Abstract

This study investigates the women’s image representing a factual sample of the Palestinian peasants before 1967. The depiction of women in the novel varies between: a wise and conscious grandmother, a defeated suicide mother, a daughter surrendered to her fate, a refugee adapted to her harsh life, and a displaced woman who is a resistance project. The female characters in the novel are divided into stereotypical and static women like grandmother, mother, wife, and refugee, and dynamic women represented by the (displaced) character. Also, the study reflects the life aftermath the 1948 Exodus and the 1967 Six-Day war, conceptualizing the conditions of the Palestinian peasant living in refugees’ and displaced camps and her attempts to get involved in and adapt to the new societal lifestyle then. Al-Issa does not emulate the feminine personality in his novel as well as he does not reveal for the public readers the woman’s hidden realms and her suppressed emotions. Al-Issa, thus, describes only her behaviour, sayings, and feelings on the spot, employing both description measures: qualitative and quantitative in addition to the reporting and descriptive methods. Moreover, the novel approaches the European-orientalist women’s image, being as educated and working to conduct studies on the Palestinian society’s traditions.