81 pages • 2 hours read
Tayeb SalihSeason of Migration to the North
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
The Nile
The Nile is the source of sustenance for the village of Wad Hamid, which rests at a bend in the river. Upon returning home, the narrator always asks about the harvest—made possible by the Nile’s flooding. His grandfather’s house on the banks of the river changes along with the riverbed, just as does the rest of the village. The river appears as a source of truth, goodness, and clarity. It is also, however, the place where Mustafa Sa’eed dies. Upon first hearing of his death, the narrator is somewhat surprised, judging the man to be a good swimmer, and this is part why he deems the death a suicide. Later, when he himself is near drowning the river, we learn that the currents and undertows, the forces that suck one towards the bottom of the river, are difficult to escape. The river is thus both a source of life and death, more threatening than it first seems.
The Desert
The deserts of the Sudan stand in contrast to the Nile. In the novel, they represent desolation, madness, and futility. Early moments in the novel describe the Sudan as a place of warmth and fire and Europe as a place of ice. When the narrator travels through the desert after realizing he is in love with Hosna, this warm and fire become corrosive, threatening to end his sanity.
In a striking moment of the novel, an ecstatic dance rises up in the desert as passing cars stop and contribute food, drink, and singing to the impromptu gathering. This moment of celebration and beauty—of something rising up and out of the desert—seems incredibly farcical to the narrator.
Poetry
The narrator wrote his thesis on an English poet, and his encounters with poetry throughout the novel are meaningful. He first becomes angry when Mustafa Sa’eed says poetry has “no place” (111) in their village—only to discover that the man is familiar not just with poetry but English poetry. Something that seems truly “his own” turns out to belong to Mustafa Sa’eed as well. In fact, Arabic poetry was central in his seduction of Ann Hammond. Later in the novel, the narrator finds Mustafa’s poetry and deems it to be bad, replacing the final line with his own.
The Black Donkey
Upon returning to his village after Mustafa Sa’eed’s death, the narrator sees a black donkey and learns it belongs to his uncle Abdul Karim. He learns that his uncle was “cheated” (53), as the donkey is barren, but his uncle loves her for her beauty. This donkey reappears throughout the novel. Although its significance is never directly commented on, it seems to speak to our willingness to deceive ourselves. Even though Abdul Karim knows he has been cheated, he denies the situation, trying to cast himself in the role of the winner.
Repetition and Doubling
In this novel, characters find themselves repeating someone else’s actions. Three of Mustafa Sa’eed’s mistresses commit suicide, likely without knowledge of one another—they have simply found themselves trapped in the same narrative. Likewise, Hosna and the narrator both repeat parts of Mustafa Sa’eed’s journey. Although Hosna never knew about Jean Morris’s murder, she kills her husband by stabbing just as her deceased husband killed his first wife. The narrator, fully informed of the man’s story, finds himself falling in love with Hosna as well as almost drowning in the Nile. These events suggest that it is impossible to escape certain structures of power and desire.
