Road to Chlifa

“…he would have looked more at ease against a backdrop of sand and sky, straddling a superbly disdainful camel or a proud steed galloping through the dunes. Now don’t ask me if there are camels in Lebanon. I don’t have a clue.”

The anonymous narrator describes Karim’s physical appearance, setting the stage for the orientalizing and racist comments that come from his Canadian classmates. She explicitly acknowledges her lack of knowledge about Karim’s homeland, and imagines him in a desert and with a camel. The reader comes to learn that this image is quite inaccurate, as Lebanon features verdant mountains rather than dunes.

“When I try to understand everything that happened, I tell myself that Karim had the effect of a catalyst. Like in chemistry class when just adding one substance sets off all kinds of reactions.”

The anonymous narrator’s words indicate why the section is named “Catalysis.” However, the narrator here assumes that Karim is a catalyst, an element of a reaction that remains unchanged. It is for the reader to evaluate whether the events in Montreal do change Karim.

“I got out of the chore by telling Robert, the teacher, that I never listen to music and that we don’t have a radio or a tape recorder or anything of the kind at home…Gone the perfect young man who refused to lie. Gone forever. But there’s no one left anymore to care.”

In this diary entry, Karim reveals that he is using his classmates’ and teachers’ ignorance of his culture and religion to his advantage. He also implies that he used to care about lying, leading the audience to wonder what in him has changed.