Sunday, 2 March 2014

(Failure of) Fatherhood in "Men in the Sun"

While a lot of colonial discourse so far studied contained overbearing undertones and associations of the Land as a Mother(land), a dominant theme in this 'postcolonial' text is on fatherhood, its failure and weakness. The colonial texts with their resonance with nationalistic struggle and a resistance to foreign presence attribute a maternal identity to the Land; what can be seen in a text like "Men in the Sun" is the representation of fatherhood as a source of shelter, and stability and the failure of that for the exilic figure comes through the failure of fatherhood itself.
In the movie, a few depictions of paternalistic moments stand out. When Saad, the friend, is urging Abu Qais and his wife to move to Kuwait, Abu Qais is shown as holding the baby and engaging with it, while it was not the case in the story. It is fatherhood itself, or at least the yearning to fulfill the role, which dictates Abu Qais' movement from his land to Kuwait. His own home and shelter are mirrored in his twelve trees he is reluctant to leave behind. Its Abu Qais' search for fatherhood almost in that journey that leads to his demise as a father.
Marwan's relationship with his father is an obvious pointer to the theme. His father abandons his mother and family when Zakariya ceases to support the family. This way Marwan never had a stable father figure to begin with. After his father leaves, it is up to Marwan to don the cloak of fatherhood, and he eventually fails in his struggle as well. Hence, the exilic figure never knows a consistent relationship with fatherhood. In a way, Marwan's father himself is looking for security and sustenance via his marriage with Shafiqa, both things fatherhood claims to provide. Marwan finds in Abu Qais a paternalistic figure, a relationship very aptly rendered in the movie. During the journey, the two males are shown supporting and resting on each other in a symbiotic manner. Though like the state of exile itself, this is not the organic and real relationship of a father and son; that cannot be substituted.

 Assad also has a troublesome relationship with the father figure. His father dies, binding Assad into a union he hates. Abu Khuzairan is impotent having lost his manhood during a nationalistic struggle. His failure stems not just from his inability to ever assume the role of a father, but also from failing those men whose lives he had taken on, much like a father. His sterility connects with the Land itself, barren and empty instead of regenerative and life-giving. 

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