Life and Death in Gaza - Essay Example

Death in Gaza Life in the Gaza strip is relatively harder than anything that I have ever known from the time before the present condition. Life for children and women living in the area is unimaginable. Living on the blink of death and uncertainty, not knowing when one can die, get injured and disabled or even get kidnapped by the Israeli paramilitaries is possibly the hardest life in the world, alongside world hunger. Children like Ahmed, Mohamed and Najla must be living in some of the worst conditions on the planet, yet in some way find solace and happiness in their lives. This is not only healthy, but also highly admirable of them for such courage in such a young age. Arguably, people might assume that Ahmed and Mohamed are just too young to understand what is going on in the area, but this is not the case. For instance, Mohamed says that he wishes to be like his best friend Ahmed, who is so nice to him and everybody, such that he will be nice to everybody in the entire world except for his enemies, the Jews. As such, it is thus arguable that they understand what the people in their area are going through, and they would want to change the world around them. Najla for instance, wants to be a lawyer so that she can help the people in her neighborhood and her family as well. As such, it is evident that she would love to change the world around her too. The lives that these people have undergone are difficult, and comparing oneself to such conditions is unrealistic and inconsiderate. Najla for instance, says that she has lost eight young people from her family. Growing up, all I ever lost was a pet, and my nana, which was too old for her age. Despite that fact that I was able to overcome the grief and found a way out to forget all the loss I had undergone. I lost my pet puppy and my nana in the same month, and that was the hardest month I had to persevere in my entire life. The looking-glass-self socialization model urges one to compare how different people in different social contexts will perceive a certain instance or action in life (Brown 5). In this case, comparing how I saw my life growing up and how people in the Gaza strip would see it is the main approach employed. Losing a pet is not comparable in any way to losing eight family members, and this makes my growing up situation completely different from Najla’s experiences, but the fact that we both had to face grief and understand death at an early age, is a comparable aspect about both our childhoods. Najla also has a different experience from me, in that she finds comfort in the fact that she still has other people who are alive, after losing as many people as she has lost. In fact, she has lost too many people that she loses count of who died first and who died later. Social connections between the named characters and their friends are one of the ways through which they have been able to overcome stress and pain. The aspect of interactions with close friends irrespective of their age, and the aspect of unity between them with other Palestinians and their open opposition to the Jews is also familiar. Compared to my life, in high school, I was not that popular. Unlike most students from my social level, I hated the popular kids so much, and I did not want to be associated with them, that I only wanted to associate with people from my social level. For the role model perspective, Ahmed’s role models are fit for him in the zone he has grown up, but to someone who has lived elsewhere, they are just pure poison for the young mind. In comparison to Ahmed’s perspective, I can also relate this friendship with older people since I grew up with my neighborhood teenagers, as compared to the people close to my age. Regardless, I still had close friends from my age group, with whom I would play with, but having grown up with older siblings, I found myself better at socializing with people older than I was. However, the variance between Ahmed’s life and mine is that the older friends I found myself socializing with, were not militants, and they did mislead me as much as the older friends Ahmed socializes do. Maybe at times they would involve me in a few harmless pranks but nothing was a serious or as critical as is the case in Ahmed’s situation. Ahmed’s best friend Mohamed reminds me of a friend I had back in 4th grade, who was not only a friend, but also more important than my brother was to me. We would do anything together, we would fight bullies together, and we would even create our own games and our own language that was only understood to ourselves Ahmed and Mohamed are best friends, who believe that they are equal in everything and would die for each other any given moment. Unlike them, growing up in a relatively peaceful place molded us into different people. We would not fight and if one of my closest friends would die, I would not opt to die after them but rather I would hope that he did not die or anything related. Life in Gaza strip is not easy in any way, and the fact that these children have been able to find a way to live there, peacefully dwell, and exist in such a community is an impressive fact on its own. Comparing one’s childhood to such conditions is difficult since, it is almost impossible to relate with their daily tussles. Even in such hostile conditions, children and teenagers have found and devised ways to interact socially, to find comfort in a world full of pain and agony. As such, this exercise was not only eye opening but one that has made me understand that life is difficult in many places, but people still establish a way to lead comfortable lives and expand their social horizons. Works Cited Brown, Doug. Looking Glass Self: Hope, Optimism and the Journey Within. California: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Print. Dir: Miller, James. Narration: Saira Shah. Death in Gaza. HBO Films. 2004. Documentary. Read More