Existentialism within the work of Ghassan Kanafani - Essay Example

Existentialism within the work of Ghassan Kanafani Existentialism is the philosophical movement and its focus is on individual existence, freedom, and choice. It further opines that each person should live the life by creating his or her own values. In existentialism man defines himself and the world from subjective point of view. It is a philosophical and literary movement, which came into existence after World War II. The doctrine of existentialism spread all over Europe and America, apart from having various opinions about the philosophy. In other way it can be said that existentialism is a philosophy, which is associated with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, personal choice and the human responsibility. Existentialism considers human free will Existentialism thinks that human nature is chosen through life choices A person is best when struggling their individual nature, fighting for life Decisions are never taken without stress or consequences There are certain things which are not rational. Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial. Society is unnatural and its traditional religious and secular rules are arbitrary. Worldly desire is futile.(Philosophy All About) In other way it can be said that existentialism is a philosophy, which is associated with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, personal choice and the human responsibility. Existentialism was emerged out of the negative impact of World War II and the Great Depression. The two incidents spread negativism in the world. The spirit of optimism was annihilated by the anarchy and deterioration of the World Wars. It was one of the darkest ages in the history of human being. The world was trying to find way out from this anarchy. This was the reason why the existentialism became popular among post war society. The school of existential philosophers consists of various existentialists with different approaches. Among them are Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an atheist, and Camus an atheist. Among them, Sartre’s philosophy became popular and influenced by many writers all over the world. Ghassan Kanafani a Palestinian writer among them. Introduction to Ghassan Kanafani: Ghassan Kanafani is regarded as the father of Palestinian novel. The novel “Men in Son,” fully represents the Palestinian literature. Kanafani was a multi-skilled person, and this characteristic has distinguished him from the other Palestinian writers. He was a writer, a painter, a spokesman, editor, and even a politician. He was very sensitive about the things happening around him. He could feel the miseries of his country people. The people of his country were suffering from the same anarchy. They had lost the hope for betterment and healthy and comfortable life. Kanafani himself had been the victim of the unrest of his country. The author was one of the victims of Israeli policies of suppressing and killing Palestinian intellectuals, political figures, artists, writers, thinkers. His family was forced to leave their native land, so he went to Lebanon and later on Syria. He was not among those who just sees the situation and involved in debate without taking any actions. On the contrary he devoted himself in finding the causes of miseries of the people. Through his writing he tried to boost the morale of his countrymen and appealed them to live with pride and dignity. He did not want that his people should get mere sympathy from others. On the contrary, he wanted to reveal the things that were happening in his country. He tried to do it with his sophisticated and sensible writing. It depicts the authentically the connection between the Palestinian and their land. The approach and the philosophy, which Kanafani tries to convey from his novels is influenced by the existentialist philosophy of Sartre. The paper aims at finding out the existentialist philosophy of Kanafani with reference to his two popular novels, “Men in the Sun” and “All That is Left to You” The novel “Men in the Sun,” is set majorly in Iraq and it deals with the challenges of migration and human trafficking. He has depicted the picture of the refugees and their sufferings. They are so poor and cannot afford minimum decent life. They even cannot give their children the basic right of education. They were homeless. They themselves are responsible for their condition. In the novel Men in the Sun Kanafani has portrayed three male characters and through them he depicts the trauma of life of the refugees and their struggle for their identity. Their homeland is oppressed by the Israeli war and they are being tormented by poverty and oppression. They want to run away from this poverty and distress and seek a prosperous life and lucrative opportunities in Kuwait. It is the general religious perception that God creates man as well as his destiny. According to Sartre, there is no God but individual creates their identity through their actions. The Palestinian refugees have completely lost the motivation to