Preview

Edward Said

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
317 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Edward Said
In any part in the world, there is no place to be but home. Home is a place where we feel safe and take refuge. But how we will feel if this is taken from us? The essay by Edward Said, “States,” narrates the story of about his country, Palestine, and the struggle of his countrymen. He also shares the passion of his homeland which we can relate to. “States” exemplify the experiences and perceptions of how important a home is to a common Palestinian.
Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath. It plays a big role to our development, as a child and as a person fully. Home is part of ourselves which became a foundation of we are today. To be away from home makes us feel empty or incomplete in a sense. This is experience by people who are exiled from their own homeland. Exiles are treated as aliens and feel shame to one’s pride. As Said explains “exile is a series of portraits without names, without context.” (Said,555). Exile is a miserable thing. Nothing can be so embarrassing than to be taken away from home. It saddens a person to feel a stranger to his own country. One is not only deprived of the social rights but as well as the freedom. As described in the essay of Edward Said an exile is referred as “present absentees” where to their homeland, they are vanished and as for the host country they are viewed as

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Isla Poem Summary

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the phrase, “I understood by the age of twelve what it meant to be unwanted, exiled, how you move from one country to another where nobody wants you, nobody knows you…” (680) (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012), projects a sense of abandonment and rejection. The feeling of being always alone and always the outsider, not familiar with the culture and perhaps the language elicits a sense of compassion and sorrow from the reader.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Gaining a sense of ‘belonging’ is a universal need but an individual quest, which some achieve and some do not”. Discuss this statement in relation to your prescribed text and two other related texts. The texts “Immigrant chronicles” composed by Peter Skrzynecki, the article “Coming Home” By John Van Tiggelan and the 4-framed cartoon “Patriotism” illustrated by Cathy Wilcox, all develop an idea of how belonging is not only a common need but an individual’s mission that may or may not be attained in society. Each text develops understanding for the notions of alienation, nationalistic pride and the concept of ‘home’ through the use of several distinct elements that portray thorough meaning in relation to belonging in Australian society.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Candide Exile Essay

    • 828 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When one is exiled from his or her home, the absence from their native land may change…

    • 828 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Belonging is determined extrinsically as it is gained and lost through the acceptance from others. Individuals can only find a sense of belonging if they have a group to which they can find support or kinship, such as a family. Governments and large groups of people (like communities) can offer a substantial level of belonging. However, as common as it is to belong to a government, country or community, throughout history individuals have also been rejected by them, and forced to be outcast. The concept that government and communities are amongst the greatest sources of belonging AND rejection is explored in the three texts I have chosen, which are, As you like it by Shakespeare, Refugee Blues by W.H. Auden, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s “sorry speech”.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By studying the poetry in ‘Immigrant Chronicle’ by Peter Skrzynecki as well as my related text ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman, it can be seen that although most people wish to feel the experience of belonging, it is not everybody who are willing to make some hard choices to achieve it.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    - This blurs the distinction between one’s place of birth and adopted country and challenges the notion that one’s place of birth is one’s automatic place to…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    edward

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800, and after 1820 membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the late 1840s. It has been described as a reaction against skepticism, deism, and rationalism, although why those forces became pressing enough at the time to spark revivals is not fully understood.[1]…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “I like the way a wise man build a story in an unconventional way.” This quote by Jim McKay is very striking, and if one was to be curious, continue reading. The way which an essay is structured makes a huge deal. In order to keep a reader invested and concentrated on the main point then the structure, or form, must be clear and organized. However, when writing the essay “States”, Edward Said takes a very unconventional approach to writing as he describes his life experiences after being exiled from his country as a Palestinian. His style of writing does not follow a specific pattern, nor does it follow anything that is conventional in a normal essay. Said uses this unique style of writing in hopes to show the characteristics of the life as a Palestinian. However, this style of writing is extremely difficult to follow. The essay jumps from place to place, which makes it hard for the reader to keep track of what is being talked about. Said believes that his use of unconventional writing is necessary in order to establish the “hybrid” style of Palestinian culture. Styles discussed will include things like the use of photos, lack of transitions, multiple genres, lack of and introduction and conclusion, and most importantly, no logical organization. Through the use of unconventional writing characteristics, Said takes the reader on a complicated journey to establish Palestinian “hybrid” way of life.…

