Hope And Other Dangerous Pursuits

This section, told from the point of view of Murad, introduces the reader to the four main characters who will appear throughout the collection of stories. In this way, “The Trip” is both a mechanism by which to explain the rest of the collection as well as an integral narrative in and of itself. As the title suggests, this section concerns the actual trip that the characters undergo as undocumented immigrants from Morocco to Spain. This section then serves to bifurcate the two remaining sections, imposing a chronological rift between characters’ experiences before and after this event. It then creates a kind of parallel structure between the two halves, as though suggesting that nothing has really changed.

However, the section itself deals almost painstakingly with hope. It ends with the hopeful thoughts of Murad, who truly believes that one day he will successfully venture to the promised land of Spain, changing his life forever. However, this hope is also couched in the difficulties of reality, mainly the fact that Murad’s choices preclude him from obtaining his own dream. When the Guardia Civil catches him, he believes himself to be at fault, primarily based on shoddy decision-making. He believes that next time he will make better decisions and be able to be successful. Although the characters may speak of destinies, they truly seem to believe in their own ability to alter their future; they believe almost tragically in their own agency. Murad especially seems to view any failure as a reflection upon himself, demonstrating how integral success is to one’s self-concept of identity.

Lalami also depicts the motif of sacrifice throughout this first section. Murad sacrifices a great amount to emigrate illegally to Spain: he must sacrifice money to secure his position on the boat, and he must sacrifice his safety, in traveling on an inflatable boat through the rough ocean waters. But more than anything else, this section clarifies that Murad also sacrifices his own dignity, which is especially palpable when he relieves himself in his pants on the beach. Murad even sacrifices what he thinks of himself: although at first he stands up for others, when faced with the choice between saving Faten or leaving her to drown, he abandons his heroic and unique self-concept. He realizes that he is just like everyone else, and this realization haunts him as much as Faten’s face.

Although self-concept plays a major role within this section, anonymity also arises as a factor of life for Murad and the other undocumented workers. Some of the characters, such as Scarface and the Guinean woman, are nameless, whereas only the major characters are named. This anonymity also fosters a sense of interchangeability, wherein as undocumented workers, other people perceive them as the same, essentially erasing their self-conception. Similarly, for nameless characters such as Scarface and the Guinean woman, they are boiled down to a singular aspect of their identities, revolving around either physicality or ethnicity. Murad also gives a false name when he is captured, signifying that the Spaniards do not—and to some extent, cannot—know him. In this way, he is able to shape his own identity, just as the Guinean woman attempts to shape her own identity by throwing away her ID. In this way, it appears as though anonymity also provides a source of security or at the very least agency in that the characters can choose, to some extent, how other people perceive them.