A Boy and a Gun: Exploring silent responses to violence in Riad Sattouf's L'Arabe du Futur

Abstract

Franco Syrian graphic novelist Riad Sattouf paints a vivid and contrasting picture of a traumatic childhood in his well celebrated series, L'arabe du futur: Une Jeunesse dans le Moyen Orient (The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East) published between 2014-2015 Through text and image, the reader is given a glimpse into the wanderings and travails of an immigrant multicultural family. Sojourns in countries like Syria and Libya where children are routinely confronted with violence from a tender age mark the work. This paper aims to explore the varying behaviour patterns evident in children growing up in conflict-ridden regions and under the ever-watchful eye of dictatorial figures at home and in society, as depicted in Sattouf's work. The study brings out the duality of reactions to violence: silence as seen in the self-reflections, and re-engagement in violence that routinely surfaces in the observational accounts. Further findings lead us to conclude that most societies depicted in Sattouf's memoirs are plagued by an intergenerational cycle of violence that impacts younger members and perpetuates similar behaviour through mimicry. The stifling silence that accompanies violence in the work is not restricted to cases involving children alone but is reinforced in instances of barbaric behaviour towards other vulnerable sections of the community: women, the underprivileged and animals. Silence comes across as the invisible force permeating the novel: by rendering victims powerless, stifling opinions of individual thinkers, privileging majoritarian views alone, and doing away with opposition to aggression, it ultimately acts as a corollary to violence.