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Chapter 4
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
Elishva calls out to her son, Daniel, and the body reacts by standing up. This body, made of a variety of body parts and the soul of Hasib Moham Jaafar, has now been given a name: Daniel. Elishva is standing in the room of her house that has collapsed, looking down into Hadi’s house. The body whom Elishva calls Daniel walks through the hole in the wall into the old woman’s house.
The Whatsitsname’s ability to travel from one place to the next in Baghdad depends on the destruction in the city: the creature takes advantage of holes in people’s walls, such as the one between Elishva and Hadi’s house. This suggests that violence in the streets benefits the Whatsitsname: human brutality is responsible for helping him survive.
Themes
Elishva brings her son’s old clothes and does not look at the body too intently. She realizes that this body does not correspond to Daniel’s, but she has promised Saint George not to interrogate God’s will. She concludes that few people come back from war looking identical to their past selves. She recalls other women’s stories about how the faces of those who return are never the same as the ones they kept in their memory. Elishva, however, is convinced that she is experiencing a miracle.
Despite being accused of madness or dementia, Elishva is able to examine the situation from a critical standpoint: she knows, from a rational perspective, that this is not her son. But she has invested so much emotional energy in believing that her son would return and in trusting in the image of Saint George that she prefers to interpret this unexpected event as a positive sign.
Themes
The body, in the meantime, notices his reflection in a glass and finds himself ugly. Then, when he puts on the clothes Elishva has given him, he finds that he looks just like Daniel Tadros Moshe, Elishva’s son, whom he sees in a picture next to the image of the saint. Soon, he notices that the saint’s lips are moving, and he hears Saint George tell him to be careful with Elishva—otherwise Saint George will kill him with his lance.
Although Elishva can be seen as a lady with an unsound mind when she talks to the picture of Saint George, the fact that the Whatsitsname, too, can hear the saint’s words suggests that Elishva might be correct in believing in the saint’s powers. This enhances the story’s fantastical nature and also gives Elishva more credibility.
Themes
In the meantime, Hadi spends the day looking for the Whatsitsname, but does not hear any useful information from his neighbors about his corpse’s whereabouts. That day, Elishva wears a read headscarf to replace her mourning headband, and she heads to the butcher’s to buy a lot of meat. Impressed by the change in the old woman’s appearance, Umm Salim asks Elishva about it, and she tells her that God has fulfilled her wishes, bringing her son Daniel home. Umm Salim concludes that Elishva indeed has gone crazy.
This episode signals the difficulty of believing stories that are out of the ordinary, Although Elishva is telling the truth, people interpret her ideas as madness or lies—just like with Hadi. At the same time, however deluded Elishva might be, the presence of the Whatsitsname in her life brings about positive changes—whether or not the man is her son Daniel. Elishva’s decision to abandon her mourning clothes suggests that she has found a new reason to live, capable of turning her life around.
Themes
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Hadi, in turn, concludes that the Whatsitsname’s disappearance has spared him the trouble of unsewing the body parts and scattering them in the city. However, he enjoys telling the story of this creature over and over again, perhaps because it convinces him that this is merely a figment of his imagination, not real-life events.
Hadi’s pleasure at telling the Whatsitsname’s story reveals one of the purposes of storytelling: to forget about the terrifying events. Secretly affected about his creation of the Whatsitsname and the creature’s disappearance, Hadi attempts to convince himself that none of these disturbing events ever happened. This gives him some peace of mind, keeping him from worrying about the creature’s whereabouts.
Themes
As Elishva prepares food for her guest, she concludes that God has fulfilled her wishes. Father Josiah, however, always corrects Elishva, telling her that only Muslims understand their relationship with God as demands to be fulfilled. However, Elishva does not believe, as Father Josiah does, that God is a distant, overbearing presence. She sees him as someone close to her, like a friend.
Elishva’s non-traditional mix of Christian and Muslim perspectives on God reveals that she does not pay too much attention to religious protocols: rather, she cares about religion only insofar as it has concrete effects on her life. This allows her not to discriminate between different religious creeds but, rather, to pick and choose which ones best fit her current circumstances.
