Rhetorical Analysis of Edward Said’s Essay “States”

On the 19th of November 1947, the United Nations passed a resolution to split British-controlled Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish States. As a consequence of this resolution, a war broke out in the region, and 700 000 out of 900 000 native Palestinians either abandoned or were expelled from their homes (Glazer, par. 15). This large scale migration is known as the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, and Edward Said, at the age of 12, was among the 700 000 that left the region. Luckily, due to Said’s American citizenship and influential father, Said was able to move and continue his education without too much trouble (“Edward Said | American Professor And Literary Critic,” par. 2). As a result, Said grew up to become an accomplished writer and academic; with much of his work drawing inspiration from his experiences as an exiled Palestinian. The essay “States” is an especially good example of this, as its purpose is to convey how the Palestinian identity has been transformed by the Exodus. As per usual for Said, by leveraging several strategic rhetorical choices, he effectively communicates the purpose of his essay, “States”.

Throughout “States”, Said leverages his masterful writing to convey the transformation of the Palestinian identity. For instance, Said beautifully, almost poetically, describes how the traditional Palestinian identity (who they are, where they came from, what they are) has become difficult to maintain. “Where no straight line leads from home to birthplace to school to maturity, all events are accidents, all progress is a digression, all residence is exile”(Said, 569). In addition to the above example, Said showcases his masterful writing when describing how Palestinian people are identified by Westerners. Said uses powerful associations with Nazis and other anti-semites to express the gravitas of the situation. This shocking type of rhetoric catches the attention of readers and heightens their focus on the text:

Our existence is linked negatively to encomiums about Israel’s democracy, achievements, excitement; in much Western rhetoric we have slipped into the place occupied by Nazis and anti-Semites; collectively, we can aspire to little except political anonymity and resettlement; we are known for no actual achievement, no characteristic worthy of esteem, except the effrontery of disrupting middle East peace. (Source, 564)

Along with Said’s masterful writing, Said conveys the realities of the Palestinian identity through the content and the overall organization of “States”. The content of “States” surrounds the aftermath of the Exodus, and communicates its purpose through the stories of individual Palestinians, discussions of post-exodus stereotypes, and descriptions of shared Palestinian experiences. Said ensures that the content is all personal to the average Palestinian. Additionally, Said keeps controversial details about the Exodus and other more-frequented political debates about land ownership, radical terrorist groups, and politicians to a minimum. The essay’s focus on the experience of average Palestinians effectively conveys the transformed Palestinian identity. The essay’s avoidance of controversial details naggs readers to conduct their own research, which, in a less round about way, is also an effective way of conveying the realities of the transformed Palestinian identity. Furthermore, the scattered, unchronological organization of the content bolsters the effectiveness of the text in two ways. First, it takes the attention of readers away from time, which makes the content seem like it is detailing present and ongoing events. Second, and metaphorically speaking, the scattered organization of the content represents the scattered Palestinian population, and even perhaps the scattered thought-patterns of the exiled Palestinians; who Said describes as being consistently triggered to relive their past traumas.

Perhaps the most impactful way that “States” conveys the transformed identities of Palestinians is through its photographs. The photographs introduce, support, and intertwine the passages within “States”. The photographs are often of Palestinians, and simply put, they literally showcase their identities as humans, with human emotion, and other human sensibilities. The text and the photographs also compliment each other and enhance the effectiveness of the essay. For example, the opening lines of “States” and its accompanying photograph:

“Caught in a meager, anonymous space outside a drab Arab city, outside a refugee camp, outside the crushing time of one disaster after another, a wedding party stands, surprised, sad, slightly uncomfortable. Palestinians — the telltale mixture of styles attitudes is so evidently theirs — near Tripoli in northern Lebanon” ( Said, 559).

Furthermore, Said wrote in After the Last Sky, the book “States” is published in, that the photos are used to “read the reader.” This means that the photographs are not only used to be “seen or looked at,” but are “also looking at the observers.” (Said, 595) This idea tells us that Said purposefully looked for photographs that embody the Palestinian reaction to both the essay and its target audience. By selecting photographs in this way, Said taps into the expressive power of body language to convey the realities of the transformed Palestinian identity. Truly, a powerful rhetorical strategy.

“States’” masterful writing, its content and organization, and its photographs all worked effectively together to convey how the Exodus of Palestine transformed the Palestinian identity. Furthermore, although many events have transpired since “States” was published in 1986, Palestinians still have no title over a defined territory, unfortunately much of what “States” conveys about the Palestinian identity remains true to this day.

Works Cited

“Edward Said | American Professor And Literary Critic”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Said. Accessed 4 Nov 2018.

Glazer, Steven. “The Palestinian Exodus In 1948 | The Institute For Palestine Studies”.

Palestine-Studies.Org, 2016, https://www.palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/38640. Accessed 16 Oct 2018.

Said, Edward. “ States.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers, edited by David

Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, and Stacey Waite, 11th Edition., Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2017, pp. 555–600.