Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories

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Abul Khaizuran approaches Marwan on the street and offers to smuggle him to Kuwait. He meets with Marwan and Assad and introduces them to Abu Qais. He agrees to smuggle the men for ten dinars each. Abul Khaizuran is an excellent lorry drive who works for Haj Rida. He intends to hide the men in the water tank on the lorry. He eventually persuades the men to agree with his plan. Before reaching the customs station at Safwan, Abul Khaizuran hides the men in the water tank. He hurries through the customs station and releases the men from their temporary prison. During the drive, he remembers and mourns losing his manhood in the war. Men In The Sun has been translated from Arabic to English by Hilary Kilpatric. I am not sure if it can be found in every library, but I was able to find it at American University’s library. The novel also inspired a film named ‘The Dupes’ directed by Tawfiq Saleh.

Ghassan Kanafani was a Palestinian journalist, fiction writer, and a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Kanafani died at the age of 36, assassinated by car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon. Marwan: The youngest character at only 16 years of age. He wishes to pursue his education and become a doctor but must find work in Kuwait to support his family since his father has abandoned them for his new wife and his brother has stopped sending money after getting married. His father, in fact, still cares for his family but adopts a fatalistic attitude to life. He tells his son: ‘Marwan, you know that I have had no choice in the matter. It is something that has been decreed for us since the beginning of creation.’ Abdallah is the name that Jadaan calls all of the civil engineers but specifically the narrator. He is from a different class from the guards. Abdallah hears Mubarak's story about Jadaan and the red-haired woman. He then ignores Mubarak's request to file a complaint against Jadaan. Abdallah approaches Jadaad about gazelle hunting and hears the story of Nar. Jadaanappears in The Falcon None of the four wanted to talk anymore, not only because they were exhausted by their efforts but because each one was swallowed up in his own thoughts. The huge lorry was carrying them along the road, together with their dreams, their families, their hopes and ambitions, their misery and despair, their strength and weakness, their past and fuiture, as if it were pushing against the immense door to a new, unknown destiny, and all eyes were fixed on the door’s surface as though bound to it by invisible threads.

The narrator is Umm Saad's cousin. Umm Saad used to live with him for many years and now visits him every Tuesday. He hears Umm Saad's story about Saad joining the fedayeen. The narrator advises her against visiting Saad at the military camp and points out that asking the commander to protect Saad is not a good idea since Saad wants to go to war, not be protected. Umm Saadappears in Umm Saad Nabil's father looks to release his rage every morning. He is proud that Nabil is a medical student, but he becomes angry when Nabil tells him of his plan to rob a grave. After hearing about the misadventure, he praises God and states that Nabil and Suhail received their due reward from the grave and the dead man. He believes the grave is that of a saint and visits it everyday to pray. Narratorappears in Umm Saad This collection of important stories by novelist, journalist, teacher, and Palestinian activist Ghassan Kanafani includes the stunning novella Men in the Sun (1962), the basis of the The Deceived. Also in the volume are and “The Land of Sad Oranges and ” (1958), and “‘If You Were a Horse…’ and ” (1961), and “A Hand in the Grave and ” (1962), and “The Falcon and ” (1961), and “Letter from Gaza and ” (1956), and an excerpt from Umm Saad (1969). In the unsparing clarity of his writing, Kanafani offers the reader a gritty look at the agonized world of Palestine and the adjoining Middle East.Born in Acre (northern Palestine) in 1936, Ghassan Kanafani was a major spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and founding editor of its weekly magazin Al-Hadaf. His novels, short stories, and plays have been published in sixteen languages. He was killed in a car-bomb explosion in Beirut in 1972. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani – eBook Details Umm Saad lives with her cousin for many years until she moves to the camps. She still visits her cousin every Tuesday. One week, she tells her cousin that Saad, her son, has joined the fedayeen. Umm Saad would follow Saad but she has two other children to take care of. She wonders if she should visit Saad and is disappointed to learn that a mother can be discarded so easily. Umm Saad asks her cousin to tell the commander to keep Saad safe but changes her mind and wants him to tell the commander to let Saad have his way. Umm Saad believes her son should be able to go to war immediately if he wants. Saadappears in Umm Saad Ghassan Kanafani was the spokesperson for the Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine. Kanafani was born in April 1936 in Acre, which is located in northern Palestine. In 1948 his family was displaced by Zionist forces and fled to Damascus, Syria. Kanafani was only twelve when his family was displaced. Growing up, he worked at a printing press, and distributed newspapers. At night, he studied and obtained an intermediate school certificate in 1953, which led him to work as an art teacher in UNRWA schools in Damascus. Three years later he moved to Kuwait where his sister was living to work as a gym and art teacher. In 1960, Kanafani left Kuwait for Beirut where he worked for the magazine al-Hurriyya. Throughout his lifetime, Kanafani has worked for many newspapers including al-Muharrir, al-Anwar, and al-Hadaf, the movement’s magazine.

