The Prayer of a Refugee: An Analysis of Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini
Reshma T M
Former Assistant
Professor
Carmel College,
Mala
SNM College,
Maliankara
Kerala, India
Abstract:
Khaled Hosseini, one of the most
widely read and the author of Kite Runner, A Thousands splendid Sun's and
And the Mountain Echoed who depicts the problems of the suffering
sections of the society. He is the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a
not-for-profit organization which provides humanitarian assistance to the
people of Afghanistan. His Sea Prayer is an exact picture of the
problems of refugees. Though a small work, it paints the pain of a refugee
while leaving their native land and also the mental suffering that he has going
on when they move in search of a better living. The problem of refugees is one
of the great social issues. In this twenty first century, though we claims to
be developed, educated and equal, there are groups of people deprived of all
these benefits. They are Refugees. For several reasons, they are forced to
leave their country, move to some other places in search of a proper shelter.
But they reach nowhere. Studies are going on the issues of refugees, but still there
are lots of people struggling to find out a living.
Key words:
Refugees, Sea Prayer, Insecurity, Unwanted Outsider
“Say this city
has ten million souls,
Some
are living in mansions, some are living in holes
Yet
there is no place for us, my dear, yet there is no place for us”.
-
W.H Auden
This is the painful situation of
refugees.A group of people,displaced and has been forced to cross national
boundaries and who cannot return home safely.Refugees are forced to leave their
motherland ,try to find shelter in a strange land where they are treated as
unwanted outsiders.Every refugee will have a pathetic story of this kind. Their
history is as old as human civilisation. It is unimaginable for a human being
to think about a life without a proper shelter,a home,a country of their own.
But the fact is that, there are millions and millions of people, living
miserably, as an unwanted,as a displaced,as an outsider.
The term refugee was first used in the
context of French conversion policy by which French Protestants fled from their
country during the late seventeenth centuary. Later; the term began to use to
refer to those people who fled from their land of origin to some strange land.
The 1951 UN Convention on the status of Refugees defines a refugee as a person
who ‘owing to a well founded fear of persecution for reason of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or a political opinion, is
outside the country of his nationalty and is unable or, owing to such fear, is
unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country’ (UN Convention on
the Statusof Refugees, 1950)
Thus, there may be a lot of reason
behind their migration. Sometimes religious or racial discriminations lead them
to leave their native land.Political upheavels in their place may sometimes
lead to their migration. Environmental or climatic changes sometimes affect
them and force them to flee from the land. Economic problemes are another major
reason behind some migration. Whatever the reason, the soul of their peaceful
life may set apart with the migration. For most of them havn’t a proper
destination. They don’t know what to do or where to go. Even if they have,
there is a sense of insecurity all around their migration. Without food, water or
shelter,they wander and finaly reach somewhere. But there they are like an
unwanted guest.In the foriegn land, they are seen with a suspicion. People of
the foriegn land consider them as an intruder to their peaceful life. Sometimes,
social, political, or religious orders made their life almost impossible or
terrible in the foriegn land.
Refugees are different from other
immigrants who voluntarily move to another country, sometimes as tourist,
sometimes to improve their economic position. Though this immigrant has
problems like subordinate position in the foriegn land, cultural differences
from the people of that land, theirs will be much better lives than the
refugees. Because refugees are totaly uprooted from their homeland, they have
to start everything afreash. There is a sense of fear and hopelessness in them.
This sense of hopelessness and fear can be seen in every refugee. It is
impossible to forget Alan Kurdi, a three year old Syrian boy of Kurdish ethnic
background. His families were Syrian refugees and left their homeland due to
Syrian Civil war. As they were trying to reach Canada, the boy drowned in the Mediteranian
Sea on 2nd September 2015. The image of this little one’s lifeless
body lying on a Turkish beach caught world’s attention. The boy and his family
left their homeland to save themselves, but the fate defeats them. Not only
Alan, but many refugees surrender themselves to death. Lack of food and water
make their life more miserable. more than this the sense of helplessness hang
around their movements.
Sea Prayer written by Khaled Hosseini, one of the
widely read novelists, presents the plight and hopeless condition of refugees.
