57 pages • 1 hour read
Samira AhmedHollow Fires
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Past Is Prologue”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Safiya / June 1, 2023”
Protagonist Safiya describes finding Jawad’s dead body in a culvert in Jackson Park, Chicago, 16 months prior. Safiya is currently a sophomore in college studying journalism. Jawad Ali was a ninth grader who was murdered 16 months ago after being falsely accused of terrorism by his English teacher. Though Safiya was warned by a professor that she was, “too close” to Jawad’s story to tell it, Safiya wants to gather, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” about Jawad’s murder (5-6).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “News/Crunch Online Magazine / October 20, 2021 / Muslim Teen Arrested on Suspicion of Terrorism for Bringing Homemade Jet Pack to School”
The author presents the story through a combination of Safiya’s perspective, Jawad’s perspective, and in-world articles. This first article is published after Jawad’s initial arrest for bringing a jet pack costume to school that his teacher mistakes for a bomb, but before Jawad returns to school from suspension. The reporter quotes Jawad’s teacher, who “[describes Jawad] as ‘an Arab student’ wearing ‘something like a suicide bomber vest’” (7). The reporter also quotes Jawad who explains that the jet pack costume came from his makerspace club for Halloween. The policemen quoted in the article refer to Jawad as a “juvenile” who “‘should have been more transparent and forthcoming’ rather than repeatedly describing the device as a jet pack” (8).
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Jawad”
Jawad’s chapters are not dated and are written in a different font from Safiya’s chapters and the in-world media excerpts. The first of Jawad’s chapters describes his costume and provides a visual illustration of the jetpack itself. Jawad has always been an inventor, and he lists his various projects from elementary and middle school leading up to the jetpack at the start of ninth grade. When his teacher calls the police on him, Jawad “[thinks] she [is] joking [...] I mean, it was painted soda bottles!” (11). Jawad assumes that the worst day of his life is the day of his arrest when he is escorted out of school by the police, but it “[turns] out [Jawad] was dead wrong” (12).
Part 1 Analysis
In Part I, the author introduces the novel structure, framing the narrative with protagonist Safiya Mirza’s present day compilation of documents, testimonies and her own first-hand account to tell Jawad Ali’s story after his case has gone to trial. This rhetorical approach includes interview transcripts, news reports, social media posts, evidence exhibits from the case, as well as Safiya’s personal account narrated from her perspective, establishing Safiya’s (and, by extension, the author’s, credibility). In addition, the novel includes chapters from Jawad’s ghost’s perspective, lending a voice to the victim of the murder itself. This structure emphasizes the central message of Ahmed’s story: Empowering young people to use their voices to create change and fight injustice.
The novel includes only one illustration, a sketch of Jawad Ali’s jet pack. The author includes this image, allowing the reader an objective view of Jawad’s costume to compare to the lie perpetuated by the media—that it appeared to be a bomb—introducing the theme of The Power of Journalism and the Court of Public Opinion. The illustration shows two empty 2L soda bottles tied to a backpack with a cardboard cutout glued to the front. The author provides this image to the reader immediately following a news article that detailed Jawad’s initial arrest and suspension, inviting the reader to consider why Jawad’s teachers and the police took this threat seriously given the jet pack costume’s appearance. The author uses this comparison to introduce the Effects of Islamophobia on Individuals & Communities.
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