The Beekeeper of Aleppo Themes

The displacement of refugees from their home countries is the driving force behind the plot of The Beekeeper of Aleppo. In the present, Nuri and Afra have made it to England after their harrowing escape from the Syrian Civil War, yet the security of home remains elusive. Through a series of flashbacks, the reader and Nuri watch Aleppo transform from a place of intimate beauty and communal joy to a ruin of empty buildings…

As a refugee narrative, The Beekeeper of Aleppo features many characters who have experienced extreme loss and grief. Both Nuri and Mustafa have lost their sons, their homes, and their livelihoods to political violence. Because of these losses, even the happiest memories become tainted and painful. When Nuri thinks back to the time before the war, for instance, the knowledge of all the sorrow to come casts a shadow over the joy he remembers. Blind…

As the central antagonist, the long-lasting effects of trauma represent a crucial obstacle that Nuri must overcome. Even so, it takes a majority of the novel for Nuri to even accept that he is experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the war in Syria and his journey to the UK. Unlike Afra’s blindness, which may be her body’s way of coping with the trauma of watching Sami die, Nuri’s trauma-induced flashbacks…

When faced with human suffering, the novel’s characters respond by either dehumanizing others and turning away or by leaning into connection. By investigating the nuances of both responses, the novel demonstrates the way dehumanization can lead people to shrink away from human connection, but it also suggests that connection is the best remedy for the violence wrought by dehumanization. The violence of war is itself a dehumanizing experience, but Nuri also encounters numerous individuals who…