The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)

The theme of The Conflicting Worlds of Domesticity and Adventure is a major one that arises frequently throughout the text, starting before the actual story with the dedication that Chakraborty makes to the those who have abandoned their dreams in order to raise their children. The scribe tells us in the opening chapter that the world sees marriage and motherhood as the end of a woman’s story. Amina’s story, however, strives to prove that the seemingly conflicting worlds of adventure and a domestic life can coexist. As the novel progresses, Amina moves from despairing that the worlds will never fit and feeling extreme guilt for loving her life at sea. Ultimately, she acknowledges that she can love both things, and her definition of domesticity changes to encompass adventure and the life she loves.

From the very first chapter, Amina admits that when she smells the ocean, the world of domesticity fills her with “blazing grief,” (18), a sadness heavy enough that she couldn’t get out of bed. The love of her daughter, however, necessitates a domestic role that she does not fit, and her guilt over failing to providing it hampers her throughout the novel. The idea that she might leave her daughter motherless sometimes makes it difficult for her to proceed as she normally would, and she ends up doing rash things like charging a sea monster while mentally asking her daughter to forgive her or paddling harder with Marjana’s “earnest, little face and trusting eyes” telling her to “come home” (344).