A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Drowning

One of the most frequent motifs in the narrative is drowning. The book opens with two separate scenes in which Doaa is worried that she will drown, once as a child and once as an adult. This particular structural choice helps to reiterate one of the key difficulties in Doaa’s journey, that she must overcome one of her most primal fears, a fear which will crop up again tragically in later life. This fear of water informs Doaa’s journey, whether it is on the ferry crossing to Egypt or debating whether she can stomach the idea of taking a refugee boat to Europe. The opening of the book, which focuses so much on the motif of drowning, presses upon the audience the difficulty of Doaa’s decisions and sets the stakes for what is to come.

At first, however, it seems as though Doaa’s fear of drowning is unfounded. Life in Daraa does not present a particularly common threat of drowning. It is not until Doaa arrives at the ferry that she has to worry about crossing deep water. But even then, she imagines the ferry capsizing and drowning everyone that she loves. The early foreshadowing in the text informs Doaa’s reticence about taking a ferry from Jordan to Egypt, adding another difficult hurdle to her journey.

Doaa must again confront her fears when Bassem suggests that they take a boat to Europe. She knows that their stay in Egypt cannot last and that there is no other way in which to cross the sea. But, in order to do so, she must confront her worst fear. It is only with Bassem’s help and support that she is able to confront this fear and board the boat. This adds to the tragedy that Bassem dies at sea. He suffers the fate that Doaa had feared for her entire life. Her worst fears come to pass and the motif of the people drowning demonstrates just how horrifying the experience is for Doaa. But the experience also helps to destroy Doaa’s fear. Indeed, she begins to long for the water and hopes to drown alongside Bassem. The water is no longer a threat to her as she has already lost everything. But she survives and, many months later, takes a trip to the beach. Having rediscovered her purpose in life, she wades into the ocean and confronts the idea of drowning. She tells the water that she is no longer scared. The final use of the drowning motif demonstrates Doaa’s growth as a character.

Jewelry

Jewelry is a useful motif in the book because it symbolizes something different whenever it appears. Throughout the text, different items of jewelry represent protest, love, and the hope of a better life. The first of these ties into Doaa’s need to have a purpose in life. Though she is not able to do much in the protests, she finds her niche by making jewelry with a revelation theme. She makes pieces colored like the flags of the protests and hands them out to fellow demonstrators and her friends. They wear these pieces, even though they are aware that it could result in punishment if caught. The jewelry Doaa creates is a symbol for her desire to fight back against the regime and her need to be useful to those around her, whatever the cost might be.

By the time Doaa moves to Egypt, jewelry begins to serve a new purpose. When she agrees to marry Bassem, he follows tradition and buys her a set of jewelry. For her entire life, Doaa has avoided the idea of marriage and attempted to serve a more important purpose. But she does not refuse the gifts. She loves Bassem and the gifts help to sanctify this love. But it is not the items themselves which are important, but the love that they represent. Indeed, Doaa loses her engagement ring and worries that this is an ominous sign. But Bassem tells her not to worry. Their love—what the jewelry symbolizes—is what is important, he assures her.

When the refugees board the boat, the jewelry has another purpose. It is a valuable commodity, something they can trade for money in the destination country. Doaa keeps her jewelry close as it represents opportunity for success in Europe, a dream she shares with Bassem. The smugglers try and steal this jewelry, but she will not let them. Not only does the jewelry symbolize the couple’s love, but it has a practical use, a material value which they can build upon in their new home. After the shipwreck, when Bassem is dead, the jewelry takes on one final meaning. Though she has lost everything, Doaa still feels for the necklace Bassem gave her. It is all she has left of him. At the end of the book, the jewelry takes on one final symbolic meaning, becoming a memento mori for everything that Doaa has lost. She will never forget Bassem, and the necklace becomes a physical symbol of this memory.

Violence

In a book which features protest, civil war, and human trafficking, violence is a common motif. But rather than the spectacle of the violence, the important symbolic meaning often arises from the way in which violence operates as a tool. For example, the novel begins in Syria, where the government uses violence (and the threat of violence) as a form of authoritarian control. Many people get beaten, tortured, or killed for protesting against the regime. Violence becomes a tool of oppression, representing the moral depravity of the government and giving the protestors a reason to rise up against those who are so willing to use violence against them. In this instance, violence on behalf of the government represents the justification for a popular uprising and a spirit of rebellion.

In Egypt, violence operates differently. After a welcoming reception to the country, many Syrians soon begin to experience violence against them. The Egyptians harass and threaten the refugees. Though the violence is less explicit than that used by the Assad regime, it is just as purposeful, designed to chase the Syrians out of Egypt and fulfilling the objective of a changing political climate. The rise in violence (and the threat of violence) is the manifestation of the failed rebellion and the military coup in the country. The violence against the Syrians represents the way in which the revolutionary sentiments end up corrupted and rerouted against a new enemy: the refugees. The violence, in this sense, exists as the manifestation of a poisonous political climate.

The final and most punishing violence portrayed in the book is elemental. After the boat capsizes, the refugees find themselves fighting against the forces of nature rather than any one enemy. The propeller of the boat slices apart men, women, and children. The ocean drowns people and floats their corpses near to their loved ones. The waves crash against the survivors and the saltwater makes them vomit. The refugees can’t reason with or protest this natural violence. It is a fact of nature, which makes it even more punishing and difficult to overcome. As such, it represents the greatest challenge in Doaa’s life, and her survival represents an incredible triumph over every kind of violence imaginable.