66 pages • 2 hours read
When the Apricots Bloom
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Symbols & Motifs
Portraits of Saddam Hussein
Portraits, billboards, and statues of Saddam Hussein are seen around Baghdad and in characters’ homes across the novel, and they contribute to Saddam Hussein’s representations as symbols of the violations of privacy perpetrated by and the omnipresence of the government. All characters need a portrait of Saddam in the home to display their loyalty, but the portraits serve a dual purpose in symbolizing both the eyes and ears of the government and the discontent of the Iraqi people in the face of oppression. Before the mukhabarat enter her home, Huda must place her portrait of Saddam in a more prominent position to avoid suspicion, and this action can be perceived as representing a common practice amongst all Iraqi citizens, who most likely have a portrait of Saddam placed out of the way that they can display during times of invasion. As such, the portrait is meant to represent loyalty to the president, but instead, it takes on the dual meanings of fear and subversion.
Likewise, a barrage of billboards, statues, and portraits are always staring at the characters in the novel, reminding them that no place is truly safe. This reality is further emphasized by the characters’ tendency to discuss sensitive topics in gardens, backyards, and outside of cars, just in case there are monitoring devices in their homes and vehicles. The sense of pervasive surveillance is always present in such discussions, and each character takes protective measures against it, like Ally deleting files off her computer or Huda and Abdul Amir retreating to the backyard for serious discussions; all of these actions are designed to thwart any attempts at surveillance. Accordingly, it is noted that many statues and artworks that existed before the regime have since been replaced by artworks depicting Saddam, and this transition from true art to devotional imagery reflects the growing power and dispersal of Saddam’s network of secret police.
At the same time, Miriam and Rania, the two artists of the novel, either make or possess portraits of the president that betray a sense of rebellion. Miriam’s portraits display Saddam in comically irreverent situations, such as Saddam dressed in a toga, an image that displays a strong sense of disrespect for the president despite the ostensibly glorified setting. To the mukhabarat, Saddam in a toga might be a signal of respect matching that of the Romans, but to the average Iraqi, and likely to Miriam herself, it is actually a joke at the president’s expense. Likewise, though Rania’s portrait of Saddam and Uday is not a joke, it is the excuse used to get Hanan out of the country. By creating the appearance of going along with Malik’s desires, Rania strategically diffuses any suspicion that she is planning to remove herself and her daughter from the country.
Scheherazade
The gifted storyteller Scheherazade, whose name can be roughly translated to “exalted lineage,” is a figure of legend and the narrator of the famous collection of Middle Eastern tales titled One Thousand and One Nights. In the premise that drives these tales, the king of Samarkand, betrayed by the infidelity of his wife, orders her beheaded and resolves to avoid any further marital infidelities by taking a new wife each night and beheading her the next day. When Scheherazade agrees to spend a night with the king against her father’s wishes, she devises a clever plan to engineer her own survival and tells a never-ending series of stories-within-stories. Each night as dawn approaches, she pauses her tale in the middle of the action and leaves the king hungry to find out what happens next, and each night, he postpones her execution so she can continue the story. After spinning 1,001 tales, she tells the king that she has no more stories to give him, but by this point, he has fallen in love with Scheherazade and makes her his queen. Thus, the story of Scheherazade calls to mind the motif of keeping secrets and the theme of Different Forms of Loyalty and Betrayal.
The protagonists of When the Apricots Bloom mention Scheherazade several times, and the context of their shared plight lends the legendary storyteller a whole new significance, for in Gina Wilkinson’s novel, she comes to represent the hidden strength of women to resist systemic oppression through clever ruses and subversive tactics. She is first mentioned in Chapter 5, when Huda and Ally notice a statue of her during their first significant bonding session in the car on the way to Rania’s gallery, and again in Chapter 15, when Rania tells Ally about Scheherazade’s use of storytelling as a survival tactic. In both cases, the figure of Scheherazade implies that women can use stories as a weapon to change and control their own lives. In the case of Ally, Huda, and Rania, this storytelling manifests in the form of telling lies and keeping secrets when necessary, to gain safety through false impressions or to engineer new paths of escape. Ultimately, the women devise joint strategies to thwart the wills of the oppressive Iraqi regime and the men in their lives who impede their goals, thus emulating Scheherazade in the ingenuity of the tales they spin to set themselves and their children free.
Nargileh
Nargileh, spelled “nargilah” in the novel, is a form of smoking tobacco that is placed in a hookah. It is also called shisha, and it is known as a popular smoking form in the Middle East. In the novel, it is the choice activity for the unemployed and dissenters like Abdul Amir, and it is representative of discontent with the government. When Abdul Amir is frustrated at home, he often goes to smoke nargileh with other unemployed men, and the implication is that idle men form a dangerous subsect of society. Such men could go in one of two directions, either into the mukhabarat’s hands, or into those of the opposition. Nargileh therefore becomes a symbol for the feelings and motivations that lead Abdul Amir to accidentally cause Hatim’s death, as well as the pride and nationalism that lead him to interfere in Huda’s plans to get Khalid out of the country.
In many ways, the nargileh smoking in the novel is reminiscent of salon culture, in which men with time to spare meet in common areas to discuss politics, religion, and government. For men like Abdul Amir, such a setting is a good place to vent one’s frustrations, but, for men like Kareem and the cleric, it would be an ideal setting to plot the opposition’s next moves, as well as to recruit new dissenters into their ranks. As such, Abdul Amir is rather ambiguous character who is determined to continue to operate within Iraq, but he also stands at the fringes of society, meeting with and associating with men who share a similar distaste for the current state of the country.
Secrets
Secrets are a very prominent motif within the novel, for secrets of one kind or another have a significant impact on each character as the story progresses and ultimately form the basis for the bonds and relationships that develop among the primary three protagonists. While Huda, Ally, and Rania are all skilled at keeping secrets, the secrets they keep from each other only serve to harm them all. However, the secrets they keep from those outside their circle are necessary to preserve their own plans and schemes. Secrets, then, are a two-sided factor in the novel, as they are both harmful in some situations and helpful in others, and the distinction between “good secrets” and “bad secrets” is something that the characters must discern for themselves as the novel progresses.
For Huda, keeping secrets from Ally is most important in the first sections of the novel, as she fears the mukhabarat and does not trust Ally. Huda’s secret role as an informant allows her to get close to Ally, but it also forms a barrier between them. Only when the secret comes out are the two able to truly bond and work together to escape the country. This situation mirrors that of Rania and Huda, for Rania has kept her affair with Mustafa a secret for over a decade, and this secret, too, must be exposed before the two women can begin to heal from their long estrangement. The secrets between the women are ultimately the main obstacle preventing them from reaching their goals, for Huda can only tell Ally about Yusra and Bridget when she also reveals that she is an informant, thus resolving Ally’s search for information about her mother’s past. Likewise, Rania and Huda can protect each of their children together only when they rebuild the trust between them.
However, some secrets in the novel are justified, such as Ally keeping the details of the trip to Jordan secret from Tom, and Huda keeping the destination of the trip a secret from Khalid until they arrive at the lake. In fact, these same secrets are also kept from Abdul Amir and Hanan, originally, and, while Rania telling Hanan about Jordan does not backfire, Huda telling Abdul Amir that she is taking Khalid out of the country almost ruins the entire plan. As such, the morality of keeping secrets is the perpetual question of the novel, as the pattern of both good and bad secrets overlaps and interweaves until the protagonists are safely in Jordan.
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