Literature of the Picaresque – Writing

Alijon Rahmatov

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0  

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 1 One the important aspects in our life is to develop a clear understanding about ourselves, what we want, and the purpose of our life. Whenever one doesn’t have a clear understandings about that it could create an issue of not fitting in to the crowd. This is one of the main themes in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. At the end of the novel, the narrator enters the Nile River in order to swim to the other side. However, he fails to cross the river, and ends up floating in the middle of north and south shores. By using symbolism the author adds a deeper meaning to his novel.  The whole situation of narrator floating in the river depicts his struggler to find his place in the society.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 1 Throughout the novel the author uses symbolism to bring significant understanding to his novel. And this passage is not an exception. “Turning to left and right, I found I was half-way between north and south” (138).  These scene takes place on the Nile River, where the narrator struggles to cross the river. He comes back home after his journey from Europe. Even though he was in his own village, he feels like a stranger. He thinks that everything has changed and that he doesn’t belong here anymore. So he tries to swim to the North shore. Here, “north” and “south” symbolizes Europe and Africa, two different cultures; the Nile River represents a border between these two cultures.  By using these symbols the author shows to the reader that the narrator is stuck between two cultures. However, he is the only one who thinks this way, because he crossed the Nile and saw the world on the “North” side.  “I was unable to continue, unable to return” (138), here the narrator feels distanced from own culture, but he cannot leave them. The author’s message here was to show how the narrator is struggling to fit in his own culture. He is failing in it because he can’t accept the changes he sees in his hometown.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 2 Another way Salih captures reader’s attention is by using repetition of symbols. While being in the water, the narrator keeps hearing the only sound of “reverberation of the river and the puttering of the water pump” (139).  The author intentionally repeats these words to show that it might have a different meaning. For instance, “water-pump” here has a symbolic meaning. At the begging  of the novel , the narrator says that, “the water wheels disappeared to be replaced on the bank of the Nile by pumps”(6), here he meant that his village is going through some changes. This indicates that water-pumps symbolizes a change. So whenever the narrator hears the sound of pump, it reminds him the changes that has happened in the village. One of the examples of changes that shocked him was the marriage of Hosna Bint Mahmoud, Mustafa Sa’eed’s widow to Wad Rayyes. After Mustafa’s death, the narrator became a guardian for Mustafa’s family. He had to look after his sons and his wife. But when Wad wanted to marry her, he couldn’t stop the marriage. “ Her weeping would made the subject of one of Wad Rayye’s famous stories about his many women with which he regales the men of the village”(72).  Here, the narrator imagines how Hosna would struggle by being Rayye’s wife. He could understand how this old men in his 70’s thinks about marriage like about buying a donkey. Salih emphasizes that the narrator is failing to face the reality of changing world. The author’s message here is to indicate that the narrator cannot forget what has happened to her and he fails to accept it, which means he is failing to face the reality of changing world in his culture.
Some of the words in this passage might have a double meaning. For instance, while being in the water, the narrator says that he stayed there “motionless” (138). He being floated motionless on the water could have many symbolic meanings. One could think that the author wanted to depict him as a person who unwilling or unable to do anything towards his people. At the begging of the novel he says that he will help his people, however throughout the novel the narrator failed to do any meaningful act on the progress of his hometown. “All my life I had not chosen, had not decided.”(139) For instance, he could not even intervene when he saw a corruption at workplace. Or back to the Hosna’s case, he could stop their marriage and their death only by marrying her. But he didn’t do it, because he didn’t want to look like Wad Rayye’s who didn’t see difference between a woman and a donkey. This shows that he wasn’t part of society.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 1 Interestingly, the same state of the narrator floating on the water could be interpret as his identity being unclear, which also causes him to struggle to find his place in society. Being in the water means not having a ground under your feet, which could symbolize not realistically understand of your own ideas or actions; or what you want from yourself. Throughput the novel, many passages confirm that he struggles with self-identity.  For instance, while swimming in the Nile he questions himself, “Was I asleep or awake? Was I alive or dead?”(138) similar to the question, “to what shore he need to swim?” here he is also showing signs of being not sure about where is the reality. He is confused, and doesn’t know what his role is. One possible answer for his identity issues is him not living in a real world. For example, he goes to Europe for seven years to learn what? Poetry? And he thinks this could be helpful for his people? Mustafa was right when he said that, “it would have been better if you’d studied agriculture, engineering or medicine” (9).  No wonder he is having an identity crisis since he came back home. Before being part of society, one needs to have clear answer to the question “who am I?”. Without having a clear answer, one will always have an issue of not fitting in with community.