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The Optimist

The story 'The Optimist' by Bina Shah critiques the tradition of arranged marriages through the experiences of Raheela, a British Pakistani girl, and her cousin Adnan, who embodies societal expectations. The narrative highlights the oppressive nature of these customs, particularly the lack of agency for women, as Raheela struggles against imposed choices and ultimately seeks her freedom. Through contrasting perspectives, the story reveals the superficial optimism of Adnan and the resilience of Raheela, emphasizing the need for change in societal attitudes towards women's rights and autonomy.

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1K views6 pages

The Optimist

The story 'The Optimist' by Bina Shah critiques the tradition of arranged marriages through the experiences of Raheela, a British Pakistani girl, and her cousin Adnan, who embodies societal expectations. The narrative highlights the oppressive nature of these customs, particularly the lack of agency for women, as Raheela struggles against imposed choices and ultimately seeks her freedom. Through contrasting perspectives, the story reveals the superficial optimism of Adnan and the resilience of Raheela, emphasizing the need for change in societal attitudes towards women's rights and autonomy.

Uploaded by

muhammadumarfarooq822
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE OPTIMIST

The optimist is a short story written by Bina Shah. It is a story that


raises an issue about the commonly prevailing trend of our society
that is `arranged marriage set up’. The story is a satire on the society`s
stubborn clinginess to its older conventions and traditions, and its
unchallenged negation of accepting the modern trends of the world.
Its weightless and futile optimism about it being perfect with its
traditional customs.
The story is about a British Pakistani girl named Raheela whose
marriage has been arranged by her parents without even asking her
choice with her cousin who lives in Pakistan. The story is divided into
3 naratives, where in two narator is Adnan and in one Raheela is the
narrator. The narrative is unchronological. In the first narrative Adnan
is the narrator where Adnan and Raheela's wedding is taking place
and in second narrative is about the pre marriage scenario and the last
narrative is again post marriage scenario.
In the first narrative of Adnan we see how cruelly right on the stage,
Raheela crushes the happiness of Adnan by admitting that she does
not love him and even can’t tolerate his sight and was just marrying
him on her parents’ wishes. And that how she curses him in slang
language.
Then it is told in the narrative how come Adnan happened to choose
Raheela as his suitable match, as per the old age custom of our society
which is merely through checking out her photograph he instantly
decides to marry Raheela, it is actually writer ridiculing the society's
way of arranging relationships when it comes to marriage, without
giving thought to the compatibility of two people, relationships just
happen . Adnan is perfectly okay with society`s custom of choosing a
partner without knowing as he has been in the position to chose the
life partner, for he is the man, he has given right to decide at his
choice at which age he is going to marry probably after having
enjoyed life at its fullest and having achieved career aspirations
whereas on the other hand women are giving only one choice that is to
get married and further more marrying not on their on choice but let
others decide whom she is going to spend her life with. And same was
the case with Raheela and when she protested ,
''They will never let me work" the answer was no exception "but
why should you work? Adnan is doing so well for himself." (175)
And the sentence said by Adnan is also sarcasm on the naivety of
behaviour of people in terms of arranged marriage setup." The days
our parents lived are gone where you take a stranger into your bed."
And Adnan himself going with the trends of society become
satisified with his self-assumed astrological compatibility that they
both will go well along with each other and this consideration of
Zodiacs to see compatibility is a metaphor for society`s senseless
customs.
Though Adnan is a man of modern age but he is complying with
the society`s age old custom of marrying through photograph set up,
and he is unaware and least bothered about the thinking of modern
women. Just like typical society`s notion , where it does accept the
time has changed but is so inflexible to adapt to such changes.
Similarly a stereotyped mentality of a Pakistani mother in law has
been shown through Adnan`s mother , where she doesn`t want her son
to choose a girl who belongs to a sect or background other than theirs,
or girl who is dark or the one with quite an assertive or dominating
personality and thinking. This particular stereotyped behaviour as we
all must have observed have become a hindrance in getting a suitor
for girl in our society. The choice of course belongs to the males and
their families. And this has become a serious social concern for the
girls and their families. A social anxiety it can be termed as.
Moreover the way Adnan said these words seems as an insult for
any woman;
"She would get used to to the way we live over here as long as I
made her happy" (172)
Though Adnan not knowing what is actually important for Raheela in
terms of happiness . And at one place he is found saying
"My mother was always dreaming of having a daughter in law to
boss over and to help her in the kitchen, but Raheela wouldnot
adapt to our lifestyle without a lot of love and kindness . A
marriage takes compromise you see and I am nothing if not a
reasonable man". (172)

