Displaced Bodies and a Haunted Liberalism in Rawi Hage’s Cockroach

When faced with natural disasters, wars, or any kind of insecurity one might be forced to leave his/her place in search of better opportunities. This displaced person roams the planet to find a place which can provide him/her the freedom and liberty that he never could find in his own place. However, that dream of a better life might never come true as each society has its own rules and perspectives when it comes to migrants. Rawi Hage in his well-known novel, Cockroach, depicts several people who have left their countries in hope of a better life in Canada. However, none of these bodies has found what he/she came after. The Canadian liberalism for them and especially for the un-named narrator has become so haunted that they all do what they can to escape it, even if it means personalizing themselves with cockroaches. The present paper scrutinizes Cockroach to distinguish the different kinds of displacement and to pin point the liberalism that has not been successful in liberating the characters

Keywords:

Liberalism , displacement , Rawi Hage , Cockroach , migrants , refugees