Home Is Not A Country By Safia Elhillo

As humans, we often grapple with the question of whether we should strive to become the person we desire or our truthful selves. In “Home Is Not a Country '' by Safia Elhillo, a first-generation immigrant teenager called Nima, lives in America but desires to live in her dreams of her homeland that she’s never really known. From the beginning, Nima has felt a deep sense of disconnection from identity, language, and herself, the idea of her identity building up many doubts from her. She feels torn between assimilating into American culture and her Sudanese heritage, questioning everything about the homeland, therefore she travels through the past. Through the use of symbolism and imagery, Nima gradually gains a deeper understanding of herself

Although Nima feels furious at four boys making a joke about her father, Haitham always views Nima as a lucky, curious, and funny person. Haitham is wounded and attacked by someone and therefore, he stays in a coma in hospital. Without Haitham’s accompany with her in school, she often misses and cares about Haitham, she is rejected that she didn’t apologize to Haitham. When Nima speaks to Haitham in the hospital, she said, “I think I spent a long time hating myself, thinking of myself as not enough, thinking I was loving everyone I loved by wishing a better vision of myself into their lives, one more deserving, more grateful” (Elhillo 202). Haitham symbolizes hope to Nima, a shiny light pulling Nima from the darkness. Nima starts to accept herself, thinking that she had wasted much time on caring for a better vision, but she has noticed a point that a sense of belonging is really important in oneself. In the past, she always wanted to disappear and exchange her life with Yasmeen but the sacrifices from Haitham and her family built a motivation to inspire Nima to keep living on. Through her adventure, not only explores her family’s memory but also learns a life lesson that everyone is unique and should accept everything that they have within themselves. Just like her name, Nima, meaning grateful but “one more deserving, more grateful” promotes the character she will become. Specifically, instead of constantly striving to be the same as others, the most significant change for Nima is accepting who you are and accepting all your