– Jeremy Ramirez
The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid by Tayeb Salih in my opinion is great work. The narrator of the story is an old man from Wad Hamid who is speaking to a stranger who happens to be visiting this village and the old man talks to him about this village. He tells the stranger that this village is not a place people would like to stay, and it’s uncomfortable but this uncomfortableness is what the people from this village are willing to accept and endure. They don’t want to be comfortable because this difficult place they lived in is natural and it’s what gives them strength. This reminds me of the idea of living in New York City, where the saying goes, “if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” This is something that I truly believe because as I have lived in New York City for all my life, although it is a city and it’s not necessarily natural, it toughens one skin. You experience everything in New York City, from the good, the bad and the ugly. Just think about it, living in NYC you have all walks of life, you experience all behaviors, crisis, anything you can think of, and one’s experience of life is multiplied and amplified because of the diversity, the culture, and interactions on a day to day basis. I remember this one comedian’s joke who said, New Yorkers are so proud, and when someone new comes into this city they are not really considered a New Yorker, but if a homeless man happens to cough in their mouth in the subway they should be allowed to call themselves a New Yorker, that is at least five years of experience right there. That is something that I would have to agree with if one experience traumas like those and survive you get a pass. From the story the narrator stated to the man, Tomorrow you will depart from our village, of this I am sure, and you will be right to do so. What have you had to do with such hardship? We are thick-skinned people and in this we differ from others.”(p.817) That is something I can relate with as a New Yorker, in which the city creates our thick skin and many people from other states and around the world misinterpret or misunderstand us as to say stereotyping New Yorkers for being mean, angry, or rude but in reality, you have to be this way in order to survive the concrete jungle. New Yorkers are compassionate to those who deserve it, are tough through through difficult situations and it’s really hard to fool a New Yorkers because we know when someone is trying to swindle us or take us for fools. That is why if you have lived in New York and survived, you can survive and live anywhere or make it anywhere because here you will experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, that will at least give an additional twenty more years of wisdom and experience on top of your age. I also enjoy that this story talked about the theme of modernity and naturalness, similar to new age vs traditional. In which the man asked the old man does he think that one day the doum tree will be cut down? This is a possibility because there’s been such a ruckus over this tree for cutting it down and allowing it to be a stopping place for the steamer. The old man replied, “There will not be the least necessity for cutting down the doum tree. There is not the slightest reason for the tomb to be removed. What all these people have overlooked is that there’s plenty of room for all these things: the doum tree, the tomb, the water-pump, and the steamer’s stopping-place.” This reminds me of the idea some people have sometimes about life being a zero-sum game. As to say that we all share from this pie when it comes to income inequality, where one percent owns the majority of the pie. My concern isn’t with the big piece of the pie that the rich owns and everyone else gets scraps, that’s to say I’m not interested in the rich’s money, but that it is possible to create more pies, that we all do not have to share from one pie, and almost everyone any anyone has the capability to accumulate wealth and satisfy their needs.
