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Summary
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 2005, a special Committee investigates the activities of the Iraqi Tracking and Pursuit Department, associated in part with the international coalition force governing the country. This Committee, composed of members of both Iraqi and U.S. intelligence, interviews the Department director, Brigadier Sorour Mohamed Majid. Afterwards, the Committee concludes that the Department, which should have engaged in administrative tasks, took on functions beyond its assigned role.
The official document examined in the introductory section of Frankenstein in Baghdad questions the separation between fiction and reality. This fictional document uses verified historical facts—such as the political alliance between the Iraqi and U.S. military during the U.S. occupation of Iraq—as the basis from which to build an invented narrative. Despite being fictional, the official nature of this document gives the novel an authoritative quality and historical relevance.
Themes
Since the creation of the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003, the department employed astrologers and fortune-tellers. According to Brigadier Majid, these employees were in charge of anticipating “security incidents” in or around Baghdad. The Committee remains uncertain whether such predictions were accurate and actually helped avoid certain violent events.
The Coalition Provisional Authority was a transitional government set up by the U.S. after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was meant to establish a temporary, functioning administration before the organization of democratic elections in 2005. These transitional political circumstances are crucial to the novel. They help explain the increased tensions in Baghdad in 2005, as different political groups seek to achieve enough power and to garner public support in order to take part in the administration of a “new” Iraq.
Themes
The Committee also notes that confidential files from the department were illegally divulged via e-mail to a person known as “the author,” who was later arrested. Among the author’s belongings, the officers found a story divided into 17 chapters, whose plot was based on materials he had received from the Tracking and Pursuit Department. The Committee determined that this information should remain confidential and prohibits the story from being rewritten.
The arrest of a mysterious “author” highlights the danger of writing and storytelling in the midst of such uncertain political circumstances. Given the secrecy of many government activities, a writer’s words, even when transformed into fiction, can be interpreted as a threat to authority. The novel further stresses this idea by suggesting that this character of “the author” might be the author of Frankenstein in Baghdad itself. Indeed, the fictional character of “the author” begins to speak in the first person right after Chapter 17, thus giving the impression that he is responsible for composing the 17 first chapters.
Themes
After this analysis, the Committee provides some recommendations. They recommend firing the astrologers and fortune-tellers and removing Brigadier Majid from the Tracking and Pursuit Department. The Department as a whole, they insist, should revert to bureaucratic activities. The Committee also notes that the information they had concerning the identity of “the author” was false. They recommend re-arresting the author in order to assess whether or not he represents a security risk.
The purpose of the Tracking and Pursuit Department remains mysterious, all the more so because of the mention of extravagant actors such as astrologers and fortune-tellers. However, the Committee’s decision to dissolve the Department reveals a pragmatic approach to the situation: it suggests that the people currently administering the country value rational considerations over possibly superstitious activities. At the same time, they also understand that products of the imagination, such as a novel, can have political of power, since they view such literature as a political threat.
Themes
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