Dislocation, Trauma and Ambivalence

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his experiences as a refugee. It conveys the fact that he is suffering from PTSD and cannot accept the reality that some people need fiction to have some sort of purpose in life.

A final theme conveyed in this story is the reality of an immigrant’s life. Hemon represents that some countries - specifically the United States and Canada - do not understand the struggle of true labor and loss that immigrants and refugees have, since these countries are so privileged to live somewhere without war. He explains how his father became a beekeeper after meeting a Hungarian immigrant. Hemon says that he had “twenty-three beehives and collected a few hundred pounds of honey a year, yet was unable sell it,” and that, “Canadians don’t appreciate honey. They don’t understand it” (Hemon 73). This shows that when his father is talking about selling his honey, he is referring to the fact that the Canadians would not understand the experiences and pain he went through. However, though he cannot voice his experiences, the father is able to communicate with other immigrants well, because dislocation is the unspoken language of trauma. Additionally, Hemon’s writing style portrays a lot of depth and meaning. It was abrupt, and was similar to the way of how his father attempted to restart his life over and over again. He presents that sometimes the American dream and perspective - if you work hard enough you will be happy - does not always happen in real life. Furthermore, he ended the story with a cliffhanger. There was no resolution and the audience will never know what happens, because in real life some cannot recover from certain trauma. There is just no cherry on top; no closure. Yet, he also conveys that though life is hard and absurd with “no meaning” and just “one thing after another,” when people get the “sweetness” life gives, one must cherish it.

Throughout the book, Aleksandar Hemon conveys the themes of dislocation, trauma and ambivalence in an immigrant’s life. The depth and breadth of his story is expressed through the exploration of his family’s experience of immigration. He uses specific diction to voice his family’s struggle of coming to a new country and attempting to become acclimated with the new social norms. Though he technically does not end his story, he was able to create a meaningful impact on the reader by concluding that some things in life have no solution, but the world keeps going on.