THE BROKEN WINGS

Description

The Broken Wings, by Kahlil Gibran is a poetic novella telling the tragic love story of its protagonist in early 20th-century Beirut. The book evolves around love and loss, and the encroachment upon modern socialization and woman’s oppression. It is, at the same time, the heartbreaking tale of love and stern critique of social and religious systems, limiting personal freedom, written in that wonderful lyrical prose so characteristic of Gibran’s writing.

The story is a narration by a young man who falls head over heels in love with Selma Karamy-a fine and tender female character. They meet by chance through a friend, and the love they feel for each other just grows and grows. However, Selma is promised to Mansour Bey, the nephew of the powerful Bishop Bulos Galib, as part of a political and financial alliance. However, these age-old social conventions and religious laws prove to be an imprisonment of Selma herself, forcing her into marriage with a man she does not love, Mansour.

The novella dramatically represents the lovers’ emotional and spiritual bond, a heavy sadness in knowing that love cannot transcend the societal forces that disjoin them. The character of Selma is portrayed as a representation of purity and innocence, but ultimately a victim in a patriarchal society where choices about women’s futures are owned by men. The narrator, heartbroken, can’t help but reflect over love, fate, and the actuality of freedom.

“The Broken Wings” is steeped in metaphor and philosophical musing over the nature of human suffering, the unfairness of social norms, and the need for freedom. Through the doomed love affair between Selma and the narrator, Gibran brings out greater themes of self-authority, the conflict between love and obligation, and how societal constraint can outlaw true happiness.