World Literature

“Two eyes – two eyes alone fastened themselves upon mine. No matter how far I shifted my gaze, or how much I moved my head, they followed me closely, tightened their hold. Everything was now enveloped in a growing darkness in which I could no longer discern the slightest glimmer of light, except for two jet black eyes encircled by two rings of dazzling white.”

This scene, described by the words of Firdaus herself, is her reimagining her growing fear when she was called out to pick up her school certificate but had no guardian present to pick her certificate up with her.

Her fear and glimmer of hope is described in contradicting detail. As Firdaus is called up but she has no guardian present, she is “enveloped in a growing darkness”— a sense of fear described to us as darkness is beginning to overtake Firdaus. But in this growing darkness where she cannot “discern the slightest glimmer of light”, her beacon of light, is not light at all but eyes described as “jet black”. Firdaus cannot discern the slightest glimmer of light, but contradictorily she is able to discern the “jet black” eyes that followed her closely and “tightened their hold”. These two jet black eyes are the eyes of her teacher Miss Iqbal, who approach Firdaus and takes her up stage to receive her school certificate from the principle. This usage of detail stands out, because this passage is constantly developing an image of darkness to the reader, yet what grabs Firdaus’s attention are jet black eyes. It’s only once she notices the jet black eyes is that they are also “encircled by two rings of dazzling white”, which acts as a more symbolical representation of a “beacon of light”. She wasn’t able to notice the “dazzling white” with the growing darkness, but she was only able to notice the dazzling white by noticing the jet black eyes first.