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In the Country of Men Essay

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In the Country of Men Essay
The novel suggests that the bonds of family are the strongest. Discuss
Hisham Matar’s narrative solely revolves around the perspective of a nine year-old boy Sulieman El Dewani, experiencing first hand an important time of Libya’s history. This crucial time in history was in Gidafi’s oppressive regime in 1979. In the text, In the Country of Men, family bonds within the Libyan society are somewhat the strongest though other relationships between the oppressed citizens of Libya and their totalitarian country and the relationship friends have with each other do prevail to be just as solid. The family bonds within this patriarchy society heavily display a sense of intimate love and compassion for one another. This relationship is deeply showed between Sulieman, the protagonist and narrator of the novel and his distorted mother Najwa el Dewani. Though this family bond is nearly unbreakable, the friendship between Faraj El Dewani, Suliemans father and Ustath Rashid, Faraj’s best friend, also displays a deep sign of utter loyalty and companionship thus making the bond between them one of the strongest in the novel. The bond between the citizens of Libya and their country also seem to be substantial within the novel as not only is their a revolutionary committee enforcing the regime, most of the citizens would never think about rebelling against such a powerful force and disrespecting their country. Further to this, the bonds of family within the novel do prevail to be one of the strongest, though there are other bonds of equal strength.
The family relationship Sulieman and Najwa have in the novel displays strong signs of love and compassion, though is not the only bond that displays such deep roots. The mother and son relationship these characters have bring forward a vital sense of concern and care for one another. Many instances in the novel show that although their relationship is distorted at times, due to Najwa becoming ‘ill’ when her husband goes on his

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