Martyrdom
The protagonist, Cyrus Shams, is obsessed with the concept of martyrdom. This obsession manifests through his personal, familial, and cultural identity. Coming from an Iranian-American background, he is haunted by the death of his mother, who was killed in a plane shot down by the U.S. Navy. Cyrus's fixation extends beyond his family as he immerses himself in studying historical martyrs to seek meaning in their sacrifices. Cyrus turns to martyrdom as a lens through which he tries to understand the significance of suffering and death, both personal and collective. His obsession mirrors his search for meaning and purpose in life since he grapples with his Iranian heritage, the trauma of his family history, and his alienation in the U.S. Akbar delves into how the concept of martyrdom becomes a psychological and spiritual fixation for Cyrus.
Addiction and Redemption
Cyrus’s struggles with addiction are central to the narrative. The novel paints a harrowing picture of how addiction is a coping mechanism and a barrier to self-awareness and healing. Cyrus's substance abuse is linked to his quest for redemption because he repeatedly seeks divine and existential signs: for instance, using the flickering of a lightbulb in his dingy apartment to confirm a higher purpose or absolution (Chapter 1). Cyrus views his sobriety as a constant struggle for atonement, feeling unworthy and trapped in his cycle of guilt and shame. The novel explores how addiction warps his perception of self and relationships, particularly with Zee Novak, his close friend and romantic interest. In many ways, his addiction mirrors his obsession with martyrdom. Both are expressions of his desire to transcend his pain and find a higher meaning in his suffering.
The Downside of Seeking Meaning
Throughout the entire novel, Cyrus is obsessed with seeking meaning primarily in his death but also, by extension, in his life. At various points, Cyrus notes his propensity to search for underlying symbols instead of just grasping something literally. In an imagined conversation between Lisa Simpson and Roya Shams, Cyrus hears Lisa chastise Roya (a mental projection of Cyrus himself) for "trying to make everything mean something...Trying to flatten everything to a symbol or a point" (Chapter 5). This inclination is partly what alienates Cyrus and prevents him from connecting with others. This can be seen in a variety of contexts, from Cyrus's AA group to his relationship with Zee. Stemming from childhood trauma, Cyrus's anxiety and insomnia fuel his cognitive ruminations. In Chapter 10, Cyrus admits that "So much of his psychic bandwidth was taken up with conflicting thoughts about political prepositions." Filtering everything through the lens of "late capitalism" and how to be on "the right side of history" is an exhausting and isolating endeavor (Chapter 10). When Cyrus finally seeks companionship with Zee, he treasures Zee's ability to see things for what they are instead of as symbols for something else.
The Failure of Language
As a poet, Cyrus relies on language as a vehicle for seeking meaning, conveying emotion and experience, and imagining new or different realities. However, the limits and failures of language also recur thematically throughout the novel. For instance, during his turn to share at an AA meeting, Cyrus says, “Recovery is made of words, and words have all these rules. How can anything so limited touch something as big as whatever the fuck a ‘Higher Power’ is?" (Chapter 2). He goes on to state that words cannot alter "the big ball of rot inside [him]," though that does not stop him from trying (through writing a book about martyrdom). However, Cyrus understands how even this project of seeking meaning is, in a sense, meaningless because "writing can never make any of these deaths matter the way they’re supposed to" (Chapter 17).
Cyrus is not the only character to pinpoint the faults of language. In Chapter 11, Arash calls language a "broken invention" because of how it is employed to administer violence, war, and death. He compares words to strutting roosters, and states that it is no wonder humans make so many mistakes.
Cultural Dislocation
Growing up as the child of an Iranian immigrant, Cyrus feels caught between two worlds—his Iranian heritage and his American life. Due to his father's precarious visa status, Cyrus was taught to associate revealing his Iranianness with violence and harm (Chapter 5). As a result, he doesn't quite feel that he belongs in either place or culture. In the beginning chapters, Cyrus's AA sponsor, Gabe, accuses Cyrus of using Persian imagery as a "schtick" in his poetry (Chapter 2). In other words, Gabe believes that Cyrus uses traditional cultural symbols performatively instead of grappling with his actual lived experience. Later in the novel, Cyrus recalls dating a Republican woman in order to expand his horizons. Perhaps this was also a way to assert his American identity and distance himself from prejudice (Chapter 12).
Cyrus's struggle for belonging is a driving force in the novel as he navigates the tension between familial expectations, societal norms, and his own conflicting desires. The theme of cultural dislocation is compounded by Cyrus's quest to make sense of his family’s past and the history of U.S.–Iran relations. This underscores how Cyrus’s identity is continually shaped and reshaped by external forces beyond his control.
Political Turmoil
Past historical events fundamentally altered the lives of the Shams family. Akbar deals with history through the lens of personal stories, particularly Cyrus's parents and uncle, who lived through the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), and the U.S. targeting of Iran Air Flight 655. The narrative shifts between different characters and time periods, showing the way history lives in the novel's present. In Cyrus's case, he believes that his mother died senselessly, just another civilian casualty caught in the crosshairs. In Chapter 3, he describes how Roya's plane was "destroyed by a U.S. Navy boat. Just shot out of the sky. Like a goose." This instills in him an obsession with martyrdom. Cyrus's desire to seek meaning in death and life is the novel's central preoccupation.
Queer Identity
Cyrus’s queer identity is another major theme that Akbar threads through the narrative. Akbar avoids cliché by presenting queerness with nuance and depth. Cyrus struggles with intimacy and self-esteem, but Cyrus's queerness is not the source of his suffering. Instead, his existential crisis (from an inherited legacy of personal and political trauma), mediated by his past struggles with addiction, torments and isolates Cyrus. When he discovers his mother's past love affair with Leila (as well as the tragic circumstances that separated them), Cyrus states that he is tired of "Gay people dying for love" (Chapter 30). It is unclear whether Cyrus himself dies at the end of the novel, but regardless, he chooses to seek companionship with Zee. This can be seen when they reconcile, kiss, and grasp hands despite the void opening around them (Chapter 32).
