The Blinding Absence of Light, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, tells the story of a group of prisoners held, and tortured, in an underground Moroccan prison. However, one of the most interesting relationships in the novel is that between Salim, and his father. There is a lot of tension in their interactions, and they fine communicating with one another very difficult. At one point, the father even denounces Salim before the king, wishing him dead. This tension in the relationship is used to allow the father to represent the governmental power that stands over the Moroccan people. More specifically, the father, as an intolerant, abusive, and oppressive dominant power in Salim’s life, represents the Moroccan national dyad, which rules over the nation’s citizens with an iron fist.
Salim’s father’s behaviors mirror those of Hassan II. Hassan was opposed because he was more concerened with maintaining his own power, than with providing the people with the things they most needed, or resolving the nation’s greater issues (Gleijeses 159). Similarly, Hasan’s father wasted the family’s money, and became more concerned with the clothing and appearances of his position as the king’s advisor, than with the needs of his family (53).
Similarly, Salim says “I saw my father only on television, when royal activities were broadcast.” (54). This places a distance between Salim and his father, as a mere figure on television that is similar to the distance placed between Hassan and the people of Morroco, as a figurehead, who had little to do with their daily life. Ultimately, Hassan’s presidency was marked by a severe lack of human rights, as he held on to power by sheer force (BBC 1). In much the same way Salim remembered his father as mean, preoccupied with his own life, and concerned with maintaining it.
The father son relationships evolves throughout the novel in order to parallel changes in the nation. This is especially important as it relates to major events in his life. When Hassan II was young, before he became King, he was exiled out of Morroco, to Corsica. During that time he acted as a political advisor to his father, the king (Jewiah Virutal Library 1). Similarly, the father is banished from the mother’s home, but acts as a political subservient to the king. (Jelloun 24).
However, this did not remove Salim’s father from his life, any more than it removed Hassan II from Moroccan power. His father would remain a negative presence in his life, just as Hassan II would return to Morocco as king. We are told the father “remembers” that Salim is his son, just before announcing that he is “dead to him” after learning that he was involved in the plot to over-throw the king. Similarly, it is just after the king returns to power that the people work to over throw him, and he casts them into the underground prison, forgetting about them and giving them up as dead (26).
However, in accepting that the father’s life mirrors, or reflects that of Hassan, there is evidence to suggest that he was not always so casual or carless with the lives of the people of Morocco. After his exile, and upon his return he had desired the love of the people. He sought the restoration of Moroccan independence, and the building up of a standing army to protect the people, and their freedom (Jewiah Virutal Library 1). He also worked to create a democracy within the nation (Encyclopedia Britannica 1). Similarly, we know that Salim’s father tried to win his mother, and thereby his family back through acts of kindness. Salim states “He would come, preceded by mokhaznis, former servants at court of Pasha El Glaoui, their hands filled with gifts, magnificence fabrics important from Europe, trays of sugar-loves (54).
The reader is also told however that he was “already at the palace” out of touch with the lives of the family, just has Hassan was in the palace, and ultimately out of touch with the needs and desires of the people. As a result, he was rejected, as seen through eyes of those who constantly tried to remove him from power, through rebellion, and call for revolution. Despite these cries, however, Hassan ultimately stayed on the throne, and maintained the freedom and independence of his nation for years to come. Just as, despite his flaws Salim’s father was forever his father, regardless of the tensions between them.
In all, it is clear that Salim’s relationship with his father is representative of the greater conflict between Hassan II, as the King of Morrocco, and his citizens, as well as providing an interesting back story and source of conflict for the characters. The ongoing tension in the interactions between Salim and his father mirror the government of Hassan II as it relates to his harsh governing, and ongoing conflict with the people of Morcco. More specifically, just as Salim’s father was intolerant, abusive and powerful, the Moroccan national dyad ruled over its people ruthlessly, ultimately creating fractures in the relationship that could never be fully resolved, but which were eventually accepted.
Works Cited:
"Hassan II". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 02 Jun. 2016
Jelloun, Tahar Ben, and Linda Coverdale. This Blinding Absence of Light. New York: New, 2002. Print.
"King Hassan II." Hassan II. Jewish Virtual Libaray, n.d. Web. 03 June 2016.
"Morocco 'Facebook prince' pardon". BBC. 19 March 2008. Web. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
Gleijeses, Piero. "Cuba's First Venture in Africa: Algeria, 1961–1965." Journal of Latin American Studies J. Lat. Am. Stud. 28.01 (1996): 159. Web.
