Blood

In this poem the father tries to portray what a true Arab is compared to the recent change in culture.  It seems as though the father isn't fully capable of understanding the new way of life, and maybe simply does not want to.  The author writes, "I call my father, we talk around the news.  It is too much for him, neither of his two languages can reach it.  To me this shows that even though the father must be aware of the current problems going on in his land, he is just too old and accustomed to his way of life to try and adapt to the new situation.  Throughout the poem, both father and daughter are conflicted by two different cultures, the new way of life and the old.  According to the father true Arabs live by the old traditions and take pride in the way that they live.  I believe the reason they are sort of "ashamed" of the new culture is due to all of the negativity involved with people's views on it.  When describing a Palestinian boy dangling a toy truck on the front page of the news paper, she says, "Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root is too big for us. What flag can we wave?" This quote shows that since there are bad things happening in their country they do not know who to be loyal to, if anybody at all, because they do not fully believe in either culture anymore.  With all of the trouble of the conflicting cultures, the final question at the end of the poem sums up the moral of the poem which is, "What does a true Arab do now?"