Themes
Although Elishva’s guest does not eat anything, she remains unperturbed. She spends the day and night talking to him, sharing with him secrets she has not confided to anyone in a long time. She explains that she did not agree with her husband, Tadros, who wanted to bury an empty coffin for Daniel, filling it only with some clothes and bits of his guitar. Elishva refused to go to the funeral. She only saw her son’s grave after Tadros’s death, when she finally went to the cemetery, where son and father were buried side by side.
The stories Elishva tells the Whatsitsname highlight her loneliness up until now: not only does she not have anyone to tell these stories to, but she also probably misses her husband’s and son’s presence in this house. In contrast with her husband’s attitude, Elishva’s refusal to bury a coffin for their son reveals her refusal to face reality: instead of accepting the weight of her grief, she engages in denial, refusing to accept this devastating event.
Themes
During this period, Elishva’s daughter Matilda married one of their neighbors. People were open to the idea that Daniel might still be alive, because so many people returned from the war after years. For example, one of Elishva’s neighbors returned after years in Iran, becoming a Shiite Muslim during years of prison there, a fact that his Christian family violently disapproved of. People also returned after the war in Kuwait in the mid 1990s.
The Iran-Iraq War lasted eight years (1980-1988) and reflected the dynamics of sectarian violence in Iraq: the Iraqi, Sunni-led leadership fought against Shiite Iran, which gave support to Shiite groups in Iraq. The Gulf War, by contrast, erupted after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, despite opposition from the United Nations. Frankenstein in Baghdad examines the effect these conflicts had on the local Iraqi population, who are less concerned with international political dynamics than with knowing their family is safe and secure.
Themes
In this historical context, when economic sanctions were declared against Iraq, Matilda and Hilda’s husbands decided to live abroad. Elishva promised to join her daughters in the future, once all hope of Daniel’s return was crushed. In the meantime, her daughters worried about her, knowing that “demons” were now roaming the city, wreaking destruction. They often threatened to come to Baghdad to force Elishva out of the city. However, Father Josiah agreed with Elishva’s decision to stay. He believed it was people’s religious obligation to stay in the city and support the community, in the same way the Assyrians had suffered in Iraq in the ancient past.
The United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait in 1990. The objective of these sanctions—which greatly curtailed the country’s ability to import and export goods—was to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. Frankenstein in Baghdad explores the effects on the population: Elishva’s daughters’ desire to emigrate reflected the country’s dire economic condition. This situation highlights the population’s helplessness before political decisions taken at the national and international level: all people can do is flee, in search of a better life, or stay and endure increasing violence and economic devastation.
Themes
Elishva shares all of these stories with her guest. She also describes Abu Zaidoun, a Baathist who would force people to join military service, and who physically dragged Daniel away. When Elishva and Tadros received an empty coffin for their son, brought to them by the military, Tadros destroyed his son’s beloved guitar out of grief. Multiple women in the neighborhood shared Elishva’s anger at Abu Zaidoun and vowed to make sacrifices to God if the man died. Elishva, too, had made a secret vow, and reveals it to her silent guest.
Elishva’s ongoing anger toward Abu Zaidoun reveals the long-term effects of grief: however many years have passed, she is unable to forgive this man for causing her son’s death. The old lady’s desire for revenge suggests that she is unable or unwilling to accept injustice—in particular, the death of her son—peacefully. This suggests that, however long people have been immersed in violent situations, the intensity of their emotions doesn’t always decrease: even after decades, they can remain just as indignant as before, when it comes to defending human dignity and their personal notion of justice.
Themes
After many hours of listening to Elishva in silence, the Whatsitsname finally speaks. In a hoarse voice, he says he must leave. Elishva, who is worried that he might never come back, just like Daniel, asks him to stay, but he promises to return. After her guest leaves, Elishva notices that Saint George’s shield is particularly shiny. This lasts a brief moment, and then the picture returns to its normal state.
Some ambiguity remains as to whether the transformations of the image of Saint George over the course of the novel reflect an actual observable phenomenon—which the Whatsitsname also experiences—or, simply, the old lady’s desire to believe in the saint’s powers.
Themes
