Burnt Shadows

The first three chapters of Part 2 introduce two characters crucial to the main arc of the novel: Elizabeth Burton aka Ilse Weiss, Konrad’s sister, and Sajjad Ali Ashraf, who will become Hiroko’s husband. Indicating these characters’ importance, Shamsie delays Hiroko’s arrival until the end of the first chapter, allowing the reader to acclimate to the new characters, setting, and circumstances. Harry Burton, Elizabeth and James’s young son, is only hinted at but will also become one of the novel’s most important figures. The title of Part 2, “Veiled Birds,” references Hiroko’s bird-shaped scars, hidden under her clothes, but also restricted freedom, as trainers hood birds to calm them and blind them to activity around them. With this title, Shamsie hints at the obstacles to intimacy that plague the Burtons’ marriage as well as the systems of Islamic tradition and repressive British social norms, which respectively complicate Hiroko and Sajjad’s budding romance and prevent the Burtons, especially James, from acknowledging the destabilizing effects of the British Raj in India.

Shamsie presents James as the ideal colonizer: He unquestioningly accepts every British norm and custom as superior to Indian norms and customs. James sees Sajjad not as extraordinary in his own right, but as extraordinary in spite of his background. Shamsie allows Sajjad the perception to see what James cannot, noting that James’s compliments “[encompass] the relationship of ruler-subject, employer-employee, father-son” all at once (41). James is unable to separate his real regard for Sajjad from his prejudice against Sajjad’s poor, Muslim background. Even the local flowers are seen as opportunities for British intervention, sorted into flowerpots or replaced with non-native varieties to suit British preferences. By contrast, Sajjad’s love for Delhi does not veer towards nationalism—he feels ambivalent about the creation of the Islamic state of Pakistan. As Sajjad tells James, “Whether it’s British India, Hindustan, Pakistan—that makes no difference to me” (40). Sajjad’s love of Delhi is based more in notions of home and tradition than in nationality.

Shamsie establishes Sajjad’s Muslim family as fairly traditional, creating an early obstacle for Hiroko and Sajjad’s intercultural romance. By contrast, Elizabeth Burton acutely feels the pressures of being a wealthy British socialite, able to imagine rebellion only in the least obtrusive of ways. Watching Hiroko on the veranda, however, Elizabeth wonders, “At what point […] had she started to believe there was virtue in living a constrained life?” (47). Hiroko’s arrival, and her indomitable spirit, create the opportunity for Elizabeth to reconnect with her own real sense of self, and she begins to imagine life outside of her disappointing marriage.

Elizabeth is less self-aware of her class prejudice. Shamsie tries to give nuance to Elizabeth’s prejudices, showing them not to be racially or politically motivated through her acceptance of Hiroko and her own dual identity as a German and English person, but Elizabeth’s discomfort at seeing Sajjad in James’s cashmere jacket goes beyond her personal dislike of Sajjad, as she says to James, “He’s starting to look at everything you wear as if it’s his property” (35). Elizabeth fears that Sajjad may attain a higher social status, disrupting her understanding of her own place in society.

Shamsie continues her exploration of cross-cultural intimacy by beginning Sajjad and Hiroko’s love story with their shared appreciation for the Islamic story of Mohammed and the Spider. Hiroko first heard the story from Konrad, not knowing that it was Sajjad who first told it to the German. Through this revelation, Hiroko knows that Konrad saw a kindred spirit in Sajjad, and similarly, Sajjad realizes that Hiroko is different from the Burtons, as she is interested in cultures other than her own. Shamsie explicitly sets the scene in the garden, beyond the physical boundary of the Burtons’ house and the repressive British social norms it represents.