Map of Home by Randa Jarrar

Introduction

Randa Jarrar is a renowned writer who has written multiple books, she is also a translator and she has also translated most stories. The writer is a Palestinian-American, she has therefore written stories both in Arabic and English. Her stories have won most awards which include the following, the Hopwood award and the Arab American Book Award. Her stories are written in a very unique and distinctive way which makes it easy to catch the attention of the reader. The story Map of Home mainly talks about war and its effects. This has therefore seen the family of Waheed moving from one country to another in pursuit of peace. The story is carefully written and it has different themes which have been clearly spelled out. On the other hand, the plot of the story is very unique thus attracting the attention of the reader. This paper is therefore going to look at different parts of the story in order to get an insight of what the story is really about.

According to my point of view, I think the story has been written in a very skilful way thus making it to be very interesting. The features of style used, themes and the expressions used make it easy for the reader to be able to understand the story clearly (Jarrar, 24). The flow of events in the novel are also remarkable since it follows a specific order. The novel features a variety of themes which make it easy for one to be able to understand the type of life that Waheed and his family were leading. These themes include the following: religion, transition and war which is the main theme in the novel. The events therefore flow according to the order of the themes, at first, Waheed and his family are living in Kuwait and Nidali does not understand who the people of Ibrahim are. This therefore shows that Nidali has little knowledge about her religion. Secondly, Iraq invades Kuwait, this is where the theme of war comes up, and thirdly they are forced to move to Egypt hence the theme of transition.

The features of style used such as the use of local dialect has really helped in depicting the true Arab culture and religion. This consequently shows how Waheed’s family takes the Islamic religion seriously. Furthermore, it has also helped in showing Waheed’s local language. The writer has also used flashbacks which has helped in showing the way the Nidali understood the meaning of war from her grandmother’s stories. Hence it is easy for one to be able to identify the why Nidali understood things differently (Jarrar, 25). Using this style consequently provides a basic idea as to why certain things are occurring and their causes. The setting of the story also takes place in a country which is mainly affected by war, this therefore makes it easy for the author to be able to include the theme of war in the story. The setting is also very significant as it leads to the emergence of other themes and this is the theme of transition which is mainly caused by war. Due to the need of looking for peace, Waheed and his family had to move to Egypt in order to be able to live peacefully. Thus the flow of events in the novel is systematic since one theme leads to the development of another theme.

The main theme in the story is the theme of war, the story revolves around a Kuwait which is a country that was invaded by Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Due to the outbreak of war in Kuwait, this forced Waheed and his family to move to Egypt in pursuit of peace. The outbreak of the war in Kuwait saw most people moving to other countries in order to live peacefully. This therefore saw Waheed, losing his property since he had to live without anything at all. Hence Nidali believed that a home is one’s heart as they had to move from one to another in order to live peacefully and comfortably.  War therefore changed the way Waheed used to live thus her daughter Nidali had to quit school due to migrating from one place to another (Jarrar, 26).

Conclusion

This story is developed in a very clear way such that it is easy for the reader to be able to find it interesting. This is consequently because of the features of style and themes that have been used in the story. The plot of the story is very clear and this consequently makes it easy for the reader to follow up through the story. On the other hand, the themes flow in a very systematic way such that they influence the emergence of another theme. The themes are therefore linked since they depend on each other. Thus the flow of events in the story is easily understandable. Anyone reading this novel will consequently find it interesting since the events have been categorised according to the themes.

Work Cited

Jarrar, Randa. A Map of Home: A Novel. New York: Other Press, 2008. Internet resource.