Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 37)
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- Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 37)
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He tried to resist the cruel feeling which that tear injected into his veins. .[But]
his soul’s ear couldn’t help responding to the good call from the wide eyes.
Thus at a much deeper level than that of «doing things» (where
personal strength and social power are crucial), the powerful
though subtle influence of the female can mock, dwarf and
even reverse the realities which the male has created through the
exercise of his self — assigned and society — endorsed right to
have the upper hand. The hero’s pulling his wife by the hand —
a physical action with social implications — is mocked, and its
ultimate effect is reversed, by his failure to resist her moral
influence on him. Very few writers, perhaps, have ever used
juxtaposition so effectively and so beautifully.
Similarly, in «The Land..», the women’s place in the truck
(sitting behind amongst the luggage) is juxtaposed by the man’s
(in front, beside the driver). This is an epitome of the
traditional leader —follower relationship between man and
woman at the phenomenal level. Evidently, the man thinks it
his right to lead, and the woman thinks it her duty to follow;.
and all goes well. Then we read:
[The women] bought the oranges and brought them up to the back of the
truck, where they had been sitting amongst the luggage. Then your father,’
who was sitting in front beside the driver, came down and raised his hand to
the women for an orange. Having got one, he looked at it in silence, and then
burst into tears like a helpless, miserable child.
Thus the hero of social reality at a phenomenal level — the
leader in a battle «full of sound and fury» but more often than
not «signifying nothing» — when confronting an experience
pertaining to a more intrinsic level of social reality, an
experience signifying everything, such as the moral experience
described above, suddenly gives up his «right» to lead, to have
the upper hand. And in this quotation at least, he literally has
the Jower hand, not only abandoning his front seat and raising
his hand to the woman, but also forgetting that a man
(according to the «male code» of the battle referred to above)
ought not to cry «like a helpless, miserable child.»
In doing so, Kanafani does not exaggerate; he does not
violate the rules of the game as it goes on in real life. Rather,
through his skillful use of the juxtaposition technique, he
highlights a fundamental, though as yet unexplored side of the
game itself.
Sense of responsibility
Weare fully aware of the fact that our argument concerning
the female’s powerful moral capacity may raise many questions
that we perhaps have not answered, though we believe that the
examples we have examined testify to the presence of this
capacity in the works at hand, and demonstrate the mechanism
whereby it exerts itself. We are equally aware, however, that a
further analysis of the matter might prove too «philosophical»
for a literary essay, and lead the argument into fields of inquiry
that have very little to do with Kanafani and his works. Yet
there is one question which we feel we cannot possibly escape:
What is the source of the peculiar moral force whose presence
and power we have so far examined? What is the cause of the
curious phenomenon whose effect we have traced in three of
Kanafani’s short stories? The attempt to answer this question
might also shed light on some of the points we have so far
overlooked.
It has been seen that in all the stories the females
demonstrate a higher degree of responsibility than the males. In
«Till...», for example, the woman’s sense of responsibility
assumes heroic proportions, motivating her to cling to her land
and defend it to the last drop of her blood. Her husband’s
subsequent flow of courage and responsibility cannot be
underestimated, but let us not forget that it is subsequent to
hers; that it is she who awakens his slumbering sense of
responsibility when he intends to give up his land to the Zionist
Democratic Palestine, August 1991
terrorists. Similarly, the hero of «A Letter...» demonstrates a
great level of responsibility; but here, too, the heroine’s
sacrifice, great in its own right, is also the spark that inflames
his conscience.
As a major moral force, responsibility, like love, must have
an object. Pupils, for example, are the object of a teacher’s
responsibility, and so on. What is the object of the female’s
responsibility in the stories we are examining?
The homeland. In «The Land...» the women’s
extraordinary sensitivity to the oranges is an indisputable
indicator of their responsibility to their homeland, symbolized
by the oranges themselves. Similarly, Nadia’s «sisterless leg» in
«A Letter...» is at once a great example of sacrifice and an
unfailing index to her great sense of responsibility to Gaza,
which is a clear epitome of Palestine:
Nadia lost her leg when she threw herself over her little brothers and sisters
to protect them from the bombs and flames that were devouring their house.
Nadia could have saved herself, could have spared her leg. Why didn’t she?
Because, needless to say, her sense of responsibility was far
greater than her care for her personal safety. Taken literally
and out of context, this quotation shows that her brothers and
sisters are the object of her responsibility; but, symbolically, it
is the homeland. What, it will be asked, is the textual evidence
on which this interpretation is based? The answer to this
question lies in her uncle’s dramatic decision to remain in Gaza
so as to struggle for it «amidst the rubble of the ugly defeat,»
rather than just to look after his dead brother’s family.
As for the woman in «Till...», her sense of responsibility
towards her homeland is the cornerstone of the world Kanafani~
creates in the story. Let us re—read what her husband reads in
her tear as they are leaving their orchard:
What of your /Jand? Hadn’t you better pay back to the earth what you owe it,
even if you have to pay from your blood and flesh? (emphasis added).
The «blood and flesh» in this quotation reminds us of Nadia’s
«sisterless leg.» Both signify the female’s sacrificial attitude to
her world, especially when it is in danger. This is perhaps the
highest level of responsibility that a human being can attain.
In trying to account for the woman’s marked readiness to
sacrifice herself for her family (as is, to some extent, the case in
«A Letter ...»), and for her homeland (as is certainly the case in
«Till...»), it is perhaps not unreasonable to attribute this
readiness to the Original Responsibility and sacrifice that are
almost inherent in the female condition. By highlighting these
admirable aspects of the woman’s moral role in life, Kanafani
in effect does some justice to this often unacknowledged hero
of humanity .
37 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 45
- تاريخ
- أغسطس ١٩٩١
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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