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The Palestinians Are The Other, By Edward Said

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All throughout time people have been “the other.” Pratt refers to the other as being “Someone who is perceived by the dominant culture as not belonging, as they have been culturally constructed as fundamentally different in some way” (320). In Edward Said’s essay, the Palestinians are the other. In Said’s essay he provides several photographs taken by Jean Mohr, which depict the everyday lives of Palestinians. Said, himself is a Palestinian. In many photographs like the ones on page 13, are known as ‘exiles’ which are a series of portraits without names, without contexts. Images that are largely unexplained, nameless, mute.(12) Said looks at them even though he cannot speak first hand to the actual people who were photographed, except through a European photographer; Said analyzes the photographs. …show more content…

A village of settled nomads near Bersheeba,(13) look very uncomfortable, they have no clue as to why they are being photographed and recorded. The man in the bottom photo doesn’t even look towards the camera, it’s like he’s actually trying not to look directly at the camera/ photographer, possibly he feels intimidated. In the top photo the women remains covered, while the young child looks into the camera with a gaping mouth, he looks scared or possibly just surprised after all I doubt they agreed to be photographed. Said, concludes “There was the embarrassment of people uncertain why they were being looked at and recorded. Powerless to stop it.” (14) I think the people are treated like a new species, being looked at through a microscope in this case a

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