Author: Dr. V. Vijayalayan

Abstract: War often reduces people into empty shells, indelibly draining them of their hope and will to live. Yet at times it also gives rise to narratives of relentless courage and optimism in the form of individuals who simply refuse to give into its appalling atrocities. Ibrahim Nurri the protagonist of Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo is one such extraordinary individual. Deprived of practically everything that makes life worth living by the Syrian civil war, and condemned to become a fleeing refugee, Nuri nevertheless insists on fighting against all odds with the avowed objective of retaining life and hope. The paper marks an attempt to appraise his character through the research lens of the American psychologist Martin Seligman’s concept of positive psychology, particularly his PERMA model of well-being. The ultimate goal is to set forth how Nuri’s unconquerable resilience is at its core shaped and inspired by essentially the elements that make up Seligman’s well-being theory.

Keywords: Positive psychology, PERMA, well-being, character development, hope

Article Info: Received: 29 Aug 2025; Received in revised form: 01 Oct 2025; Accepted: 04 Oct 2025; Available online: 09 Oct 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.105.52