challenge and fight against their conditions. They had lost their morale and so there was no concrete action from their side to uplift themselves. The upliftment needs some drive, and a fighting spirit and this spirit is followed by Human action. According to Kanafani, no God will come in rescue and rehabilitation of the refugees but they have to do something of their own. Among the three major characters of Men in the Sun, one is Abu Qais who has a wife, a son and a newborn baby. He has a son who is learning in grade school and another baby has just born. It was very difficult for him to protect him and his family from the constant threats from outside. Assad is shown very much self-motivated person. He is the representative of the desperate Palestinian citizens. He is also pushed by the rare opportunities, which are not sufficient for the survival. Assad symbolizes the typical middle age man from Palestine. He several times, tries to escape from the hardship of his mother land but every time he gets failure. He was cheated by the smugglers, who initially promised to transport him to reach Kuwait. But, they leave him in the middle of the burning desert to die. He has a harsh past experiences. He was left alone by the smugglers in the desert and then helped by an Arab couple. So his stand is quite cautious due to his past experiences. His present life is influenced by his hasty actions taken by him in the past. Here again Kanafani has used the Sartre’s philosophy. Assad is responsible for the troubles he had to face in the past as they are the consequences of his foolish actions. Marwan’s condition also is different. Marwan is dreaming of a new life and keeps his mother and sibling happy and comfortable. He also wants to prove himself his ability and show that he could support his family better than his father did. His father has given up family responsibility and left them. His elder brother is also not supporting his mother and his siblings after he gets married. He wants to prove his eligibility and thus establish his own identity. The following quote from the novel expresses the loneliness of human beings. Sartre while describing abandonment and anguish advocates the idea that we are alone and abandoned. “Crowds of people walked past without paying him any attention. Perhaps it was the first time in his life that he had found himself alone and a stranger in a throng of people like this. He wanted to know the reason for that remote sensation that gave him contentment and rest; a sensation like the one he used to have when he had finished watching a film, and felt like life was grand and vast, and that in the future he would be one of those men who spend every hour and day of their lives in exciting fulfillment and variety. But what was the reason for his having such a feeling now, when he had not seen a film like that for a long time, and only a few minutes before the threads of hope that had woven fine dreams in his heart had been broken in the fat man’s shop?”(Kanafani 1991) The problem of migration or Ethnicity is of a particular community, but if we study it from individual point of view, we come to know the intensity of the problem. During the anarchy and calamities, the man as a group is considered. But in that community every human being has his own existence. His struggle though common, is his own individual struggle. All of them are fighting for life of their own will. Everyone is living with their own afflictions. All the three characters are trying to tune their lives with the circumstances by finding way-outs. Everyone is struggling for identity. The country Kuwait is the ultimate destination of Abu, Assad and Marwan. The three characters are the representatives of the homeless people, who are pushed away by Jews from their own land. Society is unnatural. The individual as well as the groups of individual, when act on their own terms and condition can get complete control on the situation. The Jew people are the real enemies of the Palestinians. They are acting with free will. There are no moral values or ethics established by the religions. On the contrary, the migrants, who are conscious about the duties, morals are somewhere suffering. They are constantly living under pressure and stress, and this pressure is pushing them ahead to follow the path full of trouble and adversaries. They want to help their families, their future generation. The future of their next generations depends upon their prosperity. Thus the life of the person is interconnected with his family, his country and his next generation. The trio of the characters are trying to find out their own identity. They are also aware of their responsibilities towards their families and their offspring. Society is unnatural here in the sense that society is not favourable for them to cherish their identity. Their motherland is not assuring them a secure and comfortable life. Their enemies at the same time do not allow them to fulfil their dreams. They are living in a very unnatural situation, where they hardly find any assured path, which will