25 pages • 50 minutes read
Tayeb SalihA Handful of Dates
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1964A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Foil Characters
Salih creates the grandfather and Masood as foil characters, using their characteristics to enact a division of moral values, and to explore the various directional pulls of cultural currents present in Sudan at the time.
The story makes one direct comparison between the grandfather and Masood: “How I wished my grandfather wouldn’t do what he said! I remembered Masood’s singing, his beautiful voice and powerful laugh that resembled the gurgling of water. My grandfather never used to laugh” (92). The boy idolizes his grandfather and loves him naturally, partly because of the favor that this grandfather shows him. The statement that his grandfather “never laughs” reveals that he is in fact a stern and possibly cruel character, confirmed in the outcome of the story. The boy has not experienced his grandfather’s true nature until now. Masood, on the other hand, has a character that the boy feels genuinely drawn to for his warmth and humor. Masood’s singing and laughing suggest that he has a love of life that the grandfather rejects.
The story presents the dynamic between the grandfather and Masood as a binary zero-sum game: The grandfather’s wealth and status have increased just as Masood’s has diminished, largely because the grandfather had deliberately targeted Masood’s property. This juxtaposition of the grandfather and Masood creates the moral dilemma that the boy perceives and realizes that he must now negotiate as he moves from the simple naivety of childhood to the complexity of adult life and decision-making.
Personification
Salih personifies palm trees in the text. Masood describes palm trees to the narrator, saying, “[p]alm trees, my boy, like humans, experience joy and suffering” (93). The narrator also pictures “the palm tree as something with feeling, something possessed of a heart that throbbed” (93). Salih personifies the date palms to emphasize the rural connection with nature that is lost in the exploitation of land, and also to express an emotional connection and respect between Masood and the palm trees that his family has owned.
Salih also personifies animals in the text. At the climax of the story, when the men are taking away the dates from Masood’s harvest, Salih personifies the donkeys and camels meant to take the goods away. He writes, “[o]ne of the donkeys let out a braying which set the camels frothing at the mouth and complaining noisily” (94). Salih suggests that nature itself protests the exploitation of goods, using the animals to reflect the conflict of the men exploiting Masood’s harvest.
Similes
Salih uses similes to compare Masood to animals and natural forces in the text, highlighting his lack of power and also allying him to the land which is exploited for human gain. Masood is compared to a mouse, as the narrator recalls, “I looked at Masood and saw that his eyes were darting about to left and right like two mice that have lost their way home” (94). The mice—small, unwanted creatures—reflect Masood’s shame and powerlessness. Calling them lost connotes Masood’s loss of status and his role in the community as a landowner.
Salih also compares Masood to a slaughtered lamb: “[The narrator] heard him make a noise in his throat like the rasping of a lamb being slaughtered” (94). This comparison emphasizes Masood’s powerlessness by describing him as a lamb, an animal that symbolizes the sacrifice of innocence in Abrahamic religion and culture. In Islamic culture, lambs are slaughtered to celebrate religious and other festivals, and are associated with generosity and communality, when those who have good fortune share with others as a means to express gratitude. This simile juxtaposes the values of charity and liberality with the grasping avarice of the grandfather and other men.
Foreshadowing
Salih uses foreshadowing to hint at the boy’s coming disillusionment and the story’s climax through the actions of the narrator’s companions. As the dates are harvested, the narrator observes “his young companions swarming like ants around the trunks of the palm trees, gathering up dates and eating most of them” (93). This event foreshadows the actions of the powerful men who later come together to gather up the entirety of Masood’s crop, leaving him still in debt. It also symbolizes the narrator’s loss of his childhood illusions in the face of adult (male) injustices, revealing the greedy, selfish nature of men who take at the expense of others.
