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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Home, Displacement, and the Refugee Experience
Grief, Memory, and Coping Mechanisms
Hope vs. Delusion
The Trauma of War
Dehumanization vs. Connection
Summary
Analysis
In the present, Nuri takes Afra to her doctor’s appointment. Dr. Faruk speaks Arabic and asks Afra questions about her pain and her eyes. After examining her eyes, he seems confused and asks how she became blind. Afra tells him about the bomb that killed Sami while he was playing in the garden, revealing what happened to him for the first time in the narrative. She was watching him from inside and thought he would be safe. The last thing she remembers is holding Sami in her arms, his eyes looking up at the sky.
Dr. Faruk seems genuinely concerned for Afra, and this empathy might be the reason she opens up to him about Sami. As this is the first time the narrative reveals what actually happened to Sami, it is an emotionally charged and climactic moment, especially for Afra, who has withdrawn from everyone including Nuri. That her blindness coincides with the worst thing she has ever seen—the death of her son—feels significant, as if one event caused the other. Afra’s insistence that she thought Sami would be safe in the garden where she could see him is a heartbreaking attempt to justify that decision to Dr. Faruk, indicating a sliver of the massive guilt she bears.
Themes
After telling this story, Afra breaks down into sobs. Nuri’s heart is thundering, and he cannot focus. Dr. Faruk sits at his desk and tells Afra her pupils are reacting to light, as if she can see. This means that her retina may be damaged, or her blindness is a reaction to the trauma of watching Sami die. Dr. Faruk says he will order more tests. Nuri thinks the doctor looks suddenly small and notices him glancing at a photo of a young woman, presumably his own daughter, at her graduation.
While Afra experiences a rare emotional release after relating Sami’s story, Nuri’s response further isolates him in his own body as it panics. Dr. Faruk’s hypothesis that Afra’s blindness is her body’s response to extreme trauma—in other words, nothing is physically amiss with her eyes, her body is simply shutting down to protect her—demonstrates the long-lasting effects of extreme suffering. Although Afra is the one getting diagnosed in this scene, Dr. Faruk’s words can apply to Nuri too, who has not yet confronted his own trauma responses.
Themes
Dr. Faruk asks Nuri how he is, and Afra speaks up, saying her husband is unwell. Despite Nuri saying he only has trouble sleeping, Afra tells the doctor Nuri has changed, that he talks to someone who is not there. The doctor ignores Nuri’s deflections and asks if he has experienced any flashbacks, depression, or lack of focus. Nuri denies all of this, but Dr. Faruk is obviously suspicious. He writes a prescription for sleeping pills and insists Nuri come see him in three weeks. Later, in the bedroom, Afra tells Nuri the bomb did not blind her, that she saw Sami die and then lost her sight. The two of them stay in the room through dinner.
That Afra is the only person who notices the extent of Nuri’s unwellness exhibits a deep level of understanding despite her recent aloofness. Nuri’s denial of the intense flashbacks and physiological responses he experiences corroborate Afra’s assertions rather than dispel them; his dismissal of what he is going through indicates he is not ready to face his trauma and admit the effects it has on him. Afra’s confession about the timeline of her blindness, on the other hand, suggests she is at last coming to terms with what has happened to her, proving the doctor’s hypothesis correct and opening up about Sami to the only other person who will understand her grief: Nuri. Now, Nuri is the one who withdraws and shuts down the conversation.
Themes
In a flashback, the young mother in Pedion tou Areos successfully breastfeeds her baby and celebrates with the old woman who helped her. Seeing this gives Nuri hope, and he thinks of how to leave this place. That night, he approaches the two teenagers Nadim paid. They are twin brothers, Ryad and Ali, who fled Afghanistan after their father was killed. They call Nadim Ahmed and seem reluctant to talk about him. Nuri guesses correctly that Nadim wants his money back, and the boys seem ashamed when he asks what they do to earn money.
Throughout the narrative, there is a correlation between the events taking place around Nuri and his ability to hope, highlighting that hope is not a default state, but rather inconsistent. On a deeper level, Nuri’s view of humanity shifts depending on what he sees those around him do; like bees, humans are communal, and what hope they have for themselves is linked to the hope they have for humanity as a whole. Hope begets hope, as Nuri is compelled to help the young brothers after witnessing the connection between the breastfeeding mother and the old woman. Nadim’s use of another name and his shady dealings with the boys confirm Nuri’s suspicions that he is up to no good.
Themes
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Nadim interrupts Nuri’s conversation with the boys and plays his rebab for some time before heading into the woods. Nuri follows him to a clearing and watches as Nadim uses a penknife to make a new cut in his forearm. Nuri wonders whether this is punishment, as Nadim seems angry. Nadim sees him in the trees and Nuri runs back to the camp. Though Nadim comes out after, he does not approach Nuri but sits watching the brothers on their blanket.
Nadim’s sudden presence feels like a threat, like he wants Nuri to know he is watching him. The self-harm Nadim enacts in privacy suggests his cutting is a cathartic coping mechanism. Nuri assumes Nadim is punishing himself, implying he has done things deserving punishment.
