Identity in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih tells the story of a man searching for an identity he was unaware he had lost. Through his growing understanding of Mustafa Sa'eed's life, the central character eventually reconciles his own identity conflicts.
Throughout Salih's novel the main character's identity is unclear. While the reader learns much about his background: educational, familial, and professional, his name is never mentioned. A surname is used in reference to his family, but is never applied to him. In once instance he is referred to by another character as "effendi" (85). This phrase, however, is an Arabic title roughly equivalent to "sir" rather than a name. The central character's namelessness serves to focus attention on another character with whom he develops an uneasy friendship: Mustafa Sa'eed.
Mustafa entrusts the main character with his affairs after his death, including the key to a private chamber. When the central character enters the mysterious room and uncovers Mustafa's past, the identity conflict becomes apparent:
…out of the darkness there emerged a frowning face with pursed lips that I knew but could not place. I moved towards it with hate in my heart. It was my adversary Mustafa Sa'eed. The face grew… and I found myself standing face to face with myself. …a picture of me frowning at my face from a mirror. (135)
Several parallels are drawn between the central character and Mustafa Sa'eed. Both speak English and had studied in London. Even though the central character had grown up in the village, his education and time abroad had made him as much an outsider as Sa'eed. Upon seeing his own reflection in the darkness, he believes it to be Mustafa, who he had grown to despise. As he moves closer to the object of his hatred, he discovers that he is "standing face to face with" himself. Mustafa represents to him all that he despises in himself.
...the future to see that his life is not ruined by acts of immaturity. And, in “Araby”, we encounter another young man facing a crisis of the spirit who attempts to find a very limiting connection between his religious and his physical and emotional passions. In all of these stories, we encounter boys in the cusp of burgeoning manhood. What we are left with, in each, is the understanding that even if they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can. These stories bind all of us together in their universal messages…youth is something we get over, eventually, and in our own ways, but we cannot help get over it.
...ve. 2013b. "What accounts for Chavez's success? (OPEN FORUM)(Hugo Chavez)." NACLA Report On The Americas no. 1: 4. Academic OneFile, EBSCOhost (accessed December 2, 2013).
The story is concerned with the conflict between his conception of himself and the reality.
William Faulkner, an American author, wrote the novel, Light in August, in which Joe Christmas is at the center of the story. Joe Christmas is an orphan who is of biracial descent. At a young age, Christmas was adopted by a man named McEachern. When Christmas became older, he killed his father. From that point on, Christmas wandered about until he reached Jefferson, Mississippi where he fell in love with Joanna Burden, whom he also killed later on in the story. For this reason, along with numerous others, Christmas was lynched at the conclusion of this novel. William Faulkner carefully integrates several different ideas that can lead to a man’s solitude. According to the book William Faulkner by Harold Bloom, “…his fiction is steeped in the tones and emotions of the Deep South” (11). This holds true for Light in August since there is plenty of racism and hatred towards blacks. In William Faulkner’s novel, Light in August, Joe Christmas’s identity, psychological attitude, and resemblance to Christ are revealed through his isolation from society.
At the end of the novel, the narrator has finally recognized his own invisibility; therefore finally able to redesign himself completely into a person able make a change in society. His experiences will aid him in his fight for power and acceptance in society. The narrator’s previous choices had been those of people around him urging him to define himself based on their standards. By rising above the assigned definitions of himself, the narrator is able to gain a new insight and new persona on and ultimately recreate his fate.
Harry E. Canden. , & Gary Prevost, (2012). Politics Latin America. (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Richard Wright introduces the main character in his novel, “Native Sun”, as a poor black man, named Bigger Thomas, living in the ghetto. In book 1 “fear”, I analyzed how Bigger lived and learned who his true character was. I also learned how he felt towards himself, family, and his friends. Bigger Thomas’ character is a very angry and violent person towards anyone who makes him feel afraid or out of place. Richard Wright uses imagery, sentence syntax, and symbolism to express how Bigger Thomas truly thinks.
As I said before, the story basically presents one character, of whom we don’t know the name but he is also the narrator, we are also provided with a referenced character named Rans...
2. The first reason for this thesis stems from the point of view used in the story. The point of view exemplified is one of third person, more specifically one who is omniscient. The story’s message could not be conveyed from the first person, due to the fact that virtually everyone in the writing at hand is not only unable, but unwilling to figure out the true nature of their surroundings.
In early American government there were two emerging political views that were blatantly obvious in the new states; federalists and anti-federalists. In this paper two main topics of interest for each of the parties will be discussed, the role that government should have according to the differing views and the subject of foreign policy.
Four visible weaknesses of the articles, apart from those of organization, made it impossible for Congress to execute its constitutional duties. These were analyzed in numbers 15-22 of The FEDERALIST, the political essays in which Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay argued the case for the U.S. CONSTITUTION of 1787. The first weakness was that Congress could legislate only for states, not for individuals; because of this it could not enforce legislation. Second, Congress had no power to tax. Instead, it was to assess its expenses and divide those among the states on the basis of the value of land. States were then to tax their own citizens to raise the money for these expenses and turn the proceeds over to Congress. They could not be forced to do so, and in practice they rarely met their obligations. Third, Congress lacked the power to control commerce--without its power to conduct foreign relations was not necessary, since most treaties except those of peace were concerned mainly with trade.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
The main character described in the novel is Amir. Amir is the narrator and the protagonist in the story. Although an impressionable and intelligent son of a well-to-do businessman, he grows up with a sense of entitlement. Hassan is Amir’s half-brother, best friend, and a servant of Baba’s. Although considered an inferior in Afghan society, Hassan repeatedly proves himself to be a loyal friend to Amir. Baba is the wealthy, well- respected father of Amir and Hassan. He is willing to risk his life for what he believes in, but is ashamed of having a child with a Hazara woman, leading him to hide the fact that Hassan is his son. Ali is another modest man, who is a fatherly figure to Hassan and a servant to Baba.
Throughout the story, the boy went through a variety of changes that will pose as different themes of the story including alienation, transformation, and the meaning of religion. The themes of this story are important to show the growth of the young boy into a man. Without alienation, he wouldn't have understand the complexity of his feelings and learned to accept faults. With transformation, he would have continued his boyish games and wouldn't be able to grow as a person and adolescence. And finally, without understanding the religious aspects of his life, he would go on pretending he is somebody that he's not. He wouldn't understand that there is inconsistency between the real and ideal life (Brooks et al.).
..., Baba told him that a boy that doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up for anything. As a boy, Amir fails to stand up for himself. But, Amir redeems himself as an adult by showing he has the courage to stand up for what is right. Amir travels back to Kabul so that he can right the wrongs of his childhood. In Kabul, Amir stands up to Assef and rescues Hassan’s son, Sohrab.