“The mercy of God be upon you, Ustaz Selim, the mercy of God
be upon you. God was certainly good to you when he made you die one night
before the wretched village fell into the hands of the jews.”
The idea that the condition of the exile is so devoid of
human dignity, that death is deemed a preferable alternative to living, is a
central theme in “Men of the Sun.” The story delves into the lives of four
Palestinian exiles, and their motivations for risking their lives to go to
Kuwait. Though many of these reasons are
disguised as practical and economical, the essence of their courage and
desperation lies in a struggle to recover their dignity. At the root of this loss of self esteem and
self worth, is the failure of the male exile to fulfill the role and responsibilities
ascribed by society to the patriarch.
The economic guise of
their quest to compensate for the loss of their manhood, is a trend seen among
all of the characters. The ambitions that Abu Qais hopes to realize in Kuwait
pertain to sending his son to school and building a little “shack.” Abul
Khaizuran too wants “money, more money.” Similarly Marwan aims to take his
absent fathers place as breadwinner of his family. His father too sets up the false pretense of
his desire for a “concrete” roof to hide that he was actually running away from
the shame of his failures. “He would send every penny he earned to his mother,
and overwhelm her and his brothers and
sisters with gifts till he made the mud hut into a paradise on earth and his
father bite his nails with regret.” This quote depicts his desperation to evade
the failure and shame that befell his father. Thus it can be seen that at the
heart of their desires, is the need to escape the humiliation of their failures
as ‘men’ and recover their dignity. I think that a striking scene in the story
that depicts their struggle with honor and dignity, is Assad’s decision to keep
his shirt on when descending into the perilous scorching tanker. Kanafani
portrays just how cruel the life of an exile is and just how futile any of
their attempts to retain even a semblance of respect are, when he emerges and “he
had taken his shirt off. ”
The void of dignity is present constantly though the story,
while the men are forced to beg and bargain for freedom and redemption,
helpless at the hands of ruthless smugglers and wealthy relatives, being spat on
by officers, slapped and even castrated. The castration that is experienced quite
literally by Abul Khaizuran as “a terrible pain between his thighs” is what
each of the others feel symbolically, the loss of their manhood. Each felt like Khaizuran that “Its better to
be dead” than to live without it. The story leaves their death vague and ambiguous
and the reader is uncertain whether the men tapped and indulged in a final
desperate effort to save their lives, or whether they relinquished their lives
silently. Their silence would depict a literal manifestation of their choice of
death as opposed to returning to their helpless, worthless and humiliating existence,
which they would have risked had anyone other than Khaizuran heard them.
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