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Chapter 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Frankenstein in Baghdad, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Truth, Lies, and Storytelling
Good vs. Evil
Power, Authority, and Social Divisions
Family, Friendship, and Home
Superstition and Religion
Summary
Analysis
In his hotel room, Mahmoud wakes up feeling despondent after dreaming of holding the hand of a woman he loves. At noon, he calls for a prostitute to come to his room. When Zeina arrives in the evening, he tells her that her name is in fact Nawal al-Wazir. The woman laughs at this comment, but Mahmoud keeps on calling her Nawal. With intense passion, he embraces and kisses her before taking her to his bed. Then, while they are having sex, he tells her to “shut up” and brutally presses his hand against her mouth. Afterwards, the woman angrily goes to the balcony to smoke. When Mahmoud calls her, she replies, furious, that her name is Zeina, not Nawal.
Mahmoud’s obsession with Nawal provides him with a kind of fanciful escape: he prefers to pretend that Nawal is with him rather than accept his solitary reality. This episode brings to light Mahmoud’s self-absorbed, domineering side: he behaves brutally with a prostitute in order to indulge in a fantasy world of his own making. He does not seem interested in treating Zeina in a respectful way, treating her instead like an object meant to abide by his every desire.
Themes
Mahmoud reflects on other issues. He recalls going to Aziz’s coffee shop earlier to look for Hadi. There, Aziz told the journalist to leave the junk dealer alone, in an unusually solemn voice. He told Mahmoud that the Whatsitsname was none other than Hadi’s former friend Nahem Abdaki. After Nahem’s death, Hadi went to collect his friend’s body. However, all the victims’ body parts—caused by that day’s explosion—were mixed up. As a result, a worker told Hadi to gather any pieces he could find to reconstitute a body. This, Aziz explained, changed Hadi forever. Mahmoud objected to Aziz’s theory by evoking the Whatsitsname’s recording, but Aziz simply said that Hadi must have asked a friend to do so.
Right after an episode in which Mahmoud treats another human being aggressively, the reader is reminded of another one of Mahmoud’s misdeeds, which had serious consequences on another person: Hadi’s savage beating by the authorities. Aziz’s recounting of Hadi’s experience salvaging parts of Nahem Abdaki’s body might be accurate. However, it is likely that Aziz is combining this story with that of the Whatsitsname as a protective measure: he wants to keep Mahmoud away from Hadi, so that the journalist might not cause the junk dealer more harm than he already has.
Themes
Although Mahmoud believed Aziz, he also thought that the stories on his recorder were too complex to have been invented by someone like Hadi. To solve these contradictions, Mahmoud considered knocking on Hadi’s door, but he realized that Hadi might in fact be more intelligent than he previously thought. Not wanting to become involved in another complicated story, Mahmoud decides to leave him alone.
Aziz’s story is effective at making Mahmoud doubt the fabric of reality: he no longer knows who to trust. In this way, Aziz demonstrates his love for his friend: he wants to keep him from harm, even if this involves telling lies. The proliferation of contradictory stories keeps the truth from coming to light but, in so doing, actually protects those who might be most affected by its disclosing.
Themes
A few days later, after Saidi has been gone for multiple days, a group of official-looking men enter the al-Haqiqa offices and ask Mahmoud about Saidi’s location, family, and economic activities. They leave the office angry at not obtaining the information they wanted. Nervous about this event, Mahmoud calls his boss multiple times. When Saidi finally answers, he tells the journalist to give true information to no one. In these chaotic circumstances, Nawal al-Wazir calls Saidi’s phone. Mahmoud picks up but hears no voice on the other side.
In the same way that Mahmoud concludes he cannot know Hadi’s true nature, he also discovers that his editor might be involved in suspicious activities. Although Saidi reassures Mahmoud, he also fails to give him an explanation about what is going on. In this sense, Saidi reveals that his friendship and loyalty to Mahmoud is limited: he gives the journalist enough information to know how to behave, but not enough to forge a relationship of trust.
Themes
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Two days later, Nawal al-Wazir comes to the office. She tells Mahmoud that Saidi has tricked him into believing that he is at a conference in Beirut. For her, Saidi is a serial liar. After mentioning that all they did together was collaborate on a movie plot, Nawal opens one of Saidi’s drawers with a special key and places all of its contents in a plastic bag. She reassures Mahmoud by telling him that Saidi gave her a key to recuperate her possessions, documents concerning her movie.
Given that Mahmoud knows so little about Nawal, it is unclear whether she is trying to taint Saidi’s image by accusing him of being a liar, or whether what she says is actually true. Her mention of her relationship with Saidi is meant to quell rumors about their possible affair. However, Nawal’s actions are impossible to interpret in a perfectly cogent way, given that so little is known about her motives.
Themes
Nawal tells Mahmoud that she is taking her documents because “everything’s over” and that Mahmoud should be careful. Mahmoud does not understand what she is referring to. Finally, on her behest, he accompanies her to a more private place to discuss this mysterious matter further. On their way, they run into Sultan, Saidi’s driver, who gives Mahmoud a disapproving look.
