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Symbolism Of Welcome To Paradise By Aziz

Decent Essays

The book “Welcome to Paradise” illustrates how an migrants feel when coming to a new country-- hopeful for a new life, but with the belief that they are inferior to the natives of that country. When the narrator, Aziz, is preparing to move to Spain, he watches as those around him prepare for the move, and how they begin to adapt in preparation for their new life. He sees Pafadnam, who is described as a giant being to slouch wherever he went “with the air of someone apologizing for existing” (71). Pafadnam's transition highlights the air of inferiority that some migrants take as they go to a new country. Many believe that since they are not natives, then they are inferior and expect to be looked down upon. Aziz sees this and begins to question if being inferior, and invisible, is the only way to survive in a new country. …show more content…

This analogy of a cockroach for migrants shows the migrants and the natives view of migration. The native sees migrants pooling into their country, and may even see them as polluting the country, and since there are so many, they should just be ignored. They are seen simply as a nuisance to be brushed over, as if they were nothing. Migrants can see themselves as cockroaches because they must develop a hard skin to survive all of the discrimination and set back’s they will face. They also recognize that many natives look down on them, and the easiest way to survive is “to be nobody:another shadow…” (72). The use of cockroach shows how immigrants are looked down upon, and seen as just a bug or something that is

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