A Survivor Have you ever survived an incident so bad that could have been deadly? Souad, the author of Burned Alive, has experienced many difficulties throughout her life. Burned Alive is a memoir which she tells of the painful and cruel things that were done to her at a very young age. She claims to have lived in a small village near West Bank but doesn’t remember as much because she was held captive behind an iron door and was barely given any freedom as a girl. Being born as a girl was the most terrible thing during those times and it was considered to be a curse. They were given the impression to be worthless. Saddened by this, animals were better off than them. The truth is she was often beaten daily for the slightest things such as taking too long to make tea for her father or just for picking a green tomato by mistake because her hand was moving so rapidly due to the fact that she had to pick so many in the least amount of time. Her father often came thrashing at her mother for no real reason. Numerous amount of families practiced this type of behavior. At least twice or even three times she witnessed murder. Her mom would become pregnant and then later they were gone. There were certainly no babies to be seen. She had suffocated newly born babies with sheep skin. No one asked questions. It just happened and that was it. Her close relatives praise her by saying that they would have done the same. Her mother had fourteen children but only five were still living at the time. I am assured that she killed the other nine. Her younger sister was strangled to death with a black telephone cord by her own brother because he was instructed to do it. It is discussed in the family meeting the day before the intended victim is killed. She even says, “But for a mother who was submissive to the degree my mother was, it was ok to kill girls. For a father like mine,