Summary
One day, the narrator asks his grandfather why he doesn’t like their neighbor, a man named Masood. The grandfather rubs the tip of his nose and says he doesn’t like indolent men like Masood. The narrator asks what an indolent man is. The grandfather looks across at the wide expanse of field where they live. The grandfather explains that the one hundred feddans of land stretching from the edge of the desert up to the bank of the Nile river, and all the date palms and acacia trees, once belonged to Masood, who had inherited the land from his father.
The narrator looks at the vast area of land and says he doesn’t care who owns any of it, because all he knows is that it’s his playground and the arena for his dreams. The grandfather says that forty years earlier it all belonged to Masood, but two-thirds of the land is now the grandfather’s. The narrator is surprised: he assumed the land belonged to his grandfather since God created it.
The grandfather says he didn’t own any land when he arrived in the village, but his and Masood’s positions have changed. The grandfather thinks that he will have bought the other third of the land before Masood dies. The narrator isn’t sure why, but he feels fear hearing his grandfather say this—and pity for Masood. He wishes his grandfather won’t do what he says. When he thinks of Masood’s beautiful singing voice and powerful laugh, he considers how his grandfather never laughs.
The grandfather explains that Masood sold his land because of women: Masood married multiple times, and each time he sold a feddan or two to the grandfather. The narrator calculates that Masood must have married ninety women. Then the narrator remembers Masood’s three wives, shabby appearance, limping donkey, worn saddle, and torn clothing. Just then, Masood approaches the narrator and his grandfather to tell them they are harvesting the dates, asking if they want to be there. The narrator can tell that Masood doesn’t actually want the grandfather to attend. However, the grandfather jumps up and has an intense brightness to his eyes. He eagerly grabs the narrator’s hand and brings him to the date harvest.
Someone brings the grandfather a stool to sit on. Many people are present for the harvest, but for some reason the narrator watches only Masood, who stands in an aloof way. While boys use sickles to cut clusters of dates from the tops of the tall palm trees, Masood reminds them to be careful not to cut the heart of the palm.
No one pays attention to what Masood says, and the boys hack away energetically. However, the narrator thinks about the phrase “heart of the palm” and pictures the tree possessing a throbbing heart. The narrator remembers Masood once told him that palm trees, like humans, experience joy and suffering.
The narrator sees other young people swarm like ants around the trunks of the trees, gathering up dates and eating most of them. After the dates are collected into mounds, people weigh the dates and distribute them into thirty sacks. The crowd then breaks up, leaving only Hussein, a merchant, Mousa, owner of a neighboring field, and two men the narrator doesn’t recognize.
Someone whistles to wake the narrator’s grandfather. The narrator notices Masood hasn’t changed his stance, except he now has a stalk in his mouth. He munches the stalk like someone who has an excess of food and doesn’t know what to do with the mouthful he still has.
Analysis
Salih begins the second section of the story by departing from the habitual tense of the first section and locating in the narrator’s memory the day on which conflict first entered his carefree existence.
Having gleaned from his grandfather’s attitude that he doesn’t like their neighbor, Masood, the narrator asks why his grandfather doesn’t like the man. The grandfather harshly judges Masood’s lifestyle, and claims that it is the man’s indolence he dislikes. However, it is clear from the grandfather’s attitude that he resents the apparent ease with which Masood has lived his life, inheriting a significant amount of land from his father and marrying many wives.
The grandfather reveals that he himself arrived at their village with nothing, and proceeded over the course of forty years to buy up two-thirds of Masood’s land when Masood found himself in need of money. When the grandfather expresses a desire to buy the rest of Masood’s land before Masood dies, the narrator feels a sense of fear that he cannot make sense of, and he wishes the grandfather won’t follow through with his plan. With this moment, Salih introduces the major themes of greed, empathy, and visceral understanding.
Staying true to his innocent understanding of the world, the narrator comments that he doesn’t know why he feels what he feels upon hearing his grandfather’s greedy plan: rather, he articulates the inward emotional response of fear. This visceral reaction is so moving that the narrator cannot ignore it, and he instinctively thinks of Masood’s beautiful voice, recalling how he perceives a romantic freedom in Masood’s spirit. In this show of empathy, the narrator begins to define himself in contrast to his grandfather, who delights at Masood’s financial ruin, as is made clear by the sparkle of intense brightness that enters the grandfather’s eyes when Masood reluctantly invites him to the date harvest.
The section ends with the narrator and the grandfather attending Masood’s date harvest. While the grandfather falls asleep on a stool, the narrator monitors Masood, whose body language conveys an attempt to maintain dignity in what will prove to be a humiliating ordeal in which all of his dates go to his creditors and he remains in debt. The narrator seems to be the only person listening to Masood when he mentions the importance of not harming the heart of the date palm tree. With this detail, Salih shows how Masood, like the narrator, possesses an empathy that extends even to trees. Salih deepens the narrator’s invisible connection to Masood, which further jeopardizes the narrator’s allegiance to his grandfather.