It is a short , illustrated work. It seems like a poem; at the same time it is
in the form of a letter by a father to his son, on the night before their
journey to protect themselves from the disasters in their motherland. On a
moonlit beach ,the father is talking to his littile child,who is sleeping.They
are waiting for the dawn and a boat to arrive.He is explaining their peaceful
life in Homs,Syria,before the war ,and the sudden transformation of the place
to a hell. He is also reflecting the dangers that they may have to face while
crossing the Mediterranian Sea.
The poem begins as the father,
addressing to his son, talking to him about his own childhood. Along with his
brothers he used to spend his time on the roof of his grandfather’s farm house
outside of Homs. They woke up in the morning, and the father explains the usual
morning activities,the beauty of nature.,stirring of olive trees,bleating sound
of grandmother’s goat,the clanking of cooking pots,the cool air and the shining
sun. Everything was simple and beautiful then. Even the father remembers his
son, as a littile baby and his mother showing him a herd of cows grazing in the
field ,which is beautiful with wild flowers.Everything was associated with
peace. So much happiness is connected to his childhood memmories. The father
here wishes his child hadn’t been so young because ,he may have the memmories
of the beautiful farm house,the stone walls and the things that they have
created as young boys. But the littile one is not that lucky .His childhood
memmories are mostly associated with war, chaos and insecurity. The father
wants his son to remember Homs as he does. It was a bustling city, mosque,
church, shops; smells of food are associated with it. They used to make evening
walks around clock TowersSquare. Their life was so beautiful and peaceful.But
the father says, that life was just like a dream to them, “like some
long-dissolved rumour"(Hosseini).
The readers get a clear and splendid
picture of the beautiful life they spend there.The illustrations also provide
the positive picture of their life in the homeland. Everything green and
colourful.Flowers, busy city, busy life, all provide the idea of a normal life
they had spent. But everything went upside down. The simple protest turned to a
siege. Bomb blast, starvation, everything made their life so miserable. The
children know little things; they know how to transform bomb craters into
swimming holes. They also came to know that people can be found under the
concrete bricks and exposed beams the reality of death.
At present they were on that cold moonlit
beach. Crying babies, worrying women, and people from different rigion Afghans,
Somalis, Iraqis, Eritreans, Syrians, all of them were impatiently waiting for
the sunrise. In fact “all of us in search of home” (Hosseini). The father then speaks
a fact about refugees that they are unwelcomed and are uninvited.
I
have heard it said we are the uninvited.
We
are the unwelcome.
We
should take our misfortune elsewhere. (Hosseini)
Everywhere, in the foriegn land people
consider them as an outsider, that they should take their misfortune somewhere
else. Father hears his wife’s consoling words, she is consoling hereself by
saying;
Oh, but if they saw, my darling.
Even half of what you have.
If
only they saw.
They
would say kinder things, surely. (Hosseini)
But the father
just looked at his son’s face and said to him “hold my hand. Nothing bad will
happen” (Hosseini). He knows that this is the only thing that a father can do
or say to his son in this situation. But in reality he is thinking about their
unassured journey through the sea.He is thinking about the depth, vastness and
indifference of the sea. Because he knows that he is powerless to protect his
family from all these. All they can do is to pray.
Sea Prayer is a heartfelt prayer
by a father, for his family, for a peaceful existence. Through him the author
presents the life of thousands of refugees, struggling to find out a proper
shelter for their dear and near ones. It is not so easy to explain their struggle.
Besides having no basic needs, they are tortured by their identity. They are
not sure where they belong to. Even they don't know where to go. The father in
this work is going on through the same problem. He is afraid of the sea, he is
not sure whether they can cross the sea safely or not. He is afraid because he
knows his inability to protect the others if anything happen for he is tired
physically and mentally. Feelings of insecurity and hopelessness are haunting
him. Thus, the pain of a refugee is clearly depicting in this work.
Work Cited
Hosseini, Khaled.
Sea Prayer. Bloomsbury, 2018.
Mishra, Mallica.
"Understanding Refugeeism: An Introduction to Tibetan Refugees in
India". Issues that Matter, Edited by, Anitha, R, and Jimmy James,
Macmillan education, 2017, pp. 141-147.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/refugee.