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Chapter 5
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 wakes in the garden. The Moroccan man tells Nuri that Afra is upset and waiting for him. When he finds her, Afra accuses him of not wanting to sleep next to her. Rather than reply, Nuri gives her the paper and colored pencils, but they fail to draw her out. He goes for another walk by the sea, where an old woman is sunning herself despite the overcast day. She asks him to move out of her light and thanks him before he moves. Nuri bristles at such British manners and customs; he dislikes their orderly grocery queues and the neatness of their lives, as it reminds him that they have never known war and destruction.
Nuri’s continued pattern of waking in the garden is evidence of interrupted sleep, either brought on by his flashbacks or the visions of Mohammed. Either way, his actions increase the tension and distance between him and Afra, demonstrating how traumatic events ripple their effects into the present. Nuri’s interaction with the British woman illustrates another distance—between refugees and average citizens, who are ignorant to extreme loss, inhibiting empathy and connection.
Themes
Nuri finds the doctor’s office and waits in a queue with his letter of asylum. The receptionist tells Nuri she cannot register him because there is no address on the letter. Nuri protests, saying Afra needs a doctor, but the woman insists that this is the office policy. Something about this refusal crushes Nuri, and he hears a bomb going off in his mind. The receptionist brings him water and asks him to come back with the correct paperwork. Back at the bed and breakfast, Afra asks Nuri to lie down beside her. He obliges, but refuses to touch her, no longer feeling like the loving couple they used to be.
Nuri’s experience at the doctor’s office is an example of the dehumanization that occurs when policy takes precedence over human need. The healthcare system the receptionist represents in this scene is less concerned with treating people than it is with following rules, leaving Afra neglected and triggering a traumatic flashback for Nuri. The bomb he imagines cares as much about his humanity as the unfeeling system that is denying Afra care in the present. Although he attempts some connection with Afra upon returning home, it is made more difficult by this most recent dehumanizing experience.
Themes
Nuri falls asleep and wakes after dreaming of another place. He flashes back to the fire on the beach where he, Afra, and Mohammed land after crossing the sea, on a Greek military island. Mohammed is holding Afra’s hand, though they do not speak. He tells Nuri that he fell into the water and “died a little bit.” Nuri asks how he knows this, and Mohammed says that he saw his mom and she told him not to go to sleep. Nuri wonders what happened to Mohammed’s mother but does not ask.
Again, the narrative seems to draw attention to the fact that Nuri is the only person who speaks to Mohammed, even though Afra is holding his hand. Mohammed’s description of dying a little bit in the water further highlights his strangeness, and the reader is reminded again that Nuri knows next to nothing about where the boy came from.
Themes
Nuri, Afra, and Mohammed wait for another NGO vessel to take them to another island. There are other refugees already waiting on the beach, and they come to mingle around the fire. Afra falls asleep holding Nuri so tightly it reminds him of the way Sami used to cling to her as a baby. Mohammed asks Nuri—whom he calls “Uncle Nuri”—to tell him a story so he can go to sleep too. Nuri recalls a story his mother used to tell him but becomes irritated with Mohammed for pestering him, preferring to remain in the memory of his own childhood.
Having made it through another life-or-death experience, the refugees cycle again into a period of waiting. Comparing Afra’s grip to Sami’s portrays her as childlike and desperate for safety, illuminating the fear beneath her silence. Mohammed’s desire for a story again points to the human attraction to narrative as a way of making sense of a senseless world; a story of another world will bring him peace, even if it is false (delusional). Nuri too feels this pull but does not necessarily want to share a story with Mohammed, wanting to keep the peace of his mother’s memory to himself. This reaction displays the isolating effects of trauma.
Themes
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Nuri tells Mohammed a story about a caliph who sends his servants on a quest to find the City of Brass in the desert. They journey for more than two years and experience much hardship. Finally, they come to the City of Brass, full of elegant, gleaming architecture. But the entire place is empty; the people are frozen in time. The servants come to a table etched with words about the blind kings who ruled the city, thereby leaving it “full of riches and devoid of life." Mohammed declares this story is sad and asks if it is true. Nuri tells him it is always true, “just like home,” though what he means by this is not clear.
The meaning of Nuri’s story is not straightforward but invites interpretation. A caliph is a Muslim civil and religious leader. Like refugees, the servants’ journey is long and difficult, and their destination is ultimately disappointing. Although Nuri has not yet made it to England, the rich and empty kingdom might symbolize the UK’s physical safety paired with its lack of human empathy. That the kings of the City of Brass are blind also suggests a level of ignorance and turning away from the truth, calling to mind various characters who prefer attractive lies to painful reality. Nuri’s comment to Mohammed about home is odd, since he does not know where the boy comes from, but it implies that the people in Syria are also blind in some way. This fairytale imagery is recurring throughout the narrative, as when Afra describes Syria as a mythical land.
Themes
