Blindness Symbol Analysis

Blindness is perhaps the novel’s most complex symbol, representing the denial of or refusal to acknowledge suffering. As a central character who is literally blind, Afra’s lack of sight is the clearest manifestation of this symbol. The novel begins with Nuri telling readers that he fears her sightless eyes and imploring them to look at her, since he suspects she is disappearing. Afra is no longer the joyful woman she was before the death of her son, Sami. Her blindness erects a barrier between her and the world, representing an unwillingness to face her circumstances. The doctor she sees in England believes this blindness is her body’s way of coping with witnessing Sami’s death, shutting down the faculty of sight entirely.

Other characters experience figurative blindness. Lucy Fisher does not really see Nuri and Afra for who they are: human beings in need of help. To her, they are more of a job responsibility. Similarly, the immigration officers do not look directly at Nuri during his interview, implying a willful refusal to witness his suffering lest it complicate their jobs. Nuri himself frequently expresses a wish to forget what he knows and unsee the things he has seen; in a world containing so much suffering, he thinks, blindness might be preferable. Throughout most of the novel, Nuri is unaware of the particular blindness that leads him to create Mohammed, an imaginary stand-in for his deceased son, Sami, whose death he cannot face. This is yet another figurative blindness, as the invention of Mohammed keeps Nuri from really looking at his own grief. The novel centers on Nuri confronting this blindness at last, seeing his trauma fully, and beginning the process of healing. Finally, Afra’s sight begins to return near the novel’s end, suggesting that she, too, is starting to accept her new post-traumatic reality.