Research Paper on:
Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Israeli-occupied West Bank, "Wild Thorns," is perhaps more topical today than when it was first published in Arabic in 1976. Khalifeh herself was born during the British mandate of Palestine  in 1941 and currently lives in the city of Nablus, the site of so much current dissension, where she continues to write and runs the Womens Affairs Centre. Wild  Thorns was Khalifehs third novel and offers some startling and unsentimental portrayals of everyday life under occupation. The unspoken feelings of the characters in her novel are clearly being spoken  now but they seem to be no better understood than they were 25 years ago. What the writer makes clear throughout the book is what readers in 2002 read  and hear on the news on a daily basis -- that it is impossible to lead a normal life in the occupied region. Social, personal, and economic relationships, as well  as even the most simple realities of survival such as food, water, shelter, and medical care are all compromised because of the occupation. What the novel emphasizes is that for  the characters whose lives it portrays, there is no other choice then to become radicalized if they want to survive. As is true in the modern non-fictional Palestinian reality, survival  as individuals and as a culture is the primary goal of Khalifehs fictionalized characters. Decisions and Dilemmas of Survival Khalifeh makes it clear in Wild Thorns that there is no  single response (at least in 1976) by Palestinians to the Israeli occupation. There are those who simply do what they must to survive while others feel it is both their  obligation and their destiny to take direct and deadly action. Each of the characters Khalifeh creates serves as a reflection of such a range of feelings and attitudes experienced by