Humanizing History: Deborah Rocheleau, response to Beneath The Lion's Gaze

     The plot of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze juxtaposes national upheaval with the personal tragedy of its characters. The opening paragraph of “Part Two” exemplifies this juxtaposition by describing the passage of time in terms of both Hailu’s emotional adjustment after Selam’s death and the political changes that have overtaken revolutionary Ethiopia. Mengiste writes “He was nearly three years a widower now. He’d lived through thirty months of loneliness in a churning city. He’d grown weary in those months of jeeps and uniforms, marches and forced assemblies; his patience worn thin from the constant pressure to mold his everyday activities around a midnight curfew” (115). This passage not only moves the reader through time, but indicates that for Hailu, his personal tragedy eclipses in importance even the national upheaval of the revolution, illustrating how war affects each citizen personally.

     This passage clearly establishes the profound impact Selam’s death has on Hailu. The first sentence measures time in years not since the revolution, but since Selam’s death, indicating that for Hailu this event affects him more than any political development. It further breaks down those years into months, as if each one is a struggle against “loneliness.” Hailu’s personal tragedy further compounds this loneliness, as the loss of his wife on the eve of the revolution separates him from the rest of the population in his response to the national upheaval that follows. Rather than “churning” with revolutionary zeal like the rest of the city, Hailu feels only “weary” of the “marches and forced assemblies” and other features of life in revolutionary Ethiopia as he struggles to engage in even “everyday activities” without his beloved wife. Such concerns as adjusting to a spouse’s death may seem petty in contrast to the national upheaval of the revolution, but by focusing on one man’s personal tragedy in revolutionary Ethiopia, Mengiste illustrates how revolution affects each citizen personally. By doing so, she engages one of literature’s most unique functions: humanizing history through characterization.