Resistance and Documentation in As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

Thematic Claim: Documentation as Defiance

In As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, resistance is not limited to armed struggle or public protest; it takes the quieter, more perilous form of documentation. Both Salama Kassab and Kenan resist the regime’s attempt to erase Syrian lives by recording what is happening—Kenan through film, Salama through her medical work. Their acts of documentation become a way to preserve truth, bear witness, and insist that the people of Homs are more than statistics. This theme runs through the plot, connects to key symbols, and contains internal contradictions that deepen its meaning.

Three Plot Threads of Resistance Through Documentation

1. Kenan’s Camera: Filming the Revolution

Kenan first reveals his documentary work to Salama when he admits he records the protests. “I’m showing the people—the world—what’s happening here” (chapter 9). He uploads videos to YouTube whenever electricity returns, knowing that discovery means torture or death. The novel emphasizes that his act is a choice: he could flee with his siblings but stays because “if I don’t defend it, then who will?” (chapter 9). Kenan’s camera becomes a weapon against erasure. Later, he gains permission from Dr. Ziad to film inside the hospital, expanding his documentation to include the wounded. At the protest in Freedom Square, he chooses not to bring his camera, yet still participates—showing that the act of being present and bearing witness is itself a form of resistance. His footage preserves the songs, the faces, and the chants that the regime wants silenced.

2. Salama’s Scalpel: Medical Work as Testimony

Salama resists not with a camera but with her hands. As the only pharmacist left in three neighborhoods, she treats patients under impossible conditions: performing surgery without anesthesia, stitching wounds, witnessing chemical attacks. Each life she saves is a counter-narrative to the regime’s message that Syrians are disposable. Her documentation is embodied—the blood of martyrs marks her skin, and she murmurs herbal names to steady herself. When the hospital is hit by a sarin gas attack (chapter 21), she refuses to look away; she stays to treat the convulsing children. Later, in the epilogue, she writes articles and makes videos from Toronto, turning her experience into testimonial. Her medical work also documents systemic horror: she keeps mental records of shortages, deaths, and babies left orphaned.

3. Shared Activism in the Epilogue: From Survival to Storytelling

The final chapter shows Salama and Kenan in Toronto, four months after leaving Berlin. They have not stopped resisting. “Kenan picked up where he left off with his activism” and “I practiced my English by joining him, writing articles and making videos about what we faced in Homs” (epilogue). Their apartment walls are covered with art—a map of Syria, a Qabbani poem—turning their home into a living archive. The lemon tree seedling on the balcony symbolizes that the seeds of resistance have traveled with them. By continuing to document, they refuse to let the world forget. Their marriage itself is an act of hope, and their daily phone calls to Kenan’s siblings in Germany maintain the memory of what was lost.

Character and Symbol Connections

• Khawf (Salama’s personified fear) represents the internal barrier to resistance. Salama must negotiate with him to attend the protest (chapter 22). She strikes a deal: if she can endure the worst-case scenario he shows her, he will stay silent. Her defiance is thus both external and internal—she resists the regime and her own terror. The symbol Khawf highlights that documentation requires courage.
• The Lemon Tree (from the epigraph by Nizar Qabbani) symbolizes the continuity of life and hope. The lemon tree’s seedlings push through soil even after trauma, just as documentation ensures that stories survive. In the epilogue, the couple plants a lemon tree in Toronto, grounding their resistance in growth.
• The Hijab is not a symbol of oppression but of identity and agency. Salama wears it even in the hospital, where it becomes part of her visibility as a witness. The author deliberately created hijabi characters who are free-spirited, as stated in the Author’s Note.
• The Color Blue appears in the sky, the couple’s apartment walls, and the sea they never reached—representing both loss and the longing for freedom.

Complexity and Contradiction

The theme of documentation is not without tension. Salama initially wants to flee, feeling she cannot leave the hospital; Kenan refuses to leave at all. This creates a moral conflict: does staying to document make one complicit in endangering family? Kenan’s siblings suffer because he stays; Salama’s promise to Hamza to get Layla out forces her to consider leaving. The novel does not present documentation as an unambiguously virtuous choice—it costs lives, trauma, and separation. Yet it also insists that forgetting is worse. Khawf embodies this contradiction: he forces Salama to face horrifying futures, but she still chooses to act. In the end, both characters leave, but they continue documenting from abroad. The epilogue shows that resistance does not require physical presence; storytelling itself is a form of survival.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Kenan’s filming differ from Salama’s medical work as forms of documentation?
   Kenan uses a camera to capture visual evidence of protests and hospital scenes, broadcasting them to the world. Salama documents through her body—treating patients, memorizing herbal names, and later writing articles. One is technological, the other corporeal, but both aim to preserve truth and defy erasure.

2. Why does Salama strike a deal with Khawf before attending the protest?
   She needs to prove to herself that she can handle the worst possible outcomes (arrest, torture, loss) without being paralyzed by fear. By confronting these visions, she reclaims agency; her resistance begins internally before she ever steps into Freedom Square.

3. What role does the lemon tree symbol play in the theme of documentation?
   The lemon tree represents continuity: each generation produces new fruit, just as each act of documentation produces new witnesses. In the epilogue, the seedling in Toronto links Salama and Kenan’s activism to the cyclical hope of the Qabbani epigraph.

4. How does the Author’s Note complicate the novel’s approach to documentation?
   Zoulfa Katouh explains she condensed real events and characters to humanize Syrian stories. This acknowledges that documentation is always selective—shaped by narrative needs—yet still necessary. The novel itself is an act of documentation that blends truth with fiction to reach readers emotionally.

5. In what ways does the novel suggest that documentation alone is insufficient?
   Despite their efforts, the regime continues its violence; Kenan’s videos do not stop the chemical attack. The couple still suffers from nightmares. Documentation preserves memory but does not guarantee justice or safety. The novel ends with a dance and a seedling—small acts of joy that resist despair without promising a happy ending for Syria.