Clocks Like Horses

"Clocks Like Horses" may have been in my top 3 least favorite stories of the semester. It was very difficult at times to understand exactly what was occurring in the story. Essentially there is a man who travels to a town to have a watch which he has inherited, from an original seamen, repaired by one of the only watch repairmen left who knows how to repair the watch. I did think that it was kind of cool that the watch repairman had clocks that track all of the different times throughout the world. Then there seemed to be a discussion about the Turkish war and sailors shipping horses for sale. And the saddest part of the whole story was when the man tells of the horses who drowned once the ship sank! The end of the story was the most confusing for me when the man arrives to his bedroom and observes another man already in his room? Overall this story just confused me!

Small Sun

I'm fairly certain that "Small Sun" is a type of Arabic "cautionary tale". When this man stumbles home in the dark of night, drunk, and comes across a djinn whom promises him gold, the man releases the djinn before collecting his money. Upon returning home safely to his wife, despite being completely obliterated, the man tell this story to his wife. They greedily lay in bed fantasizing about everything that they will purchase with the gold once the husband has caught the djinn again. Rather than waiting for day light, or just being happy to have arrived home unharmed, the husband stumbles back out into the night to look for the djinn again in order to collect the gold. In his greedy mind the money is the only thing that matters at this moment. The man runs into another drunkard who attacks him with a razor. As he lays on the ground bleeding to death, he hears the djinn talking about all the gold he would have gotten. The main theme here is simply. Greed is evil and will only bring about very bad things. Be happy for what you have and don't push your luck!

Flower Crazy

"Flower Crazy" is a very "descriptive" story about a young woman who is helping to earn income for her family by prostituting herself. The story itself wasn't really a story, it is more of a description of the life that this young woman is leading and about the area she lives in. Her father is crazy and spends all of his time giving out flowers that he purchases with his own mothers money (thus the nickname "Flower Crazy") so he does not contribute anything to the family. Her mother is a peddler of produce on the street so most likely does not bring home a lot of money either. Prostitution is, in this particular circumstance, probably the only way this young woman can afford to feed herself and her family. She very obviously lives in a severe sort of poverty as the author takes time to describe all of the hungry children which surround her and the lack of food in her own home. I also think that this young girl must be pregnant because the first thing she does upon waking up in the morning is get violently ill. All in all this story is a very depressing but entirely believable tail of what an impoverished family must go through to survive.

The Persian Carpet

In the beginning of this story I felt a strong sense of pity for this woman who had been forced into marriage, bore two daughters, and then was determined to make her way out of the marriage to marry a man she had been in love with before her forced union. How unimaginably difficult would it be to be forced to marry someone that you don't love and raise a family the entire time knowing that you are in love with someone else. And then on top of that to know that your children are going to be ripped away from you because of the divorce. I'm assuming that this woman had no rights to her children because of the country they live in? As the story progressed, however, my feelings did a complete 360 as one of this woman's daughters recognizes a Persian carpet in her mother's new home as a carpet that her mother had accused a family friend (who also happens to be blind) of stealing. This accusation had driven the family friend away and it was a hard loss to both of her daughters. At this point I really felt a strong revulsion for this woman and her lie. At the same time her lying about the loss of the rug was probably the only way that she would be able to retain some piece of property from her previous marriage.

Cairo is a Small City

In this story a man named Adil falls in love with a woman named Salma. Adil is an engineer who lives in the city and watches Salma for almost a year from his balcony as she herds her families sheep through the streets of Cairo with her mother. Adil encourages interaction with his beloved thru the gift of bread for her sheep. When Adil finally approaches Salma's family he realizes that they know of a man that he had murdered. Finally, Adil is killed by Salma's family as she is nearby. The title "Cairo is a Small City", had obvious significance in that Adil just happened to fall in love with a woman who's father knew of his killer past. You should never underestimate the chances of running into someone, whom you have wronged, in your future. The world is a very small place!

Another Evening at the Club

This story was disturbing. A man and wife accuse a servant of stealing a ring that they later on discover has simply fallen behind a piece of furniture. The young servant girl has been dragged off by the police and has been beaten regularly in an attempt to draw a false confession from her. Rather than doing the right thing and admitting to the discovery of the ring, this man and his wife choose to allow the torture of the young servant to continue and go on living their lives as if there is nothing wrong with their choice. This story is a perfect example of what might happen in a culture where the biggest concern is what your neighbors think of you. These people avoid telling the truth because the husband feels that revealing it will let people know that the wife had a beer before dropping the ring behind the furniture. Why does this man just assume that this is what people will think? Is it completely inconceivable that someone might misplace or lose a ring somewhere in their own home and draw an incorrect conclusion? Why didn't they just make up a story and say that they discovered a break in had occurred and that the young servant was innocent? I really wanted to slap these two hard across the face.

The Birds of God

The depression and desperation in this fathers story of his plight to feed his family is sad. Immediately it is easy to feel bad for this man who cannot feed his wife and children because the drought in his area is so bad that his crops will not grow and he is not able to catch any fish. A fisherman by trait, this man spends his time daydreaming about how much easier his life would be if he could fly away like a bird. When a bird lands on his boat on the river, the man thinks briefly about eating it, but instead seems to develop some type of worship for the bird. He takes the bird home and feeds it what little food he has to the dismay of his wife and family. Finally, it becomes apparent that his wife thinks he has lost his mind and she leaves him, taking the children with her. The worship that this man has heaped upon the bird has driven off his family. At the end of the story I'm pretty sure that the man has died as he is in the river and cannot be pulled free. I then came to the assumption that perhaps this bird was the angel of death.