Nawal behaves very much like Saidi: her comment that “everything’s over” fails to give enough details for Mahmoud to understand her. Instead, it cultivate suspense, drawing Mahmoud in and making him curious to discover more. These techniques recall Saidi’s own manipulative modes of expression.
Themes
At a fancy hotel cafeteria, Nawal tells Mahmoud that Saidi is evil. She met him through mutual acquaintances, and he offered to finance her first movie, which they worked on together. Saidi wanted to make a movie about the criminal elements inherent in everyone. Through these evil impulses, Saidi believed, humans have contributed to the creation of a monster that is now destroying them. Nawal mentions that she always rejected Saidi’s advances. Ultimately, when their movie project stalled, she decided to come pick up her belongings.
Although Saidi is describing a metaphorical “monster,” his comments can be understood in the context of this novel as a reference to the Whatsitsname: a concrete “monster” that aims to destroy human life. Humans are, indeed, responsible for the creation of the Whatsitsname, since he would not exist without the body parts of victims of terrorist attacks—without, that is, the results of human hatred and brutality.
Themes
Nawal praises Mahmoud for his writing. Mahmoud, in the meantime, is obsessed with the idea of having sex with Nawal. This, he argues, will allow him to possess Nawal as Saidi once did—or, if what Nawal said was true, to surpass his boss. Mahmoud accepts to finish her screenplay—“just for you,” he says—and then holds her hand. Initially, Nawal does not react, although she asks the journalist to focus his attention on the screenplay. After Mahmoud leaves his hand on hers, she finally removes her hand and asks him why he is behaving in this way, after all she has told him about Saidi.
Mahmoud’s behavior toward Nawal suggests that he does not take her words at face-value: he does not believe that she is truly uninterested in his advances. At the same time, Mahmoud’s behavior toward her reflects a kind of competition with his superior: if Mahmoud cannot actually reach his boss’s wealth and authority, he can at least compete with him in sentimental matters. To a certain extent, then, Nawal becomes a tool through which Mahmoud hopes to achieve greater power, a person on whom to assert his dominance.
Themes
Mahmoud is confused by Nawal’s attitude. He does not understand why she wanted to discuss these issues in a private location. Overall, he finds that she sounds more like a businesswoman than a movie director. Confused by her secretive behavior, he concludes that she must be looking to turn him into a lover.
Mahmoud’s conclusions concerning Nawal likely reflect less the truth than Mahmoud’s own desires: when faced with a situation he does not comprehend, he prefers to assume that Nawal feels the same way he does. Given the lack of information concerning Nawal’s actual motives, it is impossible to determine whether this might be true or mere wishful thinking.
Themes
Hours later, Mahmoud gets drunk in a bar in order to forget about his meeting with Nawal. Earlier, as they were leaving the hotel, Mahmoud kissed Nawal in the elevator. Although she initially gave in to his embrace, she finally pushed him back when the elevator door opened. Before heading off, she angrily told him that she did not approve of his behavior and asked him to respect her. Mahmoud found her behavior confusing. He believed that she would have rejected him more aggressively if she hadn’t actually wanted him to kiss her.
Mahmoud’s understanding of romantic relationships is based not on notions of consent, but on submission to his own desire. He assumes that Nawal’s delayed physical rejection—after a series of verbal warnings—reflects desire. But instead, it could reveal a variety of other emotional states, like shock, fear, or annoyance. Given the similarities between Saidi and Nawal’s behavior, it is possible she is trying to manipulate Mahmoud, but it is equally possible she is simply angered by the fact that he does not take her words seriously.
Themes
Mahmoud leaves the bar and calls Sultan, Saidi’s driver, to take him home. Sultan, who is also drunk, apologizes in advance for intruding in Mahmoud’s life, but tells him that he must say something to him now because he is leaving the next day. He refers to seeing Mahmoud and Nawal together in the same car, as they were leaving the office. He tells Mahmoud that Nawal used to be Saidi’s lover and even wanted to marry him. He considers Nawal responsible for the current accusations against Saidi, saying that she used her political connections against the editor.
Sultan’s interpretation of the situation gives credence to Mahmoud’s belief that Nawal might be manipulating him. Unlike other characters, Sultan does not have any interest in lying to Mahmoud, and his assessment might thus be more objective than others’. At the same time, this proliferation of stories and contradictory information sheds doubt on both Nawal and Saidi’s characters, leaving much ambiguity regarding whom to believe.
Themes
Finally, Sultan reveals that Saidi has actually left Baghdad to avoid Nawal, whom Sultan calls a “whore.” Sultan tells Mahmoud that Saidi is staying away from Baghdad while there is a legal case against him. The editor himself is currently in Amman, the capital of Jordan, waiting for Sultan to bring his mother and sisters there, because Saidi’s mother is seriously ill. When Mahmoud reaches his hotel room, he calls Saidi’s number in Beirut only to discover that the number is out of service.
Sultan’s mention of a legal case against Saidi is new information for Mahmoud, who did not know of Saidi’s possible problems with the law. At the same time, Sultan’s insult against Nawal suggests that he might not be a neutral observer but, rather, one moved in part by loyalty to his boss and by prejudice. Mahmoud’s inability to reach Saidi by phone once again demonstrates that Saidi does not give Mahmoud much information, leaving him clueless as to his true motivations.
Themes
