Trust

Throughout A Line in the Sand, the author particularly develops his thematic explorations regarding trust by way of his character Arman Bajalan’s storyline. Although roughly four years have passed since his wife and his son were killed in the university massacre in Mosul, Iraq, Arman remains scarred by the trauma he has suffered. He is not only still mourning the deaths of his loved ones, but is weighed by feelings of betrayal. Before receiving his special immigrant visa, Arman worked as an interpreter for an American Lieutenant. Although he wanted to trust that the Americans’ presence in Iraq would be positive, his experience had made him doubtful. This is why, for example, Arman is “unsure how to respond” to Detective Wheel’s and Adams’s questions in Chapter 2 after he finds the body on the beach (21). The narrator explains Arman’s distrust saying that when...