Samer Atar Why I Go To Terminal Sparknotes

While war, death and destruction continues to plague the Syria people, especially those living in Aleppo, the Americans seem to care less about these issues than the domestic, trivial ones, until they happen to experience the situation themselves. In the essay “Why I Go to Aleppo”, the author Samer Attar explains his reasons to volunteer as a surgeon to help the local Syrians, recalls his experiences working in Aleppo, and reflects upon the effects of these experiences to him as a person.
Attar starts with a comparison of his experiences in Chicago with that in Aleppo. While surgeons in Chicago would usually have an organized, sterile environment to perform surgery, in Aleppo, he often had to see multiple patients at once, perform surgery in a basement of a building that had been bombarded, and watch some of the patients who are seriously injured die. On the other hand, Attar had to make many triage decisions, which determines the order of who to save based on the urgency of the medical situation and the likelihood of survival. These decisions were difficult and made him feel powerless in being unable to help all of those in need. As a result of these

experiences of constant chaos in Aleppo, Attar has found himself often recalling these experiences even after he returned to Chicago, to the extent that in his essay, he claims that “Once you’ve been there, you never leave Aleppo”.
On the other hand, despite the war and destruction in Aleppo, Attar finds similarities between the strength and courage of the Syrian people and his patients in Chicago.

The Syrian people in Aleppo had to move on with their life, and they found ways to adapt to the dangerous environment in Aleppo. The author cites the instances of a girl in Chicago and a boy in Aleppo, both of whom had shown inspiring mental strength and resilience despite the sufferings and tragedies, and hoped to one day replace their legs with prostheses. Moreover, he recalls his experience helping as a medical student during the time of the Sept. 11 attack, which encouraged him to “do the right thing”—which meant going to Aleppo as a volunteer in 2013, despite the fact that working in Aleppo brings him the same nightmares that he had during

911.
To conclude why he chose to go to Aleppo, Attar gives his experience with an injured Syrian boy and his father, who were shocked to learn that an American doctor would choose to come all the way to Syria to help. Attar believes that “that gave my work a new dimension of meaning”; he hoped that through his status as an American with Syrian heritage, he could connect and console the suffering people in Aleppo.