The Book of Khalid · Chapter
III: Via Dolorosa explained
Khalid and Shakib are smuggled out of Beirut, enduring the hardships of steerage passage to America.
What happens
Khalid and Shakib are smuggled out of Beirut, enduring the hardships of steerage passage to America. Khalid's initial enthusiasm wanes as he experiences a prophetic dream, pensive moods, and a tearful moment, signaling a shift in his character.
Themes in this chapter
East-West Clash
The contrast between the dream of a Western paradise and the harsh reality of the voyage, and Khalid's nostalgic pull toward the East.
Spiritual Quest
Khalid's dream of being crowned king in a desert city hints at a deeper spiritual calling and prefigures his later journey.
Alienation and Identity
Khalid's pensive mood and tear reflect a growing sense of displacement and inner conflict as he leaves his homeland.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“In their baggy, lapping trousers and crimson caps, each carrying a bundle and a rug under his arm, Shakib and Khalid are smuggled through the port of Beirut at night, and safely rowed to the steamer.”
Khalid and Shakib, dressed in traditional attire, are secretly taken to a ship from Beirut at night.
Describes their clandestine departure.
“And the boatmen and officials of the Ottoman Empire can better read a gold piece than a passport.”
Ottoman officials are more easily persuaded by bribery than by official documents.
Highlights corruption in the Ottoman Empire.
“In the heart of this, pointing to the lute, and in the heart of me, there be more poetry than in that book with which you would kill me.”
Khalid believes his lute and his own soul contain more poetry than the book Shakib reads.
Shows Khalid's preference for intuitive art over formal literature.
“I am thinking of the paper-boats which I used to sail down the stream in Baalbek, and that makes me sad.”
Khalid is saddened by memories of his childhood in Baalbek.
Reveals his nostalgia and inner turmoil.