take them towards their survival and cherishment of their identity as human beings. All That’s Let to You is another most successful novel of Kanafani. In an unusual narrative technique, Kanafani has used multiple narrators. Two of them are inanimate, i.e. clock and desert. Hamid, a young protagonist of the story is dreaming of meeting his lost mother. He had been separated from his mother in 1948 when he fled to Gaza and his mother went to West Bank. While searching for his mother, Hamid lost in the desert. Unfortunately he has to disdain his plan as he confronted with the enemies on his journey. Tragically he couldn’t find his mother and eventually he dies. Hamid and his sister Maryam have grown up in Gaza. Both of them lost their father at the very early age of their lives. The separation of Hamid and Maryam with their mother happened when they fled from their home city Jaffa. Maryam marries Zakaria, because she is pregnant and carrying Zakaria’s child. When Hamid comes to know the fact he is very furious on her shameless and treacherous behaviour. Later Hamid has to fight with the actual enemies while Maryam stabs her adulterous and already married lover for deceiving her. Zakaria is forcing her to abort her child. It is the free will of Maryam to marry Zakaria while finding his mother was the will of Hamid. Human nature is majorly influenced by circumstances. In case of Hamid and Maryam their nature and the action is decided by the circumstances. They are the victims of circumstances. In their situation, their life, both of them are trying to find out their own existence. Maryam’s fight for life is different and Hamid is fighting differently, still the common thing is their struggle and hard life. The decision taken by these siblings are under stress. Maryam is forced to marry Zakaria, because she wants to give an identity to her, child who is yet to be born. This stress forces her to take her decisions. Hamid on the other hand, has an object to find out his mother. Though the family is separated from each other, everyone is fighting for something; everyone is trying to help their loved ones. Hamid wants to be with his lost mother whereas Maryam is trying to fight for her child. According to Sartre, existentialism can be defined as the “Existence precedes Essence.” Sartre further says, “Existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him.” (Sartre 2012) Sartre’s existentialism reflects in the characters of the book “All That’s Left For You.” Hamid, the protagonist, chooses his own way of travelling through deserts and taking a great risk. The desert as a narrator is neutral and just narrating what is happening with Hamid. But it is Hamid’s own will what to be done and where to go. Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial according to the existentialism. Here in this story, Hamid thinks that it is his responsibility to perform his duty as a brother. He is not happy with his sister’s act of adultery and her marriage to Zakaria. Still he values her emotions and rather her condition in which her and her baby’s status is at stake. He leaves his sister to live her life on her own terms and conditions and on her own will. His duty as a son is also very crucial for him. His ultimate aim now is to find out his lost mother. Hence soon after the marriage of his sister, he set out for the perilous and unpredictable journey where chances of his survival are very less. On surface level we may say that Hamid let her sister live on her own will. It is an individualistic approach. Somewhere deeply if we think, we realize that Hamid is selfish person. He let her sister go into the tragic phase. His selfish behaviour resulted into his self-destruction. “The novel condemns the course of action, which aims at personal salvation, by escape, on the individual level. It likewise condemns submission and surrender to the occupiers and lack of resistance.”(Sakkut 2001) Maryam is also very much hasty in giving up herself completely to a person whom she does not know anything. The individualism is reflected in her action, but it is not in a positive manner. She just thinks about herself and this selfishness again led her to bring tragedy in her life. She stags the person after realizing his married status and his betray. Here again we can say that selfishness leads to self-destruction. It is actually an allegory in which Hamid and Maryam are the symbols of the general psyche of Palestinians to surrender themselves and, to run away from reality to find for the dreams. Fulfilment of Dream is the ultimate objective of the characters. The references of Sartre’s philosophy in Kanafani’s novels are as follows: Existence precedes essence: Abu, Assad and Marwan in Men in the Son and Maryam and Hamid in All That’s Left to you are the characters, who are trying to establish their own identity through their actions. They decide their own destiny through the decisions they have taken in their lives. Complete Freedom: Neither of these characters is forced by God to choose their path in the life. They are living a free life. Abu, Assad, and