Other Words for Home

This theme operates on two levels throughout Other Words for Home. Before Jude leaves Syria for America, she has begun to realize that the president’s government oppresses its people and that both militia groups and “radicals” like Issa want independence, freedom, and democracy instead. Jude witnesses both sides of the argument, as Baba condemns the violence he views as spurred on by armed “maniacs” who take over towns and leave citizens “bloodied and cowering together in their city, which has been torn apart by war” (32). In this part of the book, the president represents control and the suppression of dissent, while Baba represents the part of the populace willing to forgo freedom and economic justice for the sake of peace; he more or less accepts the “whispers rolling down the mountain” that “tell[] [Syrians] to stay quiet / and be grateful” (26-27). Issa’s rebellious acquaintances reject that control and promote new ideas; they symbolize change and movement toward a less economically stratified society. He tells Jude, “Soon, we will be able to walk anywhere we want” about the hotel chairs intended only for wealthy tourists (14), implying that in the Syria he imagines, everyone will share the same rights.