In this short story by Daniyal Mueenuddin, the main character, Nawabdin, he is clearly a hardworking man and he is every good at what he does. And yet he isnt well off with his 12 daughters for whom he needs to pay for dowries. But he is a happy man, a man that is happiest when he is busy and doing things. He has many jobs, working on the farm, cheating the electric company, and trying to fix anything he can get his hands on. He has a positive outlook, he is still poor, but he does his best to enjoy and love life, rather than wallowing in sadness, depression, and doing unethical and immoral things.
But the important thing is, that rather than being wealthy or a successful business man he is happy, surrounded by the love of his wife, whom he adores, and his daughters who make him smile, he is a happy person. Sure he is a a bit of a predicament with the dowries of his many daughters, and sure he isnt the wealthiest man in the world, but he lives his life happily and with people he loves. And when something threatens his happiness, and the happiness of his family, he doesn't have mercy and risks his life for his happiness. The robber is actually much like Nawabdin, a poor man trying to support his family in the ways he can, but he goes about it in a less honest and different way than Nawabdin, rather than pursuing things that will make money and make him happy.
Palmer-
ReplyDeleteYou begin to touch on some good points here. You start to hone in on the parallels between Nawabdin and the robber, but you back off from the implications of this foil relationship. Next time, push your points a litte deeper- go beyond the surface.