Upon Arrival

The poem "Upon Arrival" is written by Tala Abu Rahmeh.
The speaker is someone creatd by Tala Abu Rahmeh that because of some words which the poet used in her poem such as: "I used to say take me home," this sentance show us that Tala Abo Rahmeh doesn't force to leave her mother country (Palestine) so the speaker was forced and she doesn't make the speaker clear if it is a woman or man.

In the first stanza "I don't know any more," the speaker has an enternal coflict, "when if I love it more,over there?" if the speaker love to live there in her/his real country, or "over here" in the new country.

In the second staza... her/his mother always says home is everything, because his/her family in that home, everyone take care about other, they love each other, therefor, they imposed and asked about them to be sure that all they love are OK and in good condition.

In stanza three. The speaker strongly wants to return back to her/his home, because everybody in her/his country can pronounce and spell her/his name easily without any difficulty like the sugar melting, because the name is a part of her/himself or idintity, "when everybody can pronounce my name, roll it off the tongue like suger,"

Home, the fourth verse, the poeter confirms that the speaker has a desire to back to her/his place where she/he feels comfortable, safe and quietism.

In the fifth stanza the speaker hopes to come back to her/his home and be with relatives, even though she/he doesn't like them "I never liked."

In the next stanza the speaker is educated, and she/he has a big responsiblity to back home, because the society needs to the educated people to build thier country by knowledge, and as the poeter said: "if we, the educated, don't come back, who will?"

Finally, Tala Abo Rahmeh tell in her poem about difficulties in home country and she wants to scream why there are so many difficulties in her country, and why she does not feel comfortable over there, people do not have a dignity, also they suffer from checkpoints, moreover they usually fear, so the poeter prefer to stay out without all fears. And the writer is more comfortable in USA.




If Tala Abu Rahmeh were to add lines to the poem at the end, I belive she would say:

The life is hard.
There is nothing like land.
The time will come to back to our land.

HONOR by Elsa Marston

The values which Uncle Nabeel was talking about, religious values. But he was fanatic, he didn't understand the Koran correctly and thinking deeply of it. Also in this story, honor of the girl destroyed honor of the family, because she just talked and smiled with someone. As Uncle Nabeel said," My honor has been stained-dirtieted!" So he wanted to restore family's honor by killing.


Yasmine and her family carrying values , for example having freedom, justice and democracy. They were doing what they want to do without skipping the red line, and questioning them.
So that, they did not accept about what Uncle Nabeel wants to do and his decision about honor killing. Moreover, they wanted help Wafa's family to stop Sawsan's father to make a crime.


The auther absolutely disagree with Uncle Nabeel, first of all, because of the events and characters. No one wants to kill Sawsan, no one wants to be killer. In addition, the end of the story the writer chose Sawsan being saved which sent a message to her cousin Wafa. So the auther was against Uncle Nabeel's ideas.


Honor is one of the core values of Arab culture. In my opinion, kill someone is terrible thing, how it will be kill his daughter for the honor issue. I belive the man is not the GOD, God will punish the guilty.