Obliviousness

    It is virtually unbelievable that somebody who “experienced” the loss of Palestine could have been so ignorant of the actual event as Said was. Being unaware of the forced expulsion of a people seems an impossible state to achieve, but thanks to the overprotectiveness of his parents, Said did. In chapter 6 he said he was “scarcely conscious” and essentially an “unknowing witness” of the “scale of dislocation” Palestinian refugees experienced. And I had to ask if this was just another item in a long list of disservices committed by Said’s parents. We’ve seen a lot of questionable parenting out of Said’s guardians, but surprisingly I could not add Said’s obliviousness to that list. 
    As a parent, if I had the wealth and the power to shield my children from the kinds of atrocities committed in partition then I certainly would bring my full influence to bear. So though we may find fault with much of Said’s upbringing, I cannot see how he would have benefited from being exposed to such tragic events as a child. Had his family openly shared their feelings of dislocation and confusion over the loss of home and culture he likely would not have benefited. Said was a teenager during this time, and already struggling with identity formation (the primary concern of the teenage years). Adding the expulsion of Palestine to the mix could have crippled his efforts, his identity being so much in flux as it already was.
    And Said was not completely oblivious to these events. He saw first hand the suffering of the Palestinian refugees and it obviously made a lasting impression on him. He was a “second hand” witness to these events kept at a distance as he was by his parents, but perhaps this distance was necessary to tell this story. This distance gives him an objectiveness or scholarly perspective on the loss of Palestine. Not caught up in the actual events Said perhaps gained perspective on the situation and was able to focus on what really mattered: the human cost. All he sees is the misery and suffering of a displaced people and he does not get caught up in the political and social machinations that prompted the events.
    Confused by the events of “Out of Place” I attempted to do some research online. Nearly every article I found about Palestine on Wikipedia was qualified with a statement about the questionable objectivity of the entry. None of them mentioned the things Said did: the worry lines in the faces of the refugees, the destitute and begging children, the joblessness, and desperate need for medical care.  So though we do not see the actual event of partition in Said’s memoir as we did in Sidhwa’s first-hand fictional account, having left the hot button political issues out the reader takes Said’s perspective and focuses on what is important — the people.