Revise An Essay About “My Enemy My Self”

Surname 2

 

Name: KAI ZHANG

Course: ENG 101

Date: 03/02/2016

“My Enemy, My Self”, is one of those books that have been written, originally in Hebrew, to depict the exclusion, based on racial lines, that takes place between Israelis and Palestinians, particularly in West Bank. It is a story of Fathi, who adopts the role of an Arab that seeks work in an unfriendly territory, where he is treated as if he does not even exist. This same them is evident in “Even the Rain”, a film that demonstrates how the Bolivian state excludes its own people from policymaking by privatizing water, hence the title, meaning that it is almost illegal even to catch rainwater. In both pieces of literature, there is evidence of people being excluded in their own motherland to the extent that they are treated as if they do not exist. This essay comparatively discusses the theme of exclusion in “My Enemy, My Self” and “Even the Rain”.

When Binur seeks to demonstrate exclusion in his book, he presents a number of anecdotes, the diction of which becomes excellent in the delivery of this theme. One day when he is carrying out one of his tasks, washing dishes in the kitchen, a Jewish employee of the restaurant in which he works brings into the kitchen her Jewish boyfriend. They freely make love in the kitchen and, as he describes, the “I lowered my eyes and concentrated on washing the dirty dishes in the sink, carefully going over each place, so I wouldn’t embarrass them with my presence” (Binur 70). They would not mind doing such an act in the presence of the “Arab” dishwasher. He adds that “for them I simply didn’t exist (page 70).”

In “Even the Rain”, Costa chooses to make a film about Christopher Columbus and decides to make it in Bolivia because it has a large indigenous population and it is much cheaper to make films in there. His endeavor meets protests against the privatization of water, peasants and workers involves ion constant clashes with the authorities under Sebastian. While Sebastian remains sympathetic of the locals, he needs to cut the costs of production, but this he does at the expense of the Indian population because he sells their water to the West – he excludes the extras, which he is even heard on the telephone boasting of paying as little ad 2 dollars a day (Bollaín).

Looking at these two settings, both victims are excluded from important aspects of life within their motherlands. They are experiencing intense levels of exclusion, but some do not have much of a choice besides the protests in “Even the Rain”. For instance, Fathi cannot even steal a peep when it happens in the kitchen while the extras are notably happy about being paid 2 dollars a day. In this regard, in both “My Enemy, My Self” and “Even the Rain”, the theme of exclusion on one’s own motherlands is evident.

The difficulty that Yoram encounters is accepting to come to terms with the reality that many Israelites hate Palestine even without justification for their cause of hate. He highlights this experience by lamenting, “For them I simply didn’t exist. I was invisible, a nonentity!” (Binur 70).When disguised as Palestine, the quote expresses Yoram’s annoyance with the classification of Palestine as second-class citizens. The emotional feeling of being considered an outcast force him to devise ways of forging unity amidst the communities by dating a Jew. However, he does not succeed since there is the deterioration of interpersonal relationship amid the cultures due to the occupation of Palestine territories. Because of the frustrations, he opts to live a double life as an Israeli reporter sympathetic towards the Palestine, which makes the situation more complicated. The title “My self my enemy” affirms the position. He struggles to fit in a society where he feels neglected as a foreigner, yet he is of the same origin as his oppressors.

The lessons about human beings through Yoram’s experience is the many people are subjective in nature, and only condones atrocities that affect their loved ones but in a scenario where the party affected in not related to the incidents, the issue is insignificant. The quote “to complete the image, I left my face unshaven and brought along my worn and trusty red keffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress” affirms that human beings are discriminatory (Binur 15). Therefore, to fit in a different setting, one has to alter his image since people treat each other with contempt. Another lesson is that Jews, just like the rest of humanity show less concern for the plight of their adversaries. Additionally, human beings like generalizing as the case of Israelis classifying all Palestine as a second class even Yoram who is not a Palestine. The quote also affirms the notion that progress is only attainable in the region if the Israeli exit from Palestine territories.

This analysis has been focused on the analysis of the exclusion theme. It is evident in both pieces of literature as the extras are exploited in relation to their labor and Fathi, the Arab dishwasher, receives no respect, where even the couple in the kitchen makes love in his presence as if he does not exist. The two pieces demonstrate exclusion in different settings but similar contexts.

 

References

Binur, Yoram. My enemy, my self. London: Penguin Books, 1990.

Even the Rain . Dir. Icíar Bollaín. 2010.

Binur, Yoram. My Enemy, My Self. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books, 1990. Print.