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#3 Tone: Frustration. And My Favorite Part.
Throughout the book there has
been an unmistakable tone of frustration, especially now that Ghada is older
and wiser. First, Ghada is frustrated that she has to leave her home. Then she
is frustrated that she has to live in England. Then she is frustrated when she
is forced to change schools. Now she is older and is starting to resent the
unfair treatment given to boys in her culture, “Many a girl might grow up
seeing her brothers drinking alcohol, making sexual liaisons and indulging in
behavior which would never be allowed her” (299). She also is starting to have
an interest in boys and is annoyed that her parents were so hushed about the
subject of sex. She believes this made her unexperienced with intimate
relationships involving the opposite gender, “I began to look back with
resentment on the constrained upbringing and inhibited childhood which thus had
disabled me” (305). Near the end of the book when she sees a Holocaust museum
built on confiscated Arab land she laments, “There was a brilliant and
affecting exhibition of tragic European-Jewish history, skilfully interwoven
with the creation of modern Israel; a seemingly logical progression from the
gas chambers to Palestine, no omitting pictures of the Mufti of Jerusalem negotiating
with the Nazis. It was a deliberate statement about the right of world Jewry in
this country” (440). Her transformation from childhood and innocence to
adulthood and maturity only brought her more frustration as she gained more
knowledge about what really happened to the world she had once known. Her frustrated
tone resonated throughout the book, whether she was talking about personal or
political issues. She never directly complained, just stated the truth, wording
it in a way of subtly expressing frustration about the change and challenge she
had to overcome as a Palestinian girl growing up during the creation of Israel.
My
favorite part of the book was when Ghada locked Zoe Steiner in the girls’
bathroom and beat her up. The book had very little action in it, so I always
got excited when Ghada told real stories, it made the book come alive. Zoe
Steiner totally deserved what she got. She was rude, exclusive and just plain
mean. The moment Ghada told us about the book Zoe had written about her I
wanted something bad to happen to Zoe. Zoe had no right to write a book making
fun of an innocent girl and her culture. Of course, Ghada did take it a little
far by saying, “Hitler should have finished the job! He should have killed all
of you!” (289). In her defense, however, the horrible effect of Hitler was not
yet commonly known among people, especially not known to her. I liked this scene
because after being pushed around by her parents, Israelis, teachers, and the
British she finally got a sense of justice by standing up for herself. Zoe was
obnoxious the moment she met Ghada. After being constantly harassed by Zoe and
her little followers Ghada finally got her back by luring her into the bathroom
and beating her up (not to badly, though). Sadly, this was one of the few instances
where Ghada won her fight for justice.
While I agree that the last section of the book have a sense of frustration, I would argue that the tone of Ghada's narration is even more powerful. She is not only frustrated, but rather experiences deep emotions that have overcrowed her life. As she explains about her emotional attachment to the Palistinain activists, "I had latched passionately onto the cause of Palestine as an inspiration, an identity, a reason for living” (399) These feelings are more than just a frustrating series of experiences but are the fabric of who she is. She literatally defines herself through the anger and struggles her people have gone through. Therefore, she must be not only frustrated but angered to the point that she is identifying her life as this fight.
ReplyDeleteI think frustration was one of the main emotions that she was feeling along with depression and hopelessness, and displaying those emotions are the main thing of the third part. Her hopelessness of the Palestinian cause was very evident in the last few journal entries and anger is very prevalent in the first chapters of the third part. I very much liked the third section because displayed a lot of emotions were held away in the earlier part of the book. Also the slapping part is a little "woo hoo" moment for Ghada.
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ReplyDeleteI do believe that there was a sense of frustration in the first half; I also believe it was more liberation, hope and some fear. All though she is definitely struggling, I felt when she was working with the activists she was creative and showed hope. She believed in what she was fighting for, which made it less about frustration to me and more about passion, creativity and rage. She was showing her rage and frustration, and putting it into something bigger and more meaningful.
At the end of the book it became more clear that she was fought out. Though she was now more frustrated, she had done all she could. I saw more frustration in this moment because she couldn't do anything. She was watching her homeland be destroyed and she had to sit. All though before she felt she was a part of saving her people.
To further back up your thesis, I would like to point out the moments of utter, all consuming hopelessness in the third section of the book- Things like this: 'All my devoted activism had apparently counted for nothing.
ReplyDeleteTwo years in the Arab world had not helped me find my roots. Rather I began to fear that I had none to find (420). This hopeless low note in Ghada's narrative makes the redemption in the end all the more sweat; her realization that Palestine persists in its people and its faith.