The Night There By Darwish
In “The Night There” by Mahmoud Darwish, imagery is an important literary device that is used to warn of the implications of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The author wishes to stop the conflict before more harm is done. Imagery also emphasizes the grand severity of death and injury throughout the conflict, and the public’s response to this death on a global scale. Imagery also shows that even in the dark times that come from this conflict, hope and beauty still exist. Even though it may seem that humankind's sense of humanity has been lost, there are still many good people in this world, and in the zone of conflict. The Israel-Palestine conflict has already killed approximately 10,655 people since 2000, when the Second Intifada began. In
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How is it that one human being’s life and death can be summed up into a number- just one of ten thousand? The narrator states, “Men follow the teachings of the sword and spill blood. Let the sand pile up.” The men mentioned are soldiers, and their “teaching of the sword” represent the violence, war, and fighting that surrounds them and makes up their whole global perspective. This narrator barely ever specifically says the words “death,” “dead,” or “kill;” in this phrase killing is seen simply as spilling blood. The narrator, even though he is surrounded to death, is still not accustomed to it, unlike many soldiers and fighters of this war. The sand that piles up in this poem represents the sheer number of dead due to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In a desert, such as the one that surrounds Israel, one individual grain is insignificant, and is only viewed as a part of the whole. In this case, each dead soldier and civilian is represented by a single grain of sand, and all their deaths can be summed up with a number, just like sand grains are summed up as a desert. The stark imagery is a clear representation of the absolute tragedy the war has created. The fighting has caused so much death and destruction that it has become impossible to mourn every life
How is it that one human being’s life and death can be summed up into a number- just one of ten thousand? The narrator states, “Men follow the teachings of the sword and spill blood. Let the sand pile up.” The men mentioned are soldiers, and their “teaching of the sword” represent the violence, war, and fighting that surrounds them and makes up their whole global perspective. This narrator barely ever specifically says the words “death,” “dead,” or “kill;” in this phrase killing is seen simply as spilling blood. The narrator, even though he is surrounded to death, is still not accustomed to it, unlike many soldiers and fighters of this war. The sand that piles up in this poem represents the sheer number of dead due to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In a desert, such as the one that surrounds Israel, one individual grain is insignificant, and is only viewed as a part of the whole. In this case, each dead soldier and civilian is represented by a single grain of sand, and all their deaths can be summed up with a number, just like sand grains are summed up as a desert. The stark imagery is a clear representation of the absolute tragedy the war has created. The fighting has caused so much death and destruction that it has become impossible to mourn every life