Exile: The Best of Both Worlds

In the reading entitled, Reflections of Exile, written by Edward Said the line which stood out to me the most was, "Exile is sometimes better than staying behind or not getting out: but only sometimes" (Said 178). According to Said, exile is not something to be ashamed of, instead exile gives some of us a second chance, or a new beginning. This made me question what causes an indidvidual to be in exile. In my opinion, the political, social, and economic elements contributes heavily on the alternative of exile. In the reading, we were given many examples of poets, and other distinguished professionals, for example, Rashid Hussain, and Faiz Ahmad Faiz who experienced what is felt like to be exiled to a different land, among different people, and different cultures. But the simplest example involving the Armenian boy strucked me the most. I acknowledged that due to the political, economic, and social distress he and his family endured in his homeland drove them onto the path of exile. Violence plagued the streets, the loss of his maternal grandfather, the lack of money, and living in fear where politically the government was weak, this was the norm.
Above all, exile is as Said described, "It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and his native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted"(Said 173). But I would like to challenge this statement, by saying that for many individuals out there exile is a new start, a clean page to reinvent themselves, or a second chance to get away from all negativity. In addition, everything comes with a price, so the symptom of being home sick, and feeling alienated is just apart of the package. But all's well that ends well, in the end individuals in exile become apart of the society they are placed in, and begin to blend their native land their new homeland into a comfortable mix. For instance, in the Armenian boy's case (Noubar) he began to enjoy his life in Seattle but his ways and thinking was almost 85% Armenian. In any situation you should make the best of it, in his case he enjoyed living in his little Arseanittle world,(Armenia+Seattle= Arseanittle). He had the best of both worlds.

By Cindy Gobin