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Submitted by: Sana Gul

A Critical Analysis of Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows

Kamila Shamsie is one of the most important figures when it comes to postcolonial

literature. Her novels are vastly read and praised for their excellence in both language and

subject matter. Shamsie’s themes revolve around geopolitics, culture, feminism, history of

her mother land and sub-continent as a whole, and postcolonialism. The elements of

postcolonialism such as cultural hybridity, displacement and dislocation, alienation,

marginalisation, self and other, diaspora, identity crises, nationalism, orientalism, linguistic

imperialism, and glocalization are prominent in her novels. Burnt Shadows also embodies

many of these postcolonial themes. In this novel Shamsie tries to explain the phenomenon of

global terrorism by going to the historical roots of the said conflict and by trying to show its

consequences globally as well as locally. She explains the hybrid concept of glocalization

which intertwines general events like Nagasaki and the nuclear bomb, Partition of the

subcontinent, the Cold War, North American neo-colonialism in Southeast Asia etc, with

greater impact, to the private and individual spheres, bringing together the two planes. The

story of Burnt Shadows starts abruptly with the depiction of one of the most deadly incidents

in history i.e. the bombing of Nagasaki. This terrorist attack “to save the American lives”

(Shamsie, 62) dislocates Hiroko Tanaka, the protagonist of the novel, from her home and

leaves literal as well as metaphorical marks of war on her back. This terrifying incident of

Nagasaki ruins the life of millions of people in the city including Hiroko. She loses both her

father and her fiancé, Konrad, in the blast which alters her entire life. In this way, from the

beginning, Shamsie shows the effects of global terrorism on individual lives.

Hiroko moves to India to start a new life as she does not want to be reduced to

“Hibakusha” in Nagasaki. Her dislocation leads towards the themes of diaspora and cultural

hybridity which run throughout the novel. She moves from Japan to India, from India to

Turkey, from Turkey to Pakistan, and finally from Pakistan to America in the wake of 9/11
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attacks. She shifts into many identities which reflect her flexibility and adaptability. In this

way, the readers come across different cultures of the world. In India, she challenges the

cultural and social stereotypes which give rise to the feminist aspects of the novel. When

James, Elizabeth’s husband, in his patriarchal attitude, shows surprise in her travelling alone,

she stands up to him and says “Yes. Why? Can't women travel alone in India?” (Shamsie,

46). Furthermore, this hybridity is found in Sajjad, Hiroko’s husband, too. Sajjad is chained

between two cultures; at home he wears shalwar kameez but on duty at the Burtons, he has to

wear English dress. As a hybrid, Sajjad has to bear the unjust behaviour of Burton’s family

because they are the colonizers. Here Shamsie very strategically blends the theme of

marginalisation and othering. Colonizers considered native people primitive, uncivilized and

as their subordinates. That is why they always kept them away from themselves and looked

down upon them. Sajjad suffers the same fate at the hands of the Burtons. For James, Sajjad

is the Other. James represents Occidentalism whereas Sajjad represents Orientalism. Sajjad is

interested in law and is anxious to be a lawyer. He requests James to give him time for law

but James always gives him empty promises. He does not help Sajjad in his studies except

lending books, and wastes Sajjad’s time in playing chess. Sajjad slowly understands that the

English can never be sincere with Indians as they do not want Indians to progress. Elizabeth

too is always critical of Sajjad and dislikes him for no reason. Moreover, when Hiroko says

“I’d like to learn the language they speak here” James dismisses it by saying “It’s not

necessary. English serves you fine” (Shamsie, 57). Elements of metropolitanism can also be

seen in the novel. After English occupied India, they had made their separate colonies. Their

colonies were well organized and demarcated by the boundary of huge and strong walls.

They always kept Indians away from their company as they saw them below themselves.

Sajjad says: “There was Delhi; city of the Raj, where every Englishman’s bungalow had lush

gardens, lined with red flowerpots… No trees growing in courtyards for English, no rooms
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clustered around these courtyards; instead, separations and demarcation” (Shamsie, 33). In

this way, Shamsie tactfully portrays the English’s marginalised attitude towards the colonized

people.

The theme of identity crises is reflected in the character of Hiroko and Sajjad’s son

Raza, a polyglot, who combines the traces of almost five cultural forms in his identity. He is

in a position which denies any access to a single cultural identity. He belongs everywhere and

nowhere simultaneously. Raza’s dilemma is that he lives in a culture and language whose

inhabitants suspect his foreign features. So, he frequently shifts into different identities. He

lives in Pakistan but “he didn’t fit this neighbourhood” (Shamsie, 194). He tells his name to a

fourteen years old Afghan boy, Abdullah as Raza Hazara for he does not find balance in Raza

Konrad Ashraf. All these identities lead towards his identity crises due to which he keeps

failing his exam.

Nationalism is one the important themes of Burnt Shadows which revolves around the

character of Kim, Harry Burton’s daughter. Influenced by the propaganda and ideological

position of the United States government and with the insistent criminalization of the “other”,

Kim adopts a position that makes no distinction between Muslims and terrorists. Although,

she is not sure if Abdullah is a terrorist, she reports him to the police. However, Raza is

imprisoned mistakenly. The process by which Kim justifies this is a synthesis of the hegemonic

configuration of national identity that does not see more reasons than those deriving from the

internal logic of the group to which they supposedly belong. She succumbs to the reasoning of a

policeman who tells her that she has done the right thing: “Your father would be proud of you”

(Shamsie, 363).
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In conclusion, Burnt Shadows shows us a glocalised world in which global has a huge

impact on the local. Shamsie gives a message to America and other superpowers in her novel

by saying “War is like disease. Until you’ve had it, you don’t know it” (Shamsie, 344).