A Map of Home

Throughout the novel, Nidali, the protagonist, uses writing as a means of self-expression. The pen represents her voice, her agency, and the power to communicate her thoughts and emotions. She uses it to navigate the complexities of her identity and articulate her experiences.

Nidali uses her pen—which symbolizes her creativity and her ability to write—to craft fictional stories that express her imagination. At school, she rebels in small ways by writing stories instead of essays, using her pen as a tool to forge her own path toward a future as a writer.

Writing allows Nidali to escape from the challenges of her everyday life and enter the realm of imagination. It offers her solace and a means of coping with difficult situations. The pen becomes a portal to other worlds and a source of comfort. When Nidali wades into the sea at an Egyptian beach, she imagines that she sees fantastical images below the water’s surface, and buried amongst them, she spies an important object. She swims closer and sees: “it was a pen” (206). This pen is characterized as a buried treasure, associated with imagination and fantasy.

Moreover, in a patriarchal society and within her own family, Nidali often faces gender-related challenges and expectations. The pen becomes a symbol of her empowerment, allowing her to challenge these norms and assert her independence. Writing gives her agency and the ability to shape her own narrative. Nidali’s father, a figure of patriarchal oppression, initially controls the metaphorical “pen” in their family. He is a former poet who foists his writerly ambitions on Nidali, expecting her to become a famous literature professor. He often forces her to serve as his scribe, sitting at the kitchen table as he tries to dictate a memoir to her. Baba wields an influential pen moments after Nidali’s birth—he marks her as male on her birth certificate, then later corrects himself, “grabbing a pen and add[ing] at the end of my name a heavy, reflexive, feminizing, possessive, cursive, cursing ‘I’” (5). The symbol of the pen is tied to gendered power. By picking up the pen herself and fulfilling her dream of becoming a writer, Nidali gains the ability to take back her own story.

The act of writing also serves as a means of preserving memories and family history, even amidst displacement and migration. Nidali writes letters, journals, and stories that capture her experiences and the stories of those around her. In the last line of the book, Nidali says, “I catch the pen now and listen to all of our stories” (290). The pen becomes a tool for preserving her family’s legacy and documenting her personal journey. The final pen anecdote about her parents symbolizes her journey and growth, and how she plans to take control of her own story.