Trauma
Trauma—i.e. the emotional and mental shock that follows a stressful event or injury—is one of The Road to Chlifa's most prominent themes. Early in the book, Karim is emotionally closed off to his family and hostile or cold to his classmates. When he does reflect in his diary, his words are drenched with hate and dissatisfaction, which seems to erupt when he defends My-Lan from Dave, pummeling Dave with his fists. In the second part, the narrative explains how Karim came to be traumatized by the death and violence he witnessed and felt implicated in during his journey to Chlifa. By the end of the novel, it is clear that Karim's repression and anger from Part I are symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. When he comes to understand My-Lan's trauma, Karim realizes that he is not alone in his suffering, and that other people have also endured traumas which he could not imagine.
Survivor’s Guilt
Another of the novel's most important themes is survivor's guilt. In the first part of the novel, Karim's icy demeanor can be explained by the weight of knowing he has lived while Nada, Maha, and her family have died. The guilt he feels for having survived while others have died leads to persistent mental and emotional distress. In Part II, it becomes evident that Maha is also suffering from survivor's guilt: she admits that she doesn't understand why she, monstrous in her jealousy of her sister, lived while better and more valuable people died. Ultimately, Karim is able to assuage his guilt by working to become a doctor and by reminding himself that he must live to tell Jad about his deceased family.
Narrow-mindedness
Early in the novel, Marineau establishes the theme of narrow-mindedness by introducing characters who have difficulty seeing beyond their own perspectives and prejudices. Karim's unnamed classmate who also serves as narrator for part of the book looks upon Karim as a novelty within the classroom: she thinks he, as an Arab, would look more appropriate in a desert setting, riding a camel. Ironically, Karim soon reveals his own narrow-mindedness, admitting in his diary that he doesn't know if My-Lan is Vietnamese or Cambodian or Chinese, then referring to her as "that China girl." Beyond the racism in Karim's words is Karim's inability to see outside of his narrow, traumatized perspective. However, by the end of the novel, his perspective has grown. My-Lan becomes a friend and source of comfort; getting to know her more closely, he realizes that her experience as a Vietnamese immigrant means that his suffering is not unique.
Racial Stereotypes
A symptom of the characters' narrow-mindedness in Road to Chlifa is the presence of racial stereotypes. The classmate-narrator's attribution of desert-prince qualities to Karim stands as a seemingly positive instance of stereotyping, while Dave's muttering of "he's a bloody Arab" is an example of more overt prejudice. However, both are varieties of racial stereotyping that eclipses Karim's unique personhood and sees him as representative—however inaccurately—of a broader demographic group. During the ski trip, Pascale explains at length her irritation with the stereotyping she has faced in Quebec: she would like to seen and valued for the unique person she is, but more often she is seen first for her ethnicity, and asked to weigh in on topics related to the Caribbean or Haiti.
Adolescent Development
Undergirding the entirety of Karim's narrative is the theme of adolescent development. Simultaneous to his refugee experience and the changes it engenders is the experience of developing from a child to an adult, which has its own concomitant shifts in attitude, emotion, and body. The physical changes of adolescence and puberty are most overtly conveyed through Maha and Karim's fascination with Nada's breasts: while Karim fantasizes about touching Nada's breasts, Maha is envious of them. Karim's fantasies and Maha's insecurity collide in Karim's mistaken groping of Maha toward the end of the book; Karim is ashamed of his action, while Maha is ashamed that she is not more desirable to Karim. By the end of the book, Karim is closer to adulthood, and more capable of understanding the extreme emotions he has experienced in the past year.
Banality of War
In Part II, the narrator digresses to explain how the protracted fighting of the Lebanese Civil War has led residents of Beirut to become inured to the constant conflict. Roadblocks, destroyed buildings, bomb shelling, and a scarcity of running water and electricity become banal, as people adapt to living in the war-zone that their city has become. Karim is an example of a Lebanese person who has never known what it is like to live in a place that isn't engaged in a civil war. War has become so banal to Karim that he isn't even interested in hearing older people's nostalgic memories of what the country was like before the war broke out in 1975. The banality of war is a significant theme, as it illustrates how "forever war" has the power to eliminate people's expectations of peace; if war is a constant feature of life, one either assumes it must be there for a reason or is unable to imagine what war's absence would look or feel like.
Variety of Perspectives
In choosing to narrate the novel from a the perspectives of three narrators, Marineau emphasizes another of the novel's major themes: the importance of seeing life from a variety of different perspectives. The formal choice to use multiple narrators shows, in Part I, the contrast between Karim's diary entries and the stereotypical fantasies of his classmate's narration. From a classmate's perspective, Karim appears to be a handsome Arab boy; terse and a little unfriendly. Karim's diary shows how repressed he has become, refusing to unearth the memories he left in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Part II's omniscient narrator shows how Karim becomes traumatized through losing Nada, Maha, and his homeland. The theme of the importance of seeing life from a variety of perspectives is driven home at the end of the book when Karim is able to open his narrow perspective and understand that My-Lan has her own refugee narrative. Ultimately, the novel underscores the importance of not jumping to conclusions about any individual; rather, it is best to treat everyone with kindness and openness, because the only way of expanding one's own perspective is through listening to others.
