The Importance of Home: A Reflection on Edward Said’s ‘States’

Category: Experience, Psychology

Last Updated: 30 Mar 2023

Pages: 2 Views: 170

In any part in the world, there is no place to be but home. Home is a place where we feel safe and take refuge. But how we will feel if this is taken from us? The essay by Edward Said, “States,” narrates the story of about his country, Palestine, and the struggle of his countrymen. He also shares the passion of his homeland which we can relate to. “States” exemplify the experiences and perceptions of how important a home is to a common Palestinian. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it.

It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath. It plays a big role to our development, as a child and as a person fully. Home is part of ourselves which became a foundation of we are today. To be away from home makes us feel empty or incomplete in a sense. This is experience by people who are exiled from their own homeland.

Exiles are treated as aliens and feel shame to one’s pride. As Said explains “exile is a series of portraits without names, without context. ” (Said,555). Exile is a miserable thing. Nothing can be so embarrassing than to be taken away from home. It saddens a person to feel a stranger to his own country. One is not only deprived of the social rights but as well as the freedom. As described in the essay of Edward Said an exile is referred as “present absentees” where to their homeland, they are vanished and as for the host country they are viewed as aliens.

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