NAVIGATING MORAL DILEMMAS, IDENTITY CRISIS AND THE POLITICS OF BELONGING IN CONFLICT ZONES: A CRITICAL STUDY OF KATOUH’S ‘AS LONG AS THE LEMON TREES GROW’

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the intertwined relationship between war, morality and belonging in war torn regions through the lens of Henri & John’s Social Identity Theory (1979), particularly focusing on Katouh’s novel, ‘As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow’ (2022). The study focuses on the view that war or conflict zones are not only places of physical destruction but also spaces of moral, ethical and social disruption and reconstruction where social identities, ethical frameworks and moral values are continuously tested, shaken and reconstructed over course of time.  The study examines how prolonged exposure to conflict, dislocation and uncertainty led the individuals to navigate through morally ambiguous conditions where survival collides with conventional ethical patterns. Through the critical lens of Social Identity Theory, the study analyzes how war strengthens in-group and out-group divisions creating the sense of identity and belonging heavily politicized, brittle and totally conditional. In conflict zones, individuals make meaning and draw sense of security from their group affiliations; however, displacement, trauma and social fragmentation makes these affiliations fragile and destabilized consequently making belonging fluid and contested molded and designed by fear, loyalty and need for survival. The present study is qualitative in nature and relies on textual analysis of the novel to examine the shifts in moral reasoning of the individuals from conventional ethical principles to situational morality particularly in war zone. The textual analysis demonstrates how moral dilemmas, emotional trauma and identity fragmentation is confronted by the characters while preserving their humanity. Incorporating literary analysis with Social Identity Theory and conflict studies, this study provides a multidimensional understanding of individuals negotiating morality and reconstruction of belonging in conflict zones. Eventually, the study concludes that sense of identity and morality are highly adaptive and dynamic reshaped by individuals’ lived experiences and mutual struggle in times of conflict