, it will provide a brief summary of each chapter to help you better understand the plot and characters. It should be used with the book in order to assist the reader to understand Ms. Waldman's brilliant piece of literature.

-Mo