Eboo Patel’s My Neighbor’s Faith: The Heroes I Was Looking For

One key them reflected in Eboo Patel’s My Neighbor’s Faith: The Heroes I Was Looking For, is the idea of charity and the importance of helping others, especially people who are marginalized. Eboo Patel recalls his experience in college where he witnessed the troubles of the disenfranchised in the form of drug abuse, homelessness, and poverty. He writes that “I knew that America saw these shadows but chose not to call them”( Patel). This sparked a flame inside Patel which urged him to participate in his first forms of charity by protesting, and trying to raise awareness of these issues. With time, Patel realizes that charity can come in many forms. For example, when he visits his grandmother in India, he realizes that just like Dorothy Day in America, his grandmother was “sheltering abused women for 40 years by hiding them in her home”( Patel). Although it took Patel many years to find his voice and see that his own culture and religion are producers of charitable acts, he finally is able to see “The heroes I was looking for were within my religion, in my very family”( Patel).

To capture his journey in this short memoir, Patel employs the use of short anecdotes. This allows for the reader to feel a stronger sense of connection to the writer and the story that he is telling. Patel shares painfully honest anecdotes that share his struggles trying to find his place in the world, and solidify his own views on charity, and religion. For example, after researching and reading about different religions, Patel states “But my attraction to these traditions was intellectual. Similar to my experience with Christianity, I felt that my soul did not fit in any of them”(Patel). Its within these moments of honest story telling that Patel connects the most with the audience, and the reader is able to empathize and learn from Patel’s journey.

3 thoughts on “Eboo Patel’s My Neighbor’s Faith: The Heroes I Was Looking For”

  1. I completely agree with your commentary about Patel caring for marginalized groups. I like how explained how Patel’s own awareness was expanded when he saw his own grandmother practicing justice.

  2. You did a great job using this theme to span across the entire text – connecting it from the beginning to the end. I really enjoy that you also didn’t focus on this text being a religious text, but one of charity. This was really well executed!

  3. Although I agree, I thought it was interesting that you referred to his anecdotes as “honest.” Like you said this allows readers to connect and empathize with Patel.

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