Theme Of Love In Cockroach

In the novel Cockroach, Rawi Hage explores the concept of love through the perspective of his unnamed main character and narrator. In his introductory paragraph, the reader’s attention is immediately captured by the words, “I AM IN LOVE”. At first, it seems a declaration of the character’s love for another character; however, upon further analysis, it sheds some dubiety to the truthfulness of the statement. It is as though the narrator himself is not convinced of his love, for the words that follow contradict his statement. It reeks of his desire for commitment and yet, he fears of letting go of his dominative nature. Henceforth, in order to understand this, it is necessary to dissect the chosen passage carefully and to understand if the protagonist is willing to embrace the idea of love and give up his freedom.

The introductory statement begins with the pronoun ‘I’ and it clarifies that the novel is written in first person point of view, making the passage more personal, which creates a stronger connection to the readers. However, a novel or a story written in first person point of view is subjected to unreliability as well because of the likelihood of bias and limited perspective of the narrator. Thus, from the usage of a first person narration,

His introductory statement is a contradiction of the words within the passage, especially the words “seduce” and “possess”. These words perpetuate the idea that the protagonist still reveres his dominant nature, and to say “I AM IN LOVE with Shohreh” is merely a cathartic event. It is to be noted as well that the phrase “with Shohreh” is an indicator of the narration’s vestige of embarrassment. He, himself, is dubious that he is in love because he knows to himself that such an idea is lie; he is, after all, a dominant one, and to surrender it up will also mean surrendering his