Nidali's Life

                                                               Blog#6 




A map of home a novel by  Randa Jarrar is a coming-of-age story of Nidali’s life and struggles with identity, sexuality, and expectations from her family. The novel depicts the struggles of Nidali and her family, exploring the question of what does “home” mean. Nidali’s story starts in Kuwait, then they are force to leave for Egypt after Saddam Hussein invades Iraq, then she comes to America and has to adjust to the American culture quickly. This has a strong impact on what “home” means to Nidali, she has been moving around for most of her life and this makes it hard for her to call one place home. The story follows Nidali’s life from when she was born all the way up to her leaving for college in Boston. Nidali comes from a mixed background; she was born to a Palestinian father and Egyptian mother is a main part of her identity struggle, although both of her parents want what is best for her, they have different expectations, and they show their affection differently. Her father is more demanding and stricter, he has strict rules for her throughout the book. He also has specific expectations for Nidali and her future. Her father is strict throughout the novel and any type of affection towards Nidali. Her mom is more upfront and vocal, she can be described as “feisty.” Nidali starts to discover and experiment with her sexuality throughout the book. When she gets sent away to live with her sick grandparent, being away from her father gives her more freedom to explore her sexuality, she has her first sexual experience. She continues to have sexual experiences under strict rules from her father and finds out she is bisexual; this is also an aspect of identity. This coming-of-age story ends with Nidali leaving for college and beginning a new journey into adulthood. (325 words)

                                         

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"A Woman Is No Man"

Image
  When I first read the title of  Etaf Rum’s debut novel “A Woman Is No Man” I was under the impression that the novel would have themes such as feminism and women empowerment. After reading  Etaf Rum’s book title “A Women Is No Man,” I think the title has a double meaning. The first one being that a woman is literally no man and the second on being about women in the Arab community. Throughout the novel women have no voice and are constantly oppressed by their family, they were being married off young, denied access to education and were not allowed to have a social life. What Etaf Rum is trying to tell through her title of the novel about the situation of Arab women in society is that their live are dominated by men, throughout the book the women were condition to devote their lives to men. They were taught to cook, clean, and have babies (preferably boys) even though they have no control over what child they will have. The women are allowed to even out on their own...
Read more

Arab-American Literature Blog 3

Image
  After reading and hearing a few poems by Suheir Hammad and watching the film Salt by The Sea, Suheir Hammad’s title “Born Black Born Palestinian “is not literal and has deeper meaning that ties into her identity, cultural background and growing up in Brooklyn, New York. Black, in Suheir case, is not based on race but a political position “in relation to a dominant power structure,” growing up in Brooklyn, being heavily influenced by hip hop means she was influenced by Black culture. Hammad is not black, but she was influence by Black people, she can relate to the struggles Black people in America go through. Suheir has many poems that speak on things related to the Black community, one of the poems I read “ Yo Baby Yo ” talks about materialism in the Black community “The sneakers you wearing cost more than the soul you sold to pay for them "This quote could also related to materialism in the country as a whole, but it is about the Black community because she mentions name bra...
Read more