Storytelling | Adventure and Abandonment
Adventure and abandonment are at the heart of Chapter Ten.
Yazan is a guide into the desert world.
His knowledge of camels and watering holes lets the reader understand that he is traveling deeper into the desert world, and will need more guidance.
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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Yazan turned back to the desert and then started to climb two-hundred feet above sea level.
“We will reach Wadi Do’an by nightfall.”
The boys arrived at dusk in Wai Do’an southern Hadramautta region, high in the mountains with great cliffs of sand that towered over the high plains and desert floor. The sunbaked plains and rocky narrow strips of trail let h higher and higher to a village built into the side of the cliffs.
This chapter, however, highlights more than the new worlds.
It once again focuses on the sensitive issue of abandonment. This issue is a major thread throughout the book.
Further, Yazan is just one of many characters that have been abandoned or rejected in this story.
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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Yazan’s life had been hard as a street orphan in Damascus. Both parents had died, his mother, Albal in childbirth, and his father, Aban as a horse thief. But he was quick and survived, he outsmarted the town officials and played innocent with the women who took pity on him and feed him
Arlemay, in Chapter Six, The Leper Messiah, details his own abandonment and his time as a cave dweller:
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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He discovered a mountain cave that was not inhabited, and his shelter quickly became a living stone diary as the boy wrestled with his hopes and fears.
He wrote on the cave walls: “How many days along, alone, tired and hungry?”
He spread his work over the cave walls: each word a badge of courage scrawled in nervous energy and slanted forward in grim determination.
“Bathe in the stream, comb hair, in case mother, is waiting.”
In chapter two, the Lion and the Lamb, we understand a young David’s trouble world:
Excerpt from The Leper Messiah:
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David was heartbroken. His father’s words were not so important as they were chosen in order to guide his brothers on the right path. He did not know his path and had no guide to lead him. He was alone.
Yazan, as we can see, is not alone. He does, however, represent the best of those who have suffered loss or rejection.
He understands his circumstances, and also sees that educating himself and becoming the best at his trade, will allow him to rise above his desperate station in life.
He is a Dickensian figure: a lost boy at the mercy of an uncaring society, yet one who is determined to create a better life for himself.
The theme that runs throughout the book is that individuals can make something out of their despair and dark times. In fact, those who have suffered the most often create uncommon works!
Robert