suggest the intrinsic nature of the story as the reader understands it. Deceits, mysteries, and partitions There are many cases in the novel when characters attempt to hide parts of themselves or others; the story is inherently embedded in a sort of mystery. The first chapter describes Ahmed as isolating himself, between Ahmed's father and his daughters "was a wall", and festivities are held in the name of lies. The novel on the whole is about this mystery—this deceit. Ahmed's father hides the truth about his "son", Ahmed's mother binds his chest as to avoid breast growth, and so on. Bodily harm Often in this novel a character will cause harm to a body, whether it be to themselves or to others. Before Ahmed is born, much harm is caused to the body of the mother in order to prevent another daughter. When Ahmed is to be circumcised, his father spills his own blood to hide the truth. There is an instant in the book when Ahmed's mother is said to be growing tired of her own daughters and strikes "her belly to punish herself." Surrealism and abstraction The Sand Child can be read as a work of surrealism or of magical realism. Blogger Amy Owen describe the "dream-like states, hallucinations, and allusions to Andre Breton and the exquisite corpse [as giving] Ben Jelloun’s work a magical intoxicated quality." The narrator and even Ahmed himself often use surrealistic imagery and abstract language as forms of expression. Gender ambiguity The questions of gender ambiguity is perhaps the most essential. Ahmed's male gender is a reflection of his parents' desire for a male child. As Ahmed matures, he begins to identify as a woman named Zahra. The different endings of the story differ as to the character's end gender. These depictions of gender serve as Ben Jelloun's literary investigation into views of gender, and especially a certain prioritization of the male, in early 20th century Morocco. Narrative strategies In The Sand Child, there are two major narrative strategies. One of the major narrative strategies is the use of a frame story, a story in a story, which gives a perspective of the narrator and his thoughts while also giving the reader a questionable story that may reflect the questioning of the narrator. Another narrative strategy is the first person journal entries. In these, the reader gets a first person account of what