Marwan of course are the victims of the circumstances. Yet the path they have chosen is their own decision. They have decided to go to Kuwait for prosperity. If there is no God, no rules are there and no ultimate values. The values of patriotism are useless here because the major problem is of survival and overcoming the miseries of life. Maryam and Zakaria also are showing the same principles. They are completely free and so Maryam even denies all the conventional protocols of morality and she carries Zakaria’s baby in her womb without marriage. It is a challenge to the matrimonial system which claims to be based on morality. Complete Responsibility: Man is the whole and sole responsible person for his condition. Rather Sartre opines that no divine power interferes in your life. So human being has to hold the responsibility of whatever is happening in his life. Hamid might know that he is embracing a great risk by travelling through the desert. There are natural as well as manmade risks sowing at every step of his journey. Still he follows the path of destruction. The path obviously leads him to his death. Abandonment and Anguish: Being individual, no one cares about your anguish, neither animate nor inanimate things. The sufferings of the characters of these books are their own and no one can understand the intensity. The trio of the characters in Men in the Sun have their own anguish coming from their family and financial constrains. The loneliness and abandonment is stated in the narration of the desert as follows: “He stood there thinking. His constant movement had warmed his body against the cold wind that cut at him from all directions. Suddenly he spat. I was unconcerned; the depth of his feelings was no business of mine. My concern is with the direction, and he’d taken the wrong one, to his great disadvantage. Yet he still seemed to be enraged by something that had no connection with me or with his standing there half an hour’s distance from the right road.” (Kanafani 2004) Almost all the key points of Sartre’s existentialism have been covered by Kanafani in the two novels. As mentioned above various approaches were developed within the philosophy of existentialism. Among them was the approach propounded by Albert Camus. The existentialism of Camus is a topic of debate. Some people do not agree with the view that Camus was an existentialist. Rather it is the opinion of many scholars that he was an absurdist. Even Camus does not think himself as an existentialist. “No. I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked. We have even thought of publishing a short statement in which the undersigned declare that they have nothing in common with each other and refuse to be held responsible for the debts they might respectively incur. It’s a joke actually. Sartre and I published out books without exception before we had ever met.” (Abert Camus 1970) Though Camus is not an existentialist, his novel “The Stranger” is regarded as an example of existentialism. But, if we put a lot of thought, we realize that it is not existentialism but absurdism. It is because absurdism is very close to existentialism or nihilism. According to absurdist philosophy the world is nonsensical, i.e. absurd. Everything is meaningless. There is no logic, no rationale. Rather the human civilization, from its emergence has been doing some or other nonsensical things. The novel stranger ends with the same note that you can never find meaning in the world. The philosophy of absurdism is associated with the attitude “why should I care?” From that point of view, Camus’s absurdism in the novel “The Stranger” is completely different, rather contradictory from Sartre’s existentialism. Kanafani’s characters are trying to find out the meaning of their lives. They are seeking happiness and prosperity in their life. They are very much optimistic about their future. Rather this optimism led them to take any kind of risk and compromise for attaining their goals. They are attached to their family members and this attachment is the main reason of their continuous struggle. It may seem that they are irrational as they are embracing several perils to cross the border of their motherland. For that they took many irrational steps. Assad’s experience is enough to tell us about the irrational step he had taken in the past. But in case of Camus’s anti hero Meursault everything is irrational. The hero of the novel Meursault is an emotionless absurd man. Even after the death of his mother he does not show any emotion. Rather there is an extreme irrationalism which has come out of extreme pessimism and cynicism. Life is futile and meaningless for Camus’s hero, Meursault. It has been expressed through his various absurd actions. He is living his life as a stranger in the world, and whenever he comes in contact with the people he reacts absurdly and looks at the world with lot of cynicism. As compare to Camus’s philosophy, Kanafani seems much sensible. Despite the adversaries of life, he is still sensible and tries to find out the meaning of life, struggling