Images of palestinians in the work of Naomi Shihab Nye

Abstract EN

Naomi Nye, of the third American generation of Palestinian descent, in her work presents her father, a Palestinian-American immigrant, and her grandmother, a Palestinian woman who lived in the West Bank.

She shows these two individuals as unique yet representative characters at the same time.

From the onset, Nye values the skills and abilities of her bi-cultural father, particularly his verbal dexterity, and his deep commitment to the Palestinian cause as well as his family.

On the other hand, she encounters in her grandmother a Palestinian woman who exhibits both a highly developed spiritual otherworldliness as well as earthy and maternal qualities that are perceived initially as essentially secondary in importance / value to those exhibited by her father.

Over time, however, her perceptions of both of these relatives undergo a dramatic transformation.

While she continues to admire the very positive characteristics of her father, she begins to recognize he is a person oddly lacking in authority in both cultures he inhabits.

In addition, she discovers that her grandmother manages to convey meaning, reveal her identity, and exert authority over her environment through her word-less, largely non-verbal behavior, and emerges as the matriarch of the family.