Exile
According to a standard American dictionary, the word exile is defined as a “voluntarily absence from ones country or home or a person driven from his or her native place”. ... When I first was exposed to texts of those in exile and the life of one who was in exile, I was misunderstood on what it really meant. ... After reading emotional texts of those such as Jasmine, The German Refugee and Alexandria: The Capital of Memory, I have realized that exile comes in different forms, different emotions that underlie amongst each individual, and different conclusions to their suffrage with their past. ... Rose defines that people in exile “have been banished from their homes and homelands for their unacceptable politics or their unacceptable beliefs and practices, [the latter] often related to membership in a disfavored racial or religious or “nationality” group” (Rose 6). Exile is more of a verb than a noun. ... Someone in exile would probably not say that they wanted to do it or that it was a great experience. In Jasmine, Jasmine’s exile is due to two main reasons that are mentioned in the story. “As a seven-year old girl, she is foretold of her widowhood and exile by an astrologer and refuses vehemently to believe in her “fate”” (Sanborn 585). ... In The German Refugee, Bernard Malamud writes about Oskar Gassner being a man who lived in exile because he was Jewish and prior to that was living in Germany. ... Another perfect example of an exile text is Alexandria: The Capital of Memory. ... (Aciman 20)” His exile was permanent. ... Aciman’s use of lyrical emotion and extension display of history helps the reader like myself understand how and why people live in exile.