The Arab of the Future

from the New Yorker.[6]

The Arab of the Future (French: L'Arabe du futur) is a

graphic novel by award-winning French-Syrian cartoonist
Riad Sattouf.[1] The work recounts Sattoufs childhood
growing up in France, Libya and Syria in the 1970s and
80s.[2] The rst volume of L'Arabe du futur won the 2015
Fauve dOr prize for best graphic novel at the Angoulme
International Comics Festival.[3][4] Sattoufs father inuenced the name of the book through his ideal of raising
his son as an Arab of the future. Purposefully written
from the perspective of a child, Sattouf employs simplistic yet comprehensive drawings that are more rudimentary yet not entirely dissimilar to his other works such
as La Vie Secrte des Jeunes, his column in the famous satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo.[5] Both
La Vie Secrte des Jeunes and The Arab of the Future
are written from Sattoufs point of view: The Arab of the
Future being his childhood and La Vie being his daily
observations as an adult.

After his father nishes his dissertation and accepts a job

as an associate professor, the family moves to Libya. In
Libya, the group is astonished to nd that there are no
locks on their house, a move instituted by the then-Libyan
dictator Muammar al-Qadda to abolish private property.
After being forced out of their small apartment once, the
family nds refuge in another apartment that Riad and his
mother guard while his father is at work. It is there, as
Riad plays in the hallway that the audience is introduced
to his rst friends, Adnan and Abani. In Libya, Sattouf
and his father stand in line for food rations and the audience hears Abdul Razaks political opinions regarding
Arab unity, racial biases, and his obsession with eating
creatures.
After visits from his Syrian grandmother, who Sattouf
delights in the smell of her sweat, and his French grandmother, who smells like perfume, the family moves to
France for a short period where Riad meets his French
grandfather, and goes to public school for the rst time.
In France, Riad is praised for his drawings of French
president Georges Pompidou, lives in his grandmothers
ghost-haunted house, and learns of his baby brother. After this, the family moves to Abdul Razaks hometown in
Syria. Here he encounters an explicit amount of bullying
in which his cousins mercilessly bully him for looking like
a Jew. Riad is also subject to strict gender segregation, his
fathers feud with his brother, and another stint at school,
although this time Riad is unable to understand because
he does not speak the Syrian dialect. Here, Riad meets his
rst true friends, Wael and Mohammad, who teach him
Syrian Arabic and play with him. After this, Sattouf and
his family move back to Paris for a short respite before
moving back to Syria.

Plot

Sattouf was the oldest son of Clementine, a modest

French woman, and Abdul-Razak, a amboyant Syrian
man. He was born in France in 1978 but moved to Libya
after his father declared the French to be racist and was
oered a job as associate professor. Muammar Gadda,
the Prime Minister of Libya, abolished private property
so that all housing was free. Sattoufs two friends from
Libya were Abani, a Hindu girl and Adnan, a Muslim
boy. Each day, the citizens would line up to get food from
a cooperative, which was usually bread, eggs, and Tang
(orange juice). Gadda declared war, ready to take on
America and kill Reagan. Riad left Libya in 1982 when
he was 4 years old.
Part one of three volumes, The Arab of the Future begins with Sattoufs childhood in France. He describes
himself as perfect with long, thick, silky, platinumblonde hair and bright puppy-dog eyes. With a particular charming demeanor, he portrays himself as a natural at living and beloved by all, especially women who
wanted to hold him and ogle at such an adorable child.
Quickly, in an uncharacteristic move, Sattouf seamlessly
moves from his memories to the memory of how his parents met. Here he introduces his mother a French woman
named Clmentine and his father an idealistic Syrian man
pursuing his Ph.D. at Sorbonne University, Abdul Razak
Sattouf. Although Sattouf does not use his mothers name
in his book, he recounted her pseudonym to a reporter

2 Color Symbolism
There are ve colors repeated throughout the entire novel:
yellow, blue, red, black and white. They reect the colors
of each of the countries ags that Riads families reside in
throughout the book. The rst chapter of Sattoufs novel
recounts his time in Libya. The background color of the
panels is yellow. While yellow typically provokes brightness and happiness, the specic shade painted is actually
a dull, mustard color. Something that Riad really takes
pride in is his platinum-blonde hair with golden highlights. In fact, that is how he describes himself in the rst
panel shown. Since his father has very dark hair, this light
1

EXTERNAL LINKS

color is a really big deal for him. Its representation during

this portion of the book symbolizes Riads sentiments on
how pleasant and enjoyable his life at this moment. Yet
the harsh reality that the majority of citizens have to face
during the era is a situation teeming with incredulous difculties such as famine and homelessness. Any feeling of
peace or bliss that could remain are rapidly fading, thus
causing the dampening of the yellow color. Libya is very
dry, so the yellow can also be a representation of the sand
everywhere. Interestingly, this is the only chapter where
the background color is not represented by the ag of the
country Riad is living in.

graphic memoirs. The text has been translated into sixteen languages,[7] demonstrating its international appeal.

Syria is represented by a dull pink, almost ready to turn

into the color red. As red is a color associated with danger, the pink could be a representation of the foreshadowing violent days about to hit Syria. It could be signicant
of how Riad himself felt living in Syria - threatened.

[3] Comic books of childhood under Arab dictators grip

France. France 24. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 4 February
2016.

Michel Hazanavicius, Academy Award winning director

of The Artist, proclaims Seriously funny and penetratingly honest, Riad Sattouf tells the epic story of his eccentric and troubled family. Written with tenderness, grace,
and piercing clarity, The Arab of the Future is one of
those books that transcend their form to become a literary
masterpiece.[8]

The New York Times described the graphic memory as

"Exquisitely illustrated, and lled with experiences of
misfortune bordering on the farcical, Mr. Sattoufs book
When Riad and his family return to France once more, is a disquieting yet essential read.[9]
the chapters color transforms to a shade of blue. The
tranquility of the color is muted by the incorporation of
a grayish tone. It could be that Riad feels safe here in
France, but there is still a creeping darkness that trans- 4 References
lates into a grey-blue as he may know that deep down, his
time is France is probably limited. Blue is also one of [1] Snaije, Olivia (28 October 2015). Riad Sattouf draws
on multicultural past for The Arab of the Future. The
the colors in the French ag, and the only two colors seen
Guardian. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
during this chapter are red and white (the other colors
of the French ag) so it is a way to demonstrate French [2] Shatz, Adam (15 October 2015). Drawing Blood. The
nationalism.
New Yorker. Retrieved 4 February 2016.

There are two other colors that are vividly seen throughout the book: a vibrant green and a deep red. The green is
rst seen in Libya, mainly representing Gadda. His little
green book set the rules for the Libyan people. Ironically,
green has been a color that universally tends to represent
goodness and moving forward. However, it is apparent
that life in Libya is anything but that. The deep red appears when Riad draws the bull his father loves in one
of his classes in France, when his grandfather shared his
vacation pictures and when there was a potential ghost
in his French grandmothers house. The choice in color
could be to depict that all these objects are either bad or
have an element of danger to them. Even though Riads
father loves his bull, it is actually one symbol of capitalism and Wall Street - something the Middle Eastern
is vehemently ghting with. Riads grandfather is a terrible inuence, constantly irting with every woman he
sees and using Riad to pick these women up. A ghost in
ones house is rarely something that anyone desires. Sattouf uses these bold colors to highlight specic moments
he wants the reader to give extra attention to and provoke
the audience to give it a second thought.

Critical Reception

The Arab of the Future has received widespread critical acclaim and is considered an instant classic among

[4] Lindsey, Ursula (27 January 2016). The Future of the

Arab. The Nation. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
[5] La vie secrte des jeunes. Goodreads. Retrieved 201610-07.
[6] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/
drawing-blood
[7] Sattouf, Riad (2015). The Arab of the Future. New York:
Metropolitan Books. pp. Back ap. ISBN 978-1-62779344-5. The Arab of the Future, which has been translated
into sixteen languages, is Sattoufs rst work to appear in
English
[8] The Arab of the Future: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf. thearabofthefuture.com. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
[9] The Arab of the Future: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf. thearabofthefuture.com. Retrieved 2016-11-02.

5 External links
The Arab of the Future website.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

The Arab of the Future Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arab_of_the_Future?oldid=754550329 Contributors: Nihiltres, Pegship, Rrburke, Yobot, NeemNarduni2, Bender the Bot, Maocampo11, Amscheiner, Jaclyngr, Elizabeth Ocampo and Anonymous: 1

6.2

Images

6.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0