Monsters Under My Bed

Abstract: This essay examines the experience of a mother who must protect her child during the Israeli incursion into Ramallah in 2002. The narrator, a mother, is forced to try and protect her child from the shelling and bombing that occurs outside and above her home. She tries to find the best place to take shelter in case a bomb destroys her own home. Once the bombing is over, the mother expresses the concerns of how the children who have experienced this trauma will turn out. She worries and wonders for her own son. The essay ends with a reflection on current events happening in Gaza. The narrator expresses fear and sadness for the children who have lost parents, for parents who are forced to watch their children starve and die.