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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Martyr!, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Martyrdom and the Meaning of Life
Addiction and Sobriety
Queer Love and Repression
Iranian Identity vs. American Identity
Summary
Analysis
Keady University, June 2012. It’s storming in Indiana, which Cyrus takes as a personal insult to himself. This summer, Cyrus has decided to try dating a Republican. He still remembers how things changed after 9/11 and people started looking at him differently for being Iranian. He remembers reacting politely to racist comments, and he considers this politeness to be both an Iranian trait and a Midwestern one. Now, Kathleen is not just the first Republican Cyrus has dated but also the first wealthy person, coming from an oil family.
One of the dark ironies of Cyrus’s life is that some people discriminate against him due to 9/11, seeing him as somehow complicit in terrorism due to his heritage, not realizing that Cyrus’s own mother died in a different tragedy involving a commercial aircraft. Dating the Republican oil heiress Kathleen seems to be a way for Cyrus to prove that he is a true American, long before he started to take an interest in his Iranian past and martyrdom.
Themes
Cyrus is amazed at how money seems to mean nothing to Kathleen. She often pays for their meals and drinks together. It’s on a date with her to a hookah bar where Cyrus meets Zee for the first time, who is their server. Cyrus is a little skeptical about American hookah bars, finding them orientalist, but Zee promises to give Cyrus and Kathleen something special for their second hookah, and Cyrus never turns down a way to get high. The next hookah has weed in it.
Orientalism is when people in the West depict the East in exotic or inaccurate ways. What Cyrus means in this passage is that he feels like hookah bars are presenting a false version of the Middle East intended for American audiences. And so, in a way the hookah bar is a fitting middle ground between Cyrus and Kathleen.
Themes
Kathleen starts complaining about small things in her life, eventually saying that she feels “outnumbered” at the hookah bar—that it feels like Baghdad, Indiana. Cyrus hadn’t even noticed some aspects of the hookah bar that she finds strange. He thinks of how he’s like the half-human, half-vampire Blade, able to be Iranian sometimes, American at others. A very high Cyrus suggests to Kathleen that they head out. He drives Kathleen in her car back to her apartment. She’s very sleepy, so he tucks her in and goes for a walk.
Although Cyrus thinks hookah bars feel inauthentic, Kathleen has the exact opposite feeling. When she says she is “outnumbered,” she means that she feels like she’s in a place that is not overwhelmingly white, which seems to be unusual for her. Through this, Cyrus becomes aware of how his perceptions are different from hers.
Themes
Cyrus walks all the way back to the hookah bar, where Zee is surprised to see him again, without Kathleen. Cyrus wants a drink, and he’s made it just before last call. He also buys a beer for Zee. The last of the normal customers leave, so Zee puts on his own music to clear up. Zee asks what Cyrus does, and Cyrus says he's a super-senior at the college. Zee asks Cyrus what his real passion is. Cyrus says writing, although he hasn’t published anything yet. Zee thinks Cyrus should call himself a poet anyway, just for writing poems, regardless of whether they’re published.
Cyrus uses alcohol as an excuse to go back to the bar, and while he is indeed drinking heavily at this point in his life, he also seems to be intrigued by Zee and looking for an excuse to see him again. Perhaps because of his similarities to Zee, Cyrus seems to be more honest with him than he is with Kathleen. It seems Cyrus might even be attracted to Zee, but as other passages have shown, Cyrus often has a difficult time acknowledging his feelings, particularly toward men.
Themes
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At two in the morning, Zee invites Cyrus back to his apartment to drink more and listen to Erykah Badu. Zee’s partner is away. They mostly just drink in silence and listen to the album until eventually Cyrus passes out on the couch next to Zee.
Zee and Cyrus seem to feel comfortable just existing with each other, foreshadowing how they become roommates later. Still, the alcohol that originally binds them ends up having a negative effect on Cyrus’s life, raising the question of what his relationship with Zee is in sobriety.
Themes
