38 pages • 1 hour read
Alif the Unseen
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Chapters 16-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
The Hand’s goal has not changed. He will code the Alf Yeom and take control of the city. Alif challenges him to read the book and explain what he will do differently to make the program work. The Hand goes almost manic as he explains the book as a framework and the stories as individual programs. When he gets to the last story, he finds it titled “The Tale of Alif the Unseen” (411). The Hand reads the story, and as he finishes, the city’s power grid comes back on.
Human protesters storm the apartment. Alif, Dina, and NewQuarter are separated in the shuffle. The rebels discover NewQuarter is a prince and are ready to kill him. Before Alif can get to NewQuarter, a fuming and nearly insane Hand finds him. He rages that Tin Sari shouldn’t work because it’s impossible to read what’s inside people’s hearts. Alif corrects the Hand, saying the program “exposes the apparent” (419): It uses what and how people type to identify them, and “you can’t hide those things behind a new name” (419). Alif manages to fight off the Hand, but he is jostled and pushed out the window.
Chapter 17 Summary
Alif is rescued by Sakina, who lets him down to the ground. Alif fights his way back toward NewQuarter’s apartment. A body is hanged out the window Alif fell from and hailed as a dead prince. Alif goes numb with the idea that NewQuarter is dead. Alif wonders if he’s been on the right side, and if freedom is just “a moment in which all things were possible, overtaken too soon by man’s fearsome instinct to punish and divide” (415). Dina and NewQuarter emerge from the crowd. The prince hanging from the window is the Hand, but this doesn’t make Alif feel better.
Nearby, Intisar has lost her head covering and is being harassed. Alif goes to her aid. He asks why she’s there, and Intisar says she’s looking for him. Dina calls Alif by his given name, Mohammad, and Alif acknowledges it for the first time in the book. Alif tells Intisar to get herself home and goes with Dina. On their walk home, Dina asks him what the last story in the Alf Yeom was. Alif responds “nothing we couldn’t have written together” (431).
Chapters 16-17 Analysis
The Hand’s likening of the Alf Yeom to a computer program is the proof of his impending demise. The two cannot exist together, and so, he cannot exist, either. In Chapter 11, the Hand told Alif they were not very different people. These final chapters prove the Hand’s claim false. The Hand and Alif both love code, but the Hand remains obsessed with the idea of changing magic into technology. Like Reza, he believes understanding the Alf Yeom will make him something greater than he is. Though Reza’s fate is never described, it may be assumed he perished like the Hand.
Alif’s realization that people can’t hide who they are removes the final barrier to releasing his handle name. He can call himself whatever he likes, but he is still himself. He chooses his name and the power he gives that name. His character arc is complete when he responds to Dina calling him Mohammad. Alif finds where he belongs and realizes that he, in fact, has always been where he belongs. By giving up his handle as his name, Alif acknowledges that he wants to be seen and that he and his internet presence are the same person. He is no longer the unseen title character. Alif accepts himself as he is, like Dina has from the beginning, and becomes seen.
Alif’s choice to turn away from Intisar shows he’s found his place. Intisar represents the person Alif wanted to be. He believed Intisar made him better. By choosing Dina, Alif acknowledges that he’s comfortable in his skin, even though he is still poor and of mixed heritage.
The thought of NewQuarter’s death stuns Alif beyond reaction. Alif and the other gray hats waged an online battle at the beginning of the book. They wanted change but never gave thought to what that change might look like. Faced with the reality of death as the catalyst for change, Alif questions his motives. His feelings about the Hand aside, the Hand was a man, same as Alif. Under different circumstances, Alif’s death could have been the catalyst for change. Alif and the other gray hats want to find their place. They want to belong and make good change, but they don’t think about what must happen to achieve that change. When rebellion came to Egypt, Alif detached himself from the conflict. With rebellion in his city, he can’t detach himself. Instituting change requires being seen, but being seen means standing to fight, even if things aren’t what one expected them to be.
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