Love and Lessons in The Zahir Anonymous 10th Grade

The Zahir is a kind of novel that helps the reader deeply understand what life is and what it has to offer to the loved, unloved, and the people helplessly searching for love. Although the word ‘love’ is repeated numerous times, the central theme, ironically, of this novel is not actually ‘love.’ The central theme of this novel is the struggling journey of understanding yourself, and love just happens to fall under that struggle that the narrator endeavors for. Ever since the narrator’s wife, Esther, had allegedly been announced missing, the narrator was determined to re-examine himself all over from the beginning. Although his habits of cheating and sleeping with lots of women was not a virtue of his, he has the character of determination, perseverance, and resilience. As the narrator strives for his finding of inner peace, he realizes all his flaws and faults, and all that made him so repulsive to some people. He had found the root to all his misery in life by deciding to listen to his missing wife’s advice on writing a novel.

As he began working on his novel and meeting new people with new things to offer, he had found the problem within himself and why he did not bother solving it or even confronting it. Therefore, the...