Theme analysis of Family and Relationships from the nove "In The Country of Men by HIsham Matar

2. Theme
Family and
Relationships
In the style of a
bad American
soapie

3. The moral dilemma!
Does one sacrifice one's family for the
sake of the larger good, or protect one's
family at all costs?

4. Family
Love
Close
friendships
…A time of
crude savagery

5. Mother & Son – Home &Away
-the soap opera
• Even fifteen years of exile cannot
withdraw it.
• A sons intimacy with his mother “has
since occupied the innermost memory I
have of love”
• A mother’s love causes her to send him
away to protect him from the regime.

6. Moosa
• He protects Suleiman in exile
• Will he overcome his displaced survivor
guilt?
– Faraj is alive because Najwa intervened and
asked for Ustath Jafer’s help
– Moosa sees this as betrayal – other’s have
given their live for the resistance
– “cant bear looking at him…. The betrayal in
his eyes” (p207)
• He leaves Libya and never sees Faraj
again

7. Ustath Rashid
• An undying loyalty for a best friend
• They Die a Brothers death

8. Parents and the Single Child
• ”woman was no
longer good”
• “Mother and father
were objecting to
Gods will”
• BUT they
• ”reinvent life and
make black days
rosy”

9. Then why oh why…
• did his parents send Suleiman to Egypt.
• “in every direction I turned but they
weren’t there.”

10. Family…
the good, the bad & the ugly
• Even the bad relationships such as
Najwa’s family who create her “black”
life
• And the unpleasant neighbours she
forces herself to be ingratiated
towards

11. When Faraj Returns …
• Family is made to work (On the surface)
• Um Massoud and Ustath Jafar are united
despite their apparent distaste for each
other
• Moosa and Jude Yaseen (the father of the
“disappointed gaze”)remain close
because they are family
– Faraj’s unofficial ‘brother’ takes in Suleiman
and all that entails

12. “At a time like this we should
stay together”

13. They pushed
me away
as they cemented
their own sense of
family- ultimately
exiling me to Egypt,
something I find it
hard to reconcile
This is not a quote, this is what I
think Suleiman would be thinking

14. Matar does this for us with
Suleiman’s final words….
“Mama, Mama”