Characters As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow Zoulfa Katouh

Khawf: The Embodiment of Fear and Survival in As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

Overview

Khawf is the personified hallucination of Salama’s fear in Zoulfa Katouh’s As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow. He first appears seven months before the novel opens, after a bombing that kills Salama’s mother and leaves her with a head wound and psychological trauma (chapter outline 2). Khawf is not a ghost or supernatural entity but a manifestation of Salama’s PTSD—a voice and image her mind creates to process an unbearable reality. The text itself, through Salama’s conversations with Kenan, confirms that Khawf stems from her scarred brain (chapter outline 26). He serves as both tormentor and protector, using fear to compel Salama toward survival while simultaneously deepening her guilt and anguish.

Plot Role

Khawf functions as Salama’s internal enforcer, constantly reminding her of the promise she made to her brother Hamza: to get his pregnant wife Layla out of Syria. He appears at nearly every critical junction, pressuring her to act, testing her loyalty, and conjuring traumatic memories to strengthen his arguments. In the early chapters, he traps Salama in flashbacks of her mother’s death and Hamza’s arrest (chapter outline 2). During the hospital scenes, he whispers “Do it” when Salama bargains with a wounded girl’s father for boat passage (chapter outline 12). He even makes a deal with Salama: if she attends a protest, he will show her the worst possible outcome and then leave her alone for the night (chapter outline 22). His role shifts from relentless persecutor to a more nuanced figure who ultimately admits that he will vanish once Salama leaves Syrian waters (chapter outlines 31, 39). His final appearance occurs on the refugee boat, where he consoles her about Layla’s death before disappearing (chapter outline 38).

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Khawf’s primary motivation is survival—but survival stripped of any comfort or hope. He tells Salama repeatedly that “survival is everything” (chapter outline 11). He is manipulative and relentless, using apparitions of Hamza and of Layla’s future suffering to break down her resistance. Yet he also exhibits a cold pragmatism that sometimes borders on protectiveness: he warns Salama against letting Kenan change her mind, and he stops her from drifting into denial about Layla’s death. The novel suggests that Khawf, despite his cruelty, represents the part of Salama that knows she must keep going. He is never kind, but he is often right about the dangers of staying. In the epilogue, the resilience he forced her to develop helps her survive the shipwreck and build a new life in Toronto.

Chronological Arc

Khawf’s arc mirrors Salama’s journey from traumatized paralysis to hesitant acceptance of reality.

  • Origin (before Chapter 1): The bombing kills Salama’s mother and scars her hands and skull. Khawf appears in the hospital and has tormented her for seven months when the novel begins (chapter outline 2).
  • Active phase (Chapters 2–28): He pushes Salama to bargain with the smuggler Am, to sell her gold and her Panadol stock, and to commit morally compromising acts like threatening a child to secure passage. He also tests her commitment when she falls in love with Kenan, warning that he will erase her memory of flowers if she wavers (chapter outline 10).
  • Turning point (Chapters 29–31): After Kenan reveals that Layla has been dead for months, Khawf forces Salama to face the repressed truth. He explains that he exists because of Syria’s amplified fear and that he will leave when she does (chapter outline 30).
  • Departure (Chapters 38–39): On the boat to Italy, Khawf appears one last time to absolve Salama of guilt over Layla’s death and to identify himself as “Fear” itself, a universal phenomenon. He disappears when she blinks (chapter outlines 38, 39).

Relationships

  • Salama: Khawf is inextricably linked to her. She argues with him, obeys him, defies him, and eventually learns to coexist with his memory. Their relationship is one of internal struggle: he is both the voice of her deepest fear and the only force that kept her moving forward.
  • Kenan: Khawf views Kenan as a threat to Salama’s single-minded escape plan. He warns Salama that Kenan might make her want to stay (chapter outline 10). Kenan later senses Salama’s dissociation during the protest (chapter outline 24) and eventually learns about Khawf when Salama confesses after their engagement (chapter outline 26). Kenan’s acceptance of her hallucination marks a turning point in Salama’s healing.
  • Layla: Khawf uses the real Layla (before her death) and the imagined Layla (after her death) as tools. He conjures apparitions of Hamza and of Layla’s potential suffering to manipulate Salama. After Layla’s death, he helps Salama confront the illusion she had maintained.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Deciding to leave Syria: After Kenan’s brother Yusuf shows fear, Khawf’s pressure tips Salama toward acceptance. She tells Layla, “I’ve decided we’re going to leave” (chapter outline 9). This decision sets the entire escape plot in motion.
  2. Endangering Samar to pay for the boat: Khawf whispers “Do it” when Salama bargains with a father by threatening his wounded daughter (chapter outline 12). Salama later confesses this to Kenan, who forgives her. The act haunts her but secures the passage.
  3. Attending the protest: Khawf makes a deal to show Salama a vision of the worst-case outcome if she still chooses to go. She accepts, goes to the protest, and afterward reaffirms her resolve to leave (chapter outline 22). This episode deepens her understanding of sacrifice and freedom.
  4. Accepting Layla’s death: When Kenan reveals the truth, Khawf forces Salama to stop hallucinating Layla’s presence (chapter outline 30). This painful acceptance allows Salama to grieve and eventually move forward.
  5. Jumping into the sea: On the sinking boat, Khawf’s voice warns against jumping, but Salama rejects him. She leads Kenan, Lama, and Yusuf into the water, choosing action over fear (chapter outline 38). This act symbolizes her final break from Khawf’s control.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Khawf connects to several major themes:

  • Trauma and Guilt: He embodies the psychological wound that war inflicts. The novel explicitly links him to Salama’s head injury, suggesting that trauma can personify itself and speak.
  • Survival vs. Living: Khawf argues that survival is the only priority. Salama must learn that living—loving, dreaming, protesting—is also essential. Her decision to attend the protest despite his warnings shows this shift.
  • Hope and Resilience: Khawf’s eventual disappearance represents the possibility of healing. When the lemon tree grows in the epilogue, it signals that hope has replaced fear.
  • Sacrifice and Duty: Khawf enforces Salama’s duty to her family, even when that duty requires moral compromise.
  • Resistance and Documentation: Khawf opposes Kenan’s act of recording the war, but Salama ultimately combines survival with the need to bear witness.

Book-Specific Questions and Answers

  1. Why does Khawf appear only to Salama and not to other characters?
    He is a hallucination born from her specific trauma—a bomb that killed her mother and damaged her head. The novel makes clear that PTSD and a physical brain injury created the vision (chapter outline 2). Other characters do not see him.

  2. What is Khawf’s ultimate goal for Salama?
    Khawf wants her to escape Syria alive. He uses fear to override her guilt about leaving patients and her grief over her family. He tells her repeatedly that survival is what matters (chapter outline 11).

  3. Why does Khawf vanish when Salama leaves Syrian waters?
    He explains that fear is amplified in Syria; the horrors there grant him a physical form in her mind. Once she leaves, the intensity of that fear diminishes, and he no longer appears as a hallucination (chapter outline 31).

  4. Does Khawf truly care about Salama, or is he purely malicious?
    The text leaves room for both. He torments her without mercy, yet he also absolves her of guilt over Layla’s death on the boat (chapter outline 38). This suggests he is a complex part of her psyche that wants her to survive, even if his methods are cruel.

  5. What real-world psychological condition does Khawf represent?
    Khawf represents post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) complicated by a traumatic brain injury. The novel portrays his voice as a symptom of trauma that can be treated only by leaving the source of trauma and engaging in therapy, which Salama does in Toronto (epilogue).

For further exploration of the novel’s themes, see the themes page on trauma and guilt and the analysis of the ending.