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A Symbol Of Palestine

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Kanafani uses powerful language to describe how each refugee was a symbol of Palestine. He shows Abu Quais’ character and his deep connection to the land. “Abu Quais rested on the damp ground and the earth began to throb under him and tired heartbeats, which trembled through the grains of sand and penetrated the cells of his body.”[1] He represents that thousand of Palestinians who were born in Palestine and who spent their entire lives taking care of this land. The second refugee Assad is the symbol of desperateness and strength of the Palestinian soul because he lives in a land where he is looked down. The youngest of all three is Marwan who, “wanted to become a doctor. He used to tell his mother that Zakaria would never understand what it meant for someone to get an education because he had left school when he left Palestine.”[2] Marwan is the symbol of the Palestinian children who were stripped of their childhood and education. After the war Palestinians were not granted the right to return and as “the abandoned villages fell into ruin or were bulldozed or settled and as more Jewish immigrants poured into the country and were accommodated in the abandoned Arab homes. The physical possibility of substantial repatriation grew more remote.”[3] The last character and protagonist Abu Khaziaran the smuggler who takes the responsibility to take the three men to Kuwait symbolizes the neighboring Arab States. Although selfish like the Arab states he did risk his life to save the

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