Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories

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The political aspect of Arab nationalism manifested itself in the works and activities of a pioneering generation of intellectuals who resisted all attempts to assimilate the Arabs into larger Turkish society. Through the transformation of Khaldun in the latter, Kanafani looks at some of the most basic questions of what it means to be human and how we choose our sense of belonging. If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Finally, the teenage Marwan symbolizes the utter abandonment experienced by the youngest generation of Palestinians.

He gets Abul Khaizuran to admit that his job is not really transporting water but smuggling goods for Haj Rida, a Kuwaiti merchant. Sure, the Jews/Israelis are the enemies of these people; those who are responsible for the loss of their homes, their miserable lives in the refugee camps, and the loss of many lives too. A diabolical thought had implanted itself in his brain, and he jumped up like a man who has found a satisfactory conclusion.He’s a cynic, telling Marwan that in Kuwait, ‘The first thing you will learn is: money comes first, and then morals. In one sense, the situation of the Palestinian people has not changed since Men in the Sun was first published. Growing up in high school, it was required reading to read about the Holocaust and there were fiction books on the Holocaust in our curriculum. Hundreds of Palestinians were captured after being smuggled into Syria, Iraq, or Kuwait, or while trying to enter these territories.

Israel’s smashing of Egypt in the 1956 Sinai war displayed once again the overwhelming military superiority of Zionism and the folly of hoping that any Arab state would liberate Palestine from its Zionist occupiers.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The action in the novella unfolds through a succession of flashbacks that provide background for each character. After he leaves the smuggler’s office, Marwan is approached by Abul Khaizuran, a Palestinian who drove a truck for the British during the 1948 war. It was in Kuwait that the first central committee of Fath (or Fatah, the Movement for the Liberation of Palestine) was formed by Yasir Arafat, Khalid al-Hasan, Khalil al-Wazir, and Salim Za’nun, all of whom were residing in Kuwait at the time.

He left his wife and four children to marry a one-legged woman who owns a three-room house, hoping to gain some financial security by renting out two of the three rooms. After he rushes back to the truck and drives away from the post into Kuwait, Abul Khaizuran discovers that all three men in the tank have died from the extreme desert heat. As someone who works with trauma survivors, I am often confronted with the unbearably sad, but I simply was not prepared for the different ways in which this book would affect me. After just a few minutes of scalding heat the three Palestinians are so weak and exhausted they can barely climb out again.One is obsessed by the notion that Khaizuran has a woman in Basra and wants confirmation of his erotic fantasy. On July 20, 1951, a Palestinian in East Jerusalem assassinated Abdullah as he was entering the Mosque of Omar for the Friday prayer. Though a translated work, Kanafani’s profound, symbolic prose and creative use of literary devices made each story a captivating read.