The Golem and the Jinni

Throughout the novel, the various stages of Ahmad and Chava’s character development are traced through the imagery of birds. Their identities, humanity, and sense of freedom are often implicitly conveyed by the ways in which they perceive, identify with, and interact with birds. At the beginning, Chava has yet to meet Avram and has no name or sense of self. In fact, she defines herself only as a Golem without a master, and when she sits unmoving on a stoop, a bird lands on her just as it would on a statue. Because the way the bird interacts with her as if she is an inanimate object, this moment emphasizes her lack of humanity. However, her response to the bird humanizes her, for the excitement and curiosity she feels is almost childlike in nature. As she and the bird look at each other, the bird recognizes her as a real living being, and as she feels its heartbeat and perceives its fragile life, thus beginning the slow shift of seeing herself as a living being rather than simply a Golem.

Ahmad’s experience also reflects this avian trend, for in his natural state, he can fly on the winds just like a bird, and this imagery connotes the freedom he once enjoyed. Accordingly, when frustrated by his restrictive human lifestyle, he talks about being bound like a caged bird, and even his artistry reflects this sentiment, for he uses his shackled powers to sculpt the figure of a caged bird, using several golden necklaces as raw material. He is desperate to reclaim the feeling of freedom he had as a wild, untampered Jinni long ago, and he now searches for daring experiences to approximate the lost sensation of soaring in the sky. For example, pursuing the innately dangerous affair with Sophia Winston reflects his urge to fulfill his desires no matter the consequences.

As Ahmad crafts more bird figurines for a variety of reasons, the image becomes his signature. As he creates his tin ceiling, he is inspired by the bird’s-eye view he used to have of the desert he lived in. The effect of the ceiling gives its viewers a visceral feeling of flight, which is an inherent part of Ahmad’s identity, and something for which he longs. As Ahmad struggles with the assimilation to human life, he starts to craft an ibis, a bird that is often associated with Northern African and Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Syria. Ahmad associates the bird with the desert oases and unconsciously sees it as a symbol of his unbound self. As he works on it, he is unable to perfect its appearance, which indicates his skewed sense of self. Even toward the end of the novel, as Wecker begins to set up the story for the sequel, Ahmad remains unable to properly capture the ibis. Even Saleh notices his inability to perfect that specific figurine, for the man notes the internal struggle that Ahmad experienced while working on it. As the narrative states, “ One entire side [of the ibis] had been smoothed over, like a mistake erased in frustration” (408). The ibis is crafted well enough to be identifiable, but it remains unfinished and imperfect, just as Ahmad is identifiably a Jinni but has been indelibly marked by his time in the human world.