42 pages • 1 hour read
Khaled HosseiniSea Prayer
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Original Publication
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death, war, war crimes, and the refugee crisis as well as the resulting xenophobia of western countries. Descriptions of violence and grief feature prominently.
Originally written as a short story, Sea Prayer premiered as part of a Virtual Reality art exhibition marking the second anniversary of the death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi which shocked people around the globe, Hosseini included. As one of many refugees seeking safety in Greece, Alan drowned with his family in 2015 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean. His death was captured in a haunting photograph of his body face down on the beach. The visceral experience of seeing this toddler confronted Hosseini, who could not help but empathize as a father. Imagining the dangerous trip to even reach the beach, during which people put their lives and their savings in the hands of smugglers to try and lead their family into a safer life, led him to directly consider the kind of prayers a father might say. In writing Sea Prayer, he hoped to create a tribute to those who lost their lives due to war and persecution (Martin, Rachel. “Khaled Hosseini Says a Succinct ‘Sea Prayer’ for a Refugee’s Journey.” NPR, 19 Sept. 2018).
In 2017, the 360-degree film debuted with art by Liz Edwards and produced by Francesca Panetta in collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency. Conceived as an immersive experience when paired with Hosseini’s fictional letter, the project is a 360-degree film where the artwork builds itself around the viewer. This live experience was scored and performed in exhibitions across the world. Preserved as a Virtual Reality video, the art is slowly constructed with individual brushstrokes as the text is performed by an actor. This VR experience places the viewer on the ground in Hosseini’s story as if they are one of the characters. The soundscape slowly crushes in as the story develops. Notably, the images are not replaced as the story moves on but rather juxtaposed side by side as the events unfold. The past and present exist together at the same time and on the same plane. The duration of this story is decided by the audio accompaniment, but it is up to the viewer to turn and decide where to focus their attention. In contrast to the published book, this version embraces the intimacy of VR to show many faces, including the closest figures of Marwan and his father. While both versions maintain the ambiguous ending, the experiences of both are different because of the visuals. Nevertheless, while the artistic styles of Williams (the illustrator of the book) and Edwards are different, both mediums capture the movement and rapid pace of traveling through the narrator’s memories. No text is altered between the two versions (“Sea Prayer.” Docubase, MIT Open Documentary Lab).
The virtual reality film garnered attention at the Bergen International Film Festival, the Future of Storytelling, PHI Centre Virtual Reality Garden, Minsk International Film Festival Listapad, and more. It was a CICLOPE Film Festival Finalist for VR, a Bronze winner of the Halo Award, and a Best VR experience & Immersive Impact Jury Prize Winner at the Social Impact Media Awards. The VR reality experience of Sea Prayer set the tone for its reception when it was published a year later.
Political Context: War in Syria
In 2010 and 2011, the Arab Spring was a series of repeated political protests and regime changes centered in the Middle East and North Africa. Demonstrations elsewhere in the region inspired other political action. When peaceful calls for a release of young Syrian protesters spread throughout the country, the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad responded with extreme military aggression. When this oppression brought about armed resistance, the prolonged conflict escalated into a full civil war. The government attempted to regain control of certain areas while inadequately organized opposition groups confronted them. As violence escalated, especially in key northern cities, Iranian forces entered to back the original Assad-led government. These external influences, including Iran, Russia, and the United States’ involvement, all converged into a country with rising extremist factions and moderate rebel groups.
The people of Syria experienced extreme oppression as bombings and chemical weapons targeted civilians. The father in Sea Prayer narrates the increasingly violent conflict from which his family flees. After global outrage over the government’s repeated use of chemical weapons and by insistent, prolonged outside pressure, a presidential election was held inside Syria in 2014. When the original leader Bashar al-Assad won reelection, the results were rejected and seen as false by his opponents. By 2014, a third of Syrian territory was taken over by the Islamic State Caliphate, led by ISIS and other extremist groups, whose violence incited the United State to engage in direct military action. As control over areas shifted, the region suffered due to this instability. Fleeing both extremist groups in the area as well as pro and anti-government attacks, millions of people like the fictional Marwan and his family were displaced by the indiscriminate bombings (Yacoubian, Mona. “Syria Timeline: Since the Uprising Against Assad.” United States Institute of Peace, 12 Mar. 2021).
Political Context: Status of Refugees
As a result of the violent civil war between pro and antigovernment factions, including Islamist extremist groups, millions of Syrians were displaced from their homes. There were many reasons why people felt that they could not stay where they were, whether they were motivated by a fear of retaliation, a need to escape the threat of bombings, or because their homes were destroyed. The refugee crisis began at the start of the government suppression of peaceful public demonstrations in 2011, and by 2023, 14 million people were forced to leave their homes to places within Syria or to another country entirely. Anyone who seeks asylum in a foreign country is especially vulnerable, due in part to many living in refugee camps. Seventy percent of Syrian refugees live in poverty as of 2023. In 2023, it was estimated that 12.1 million Syrians still living within Syria are food insecure, meaning that they do not have access to adequate food or do not know where it will be coming from. Facing economic hardships, people have lost their livelihoods, their support network, and much more, making the economic hardships of living as a refugee difficult to escape. This dangerous future looms in Sea Prayer as the family escapes but knows that this does not guarantee safety (“Syria Refugee Crisis Explained.” USA for UNHCR. The UN Refugee Agency).
A vast majority of displaced people go into neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Approximately 5.5 million of the 6.6 million who were forced to flee Syria still lived within this region as of 2023. Facing the largest refugee crisis in the world, an increased number of refugees and migrants reached Europe. Refugees from Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan make up over 75% of those seeking a new life in Europe. In 2015, over 911,000 refugees and migrants from many nations seeking safety traveled by sea. The dangers of traveling by sea resulted in thousands of deaths; Hosseini acknowledges this by calling the text Sea Prayer. When attempting a crossing, refugees do so in dangerous conditions, and European nations have often failed to provide adequate rescue operations when boats struggle to make journey. The ambiguous ending of Sea Prayer reflects this, since the boat disappears into the distance and the reader is not told its fate, implying that it may not have made the journey, in which case the boat is unlikely to have been rescued (Spindler, William. “2015: The Year of Europe’s Refugee Crisis.” UNHCR US, 8 Dec. 2015).
Despite global efforts for peace in Syria, the long-term crisis faced by refugees has stretched on for years. Different nations shouldered different amounts of responsibility for those who reached Europe, with many refusing to accept asylum seekers. Plans to relocate refugees from Italy and Greece to places like Sweden reflects the struggle to find long term solutions for this crisis.
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