When Usama questions why many Palestinians are going over to Israel to work, the old man says, “Better over there. Lots of money. Plenty of easy work” (Khalifeh 41). As a character most outside of the conflict, Usama feels a greater connection with his class than he does with the working class. No understanding exists of the hardships they face every day while living in the region. Without feeling a connection to the working class, one cannot truly understand the conflict raging within the Palestinian people. The dying farm Usama visits represents the aristocracy’s ignorance of the working class plight. Abu Adil’s farm which once employed many farmhands has fallen into disarray. Adil says, “Our trees died of thirst, not fire. The workers took …show more content…
After berating him with questions about the farm, Abu Shahada says, “I’m just a hired hand. I’ve been here all my life. I don’t own any land. I don’t own anything...The land isn’t mine or Shahads’s, so why should we care about it? Why should we die for it...Nobody ever came and asked about us when we were nearly dying of starvation” (Khalifeh 42). Rather than replying with sympathy or any sort of empathy, Usama reacts in anger. As one of the most telling passages in the novel, Abu Shahada becomes a victim of the elite’s ignoring of the working class. He goes as far as calling Usama “effendi” which means master, equating the work he does as the work of a slave serving those in power (Khalifeh 42). Echoing Abu Shahada’s sentiments, later in the novel Zuhdi says, “We speak, but they don’t hear us. Who can we speak to? For God’s sake, who can we speak to” (Khalifeh 85)? The growing frustration of the working class cannot deflate if no communication occurs between the people. Just as Abu Zayd was cast out of his society, the elite Palestinians have in effect cast out the working class by turning their backs on …show more content…
A microcosm of the larger community forms within the prisons. They are a site of a forming collectivity as well as a site of education. Referred to as “the people’s school”, the prison becomes a place where Basil and Zuhdi are indoctrinated into the resistance (Khalifeh 123). A prisoner says, “Israel should beware of what it’s created- a time bomb about to explode. Its prisons have become a breeding ground for ideas, not disposal sites for land-mines” (Khalifeh 146). In hopes to quell the resistance, Israeli soldiers jail those whom they deem to be a problem. However, they lock up the supposed resistors and don’t realize the solidarity that it inspires. Moreover, within the prison, Basil is exposed to the “comprador borgeous” (Khalifeh 124-5). As the bread seller mentions prior, when the occupation first began, the wealthy went looking to work with the Israeli people in order to sell goods and make a profit (Khalifeh 68). The bourgeois’ hypocrisy about the working class working over in Israel emerges even more within the discussions in the prison. They are only interested in profit and care nothing about the wellbeing of the country (Khalifeh 124). At one point earlier in the novel, Adil makes this exact point saying, “Let them help build industries in the West Bank and Gaza and we’d stop working ‘inside’ straight away..they don’t want to risk their money; yet they want
Mark Colvin, a professor of sociology in the Department of Justice Studies at Kent University was hired to investigate the disturbance in 1980. He analyzes the social structure of the jail and how the deterioration of the administration led to the brutally hostile conditions of the penitentiary. The dispute is especially
This paper is about the book 'Behind a Convict's Eyes' by K.C. Cerceral. This book was written by a young man who enters prison on a life sentence and describes the world around him. Life in prison is a subculture of its own, this subculture has its own society, language and cast system. The book describes incidents that have happen in prison to inmates. With this paper I will attempt to explain the way of life in a prison from an inmate's view.
Relations during this time with the prison and the outside world are discussed, as well as how these relations dominated life inside of a prison and developed new challenges within the prison. After Ragen left, Frank Pate become his successors. Pate faced a problem because he neither sought nor exercised the charismatic authority of Ragen. The Prison remained an imperatively coordinated paramilitary organization, which still required its warden to personify its goals and values. Jacobs goes on to discusses how what Pate did, was not the same direction or ideas that Ragen was doing or had. Jacobs’s counties this discussion with the challenges and issues that prison had during the time of 1961 through 1970. Jacobs blames that the loss of a warden who could command absolute authority, the loss of local autonomy, it heightened race problems among blacks, and the penetration of legal norms exposed severe strains in the authrotitarian system, and says pate cant control
Neither Conover nor Santos paints a favorable picture of conditions within prison. In particular, Santos description of violence within prison shows a very disturbing setting for people to live. Santos describes a daily fight to remain safe and alive. ...
“Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources”, which eventually leads to “individuals and organizations [who are able to] keep more resources than others, and these ‘winners’ use their power and influence to maintain social institutions” (Openstax College 16), and it seems that the “winners” of OITNB were taking advantage of their position of power and influence, and abusing it. Instead of maintaining social institutions, they created havoc. In addition, German sociologist, Georg Simmel believed that “conflict can help integrate and stabilize a society” (Openstax College 17). However, although there has always been passive conflict that kept reoccurring in the prison, nothing was done about it. When a conflict finally ensued, it was volatile, and did not not result in stability. Hence, a power shift from the powerful, to powerless, due to disagreement of the distribution of power is seen the main plot of the
Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading routines. In Romesh Ra...
25 September 1998 Smith, Phil, "Private Prisons Benefit" The Berne Collection. 1 December 1998 *Shakur, Assata, "Letter from Assata Shakur on the prison industrial complex" 25 October 1999. Schlosser, Eric, "The Prison Industrial Complex" The Atlantic Monthly. December 1998 Vol.
When the average person thinks of a prison, what is often the thought that comes to mind? Perhaps an environment of reform is envisioned, or maybe a place for punishment. Maybe someone sees them as modern leper colonies, where countries send their undesirables. It could be that prisons are all of these things, or they could be none. With these ambiguities in the general definition of a prison it is easy to say that the everyday person could have no real critical perspective on what they truly are. That being said, if the average person were presented with Angela Davis’s perspective, and the perspective of many scholars, they may be shocked to learn what prisons truly are. This perspective presents prisons as a profitable industrial complex very similar to the military industrial complex. Like the military industrial complex, in the “prison industrial complex,” investors make large amounts of money off the backs of imprisoned inmates. It is interesting to note how similar these two systems are, with closer analysis; it seems to me as though one may have developed from the other. On another note, the prison industrial complex also appears to have a correlation with the globalization of labor; which makes it possible to assume that one contributed to the development of the other here as well. However, where the prison industrial complex’s roots lie is not as big an issue as the simple question of the morality of the practice. A person can know the history of the issue all they want but the important matter is addressing it.
A character that was admirable in the novel “we all fall down” is John. John is the father of Will who is the main character, they spend nearly the entire story together looking for a way out of the world trade center during the 9/11 attacks. During the story you learn that John is very smart, brave, and respected. These are all characteristics which play a crucial role in saving lives such as his co-workers and a random lady they find on the way named ting, but mainly in the ending John and Will successfully escape.
We see that the author’s purpose is to allow the readers to understand that the prisoners were not treated humanly, and allows us to see the negative attitudes the authority had towards the prisoners.
Critics have already begun a heated debate over the success of the book that has addressed both its strengths and weaknesses. The debate may rage for a few years but it will eventually fizzle out as the success of the novel sustains. The characters, plot, emotional appeal, and easily relatable situations are too strong for this book to crumble. The internal characteristics have provided a strong base to withstand the petty attacks on underdeveloped metaphors and transparent descriptions. The novel does not need confrontations with the Middle East to remain a staple in modern reading, it can hold its own based on its life lessons that anyone can use.
Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading ro...
“A beating is almost irresistible as an argument (Shalamov Kolyma).” Varlam Shalamov spent seventeen years in the Gulag (TEEB). Of all the lessons Shalamov recorded of his time in there, one theme stands out: The necessity of total subordination. The cruelty in the hands of the guards and even prisoners reflects the controlling expectations that their superiors have of them. //The drive for control was an elixir combating the desperation of camp life.// Shalamov’s short stories reflect a lust for control in the lives of those who feel they have none for themselves.
However, a significant amount of controversy existed within the Partition Plan that justified the anger felt by Palestinians. In the poem “My Country on Partition Day,” Abu Salma draws light on these contradictions; when referring to Western nations, he states, “They’ve prohibited oppression among themselves / but for us they legalized all prohibitions… In the West, man’s rights are preserved, / but the man in the East is stoned to death” (14-15, 18-19). Salma explains how the United Nations, which consisted of Western countries, claimed to value human rights and ensure that individuals were treated fairly; however, this same organization knowingly permitted Zionists to brutally attack Palestinians and drive them out of their land. Therefore, their definition of justice differed for Eastern areas when compared to Western ones.
Perhaps the main reason I liked this book was the unfaltering courage of the author in the face of such torture as hurts one even to read, let alone have to experience first-hand. Where men give in, this woman perseveres, and, eventually, emerges a stronger person, if that is even possible. The book’s main appeal is emotional, although sound logical arguments are also used. This book is also interesting as it shows us another face of Nasir – the so-called “champion of Arab nationalism” – who is also the enemy of pan-Islamism. The book is also proof of history repeating itself in modern-day Egypt.