Themes
Later, Nadim heads back into the woods and Ryad and Ali follow shortly after. Nuri follows them all through the woods to a different clearing filled with trash, drug addicts, dealers, and syringes. Each brother is approached by a man and taken further into the woods. Feeling exposed, Nuri goes back to the campsite where Angeliki and Afra are sleeping. Nadim emerges from the woods and beckons Nuri over to him. He says he has something for Nuri and then slashes his knife across Nuri’s arm. Nuri flees back to his and Afra’s blanket, and Angeliki helps bind the wound.
Based on Ryad and Ali’s youth, it is safe to assume that Nuri’s prying interest in their relationship with Nadim is rooted in fatherly concern. Like with Mohammed, he abandons Afra in order to protect children not his own, signaling his unresolved guilt around Sami’s death. The twins’ apparent consent to their own exploitation does not justify it, but seems to give Nuri pause; he recognizes that the boys are doing what they think they need to do to survive. Nadim’s sudden violence towards Nuri confirms his untrustworthiness and acts as a warning to Nuri to stay out of his business.
Themes
When Nuri wakes, he finds Angeliki watching over him. He tells her to get some rest, that he will stay awake instead. She tells him the story of Odysseus and the Sirens who entice men to death with their song. Angeliki says Athens is a place where dangerous things call to people. Ryad and Ali have not returned from the woods. Nuri thinks about Odysseus finding his way home and feels that he no longer knows where home is. He remembers celebrating Eid with Mustafa and all their employees, feeling that home is a place as mythical as a story.
The mythical imagery of Odysseus and the Sirens again illustrates the way fiction connects with reality. Angeliki, for her part, seems to see the truth of her situation more clearly than others, which is why talking with her makes Nuri uncomfortable—she reminds him that he is trapped. Perhaps this is why his thoughts turn toward home, only to find it as out of reach as any other fairytale.
Themes
The next day, Nuri asks an NGO worker for help with his arm. She returns hours later with a woman who stitches the wound shut. Nuri tells the woman he must leave this place, but she can give him no helpful advice. Finally, she tells him about a center in Victoria Square where someone might help him. Later, Angeliki returns, drinking water to counteract the poison in her blood. She and Afra comfort one another. Nuri considers going into the woods to find Ryad and Ali—who are still missing—but does not because he has to stay alive for Afra.
The NGO worker provides another example of how well-intentioned people are still limited in their ability to alleviate intense suffering, like Lucy Fisher in the present timeline. Angeliki and Afra develop a connection, perhaps because of their shared experience as childless mothers. Nuri’s choice to remain in the camp instead of looking for the brothers shows he still understands his duty to Afra and remains conflicted about the twins’ situation.
Themes
That night, Nuri dreams of Mohammed falling off the boat, only this time a little girl is saved instead of him. He wakes to shouting; a young boy is screaming and pointing into the woods. A group of men with baseball bats charge into the trees, chasing someone, and Nuri follows the crowd. The man they are chasing is Nadim, and they catch him and begin beating him with the bats. One man prompts Nuri to participate, and—thinking of his arm and the twins—he brings the bat down onto Nadim’s skull, killing him.
The alteration to Nuri’s memory of Mohammed falling off the boat draws attention to that moment as potentially unreliable. As Nuri gets swept up in the mob’s commotion, the narrative avoids concrete details, relying instead on suggestion to convey what is happening. It seems to Nuri that the crowd blames Nadim for trafficking boys in the woods—and from what Nuri has seen, this is likely true. Still, the lack of clarity and the sudden pressure exerted on Nuri to act both indicate that he is carried away by the crowd’s hysteria, leading him to do something incredibly out of character: kill a man.
Themes
After the mob disperses, Nuri drags Nadim’s body deeper into the woods. Heading back to camp, he overhears two men talking. One of them feels guilty for killing Nadim, but the other insists that he deserved death because he was taking boys from the camp. Nuri wonders what happened to Nadim that led him to do such evil things. When he returns to the camp, Nuri tells Afra that there was a problem but does not elaborate. He thinks of verses from the Qur’an and Hadith about mercy, and he looks down at his hands—the hands of a murderer. Feeling his panic rising, Nuri tries to focus on Afra and thoughts of Mustafa’s bees.
The two men in the woods are like the conflicting voices in Nuri’s own mind, debating the justification of Nadim’s murder. Perhaps remembering Nadim’s friendliness and his beautiful music, Nuri becomes preoccupied with the reasons behind Nadim’s wicked deeds, implying that, at some point, the dead man might have been good. Withholding what he has done from Afra builds yet another wall between them. Guilt threatens to overwhelm Nuri as he realizes how easy it was to behave violently toward another person, and he desperately clings to images he associates with hope.
Themes
Nuri wakes in the afternoon and sees the spot where Nadim used to sit on the statue’s steps. In his mother’s stories, statues were talismans or guardians or beings who had been turned to stone. He wishes that Afra could see, that she was like she used to be—able to understand the workings of the world. Nuri takes Nadim’s rebab from the steps and thinks of the music that acted as a balm to his mind. This disturbs him, and he focuses instead on the sounds of children playing.
In the aftermath of Nadim’s murder, Nuri turns once again to stories to make meaning out of his reality. This time, though, the meaning is muddled, and he wishes that Afra were able to help him understand what he has done; he assumes her blindness will prevent her from helping him without actually asking for her help. Thinking of the peace Nadim brought to him makes Nuri uncomfortable, as it reminds him of the murdered man’s humanity.
Themes
