Assimilation and the Othello Narrative in Season of Migration to the North Anonymous College

The female gaze characterizes Mustafa Sa'eed's self-worth in Tayeh Salih's Season of Migration to the North. As he conforms to stereotypes of Arab-Africans during his interactions with Western women, Mustafa assumes made-up personalities, eventually becoming the Othello myth so feared by white Europeans. Moreover, his return to the Sudan and apparent suicide directly results from his inability to assimilate into either Sudanese or European society. Mustafa Sa'eed illustrates how forcing stereotypes onto a minority is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When the stereotyped inevitably assumes those traits, an internal struggle emerges as development of identity is stymied.

The initial characterization of Mustafa as cold contextualizes the ease at which he later assumes roles during sex. He refers to himself as "busy with this wonderful machine with which I had been endowed. I was cold as a field of ice, nothing in the world could shake me." Mustafa shows that since he is busy with his brain (his "machine"), he strays from focusing on his heart and capacity for love. In this sense, his analytical personality is key to him being able to assume different characters when he interacts with Westerners. Since he has no strong emotional compass...