The Satirical Techniques in the Novel “The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist” by Emile Habibi

Satire is one of the literary creativities that is used from past to the present time. Sometimes, the audience perceives satire as degrading the others; that is somehow correct. Satire’s aim is not merely meeting one’s spiritual needs like laughter, more precisely; its aim is to portray social, political and cultural situation that the author and society are suffering from. The use of satire has many reasons, the most important of which is lack of freedom of expression. When literary man can not openly criticize oppression, wrongdoing or wrong policy of society, he/she uses satire to express his/her thoughts. Pessoptimist does not use satire as a fear of Zionist policies. It seem he did not find a better way to do so except satire; and that satire is not a merely a satire, it is tragic and humorous, with a message for the audience to express the conditions of Palestine and its people. With a descriptive-analytical approach, this article analyzes and explores how satire is applied in this novel. Since Emile depicts various aspects of the Palestinian people's condition, it is closely linked to resistance literature. The purpose of this research is to address the importance of Israeli–Palestinian conflict and not to ignore its religious and humane aspects, and since this novel has had a profound impact on the world and the Zionist regime, it contains new and worthwhile reading thoughts and ideas. This article aims to explain how and for what reasons satire is used by Habibi and its role in the success of his work. Since the writer has used all methods to express his tragedy and pain, this research explores and unveils the creativity in satire use of Habibi as a way to express and convey his thoughts and opinions. The Palestinian identity crisis, the Arabs' position on the Palestine issue, and the policies of culturalization are important issues that this paper will address. The novel suggests that the author used satire to describe the condition in Palestine and humiliate the Zionist regime.