A handful of dates Essay

Children like to copy their favorite character. They imagine  themselves to be like that person when they get big. Like this, a young boy , the  main character of the story, â€Å"A Handful of Dates†, by Tayeb Saleh, imagine  himself to be like his grandfather, when he get big. The story describes the  childhood of a young boy, who does the things children typically do, go to school,  attend religious services, plays outside, and spends time with his favorite family  member, his grandfather. Although the boy loves his grandfather and considers him  as a great man, the boy realizes, through his treatment of his neighbor Masood,  that he is a greedy man, and doesn’t like him anymore.  Early in the story, the boy loves nature. The boy loves to go to the  mosque every morning to learn Quran. He also loves to swim in the river and  play in the field. The boy says, â€Å"The mosque, the river, and the fields – these were  the landmarks in our life†(p-1,para-1).He also says, â€Å"†¦I loved the river  too†(p1,para-2).In other words, the boy love the river as well as his village nature.  The boy was idealistic about his grandfather and wanted to be like him.  His relationship with his grandfather was very close. The boy says, â€Å"I loved to  give rein to my imagination and picture myself a tribe of giants living behind that  wood, a people tall and thin with white beards and sharp noses, like my  grandfather†(p-1,para-2).In his imagination he thinks about his grandfather, and  says, â€Å" when I grew to be a man, tall and slender like him, walking along with great strides†(p-1,para-2).He thinks himself to be like his grandfather when he gets  big. As the story begins, the boy notices his grandfather doesn’t like their  neighbor Masood. In a conversation he asked his grandfather that why he doesn’t  like Masood. His grandfather answered that Masood is lazy person  that’s why he  doesn’t like him. â€Å"He’s an indolent man and I don’t like such people†(p-2,para-5).  Moreover, grandfather also said that Masood married more than one time and  every time he got married, he sold some part of his property. â€Å" Masood, my boy,  was a much married man. Each time he married he sold me a feddan or two†(p-  3,para-14).The boy was thinking and made a calculation that may be Masood  married more than ninety women, and then remembered that he had three wives  and asking himself many questions. At the end of the story the boy realizes that  his grandfather wasn’t that kind of person which he thought.  According to the boy’s grandfather, he will buy all of the Masood’s  property before he dies. Long time ago when the grandfather first came in the  village he didn’t had any property. Now two third of his property’s owner is  grandfather. â€Å"†¦forty years ago all this belonged to Masood, two-thirds  of it is now  mine†(p-2,para-9). â€Å"†¦ I think that before Allah calls me to Him I shall have  bought the remaining third as well†(p-2,para-11).Grandfather also said to the boy  that he will buy Masood’s remaining property before he dies. The boy was  thinking of himself that why his grandfather doing that and felt sorry for Masood. An inner conflict develops when he found his grandfather is greedy,  which he should not be as a Muslim. When the grandfather said he will buy  Masood’s remaining property, the boy was thinking of himself that his grandfather  will do what he said, and felt sorry for Masood. â€Å"I do not know why it was I felt  fear at my grandfather’s words-and pity for our neighbor Masood. How I wished  my grandfather wouldn’t do what he’d said !† (p-2,para-12). The boy learn from the  Quran that people should be sympathetic to weaker section people of the society.  Instead of that, his grandfather wants to buy Masood’s remaining property, which  shows that he not the kind of person he should be as a Muslim.  The boy begins to notice Masood at the harvest, and he feels  sympathy for him.Masood invites the boy and his grandfather to harvest dates. At  the harvest field the boy noticed Masood and thinking what his grandfather said  about him. â€Å"I remembered Masood’s remark to me when he had once seen me  playing with the branch of a young palm tree: Palm tress, my boy, like humans,  experience joy and suffering. And I had felt an inward and unreasoned  embarrassment†(p-3,para-19).The boy remember, once he was playing with the  palm tree Masood told him that palm trees are like human, which means Masood  loves nature.