Paradise Now

Watching this movie sparked my interest further in the idea of suicide bombers and so I wrote my second paper on some of the information that I found. However, despite the research that I did and the point of view that the movie Paradise Now showed I still don’t understand killing yourself. Perhaps I would have to live in the situation to fully grasp the idea. Despite the fact that Said feels like his father was a disgrace to Palestine and that he wanted to regain the honor of his family, he left his family behind to mourn for him and I feel like that is selfish. Leaving his family was especially selfish because his mother figured out that Said was planning to kill himself and begged him not to and even told him that what his father did was to help the family. Originally I felt for Said but as the movie unfolded I started to dislike

his character and began liking his friend more (forgive me for forgetting his name). I did not really enjoy how the movie ended because I would have loved to see what happened to the friend when he returned to the village because the people who organized the attack would then view him as a traitor. I also would have liked to see the explosion when Said blew himself up and to see who aside from the soldiers on the bus died. This was the main reason I am completely against suicide bombing, unless the bomber specifically bombs the government building or a military base the bombers are attacking innocent lives (I did feel sorry for Said when he tried to set off his bomb and then hesitated because of the little girl who was getting onto the bus). Personally I think that Said should have tried to live his life instead of ending it along with ending the lives of others who probably did not want to die. However, after researching for my paper I have learned that Palestinians do not have any other way to fight Israel’s military, but I still feel that people could try to move or just find happiness in the things and family that they do have. Would you blow yourself up and perpetuate the violence?