Men in the sun by Ning Shi
The Man in the Sun
-discussion over immigration
By Ning Shi
It is another week of journal writing. I already lost the count. But whatsoever, it is a homework and I am in college, so I got to do it. After all the weekly class discussions and writing assignments, I feel like I really have learned something. If we say college is a place where we gain our knowledge and critical thinking skills, then the greater amount information we comprehends, the more well grounded we are. The reason I am taking this class is because I do have a gap on my knowledge about middle east. I was more aware of the situation in the western world and eastern Asia, before I even get to know the culture ,historical background or modern world of middle east; So I thought I need to have a better understanding about the countries and cultures beyond our reach, if we all just think and trap our thoughts in our own little world; Then we just filled ourselves with ignorance, and the main reason America is one of the world leading countries, it is because its willingness to comprehends fresh ideas and constantly change itself to adapt the changes of the world.
Of course, the my discussion today will all link to the immigration and man in the sun topic; this is just a little preface here. The infamous author Ghassan Kanafani, He is a Palestinian speaker and a novelist and this particular novel has been translated into 16 languages which it is pretty well known to the many country ,I assume. He was car- bombed by the Israeli agents. His death was a tragedy ,but left-behind was his master piece “the man in the sun” which still have impacts on the world today.
To me, Palestine was a mystery, before I have the time and effect to study in this class; The cultural disputes, how the Israeli and Palestinian Muslims both believed Jerusalem is their holy city, and the warfare, which Israeli massacre on Palestinians, both come to my views of the middle eastern world.
Back to talk about the content of the book, the main chapters of the book are talking about impoverished and oppressed three men try to get to Kuwait from Palestinian illegally. Those three men all played distinguish role in Palestinian society but their wills and needs represent Palestinian people as a whole. From what I read from the book, their names are Abu Qais, Marwan and Assad. Abu Qais was the oldest man among the three which his own family consist of his wife, one child and one newborn; As the only grown man in the family, he had to carry all the burden on his shoulder. From what I know, most of countries and religious groups in the middle east are male dominant which means men are suppose to support the family financially and women’s job are doing chores and nursing children. Well, this phenomena has not just stick around recently, this is a well spread in the middle east families.
The whole story was a tragedy. The first part of the story went focusing on Abu Quais the oldest character in the book ,which he started to have the flashbacks of his life with his family and then he was pondered about whether he should go to Kuwait or not, because he thought he was going die on the way there. The author used an middle age man to begin the story, nevertheless it toned down the mood of the book quit a bit since all the responsibilities and fears of losing his families in the man’s mind could just made readers associate directly or indirectly with the troubles surround them. His role as man and husband could fit into any normal, lower middle class families which is why his part of story is very crucial to the whole book and the author did a lot of wording and description on him.
On top of Abu, there were Marwan and a sixteen year old boy, Assad. I believe these two people also represent sectors of the Palestinian people. Marwan is a single and physically strong man. He was a sector of single male Palestinian who was trying to earn some fortunes and find hopes in the “land of opportunities”, Kuwait. I mean he was young and in good shape, then, of course, he should try to explore new opportunities instead of starve to death. That is what we called “you either live or die trying”. In the book, the author mentioned that he tried several time to let the smugglers transport him over to Kuwait, but so far they had all abandoned in the desert to be cooked under the burning sun. even though he died in the end of the book, but nevertheless his spirit was courageous, and so did the little dude, Assad. They both were courageous and stubbornly goal orientated.
I guess most of readers were wondering why did the little kid want to go to Kuwait all by himself? It really caught my attention when the book revealed the kid as one of the main characters in the book. Well, after reading that the kid was trying to support his family, his dad disbelieved in Assad’s capability of feeding the whole family better than he could which made him leave his family and try to get to Kuwait to prove to his dad what he can do, but it did not come to a happy ending.
The reason for their death was that they were overheated and dehydrated in the giant water container. It appear to me in the beginning with all the despairs ,devastations with a mixture of internal and external struggle among the character, then, the book just wasn’t going to be a happy ending book,
Even though, many people could argue that they died due to their deserved punishment of the righteous law, but how could the mother nature of survival instinct and the In course behavior be wrong? I think anybody who lives in the live or die situation would do the same thing even today. In fact, smugglings are going on in daily bases. Everyday, thousands and thousands of immigrants try to smuggle across the boarder of United Stated, especially the Hispanic groups on the boarders of Texas, New Mexico, etc. Many have died, and some succeed; probably because they have improved their smuggling techniques over the years, I think.
I am a new immigrant to the land myself. Frankly speaking, I got here the easier way than most of the people who smuggled here, which is pretty luck that I don’t have to either swim across the pacific ocean to get here , climb a mountain or dig some tunnel to get here. I understand very well the people’s mindset about coming into a wealthier country and looking for a better life in which they are all quit logical. I came to united States when I was 14 years old. I was a young teenager who had a little idea about what is going on in life, but one thing I knew in mind was that I was looking for a beautiful dream here. As I grow up, I realize that we all need to turn our fancy dreams into reachable goals.
