Indledning
The short story “The Dutiful Daughter” by Saadat Hasan Manto, takes the form of a story within at story. By that it contains an outer story and an inner story.
It was published in 1990 in English, but the original was published in 1948. The text is written by Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) and he was a Pakistan author, born in what was then the British India.
His writing includes both short story’s and play and many of his stories are about the division between India and Pakistan, which happened as a continuation of the British Empire releasing their Indian colonies.
Indholdsfortegnelse
Setting
Characters
Composition
Language and style
Theme and message
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Uddrag
The story is told right after the partition of former British India. The separation of the country took place in 1947 when it got divided into, India and Pakistan, two new independent countries.
In the start of the story you read the outer-story where you hear about the difficulties in refugee camps and the volunteers’ effort, in both countries, of trying their best to make things good again and help each other.
After that the inner-story begins and it takes place in India, in different places and cities where the liaison officer helps the volunteers finding the missing Pakistani women and children.
And that is where the liaison officer meets the Pakistani old woman looking for her daughter. The story takes place in three different places overall.
The first place is where the first encounter happens between the officer and the old woman “in the suburbs of Jullandar”.
The second place and encounter are at a bus stop in Saharanpur. The last place and encounter are in Amrisar.
All of these three cities are not close to each other, at all, and that is where you can tell that the old woman is dedicated and obsessed to find her daughter.
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The old woman is an important character for the story. She is Pakistani and looking for her abducted daughter, in India.
She is described by others as “raving mad”. Her appearance in the story is told by the liaison officer.
The officer meets her several times during the story and by each time she is described as looking more worse, than the first encounter.
If we look at her inner characterization she believes that her daughter is still alive, and she are dedicated to find her, but her dedication affects her physically, as her condition get worse every time she meets the liaison officer.
She is a strong, confidence and pride women because she dedicated “her life” for finding her daughter and when she talks about her, she gains her confidence and pride because she is proud of her daughter.
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