Final Reader Response_ Evan Nierman

Long Live the Roots

A great work of literature is one that insightfully challenges contemporary conflicts in a creative and artistic style. Tayeb Salih’s short story, “The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid,” translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies, deserves recognition as a ‘Great Work’ of literature. The short story is simple, yet complex, in its welcoming, yet abrasive, design.  The use of the narrator, a well-aged village native, speaking to a visitor, you, establishes a relationship between text and reader. The personal relationship between the wise speaker who speaks on behalf of the village is like the wise author speaking on behalf of his work and protecting his culture; and the uneducated tourist who is foreign to the land, who is only visiting for one night, is literally you, the reader.  The narrator uses a sort of reverse psychology to invite you to stay. He does not believe you can handle the hardships of residing in the village. He does this by telling tales of previous tourists who could not bear the harsh reality of just one night in the village.  Telling stories of previous visitors is a brilliant trick to entice the listener as well as teach. The narrator also does a precise job of identifying you, my son, and your tendencies. The text states,  “No doubt, my son, you read the papers daily, listen to the radio, and go to the cinema once or twice a week. Should you become ill you have the right to be treated in the hospital, and if you have a son he is entitled to receive education at a school.”  Although these interests may seem like necessities of modern life, it is more practical to identify them as, in a few sentences,  the demands of an individual in an industrial society. I believe it is ‘great’ that the old-aged narrator has the ability to, still, identify a tourist sixty years later. It is ‘great’  because, since publication in 1960, the description of the tourist has not changed and yet still remains accurate.