In this Arab America Article, we look at the amazing work of Ghassan Kanafani’s “Men in the Sun.” Men in the Sun

Nar is Jadaan's falcon. He is the best falcon in the village, and his name means "Fire." One day, Nar circles a gazelle and then perches. He refuses to eat for a week until he dies. Narratorappears in Letter from Gaza

published the novel Men in the Sun (1962). He published extensively on literature and politics, focusing on the the Palestinian liberation movement and the refugee experience, as well as engaging in scholarly literary criticism, publishing several books about post-1948 Palestinian and Israeli literature. Performances of masculinity are central to the plot of Men in the Sun. The older male characters especially exemplify this performance as they belong to the generation that "lost Palestine''. Abu Qais is emasculated by his loss of land and the poverty he and his family endure in a refugee camp. His inability to provide for his family threatens his position as the man of the "household" and drives him to find work in Kuwait despite the risk. This shame captures the breakdown of gender structures in exile. Abul Khaizuran also performs gender as he cannot deny the rumors of his sexual escapade and reveal his impotence. In response to Abu Baqir's demands to hear the story of his encounter with a prostitute, he deflects "if Hajj told you already, why do you want me to tell it again", [4] implicitly confirming the tale. Here, Abul Khaizuran is pulled into a game of performing masculinity while the three men in his tank suffocate. Kanafani, Ghassan (1999). Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories. p.13. Those who have seen the filmed version of the novella, The Deceived (1972) will realize that the plot has been altered, so the three Palestinians who in the book die in silence are shown in the film beating on the walls of their hiding place as they suffocate, to attract the attention of those outside. A film similar to the novella in its denouement would have appeared glaringly incongruous at a time when the resistance movements were established. His wife has lost patience with his dreams of the past and urged him to go off to Kuwait and make some money: Marwan brings Assad to a meeting with Abul Khaizuran, who is waiting with Abu Qais. Abul Khaizuran, a fellow Palestinian, is the dodgy guide who promises to get them to Kuwait. He’s a cynic, telling Marwan that in Kuwait, ‘The first thing you will learn is: money comes first, and then morals.’ In his own pragmatic way he’s a Muslim. He’s also symbolically impotent. What others don’t know is that his genitals were blown off when the Zionists fought the Palestinians in 1948.Men in the Sun ( Arabic: رجال في الشمس, romanized: Rijāl fī al-Shams) is a novel by Palestinian writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani (1936–72), originally published in 1962. [1] Men in the Sun follows three Palestinian refugees seeking to travel from the refugee camps in Iraq, where they cannot find work, to Kuwait where they hope to find work as laborers in the oil boom. Ghassan Fayiz Kanafani was born in Acre in Palestine (then under the British mandate) in 1936. His father was a lawyer, and sent Ghassan to a French missionary school in Jaffa. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Kanafani and his family fled to Lebanon, but soon moved on to Damascus, Syria, to live there as Palestinian refugees. urn:lcp:meninsun00ghas:epub:ce9b3129-502e-4766-85a0-8fa43eabe8f8 Extramarc University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (PZ) Foldoutcount 0 Identifier meninsun00ghas Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t7dr6f719 Invoice 1213 Isbn 089410392X Jadaan is a Bedouin guard at the New Construction Company. He pays others to clean the bathrooms instead of doing it himself, inciting Mubarak's indignation. According to Mubarak, he fell in love with a red-haired woman during a gazelle hunt, but since she would not marry him, he divorced his wife and fled from his village. He goes to the New Construction Company because he wants to sit quietly and die peacefully. Narappears in The Falcon