    • 1887 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “Toward Something American the Immigrant Soul,” author Peter Marin discusses how immigrants feel coming to live in America. Immigrants coming to a new country, basically a new world to them, feel misplaced. We as Americans see immigrants struggle on an everyday basis, not realizing that we do the same. We are the same, just from different parts of the world. Americans have this sense that people from other countries are not as we are. Immigrants see America has being a free country, a place to become you. “Home” is for us, as it is for all immigrants, something to be regained, created, discovered, or mourned-not where we are in time or space, but where we dream of being.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sundquist, J., & Johansson, S. E. (1996). The influence of exile and repatriation on mental and physical health: A population-based study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 31,21-28.…

    • 3565 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poetry essay

    • 942 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the poem ‘Migrant Hostel’, the concept of belonging correlating to a connection to a place is explored. The poem is set in a Displaced Person’s camp post World War II, in which many different cultures are present, yet each individual seeks out their own unique culture due to a sense of comfort. In the poem, the different migrant groups are referred to as being “like homing pigeons”. This use of this reductive simile suggests that each individual desires a sense of comfort, which is only available through the directing of thoughts towards an appropriate country. This idea is further enhanced through the way these “pigeons” became “birds of passage”. This metaphor highlights how the instinct of the migrant groups have become so corrupt and disorientated that they have become confused and lost. However, the metaphor also suggests that these migrant groups need only to direct their thoughts towards an appropriate country, where…

    • 942 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In his "States" Edward Said writes about the "alienated" Palestinians. This story is an example of Pratt’s definition of a transcultural text. There are so many pieces that can be put together in States to Pratt’s ideas to form the transcultural text. The text from States can be used to help us better understand what a transcultural text is because it has new pieces of information, and it mostly relates to today’s world. I think that if we understand the story “States” as a transcultural text, we will be able to apply that to other stories which makes it easier to understand. Palestinians’ situation can mostly be understood through Pratt’s definition of contact zone. Said goes beyond what Pratt defines as a community. Pratt defines community as strongly utopian, but that is not what Said sees. The Palestinians do not have a “strongly utopian” community. And also, Pratt defines the marginal group and dominant group which I applied to “States.” Palestinians are in the marginal group because they are getting represented by Said who is in the dominant group. Mary Pratt would consider “States” a transcultural…

    • 1695 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Belonging

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As human we all desire the constant necessity to belong; to family, cultural and social groups and to places - in particular our homeland. This essential instinct humans hold to belong allows meaningful and enriching connections and relationships to form with others and the wider world. Hence an individuals sense of belonging is significantly determined by external forces and a disconnection to family, communities and one’s homeland gravely impacts an individual’s sense of unity with the world and their role within society. Immigrant Chronicle…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The various texts explore the difficulties and inadequent benefits of belonging. The poems “Migrant Hostel” and “St Patrick's College” by Peter Skrzynecki and the related texts The Ride of Zhu Bao Sheng a short story by Nick Long and the novel Stolen by Lucy Christopher effectively portray that being alienated can be the catalyst for a true sense of not belonging. A sense of not belonging can emerge from the dislocation and displacement made with people, places and the larger world this is shown through different narrative feautures and various language techniques.…

    • 1165 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edward W Said

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Edward W. Said was born in Palestine. He was educated in Palestine and Egypt. He later migrated to America. For the first time, it was Edward Said who challenged the established theory of the western orientalists. He brought together overwhelming material evidence to expose the dominant European imperialistic point of view, in his path - breaking book ‘Orientalism’. In that book, Said exposes the hidden agenda of imperialism to cultivate and keep orientalism to sustain Western hegemony over the orient.…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays