LAYERS OF LOSS AND RESILIENCE: A TRANSITIVITY AND DISCOURSE-HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF KHALED HOSSEINI'S SEA PRAYER

Abstract

This paper examines Khaled Hosseini's Sea Prayer by using Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to uncover the emotional and social layers woven in to the fabric of the text. Sea Prayer is a powerful story that captures the shared hardships of displaced migrants, especially as seen through the journey of a father and son, and is set against the backdrop of the Syrian refugee crisis. The transitivity analysis has shown that the harsh physical realities of displacement as contrasted with the peaceful, cherished memories of the past are reflected through Material processes, whereas the Mental processes explore the father’s grief, longing, and hope whereas the Relational processes emphasize the deep bond between father and son and their shared identity as refugees. The excessive use of circumstantial elements in the text adds to the vividness of the settings and contexts. And The DHA framework further contextualizes the story within its socio-historical setting by employing strategies such as nomination, argumentation, and mitigation to expose underlying power structures and societal biases. It concludes that the text is both a deeply personal and universally resonant call for compassion and action in the face of refugees suffering in particular and human suffering in general.