Omar Rising

Omar has been good friends with Amal since childhood. Omar says, “Born three days apart, we’ve never known life without each other” (3). He references the “terrible time” that Amal recently went through but does not elaborate further; this is an oblique reference to the story that Saeed relates in her companion novel, Amal Unbound (2018). Within the context of Amal Unbound, Amal was forced into servitude to a wealthy family and courageously fought her own battle against social injustice. Amal, as much as Omar, is now passionate about reading and learning. She wants to attend the girls’ boarding school, Iqra, and pursue her own advanced education: a task even more difficult for girls to achieve in the restrictive Pakistani culture. Amal is almost more excited for Omar’s opportunity than Omar is.

Throughout Omar Rising, Amal shows Omar the importance of trusting his friends. Keeping his worries and pain to himself because he does not want to burden Amal makes Omar keep secrets from her, and this ultimately hurts her feelings. Through Amal’s influence, Omar learns that true friends confide in each other. Amal also helps him to learn the power of sharing his feelings. Talking with Amal makes Omar feel better, and he goes forth with renewed confidence and concrete plans for addressing his various struggles at school.

Both Kareem and Naveed are scholarship students like Omar, and they are Omar’s closest friends at Ghalib. “Tall, lanky, and full of jokes” (14), Kareem is the most positive member of their trio. Kareem loves eating candy, sharing his candy, and playing basketball. He takes happiness wherever he can find it; for example, if he cannot be on the basketball team during his first year, he can still enjoy playing basketball in the new gym. His motto is “Well, it could always be worse” (62), and he always tries to look for a bright side or a solution to his problems. Beneath his positive exterior, however, Kareem has anxiety about his father’s humble position and is sensitive about being bullied because of his lower socioeconomic status. Kareem shows Omar that people do not always show what they are feeling on the inside.

Naveed is mild-mannered and kind and constantly worries about everything. As Omar states, “If worrying was a sport, Naveed would be a world champion” (40). Like Omar, Naveed desperately wants to succeed at Ghalib and make his family proud. When the boys learn that that scholarship students are often weeded out during their first year, Kareem thinks “It’ll be okay,” while Naveed moans, “We’re doomed” (105). They also come from a lower socioeconomic class like Omar, so Kareem and Naveed share similar worries and fears. They also feel the pressure to succeed and maintain their scholarships, and they share a sense of similar anger at the unfair expectations they are forced to meet. Together, the three form a community within the larger student community at Ghalib, supporting each other in their studies. The boys’ hard work, determination to succeed, and perseverance eventually pay off, and their grades improve at the expense of their social lives. The other boys, who have no similar grade requirement, do not understand their desperate studying and write them off as the “number one nerds club” (109) for their tendency to choose studying over fun.

Aiden starts the story as one of the novel’s antagonists but ends up being one of Omar’s strongest supporters. Aiden has “short spiky hair” (19) and a bad attitude. The son of an “important,” wealthy man, Aiden acts superior to Omar, Kareem, and Naveed in the first chapters of the novel. He makes fun of their poverty and their lower status as scholarships students, belittling Omar as a “charity case.” Likewise, Kareem observes that Aiden is “Just another entitled rich boy (46). For much of the novel, Omar believes that Aiden gives off “negative energy” and “really is a swirling dark cloud” (44). Aiden’s early behavior illustrates an extreme example of the prejudice that Omar experiences at Ghalib. Aiden epitomizes the social inequities between the privileged, paying students and the Scholar Boys.

Aiden’s character also reflects the power of friendship. While Omar at first believes that he could never be friends with Aiden because of the other boy’s derisive slights, Omar later empathizes with Aiden’s isolation. Aiden, though wealthy, does not have loving, attentive family connections or friends. Knowing the importance of friendship, Omar gives Aiden a chance, and Aiden in turn helps champion Omar’s protest.

Stern, by-the-book, Headmaster Moiz is someone whom Omar sees as his nemesis for most of the novel. The headmaster’s “dark glasses, fancy suit, and firm disposition” (197), along with his demanding expectations and demeaning comments, exacerbate Omar’s fears of failure and inadequacy. Omar misinterprets Moiz’s stern attitude and mistakenly believes that Moiz is biased against scholarship students. He sees Moiz as someone who does not like him and does not want him to succeed.

When Omar finally takes Amal’s advice and asks Moiz for help with English, Omar learns that the headmaster is just as human as he is, with a life and a family beyond Ghalib. Rather than trying to weed Omar out, Moiz’s motivation for teaching the English classes himself was to help the scholarship boys to improve their grades and maintain their scholarship opportunities. Learning of Omar’s protest activities, Moiz approves of the boy’s determination and resistance and comments that he wishes that he had been more like Omar, when he himself was a Scholar Boy. Moiz takes Omar’s petition to the school board, and the narrative therefore implies that Moiz plays an integral part in getting Omar reinstated. Like Aiden, Moiz helps Omar to learn not to take people at face value. 

The art teacher is “easily the nicest teacher” that Omar has ever had (31), and his teachings about the many powerful reasons inspiring each artist’s work provides Omar with a vital philosophical framework for his own future forays into the world of social activism. Mr. Adeel has a positive personality and believes that confidence is the key to success. His encouragement and support comes to mean a great deal to Omar and the other scholarship students, for he never stoops to demeaning them or implying that they will not succeed due to their lower socioeconomic status. He also supports their protests against the school’s unfair policies and provides the boys with a healthier, more balanced outlook on their busy lives. Above all else, he emphasizes that success is relative, for life is a journey that is filled with both challenges and fun. Mr. Adeel tells his class that if they try their best, “the work will be its best” (76). Mr. Adeel’s class helps Omar gain to gain much-needed confidence and gives him a safe space to express himself. He also helps Omar to recognize the power of art to effect social change.