The motif of radical change
Mourid's journey starts with his willing acceptance of changes in his life. He knows that he can have a better life if he is willing to sacrifice a few years to go to university in Cairo, knowing that it will mean radical changes for his life. Then, he learns that while he was gone, the whole of Palestine has changed. Ramallah has been ravaged by a week of intense warfare, and he is no longer allowed to return or visit his home town. The changes were more than he could have imagined.
University as a symbol
The journey to become educated is more than what it seems. It symbolizes hope for a better future for Mourid, because he knows he can attain a better life for himself and elevate the lives of those in his community. When he realizes he isn't able to go home, his time at university becomes a symbol for something else—it is his exile. University is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. He is trapped, but then again, he is safe from the war that might have killed him.
The archetypal journey home
In a way, Mourid's journey is flipped on its head. He goes from one kind of journey to another. One might say that getting to university and attaining his education is the first kind of journey, but then when he cannot return home, he is on an odyssey of sorts, trying to find his way home when the government will not allow it. He does eventually make it home to witness the changes; his hometown is truly ruined. There is no "home" to speak of, because his home has been destroyed.
Ruins in Ramallah
The title of the book is a reference to a symbolic scene when Mourid comes home and finds Ramallah in ruins. The bombs have destroyed buildings that he is used to seeing, and the community is paranoid from the warfare. It's thirty years later, but everyone is still damaged from war. Also, he knows many of the families are mourning dead relatives, so the city is like a ghost town. Death is so unignorable that the people in the town will never be the same. Bomb-riddled ruins are a symbol for this permanent change.
Family through motif
Through this motif, Mourid explores his attachment to family. It was never his life's intention to spend thirty years away from his loved ones. The family was part of his motivation to leave, but not to abandon them. He hoped to go be educated, find a better life for himself, and then share the spoils with his family and community. Instead, he was spared from a war that his family was not, so much of his journey is reflecting about how much he longs to be there fore his family, what they might think of him, and when he returns, how much he has missed. This motif serves as a measure for his love for his family.
