States

In the essay “States”, Edward Said is trying to make an argument, and he is also trying to explain to the world a great many things. Yet this essay seems to go deeper than that. I believe Said is on a lifelong quest. Said is searching for who he is and the truth behind his past. He is using this pictorial essay to find such a hidden life. I think the pictures are pieces of a puzzle, and to Said they are pieces of his history. It is a history that has long forgotten him. If he finds enough pieces he will be able to build together a whole image of what it means to be a Palestinian. Since Said was exiled from Palestine, this is his way of recreating what his past would have been like. In doing so, he might be able to construct another life and eventually find purpose, and truly understand who he is as a person, as a Palestinian.
Said explains the rights and ways of life of a Palestinian in the first person point of view. However, he has not personally experienced the...