Chapter summaries Martyr! Kaveh Akbar

Chapter 6 Summary: [For as long…] — Key Events, Themes, and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 6 opens with Cyrus's meditation on the strangeness of sleep. He finds it remarkable that the body demands nightly rest and that sleep requires a kind of performance—people pretend to be asleep, trusting the pretense will become real. Unlike eating or other bodily functions, sleep insists on this act of faith. The body offers dreams as an incentive, though nightmares threaten the bargain. Cyrus sees waking as a kind of poison and dreams as the only antidote.

From infancy, Cyrus was a terrible sleeper. Ali initially worried the baby might have a disability. He tried rocking, singing, rubbing Cyrus's scalp, and taking him on late-night drives, but Cyrus clung to wakefulness. As he grew older, his sleep problems worsened into sleep terrors—he would rise screaming, crying, and sometimes battering himself. These episodes came to dominate Ali's life. Ali would try to shake Cyrus awake, but when the boy woke, he was petrified with fright. The episodes could last for hours, and Cyrus often wet himself, requiring extra trips to the laundromat.

The chapter then reveals the story of Roya, Cyrus's mother, who died just a few months after his birth. She had been flying to Dubai to visit her brother Arash, who was recovering from his service in the Iranian army. Roya was exhausted from the pregnancy and birth, and the trip was meant to help her rest. It was her first time on a plane. Shortly after takeoff, the plane was destroyed by missiles fired from the USS Vincennes, a U.S. Navy warship. All 290 passengers were killed instantly, turned to dust. Among them were sixty-six children. Roya had told Ali that Cyrus was too young to fly, so he would have been the sixty-seventh child killed.

The chapter reveals that Ali had been the one who wanted a child. Roya was hesitant, comparing herself to her own doting mother. But Ali insisted he would do most of the parenting, and Roya eventually agreed. Cyrus was born on March 13, 1988, a week before Nowruz. The birth was fast—Roya reached down and felt the baby's hair, and fifteen minutes later Cyrus was born without crying. Roya joked they should name him Bademjan, the Persian word for eggplant. Ali wept with gratitude.

In the weeks after Roya's death, Ali wanted to leave Tehran, sick of the unannounced visits, the covered dishes, and the pity. He made the phone call to Arash, who howled with grief—deep, animalistic howls that even stirred Cyrus. Arash, already unwell from his war service, stopped speaking for months. Ali's anger grew vast and frightening, like a moon. He watched the U.S. vice president refuse to apologize for the downing of the flight, and his rage hardened. He resented the baby formula he had to buy, and sometimes wanted to get away from Cyrus, sitting in another room smoking in the dark.

One day, Ali saw a flyer from a U.S. chicken company advertising farm jobs in Indiana—no English required, cash on the first day. A new beginning away from everyone's performances of rage, grief, and pity became all he wanted. A month later, Ali and Cyrus moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, bringing only what fit in a single trunk: bowls, clothes, birth certificates, Ali's military boots, a few of Roya's doodles, and a small wedding photo. Ali did not cry when the plane took off from Tehran but wept a little, silently, as it landed in Detroit. Cyrus hardly slept on the flight, but when he did, there were no terrors. The Shams men began their lives in America awake, like two windows with the blinds torn off.

Key Events

  • Cyrus's lifelong struggle with sleep, from infant insomnia to childhood sleep terrors

  • The revelation of Roya's death on Iran Air Flight 655, shot down by the USS Vincennes

  • The detail that Cyrus would have been the sixty-seventh child killed had Roya brought him

  • Cyrus's birth on March 13, 1988, a week before Nowruz

  • Ali's grief, anger, and growing desire to leave Tehran

  • Arash's devastating reaction to his sister's death

  • Ali's decision to move to America after seeing a farm job flyer

  • The move to Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a single trunk of belongings

  • Cyrus's terror-free sleep on the flight to America

Character Development

Cyrus. This chapter establishes the foundational strangeness of Cyrus's relationship with sleep. His insomnia and sleep terrors mark him as someone who resists the ordinary rhythms of the body, and his philosophical framing of sleep as performance suggests a deep concern with authenticity.

Ali. The chapter reveals Ali as a devoted but grieving father. His love for Cyrus is evident in his tireless attempts to soothe the boy's terrors, but his grief over Roya's death is equally powerful. His anger grows vast and frightening, and his decision to leave Iran is driven by a desire to escape the performances of grief around him.

Roya. Though dead before the novel's present, Roya emerges as a complex figure—ambivalent about motherhood, exhausted by pregnancy and birth, yet capable of humor (her eggplant joke) and warmth. Her death is the central tragedy that shapes the Shams family.

Arash. Roya's brother appears briefly but powerfully, his howls of grief marking him as a figure of raw, unmediated emotion—something Ali almost appreciates for its honesty.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Sleep as performance. Cyrus's meditation on sleep as a nightly performance connects to broader questions about sincerity and authenticity. Ali's disgust with the thin performances of grief and pity from his community echoes this theme.

Grief and anger. Ali's grief transforms into a vast, terrifying anger, described as a moon that grows so large it scares him. His anger is distinct from the more articulate anger of his family and friends.

Political violence and the impersonal. The downing of Iran Air Flight 655 is presented as an act of impersonal violence—a warship firing missiles, a plane turned to dust. The vice president's refusal to apologize underscores the political dimension.

Immigration and new beginnings. The move to America is framed as an escape from performances and pity. The single trunk symbolizes what is left behind and what is carried forward.

Mortality and dust. The reports that the plane was turned to dust echo the biblical dust to dust, suggesting both the finality of death and something clean in its instantaneousness.

The body's vulnerability. From Cyrus's sleep terrors to Roya's death, the chapter emphasizes how fragile the human body is—subject to nightly breakdowns and sudden annihilation.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter provides essential backstory for understanding Cyrus's character and the central tragedy of his life. It establishes the circumstances of Roya's death—a political act of violence that killed 290 people—and shows how that death shaped Ali's decision to emigrate. The chapter also introduces the theme of sleep as performance, which connects to Cyrus's broader questions about sincerity and authenticity. The image of the Shams men arriving in America awake, unnaturally alert, like two windows with the blinds torn off, is a powerful metaphor for their new beginning.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Cyrus's view of sleep as a performance connect to the chapter's broader themes of sincerity and authenticity?

Cyrus sees sleep as a nightly performance—people pretend to be asleep, trusting that the pretense will become real. This connects to Ali's disgust with the thin performances of grief and pity from his community in Tehran. The chapter suggests that performance does not necessarily void sincerity, but it does change it, raising questions about how we can know what is real in our own lives and in the lives of others.

2. Why does Ali decide to move to America, and what does the single trunk symbolize?

Ali is sick of the unannounced visits, the covered dishes, the pity, and the need to perform both sufficient grief and sufficient competence. The flyer advertising farm jobs in Indiana represents a new beginning away from everyone's performances. The single trunk—containing bowls, clothes, birth certificates, military boots, a few doodles, and a wedding photo—symbolizes both what is left behind and what is carried forward. It is barely half full, suggesting how little of their former life they could or wanted to bring.

3. How does the chapter present the relationship between personal tragedy and political violence?

Roya's death is both deeply personal—a mother killed months after giving birth—and profoundly political, the result of a U.S. Navy warship firing missiles at a civilian airliner. The chapter emphasizes the impersonal nature of the violence while also showing its devastating personal consequences. The vice president's refusal to apologize underscores the political dimension, while Ali's rage is both personal and political, directed at a country that killed his wife and then refused to take responsibility.

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