Introduction
Relations between the old and the young are characterized by an essential element of inequality—an outsider would imagine the balance of power to be all on one side. However, Tayeb Salih’s “A Handful of Dates” and Rosario Ferre’s “The Youngest Doll” present insights into the subtleties of such relations of power between the generations. The grandfather in Salih’s story is a man who is in love with his power and pelf, but he has little real power over his grandson. On the other hand, Rosario Ferre’s story reveals the power of the love of an elderly maiden aunt for her nieces. The aunt’s love for her nieces empowers both herself and them; the grandfather’s love of power alienates him from his grandson and from others with loving hearts, who can see into the heart of things.
Main body
The maiden aunt in Ferre’s story has a somewhat melancholy history—local legend has it that a large prawn burrowed its way into her calf and has remained there ever since—but she overcomes this personal sorrow by giving expression to the vast reserves of love in her heart. She pours her heart into her creations—dolls that represent the nieces whom she loves very much, dolls that give herself and her nieces and everyone else so much joy that “it never occurred to the aunt to sell them for profit, even when the girls had grown up, and the family was beginning to fall into need” (94). She is unmarried but she gets the joy of maternal creation from the dolls that she makes, and “the birth [emphasis mine] of a doll was always cause for a ritual celebration” (94). Love thus transforms a maiden into a mother, the act of creation—referred to significantly as “birth” both giving her joy and allowing her to make others happy. That is true power—the power of love which both engenders love and empowers all who are touched by it.
In contrast, the old grandfather in Salih’s story is a man who accepts love and money and other offerings but the reader never sees any evidence of his giving anything at all in return. The boy attests at the beginning of the story that “I loved him and would imagine myself, when I grew to be a man, tall and slender like him, walking along with great strides” (141). The boy was intelligent—unlike his brothers and cousins—and would fulfill all his grandfather’s wishes even before these were expressed in words:
I used to know when my grandfather wanted me to laugh when to be silent; also I would remember the times for his prayers and would bring him his prayer-rug and fill the ewer for his ablutions without his having to ask me. When he had nothing else to do he enjoyed listening to me reciting to him from the Koran in a lilting voice, and I could tell from his face that he was moved. (141).
The love flows from grandson to grandfather as water flows from the river to the sea. The great ocean accepts the offerings of the humble river and perhaps expects the river to be grateful for the privilege.
Masood skews the balance of this relationship when the grandfather speaks of his dislike of the man, in answer to the boy’s question: “He is an indolent man, and I don’t like such people” (141). He also reveals that Masood’s indolence had proved beneficial to him (the grandfather) who had been by then able to acquire two-thirds of Masood’s property. He planned to acquire the remaining third, too, “before Allah calls to Him” (142). The boy reveals his power of heart when he narrates his reaction to this statement:
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! I remembered Masood’s singing, his beautiful voice, and powerful laugh that resembled the gurgling of water. My grandfather never used to laugh. (142).
The boy has hit the nail on the head—grandfather might be rich and powerful and planning to become richer and more powerful still, but he did not know how to enjoy life as Masood did.
Masood shows his consideration for even the flora around him when he tells the boy cutting dates, “Be careful you don’t cut the heart of the palm” (143). The grandson notes that “no one paid any attention to what [Masood] said,” but he himself had been struck by Masood’s use of the phrase: “I pictured the palm tree as something with feeling, something possessed of a heart that throbbed” (143). One need not add that the only human beings in the story who seem to possess hearts that throb with love are Masood and the young grandson.
“A Handful of Dates” ends with the description of the harvesting of dates on Masood’s land. Masood is present to supervise the harvest, but so are the grandfather, the little boy, and many others too. The boy is given a few dates and he munches them abstractedly. At the end of the harvest, the dates are all taken by Masood’s creditors, the lion’s share falling to the grandfather. The boy “understanding nothing… looked at Masood and saw that his eyes were darting about to left and right like two mice that have lost their way home” (143). The grandfather left the place with the statement that Masood still owed him fifty pounds. The boy felt an overwhelming desire to touch Masood when he uttered a painful sound “like the rasping of a lamb being slaughtered” (144). In the last sentence of the story, the boy reveals how, “without knowing why, I put my finger into my throat, and spewed up the dates I’d eaten” (144).
Conclusion
This boy might appear somewhat weak at the time, but there can be no mistaking the power that he wields. That is the power of the narrator, the intelligent and imaginative creator of stories who knows the power of the words that he uses. He has a heart too and his heart is full of love and this love gives added power to his tongue and pen. He has judged his grandfather right and has told the story in such a way that the reader understands the real message of the story which is about the power of love, something his grandfather lacks. Similarly, the maiden aunt in Ferre’s story is spurred by the power of love to create things of beauty that give joy to her and to many others as well. The two stories thus underscore the need for love and attest to the fact that love, and not seniority of age, is the true source of power.
Works Cited
Ferre, Rosario. “The Youngest Doll.” Trans, Rosario Ferre and Diana Veles.
Salih, Tayeb. “A Handful of Dates.” Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies.