Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Night of the Festival
In this story there was a lot of contrast. When the family at home prepares for Munir's wedding, they are very excited and always thinking about him. The two sons even spend the entire day watching the road for his arrival. However when Munir sends a telegram to his family he doesn't even invite them to his wedding or ask if he has his parents approval to marry. The father actually takes this quite well because he realizes that his son doesn't want a traditional life or a traditional wife. Personally I think that it was deserved that the son got married seperately because they did not tell him or give him any warning. One part of this story still puzzles me. I know that there was something symbolic about ripping up his congratulations letter but I dont really understand why. Maybe they are thinking that they'll never see him again or that he cannnot be part of the family anymore because he has dishonered his family even though it isn't his fault. Also the arranged marriage was more of a transaction in which money changes hands, not like a western marriage were the participants know who they will marry and marry them out of love not for money.
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Elliot, Munir doesn't invite his parents to the wedding because he is simply informing them that he is engaged to be married. If he were to invite his parents to his wedding, he would send a formal letter asking for their attendance.
ReplyDeleteNow about the symbolic ripping of the letter. It shows that the hajji and his sister really aren't happy about Munir marrying not only to someone they don't know, but marrying without telling his dad which completely screws up the whole marriage arrangement that was described in the beginning of the short story. The ripping shows that the hajji really is not too happy about his son being married to someone that he doesn't know.