44 pages • 1 hour read
Jokha AlharthiCelestial Bodies
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The End of Slavery
The existence and eventual abolition of slavery in Oman feeds into the narrative of the book. There are characters who are slave owners, those who are former slaves, and those who cannot rid themselves of a slavery mindset. The material wealth of several characters is built on a foundation of slavery, while certain character dynamics are informed by the strange relationships formed between slave owners and the slaves themselves.
In terms of characters, slavery is best represented by three characters: Sulayman, the slave owner; Zarifa, the former slave who struggles to come to terms with the idea of freedom; and Habib, the angry slave who fights back against the system. That Sulayman can force Zarifa into a marriage with Habib as a form of punishment is a demonstration that theirs was never a marriage of equals. No matter what, the brutalities of slavery shines through, even when there is a loving bond between slave master and slave.
Much of the material wealth that filters down into the village of al-Awafi was earned through the propagation of slavery: the marriage of Mayya and Abdallah is built on a foundation of riches earned from his father’s activity in the slave trade. London and her siblings enjoy a privileged life, only a generation removed from the realities of slavery. The family remains rich, despite Abdallah’s financial struggles and failed investments. The wealth built up by Sulayman keeps their coffers full, as do the various marriages, loans, investments, and general spending in the village. Sulayman’s wealth is evident everywhere, tainting the entire village with the inescapable blood money earned from buying and selling slaves.
The end of slavery becomes an analogy for the modernization of Oman, just as the country struggles to find a new identity in the post-colonial era while neighboring countries are beginning to conspicuously spend their incredible wealth. Oman struggles to find a new identity just as Abdallah struggles to differentiate his business from that of his father. Slavery and its legacy are everywhere in the country, and the characters are trying to divest themselves from this violent and difficult past.
The Struggles of Parenthood
One of the most pervasive themes, shared across the generations, is parenthood and the various struggles it presents to children and parents alike. Characters such as Abdallah and Mayya are both children and parents, their lives charting the course of the struggles as they transition from the former to the latter.
Struggles with Abdallah’s father are evidenced by Abdallah’s haunting memories of his childhood. Particularly, a memory of when his father hung him upside down in a well as punishment informs all of Abdallah’s opinions of his father. As the only character with a first-person perspective, the audience is able to see inside Abdallah’s thought patterns, which demonstrate the extent to which this single incident colors Abdallah’s impression of his father: every action, whether good or bad, is affected by Abdallah’s fear of being thrown back into the well, to such an extent that he is never able to divorce his idea of his father from the threat of punishment. He even fears the well long after his father’s death.
Abdallah’s relationship with his father affects his relationship with his children. When he is overly harsh or punitive toward his children, the idea of his father and the well comes back to haunt Abdallah. He is determined not to be like his father, though sometimes his emotions get the better of him. Abdallah struggles to control his autistic son and, on one occasion, smacks Muhammad for making a scene. Knowing how much his father’s punishment has affected him, Abdallah beset by guilt. He fears becoming his father; the struggles of parenthood are—for Abdallah—a bilateral issue, affecting his relationship both with his father and his children.
A great deal of attention is also afforded to the difficulties of motherhood in the novel. Both Salima and Fatima are important figures in their families: Salima is a towering, domineering figure in her daughters’ lives, while Fatima’s death at a young age creates a vacuum into which steps Zarifa. The relationships between daughter and mother can be frayed, especially when it comes to questions of marriage (as in Mayya and London’s relationship), but the struggle is continuously depicted across the generations, suggesting a longevity which is separate from the fluctuating societal changes.
Clashes of Culture
The picture of Oman portrayed in the novel is constantly changing. As a country in flux, coming to terms with the departure of the British and the oil-rich economies of neighboring countries, Oman has its own internal tensions. Often, these clashes of culture are reflections of external geopolitical tensions, while they can also be historical issues that have existed in the country for many centuries.
One of the clearest examples of culture clash is the difference between the majority of the population of al-Awafi and the Bedouin tribespeople who live separately though nearby. The difference between the cultures has existed for many centuries. The townspeople are fixed in their position, with permanent houses and ties to specific pieces of land. Meanwhile, the Bedouin are nominally nomadic (though prone to staying in the same place). They are physically separate from the townspeople, their presence out in the desert something of an othering force: the Bedouin appear mysterious and sometimes even dangerous. Their knowledge and practices can be fear-inducing and parochial in equal measure.
The tension between Bedouin and the townspeople’s cultures appears in the relationship between Azzan and Najiya. As Azzan’s relationship with Salima begins to deteriorate, he spends an increasing amount of time with the Bedouins. It is almost as though he hopes to remove himself from his position of importance in al-Awafi and escape to a place where he has fewer responsibilities (especially after the death of his two sons). He and Najiya meet in secret among the dunes. They never really talk; he recites poetry to her, and she cares little for his words. Both accept that they are from different backgrounds and that their love is unfeasible. They are separate and together, a metaphor for the clash between the various cultural groups in Oman which nevertheless come together to form the country itself. Najiya’s fear that Azzan thinks of their relationship in serious, permanent terms reflects her nomadic culture.
There are also evident tensions between distinct geographical areas. Characters note the difference between al-Awafi and Muscat, for instance, with the latter becoming more and more like a reflection of the neighboring Dubai. There are also tensions between those who study abroad (Egypt, London, Canada) and the cultural differences which they bring home to them. All these clashes feed into the larger idea of Oman and its struggles to fit into the modern world.
