A Handful of Dates
Literary Devices
History
Character Analysis
Motivation Question
Synopsis and Analysis
Comprehension Quiz
Comparisons
Symbols
The Boy
Masood
- Simile: "I heard him makes a noise in his throat like the rasping of a lamb being slaughtered" (7)
- Simile: "palm trees are like humans" (5)
- Simile: "as for his beard, it was soft and luxuriant and as white as cotton-wool" (5)
- The river is a symbol for the grandfather (5), therefore, when the boy throws up in the river, it symbolizes the boy's realization of the grandfather's corruption.
- The boy uses connotations of the color white to symbolize his grandfather as "pure"
- The dates symbolize the debt Masood owes to the grandfather
Your Analysis
Synopsis
- Tayeb Salih
- Story within The Wedding of Zein
- originally published in Arabic
- fictional village of Wad Hamid in central Sudan
- pitiful
- scared of the grandfather
- has had many wives
- sensitive
- troubled
- curious
- observant
- devoted
- thoughtful
- innocent (loses his innocence throughout the story)
- looks up to grandfather
- quick learner
- religious
There will be a short quiz to make sure that you understand the basis of the story's plot and some of its underlying meaning before we continue
Who has been the biggest role model in your life? How have they influenced you as a person? (Discuss with a partner)
- What do you think is the primary meaning of this story?
- Why does the grandfather dislikes Masood? How does the boy feel towards Masood?
- Did you see any symbols in the story? If so, what were they?
- Discuss the main characters and their purposes in the story.
- Did you see any character transform during the story? If so, who and how?
- Why do you think that the boy threw up the dates in the end?
- The main character, the boy, idolizes his __________.
- His grandfather, a stern man, expresses _______ towards his neighbor _______, implying that there is some bad blood between them.
- The grandfather owns ____ of his neighbor's land.
- Their neighbor comes over to inform the boy and his grandfather that the ____ are ready to be harvested.
- Masood receives _____ of his harvest.
Themes
The Grandfather
Possible themes include:
- corruption
- deception
- loss of innocence
- greed
- corrupted
- ambitious
- greedy
- pretentious
- stern
- serious