“To be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others, yet to comply with what others want causes us to be exiled from ourselves” (Estes). Mahmoud Darwish could relate to this quote on a very serious level. He was exiled from his homeland, but stayed true to himself and his family. Darwish was born in a Palestinian village that was destroyed in the Palestine War. He became involved in political opposition and was imprisoned by the government. He was later forced into exile and became a permanent refugee. Around 1975, Mahmoud wrote a poem titled “Identity Card”. Mahmoud Darwish writes using diction, repetition, and atmosphere to express his emotions towards exile. He expressed his emotions through poetry, especially “Identity Card”. Mahmoud Darwish …show more content…
His origins were extremely important to him and he displays this throughout the poem. Mahmoud repeats the statement “I am an Arab” in almost every stanza of the poem (Darwish 80). He’s not ashamed of his heritage and will not forget it. Mahmoud wants to reveal how proud he is to be an Arab, and show that he is being punished for who he is. Darwish wants it to be remembered that he is being exiled and he wants his feelings recorded. The reader is continually told to “put it on record” (Darwish 81). The author is not afraid to express himself through his writing. He writes in a style that encourages people to communicate their views. Darwish wants people to be able to comfortably express themselves. The author is very upset about his unjust experience, but calmly documents his feelings. He ironically asks “What’s there to be angry about?” four times in the poem (Darwish 80). Darwish is staying calm but still showing that the situation is extremely unfair and bothersome. “Identity Card” shares one terrible exile experience with readers. Repetition is used many times in the poem, stressing important
Naomi Nye was born to a German-American mother and a Palestinian-American father. However, she normally writes from her Palestinian-Arab perspective. In several of her poems within The Heath Anthology—“Ducks,” “My Father and the Figtree,” and “Where the Soft Air Lives”—Naomi Nye reminisces about her Muslim heritage and childhood as it correlates to her present identity. In addition, she incorporates the effect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on herself and on Arab culture in her work. Ultimately, Naomi Nye’s poetic work should remain in The Heath Anthology as her style demonstrates how historical events and a deep-rooted heritage can enrich a sense of identity and culture.
Joyce, James. “Araby”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 427 - 431.
In William Safire’s “The Threat of National ID”, he argues against a National ID card. Safire published an article in the New York Times to establish different context. Safire gives details about the use of National ID card at different places in different situations. He emphasizes that many Americans are willing to give up personal privacy in return for greater safety, but none of us have privacy regarding where we go and what we do all the time. Safire disputes that mandatory National ID become necessary for people to prevent fear of terror attack.
Society has created a world where people believe that they need to act and look a certain way to be accepted and liked. The media, celebrities, and the culture someone grows up in influence how people perceive themselves. In the film Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and the poem “A Far Cry from Africa” by Derek Walcott, the characters in both must face the difficulty of finding themselves after being impacted by their surroundings.
From a young age we are taught the saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” While this may be helpful for grade school children that are being bullied by their peers, it has some problems as it trivializes the importance that words can have. The words that people choose for themselves, as well as the words that others ascribe to a person, have an unmeasurable importance to how people can understand themselves. These labels can be a significant source of oppression or liberation for many people who identify within them. In Eli Clare’s memoir, Exile and Pride, looks at the importance of words as he explores the labels he’s associated with. He does this through mixing discussion of the histories and modern representation
After war Daru had requested to be transferred to a small town, where the silence of the town echoes in the schoolhouse; and it was hard on him. Now that he has company the same silence still muter the house. He thought about war and how he fought next to other men, whom he got to know and to love. The presence of the Arab imposes on Daru a feeling of brotherhood that he knew very well, and that he didn’t want to share. Men that fought together, or share rooms, or were prisoners or soldiers grow a peculiar alliance. However, Daru tries not to think about it, such feelings aren’t good for him. Daru wishes the Arab runs away because he feels as much of a prisoner as the
It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.
In the novel, The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini creates a sincere narrative following the disturbing life of a young Afghan body, Amir, as he transitions from adolescence into adulthood. Amir must face various challenges as he journeys through life, including his difficult relationships with those closest to him and the implications of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. It is on account of his difficult relationship with Baba, that Amir is constantly seeking ways to gain his attention and gratification, no matter the cost. Due to his rigid demeanor and unjust expectations of Amir, countless readers perceive Baba to be a flawed father; however, once information of Hassan’s relation to the two of them is revealed, the reader can understand that Baba was simply a man
Joyce, James. “Araby.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Eighth Edition. Eds. Jerome Beaty, Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W.W.Norton.
In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini tells a notable coming-of-age story portraying the actions and thoughts of Amir, a penitent adult living in the United States and his reminiscence of his affluent childhood in the unstable political environment of Afghanistan. Throughout the novel Khaled Hosseini uses character description to display his thoughts on sin and redemption.
Joyce, James. "Araby." 1914. Literature and Ourselves. Henderson, Gloria, ed. Boston, Longman Press. 2009. 984-988.
Khaled Hosseini on his novel The Kite Runner illustrates that how the hero of this novel “Amir” affected by his father. Amir thought that his father does not love him because Amir admits
The question of the racial, religious, and socioeconomic identity of Shahid becomes a central question posed as Shahid undergoes translation from his Pakistani ancestry to his desired identity as a Briton. Shahid's translation parallels the translations of the former Asian colonies of Britain into their new postcolonial identities. Unfortunately for Shahid, the struggle over The Satanic Verses catches him as he is translating himself, presenting him with a series of tough choices.
The poem “Minority” written by Imtiaz Dharker uses contrasts in imagery and a change in point of view in order to convey the “foreigner” (1) and the message to “you” (44). The opening line of the poem introduces its theme of separation and otherness. The poem begins “I was born a foreigner” (1) using the 1st person point of view to present a personal feeling that is internal. The first line of the poem leads to the fact that the speaker was born in a country different from their origin. After the first line the speaker in the poem seems to belong nowhere – “even in the place/planted with my relatives” (4-5) leading to believe that the speaker is “a foreigner everywhere” (3). The speaker’s choice of words makes us feel that no matter where the speaker goes she always seems to be separated. The speaker returns to the country of her parents and still continues to feel like a foreigner. The speaker in this situation feels displaced and victimized because she find themselves facing prejudice from the country she was born in as well as the country of her relatives and family. This stanza solely serves to single the speaker who can be concluded as the “foreigner” (1) out as a lone individual rather than a representation of an entire group. The speaker’s repetition of “foreigner” (3) throughout the poem emphasizes her isolation from her own family as well as “All kinds of places and groups” (9). The speaker tells us “I don’t fit” (13) where she is comparing herself to “food cooked in milk of coconut/where you expected ghee or cream” (15-16) or an “unexpected aftertaste/ of cardamom or neem” (17-18). The use of taste to describe a feeling of being foreign is evocative because a countries cuisine is a compliment of its culture so it is inte...