Violence shapes the lives of all of the characters in this novel. Karim and Maha are born into a city that has been at war for their whole lives,and both children view bombs as commonplace, even mundane. When her home is bombed and her family is killed, Maha is incredibly calm, collected, and focused on her next step. Karim is horrified by Nada’s death, but able to move on. The world they live in has made violence and death almost banal. As they walk through the countryside of Lebanon, Karim and Maha encounter ruins and monuments to past violence, realizing that each historical epoch is shaped by violence, even if future generations ignore that reality and romanticize the past.

When Karim feels personal responsibility for Maha’s death, his relationship to violence changes. He falls in to a state he describes as “vegetative,” and which could be described as depressive. He carries that experience of violence with him in Canada, and reacts quite violently himself when he sees Dave groping My-Lan. It is implied that Karim could no longer restrain himself: that past experiences of violence replicate themselves in the perpetual warfare of Beirut, and in the halls of high schools.