A Handful of Dates

Salih creates the grandfather and Masood as foil characters, using their characteristics to enact a division of moral values, and to explore the various directional pulls of cultural currents present in Sudan at the time.

The story makes one direct comparison between the grandfather and Masood: “How I wished my grandfather wouldn’t do what he said! I remembered Masood’s singing, his beautiful voice and powerful laugh that resembled the gurgling of water. My grandfather never used to laugh” (92). The boy idolizes his grandfather and loves him naturally, partly because of the favor that this grandfather shows him. The statement that his grandfather “never laughs” reveals that he is in fact a stern and possibly cruel character, confirmed in the outcome of the story. The boy has not experienced his grandfather’s true nature until now. Masood, on the other hand, has a character that the boy feels genuinely drawn to for his warmth and humor. Masood’s singing and laughing suggest that he has a love of life that the grandfather rejects.

The story presents the dynamic between the grandfather and Masood as a binary zero-sum game: The grandfather’s wealth and status have increased just as Masood’s has diminished, largely because the grandfather had deliberately targeted Masood’s property.