25 pages • 50 minutes read
A Handful of Dates
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Character Analysis
The Narrator
The unnamed narrator is a dynamic protagonist whose emotional journey through the story highlights Disillusionment With the Adult World and emphasizes the injustice of exploitation, especially an awakening to the complexities of Attitudes to Morality, Generosity, and Cruelty.
The narrator presents his childhood self as an intuitive, empathetic, intelligent, and proud boy who experiences deep sadness and compassion during the story's resolution. He explains that he excels in mosque, frequently being asked to stand and recite sections of the Quran for visitors. His pride also reveals itself when he describes himself as his grandfather’s favorite grandchild, stating that the others were a “stupid bunch” and that he was an “intelligent child” (91). He appears to revel in and encourage this favoritism, which intersects with the story’s presentation of privilege and power.
The boy’s intelligence also contributes to his intuitiveness, as he can often interpret his grandfather's needs and infer his grandfather’s feelings about others, including Masood. He identifies that his grandfather does not like Masood and this leads him to ask the “adult” question of why this is. When his grandfather answers, he feels empathy for Masood and some confusion when his grandfather describes Masood as “indolent” and speaks poorly of his selling off his land due to his “many” wives (91). The boy is mature enough to perceive that his grandfather’s argument is unsatisfactory but doesn’t have the experience to understand what is happening until the date harvest reveals the true nature of the grandfather’s code of behavior. The narrator, when faced with his grandfather’s opinion of Masood, “remember[s] Masood’s singing, his beautiful voice and powerful laugh that resembled the gurgling of water” (92). These fond recollections of Masood contribute to his empathy for the man. When Masood’s entire crop is taken away from him, the narrator “felt [himself] drawing close to Masood, felt [his] hand stretch out towards him as though I wanted to touch the hem of his garment” (94). These dynamic traits contribute to his disillusionment as he perceives the greed and exploitation demonstrated by his grandfather and the other men in the village, and his increasing alignment, emotionally and physically, to Masood instead of his grandfather.
The Grandfather
The Grandfather is a symbolic antagonist in “A Handful of Dates,” representing Greed for Riches and Power. The grandfather is a static character, told entirely from the narrator's point of view. While the Grandfather is static, the narrator’s view of him changes across the text. Initially, the narrator describes his physical appearance using loving, strong, but also delicate details. The narrator describes imagining “a tribe of giants living behind that wood, a people tall and thin with white beards and sharp noses, like my grandfather” (90). He goes on to say, “[a]s for his beard, it was soft and luxuriant and as white as cotton-wool—never in my life have I seen anything of a purer whiteness or greater beauty” (90). Describing his grandfather as a “giant” suggests strength and greatness, yet describing his white, soft beard suggests purity and innocence. This description reflects more of the narrator’s idealistic view of adulthood than the reality of the grandfather himself, who eventually contributes to the narrator’s disillusionment when he exploits Masood’s crop, taking sacks of dates yet demanding there is more debt to be paid.
Salih further characterizes the grandfather through his social standing. He is part of a group of men who have come to take from Masood, and he is given a “stool covered with an ox-hide” (92) to wait and observe the harvest of Masood’s crop, which signifies his status while he watches over the work. This group, including Hussein the merchant, strangers, and a neighbor, Mousa, collect sacks of dates from Masood, leaving him with nothing. The grandfather is shown to be pitiless in his desire to humiliate his adversary and increase his own sense of power.
Masood
Masood serves as a foil character to the grandfather, offering alternative Attitudes to Morality, Generosity, and Cruelty. Salih characterizes Masood in conflict with the grandfather early on in the text when the grandfather describes him as “indolent” and states that he does not like “such people” (91). As the reader learns that Masood has sold much of his crop to the grandfather already, Salih evokes sympathy for Masood through the narrator’s inner thinking about the man, describing that he pities him while fearing his grandfather. This juxtaposition immediately paints Masood as an innocent and the grandfather as a bully.
Salih further characterizes Masood through his physical descriptions, describing “his shabby appearance, his lame donkey, and his dilapidated saddle, his djellaba with the torn sleeves” (92). This encourages the reader to compare Masood’s shabby appearance with the grandfather’s giantlike appearance. The narrator further compares them as he remembers “Masood’s singing, his beautiful voice and powerful laugh that resembled the gurgling of water” and thinks that “his grandfather never used to laugh” (92). These positive descriptions align with the narrator’s connection to nature, a sense of benevolent power and joy that aligns more with Masood than the grandfather, which foreshadows the revelation of the grandfather’s true nature later in the text when he takes and takes from Masood.
The narrator reflects on how he felt drawn to Masood in his sympathy for the man, when he hears him “[m]ake a noise in his throat like the rasping of a lamb being slaughtered” (94). The boy’s reaction is to feel physical pain in his chest. Masood’s action and the narrator's reaction demonstrate how peaceful, religious, and rural values are threatened by Greed for Riches and Power.
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