in the life. So Kanafani as a philosopher is much like Jean Paul Sartre. But somewhere Sartre’s philosophy is reflected in Camus. The following quote expresses the randomness of existence. “I’d pass my life in a certain way, and I might have passed it in a different way. If I’d felt like it. I’d acted thus, and I hadn’t acted otherwise...... and what did that mean?.........Nothing, nothing had the least importance.......from the horizon of my future a sort of slow, persistent breeze and had been blowing towards me, all my life long, from the years that were to come (Camus (The Outsiders, p.118) Like Kanafani, some other philosophers and writers also advocated the existentialism of Sartre in their novels. Among them was William Faulkner, an American writer. The character sketch of Faulkner in his short stories for examples resembles the style of characterization as seen in the work of Kanafani. For example his characters in the short stores “A Rose For Emily” and “Barn Burning,” are constantly involved in psychological struggle till their fathers are alive. After the death of both of their fathers, they enjoy the independence in real sense and start lives their lives on their own terms and conditions. Like Kanafani, Faulkner is also of the same idea that the past ideals are the major obstacles in the smooth life of human beings. The character of Emily resembles with the character of Maryam from All That’s Left To You. The theme of mind is dependent is seen in the initial actions of Emily and Maryam. Emily’s mind initially is not ready to let go her father’s and lover’s death. Here she is stuck into the dependence of her mind. But when, she takes a decision to kill her lover, Homer, she is free from the bondage. It is her decision taken by her free will. Maryam’s case is also not very much different. When she marries Zakaria, she is psychologically dependent on her lover. Her mind is also involved in her brother. This supports the theme of mind as a psychological dependence. Later on when she stabs her husband Zakaria, she does it solely by her own will. Hamid’s decision of traversing the huge desert is based on his free will. Conclusion: The period after the World War II was a transition phase. This phase was such a difficult phase for the whole world. It was still trying to get out of the trauma caused by World War. On this background, the existential philosophy was the temporary answer for the people. It was the logical solution to the people who were still stuck in religious barriers. These barriers were responsible for the economic, political, social and cultural degradation of the people. By advocating and popularizing the principles of existentialism, the philosophers helped the people to change the existing situation on their own power. They wanted to suggest that no divine power, but it will be you, who are going to change the condition and make it suitable for your life. Human being is the responsible and eligible to overcome the adversaries of life. Thinkers and philosophers like Jean Paul Sartre first propounded it and later on it is popularized by writers through their literary work. Jean Paul Sartre was an atheist existentialist. Somewhere he seems to have the extreme atheism and he has given complete responsibility on the shoulders of man. It is always not possible. Man sometimes loses control on the circumstances. Even if so, his existential philosophy which was adopted by Kanafani in his literary work undoubtedly very crucial in boosting the morale of the Palestinians who otherwise were being crushed under the sordidness of the Jews. Sources: 1. Kanafani Ghassan “Men In The Son and other Palestinian Stories” American University in Cairo Press, 1991) p.23 2. Kanafani Ghassan “All That’s Left to You: A Novella and Short Stories (Interlink Books: 2004) p. 12 3. http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm 4. From an interview with Jeanine Delpech, in Les Nouvelles Litteraires (1945) cited in Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays, Vintage (1970) 5. Sartre Jean Paul “Existentialism and Human Emotions,” (Open Road Media Publishers: 2012) 6. Sakkut Hamid “The Arabic Novel: Bibliography and Critical Introduction, 1865 – 1995, (American University in Cairo Press 2001) p.80 7. Camus Albert “The Stranger,” (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 08-Aug-2012 ) p.118 Bibliography: Kanafani Ghassan “Men In The Son and other Palestinian Stories” American University in Cairo Press, 1991) p.23 Kanafani Ghassan “All That’s Left to You: A Novella and Short Stories (Interlink Books: 2004) http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm From an interview with Jeanine Delpech, in Les Nouvelles Litteraires (1945) cited in Albert Camus: Lyrical and Critical Essays, Vintage (1970) Sartre Jean Paul “Existentialism and Human Emotions,” (Open Road Media Publishers: 2012) Sakkut Hamid “The Arabic Novel: Bibliography and Critical Introduction, 1865 – 1995, (American University in Cairo Press 2001) Camus Albert “The Stranger,” William Faulkner “A Rose For Emily” Read More