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The Locust And The Bird My Mother's Story Analysis

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All about perspective

It’s all about perspective. Each one has his own point of view on life, either according to one’s culture, traditions or even political opinions. Along with these perspectives, comes the recognition of different identities. Actually, the diversity of the Arab’s identity will be shown according to how others perceive them (using “Jackals and Arabs”), how they perceive themselves (using Hanan El-Sheikh’s novel: “The Locust and The Bird: My Mother’s Story”), and finally how I perceive them according to what I read in Tayeb Salih’s novel: “Season of Migration to the North”.

To begin with, how others perceive the Arabs is a tricky viewpoint to tackle, since it’s not at all objective, and would be influenced by many religious …show more content…

Through Hanan El-Sheikh’s novel, “The Locust and The Bird: My Mother’s story”, much of the Arab’s identity, revealing the family values cherished as well as the feeling of oppression, is exposed. The first and most important rule noted in her writing is that “Family always comes first”. Hanan El-Sheikh expressed: “Here I was, alone in Beirut, while my seven children continued their lives abroad…” (El-Sheikh, 2009, p.1). Through this quote, it’s clear that Hanan feels lonely and empty without her children, when she should be happy that she’s back in her homeland. Actually, the repetition of the word “Exile” throughout the text shows how remorseful and angry the war has made her. Moreover, she feels betrayal by the politicians who were supposed to protect her: “The people who finally ended it were the same who started it”, and depression while staring at the suitcases, awakening a sense of diaspora in her (El-Sheikh, 2009, p.1). She was starting to feel as if her Arab identity was slipping away from her. Victimized by war, Hanan no longer longs to stay in Beirut, since her homeland became a kind of distress for her. However, even if the sense of exile and oppression is shown very clearly in the novel, some of her traditions were also noted. First, must be the reference to what made her a happy and proud Arab/Lebanese woman, like the superstitious …show more content…

Clearly, the religious aspect, in their lives in the village, makes up an important part of their identities. Actually, lots of references of their religion, Islam, are noted throughout the novel; every few pages or so The Koran or the act of prayer is mentioned: “My father, having finished his prayers and recitations from the Koran…” (Salih, 1969, p.2). Also, they use prayer times as a reference for their daily schedule. They even interfere religion in most of their social matters; for example the narrator was asked about the European women and their culture: “They say that the women are unveiled and dance openly with men…”, Wad Rayes also posed a question implying that foreigners are sinners: “That they don’t marry but a man lives with a woman in sin?” (Salih, 1969, p.3). All this shows, how important religion is in their lives. However, a contradiction does appear between religion and sexuality. For example, many inappropriate sexual references were made concerning the women and their treatment as pure sex preys. Actually, while sitting with his neighbors, Wad Rayes confessed of his will to marry so that he can enjoy sexual pleasures once more: “In any case, there’s no pleasure like that of fornication” (Salih, 1969, p.78). Thus, sexuality does appear in an awful number of times; let alone Mustafa Saeed’s sexual

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