It appears as if happiness, kindness and love are used as a


manipulative tools to tame a women in whatever way desired. And
Adnan boasting about compromise appears as a mockery as there was
no any compromise done on part of him throughout the story. All
Compromises were expected from Raheela , expectations were there
from Adnan himself , his parents or even Raheela`s parent which she
was supposed to fulfill .

Then in his second narrative as well , Adnan speaking as if he is


being oppressed as if great injustice has been done to him, when
Raheela didn`t allow him touch her and
Adnan`s description of her physical beauty emphasises how much he
wanted to be physical with her no matter she loved him or not.
As he says "... she wouldn`t say those three words . Never mind ,
I told myself , it will come". (179)

And then she let him touch her , Adnan was overjoyed
and thought his optimism has turned out as he expected . He
considered the physical relationship as the sole medium leading to a
happy relationship. This again happens to be prevailing concept of
marriage`s success , where a body of woman is being used to make
true all the assumptions of society, that how an arranged marriage set-
up happens to be the accepted norm of society for its healthier
survival , with least regard to women`s consent . And man feels a
masculine in controlling a woman`s body as it was said by Adnan in
his narrative. Thus in a way marriage happens to be a weapon to gain
control over the woman`s body.
Then in the narrative of Raheela we see she is a strong-head ,
outspoken , loud , blunt girl , who knows that she has the very right to
self expression , how to validate herself in open and fierce ways as
possible , whether its a petty issue related to harsh weather conditions
or aloud refusal to an unwanted marriage , and when she is not being
heard she harms herself with the shards of broken cup. Because of her
realization about the fact that she will never be able to win a
judgement for her , when her mother brought her a cup of tea and
there she sensed a sort of tiredness in her mother`s eyes which she
overlooked in her own eyes thirty years from then , which shows that
no matter what , women associated with patriarchal culture has to face
the same fate the way woman have to be a picture of misery.
And so was the result of such forced relationship that it brought
out the worst in her. She did all that she previously considered wrong ,
she forsaken her virginity, she got involved into smoking and clubing.
This was her protest for doing something which she found more
aversive. And the most interesting is the fact that she did`nt do any
such thing before ,even when she was an independent British woman
who had all the freedom and rights but when her choice to live her life
on her own choice was confiscated, the rebel in her grew full-fledged
wings , as boundaries and chains either on body or on emotions
always make the object to struggle for the ways to escape . This shows
how the Women with patriarchal roots are held hostage no matter
where they are and hence they are kept tied to its culture and
traditions. These culture and traditions try every bit of tactics to boss
over women by seizing their rights, gaining control over their bodies
and letting them act according to their set patriarchal ordeals for its
long life as was tried with Raheela.
Another important thing to be noted is a starking contrast in the
tone of the narrators , where Adnan`s narratives have subtle soft
touches in them , on the other hand we can sense loud and rebellious
expressions in Raheela`s narrative , this can be deliberative attempt as
if story is seen through the lens of society where a reader either man
or woman from a patriarchal society should percieve the character of
Adnan as the poor victim of an independent bad woman Raheela who
is willing to forsake the marriage bliss to her independence. Moreover
, though Raheela must have been through a mental torture but here we
see mental or emotional turmoil and psychological oppression of
Raheela is neglected throughout the story, we never see a sentimental
or weakening side of Raheela because it is never being visible to the
society`s eyes or it shuts its eyes to it.
Now some word about the tiltle of the story "The Optimist " and
it refers to vain optimism of Adnan. Here we can take Adnan as a
metaphor for society`s vain senseless conceptions about modern
woman, where society, religion and culture assumes that with its
prevailing systems and traditions it will be successful in clipping the
wings of the woman of today, but at the end of the story we see ,
Raheela eloped this compulsive relationship which that even after so
many restrictions compulsions, impositions ,women will somehow
make a way of freedom for herself and trespassing the self-made
boundaries of culture, she will pave a way for relief and
emancipation.

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