Literary Analysis Of Wild Thorns By Sahar Khalifeh

‘Wild Thorns’ by Sahar Khalifeh is an insightful commentary that brings to life the Palestinian struggle under the Israeli Occupation and embodies this conflict through the different perspectives brought forth by the contrasting characters. We are primarily shown this strife through the eyes of the principal character, the expatriate Usama, as well as the foil character of his cousin, Adil. Khalifeh skillfully uses literary devices such as emotive language, allusions and positive and negative connotations to highlight life under the Occupation. As the audience, these techniques help encourage us to consider the struggle more in depth, and due to the wide variety of characters, invite us to relate to them. Khalifeh first introduces†¦show more content†¦They loosed a dog on him that went for his genitals.† Khalifeh deftly includes this grotesque imagery to open our eyes to the common brutality they now endure in Palestine under the Israeli’s and make us aware of the barbarity of the situation. It evokes not only a sense of poignancy in us, but outrage as well because his human decency has been violated with such nonchalance. As the audience, we grow to sympathize with the conquered Palestinians and support Usama in his quest to reclaim freedom for Palestine. As Khalifeh predominantly manifests the Palestinian struggle through the main character of Usama, it gives the reader a very narrow–minded view of the issues faced in Palestine. Once Usama returns, he is disgusted to find streets filled with complacent Arabs who have accepted the Israeli rule and â€Å"workers who bought things greedily, ate well, dressed well.† ‘Greedy’ is an important and interesting adjective the author uses to describe the people of Palestine, as it carries a very negative connotation that describes the people with a naked and selfish ambition along with a voracious lust for riches and wealth. Through this integration of ‘greedy,’ as the audience we are averse to the Palestinian people and empathize with Usama as he paints himself as the lone hero that will save Palestine. Through this crude description of the Palestinians, we can see that in his eyes, they have traded and