The Shadow King

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to sexual assault. 

Teaching his young son about photography, Leo Navarra says, “every visible body is surrounded by light and shade. We move through the world always pulled by the two” (187). As Ettore Navarra navigates his role as a war photographer with the Italian colonial forces in Ethiopia, this technical advice takes on moral significance, pointing to The Moral Complexities of War (187). Throughout the narrative, imagery involving light and shadow codes the moral choices made by each character. For example, Kidane’s sexual violence toward both Aster and Hirut occurs under cover of darkness, while his valor in battle is symbolized by the bright sunlight gleaming off his body. Like all people, Kidane is a morally complex character constantly pulled between darkness and light. His heroic actions do not absolve him of his crimes, nor do those crimes erase his heroism.

The interplay between light and shadow is also apparent in Ettore’s photographs. Thes images, described throughout the story, serve to comment on the moral complexity of documenting war and conflict.