Map Of Home Analysis

Cultural and National identity play a crucial role on our lives everyday. It exercises influences on how we perceive the world around us, on the decisions we make and on how we view ourselves. Culture is a way of life of a group of people, it is the behaviors, beliefs, values, and language that they accept and are passed along by generations. On that note, cultural identity is belonging to a group that shares the same beliefs and religion. Meanwhile, national identity is one’s identity of sense of belonging to one state or one nation. While, national and cultural identity are similar they are also different. National identity usually depends on where you’re from or where you migrated to, while cultural identity has to do with an individual’s …show more content…
Nidali is torn between two identities, her Palestinian and Egyptian identity. Her national identity in the beginning is Kuwaiti she loves the school and the people, when her family have to flee Kuwait she is devastated. However, her time at Egypt forces her to learn about her Egyptian culture. Nidali defines home as wherever she is, especially since she has moved from Kuwait to Egypt and then America. Nidali’s father constantly reminds them of Palestine and makes Nidali draw the flag over and over so she does not forget it. He informs them about their homeland so the news does not brainwash them. Nidali has not been to Palestine but has lived in Egypt and at first hated being there, but enjoyed living with her grandfather. When her family moves to American she becomes fascinated, she mentions, “ When I thought of living in America, I pictured straw yellow hair, surfboards, snow; I saw girls and boys holding hands and breaking up and kissing in public” (p.201). Although Nidali was born in America she does not remember the country, what she knows is what she learns from the media. The culture in the two Arab countries she has lived in differs to the American culture, in the Arab world talking to the opposite sex in public is prohibited while in America it is a normal thing. Nidali adapts easily to American culture and begins to identify as an …show more content…
Soraya is stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers. In her journey through Palestine, Soraya discovers more about her cultural identity and national identity that she has been missing, while living in the States. She identifies herself as Palestinian and tells the soldiers who interrogate her that she is from Palestine. She only mentions that she is from Brooklyn, New York to the Palestinian friends she makes along the way. In the film, we are given a closer look at the everyday harassment and humiliations Palestinians are subjected to, as Soraya and Emad are on the road. Soraya is annoyed with the way her people are treated and how she is not allowed to claim what is hers, so she robs a bank and takes the money that belongs to her grandfather. Soraya, defines home as Palestine, as the house that was once her grandfathers before he was forced to move out by the Israelis’. As an Arab-American, Soraya reminisces memories while in Palestine, her homeland, she refers to it has her home where she originated from. She tries everything she can to travel throughout Palestine without being spotted as a Palestinian and becomes successful until the very end of the film. During her stay in Palestine, she wants to be there as long as she can. However unlike her Emad