Reference no: EM133283596
Assignment - Season of Migration to the North Discussion
Question Description - Season of Migration to the North is a harrowing book about the narrator's return to his small Sudanese village. Having studied in London himself, Salih focuses "his work to harmonize the traditions of the past with the worldliness of the "traveled man," the African who has returned from schooling abroad. His novel Mawsim al-hijrah il? al-sham?l (1966; Season of Migration to the North) is a prose poem that reflects the conflicts of modern Africa: traditions and common sense versus education, rural versus urban, men versus women, and the specific versus the universal" (Britannica).
Below are some questions which cover these larger themes that Salih focuses on.
1- Early in the novel, Mustafa tells the narrator, "your grandfather knows the secret." The narrator is left wondering, "what secret does my grandfather know?" We are never explicitly told and are left to interpret it. What do you think the secret was?
2- In the novel there is conflict between what it means to be educated and what it means to be assimilated. Can you be one without the other? What is valued and what is not valued in this society?
3- There is a lot of talk about family, or the lack thereof, as well as the repeated idea of "my people." How is family and sense of family defined in this novel?
4- Why were girls like Ann Hammond attracted to Mustafa? Were they easy to trick? How was their infatuation with Mustafa a microcosm of the larger interactions between the Arab world and the Western world?
5- How are the people of this society dealing with, defining, and handling love, widow-ship, marriage, and loneliness?
6- Many characters deal with the elements of blame after the incident with Wad Rayyes and Bint Mahmoud. They attempt to assign and push off blame. Who is being blamed? Who do you think is to blame?
7- What do you make of the novel's ending? MLA format.