The Persian Carpet

In life, all relationships need many important elements to overcome difficulties and challenges which may break those relationships and separate members. “The Persian Carpet” by Hanal Al-Shayk shows that there has to be trust, commitment and communication between members in order for relationship to strengthen. This becomes obvious when looking at narrative elements in the story such as character and conflict. Firstly, the conflict between the father and the mother leads to their divorce and separate their children because the trust and communication does not exist between them. Secondly, the main character, the daughter, destroys her connections with her mom because she thinks her mom is the carpet thief; she even does not ask to verify yet.

Finally, Ilya is sentenced to leave the village because he does not say anything to save himself. Therefore, trust, commitment and communication are necessary for relations to develop or survive. At the beginning, the family relationship between the parents dies when the do not use their trust to raise it or at least to keep it. The mom threatens “to pour kerosene over her body and set fire to herself if [the] father wouldn’t divorce” her (13). Their marriage is now like a nightmare to her. She thinks it is a lot more painful than death. She cannot stand this marriage anymore and always tries to get rid of it.

She puts her life in danger to threaten her husband to divorce. However, if they sit down and discuss together about what each person wants in a peaceful way, everything will be different. They may recognize the other’s difficulties in this relationship and sympathize with the other. Each of them also should put their trust in the other to get back the other’s trust. There should be not any “squabbling” (13) between them anymore. Because of it, the family relationship will not be dead, or at least they could part well and it does not have to affect the children if each member knows how to communicate and believe in each other. Therefore, if there is trust and commitment in the family, the conflict may not lead to those serious consequences such as divorces and separation.

On the other hand, if they divorce “peacefully”, the father would allow his daughters to see their mother. The daughters overjoyed when they met their mother. This shows that despite her departure, they missed her as would only child miss his/her parent. Therefore, trust is necessary for a relationship to survive or endure. Similarly, the protagonist, the daughter, judges her own mother as the carpet thief, and breaks off her bond with her mom even though she does not ask for clarification. The daughter, with her stubborn trait, wishes: “I could remove her arms from around me and sink my teeth into that white forearm” (14).

She is very critical that she convinced to commit the crime on her mom as soon as she knows just a little information about that. In fact, there is no clue or evidence that proves her mother’s guilt. She starts hating the person who gave birth to her and carefully raised her for years. The daughter is cold to her mother even though her mother sacrifices her own life to take care of her family, especially the daughter. The daughter’s anger blinds her eyes that the mom may be not the thief. She decides to give up this relationship with her mom even though she still loves her mom. When she meets her mom, she cannot control her actions and throws herself in her mom’s arms.

She realizes: “I had missed her and I wished that she would come back and live with us” (13). Despite her love, she looks at her mom as a thief, as a shamed person just because of her superficial and stubborn traits. If she talks with her mom to find out exactly what happened instead of blaming her mom, their problem will may be solved. Therefore, the relationship between the daughter and her mom will be fine, even better if there is trust and communication between them. Furthermore, Ilya, a scapegoat who is seen as the carpet thief, leaves the village because he is quiet in his sentence. In fact, he does not steal the carpet.

However, the mother assumes that he is the thief. Other people, especially himself, know that he never does this guilty crime. The daughter sees “tears on his cheeks” (15). He cries for being a scapegoat in this crime but he does not say anything to excuse himself from the judgement. Everyone encourages or even asks him to speak up but he is still quiet. The daughter said: “He knew me by the touch of my hand, because he said to me in a half-whisper: “Never mind, child” … My father didn’t let him leave before saying to him: ‘Ilya, God will forgive you if you tell the true’ But Ilya walked off” (15).

Although the father and the daughter try their best to help him and prevent his leaving, Ilya still goes away in silence. This silence makes him become guilty. He is sentenced to leave the village. He does not do that crime not because people hate him but because he does not excuse for his untrue crime and no excuse means excepting this crime. People misunderstand him because of his silence. As a result, no communication cause people to misunderstand him and breaks up their relationship. In conclusion, people can use their trust, commitment and communication to strengthen their connections.

If they do not, breaking up between them will easily happen and causes many serious consequences. The divorce between the father and the mother exists when they do not trust and talk to each other. Similarly, the daughter misunderstands her mom betraying her and she judges her mom because she does not ask to figure out the truth. Finally, the leaving of Ilya shows the importance of communication in staying away from wrong judgement. In life, there are a lot of challenges and obstacles but everyone needs to use these negative situations to keep and develop their relationships with others.