Rooms with Persona

Season of Migration to the North and One Hundred Years of Solitude share salient similarities which involve the centrality of villages, bizarre sexual ambitions and influence of foreigners on the inhabitants of the central villages. In addition, there exists an unobtrusive, yet noteworthy link that can be established between the two novels. In each story, one major character possesses a personal room that is completely customized to reflect his own idiosyncrasies. Season of Migration to the North's central village includes Mustafa Sa'eed's house in which his personal room is located. Melquiades' personal room, on the other hand, is located in One Hundred Years of Solitude's focal house which is not in fact his own. A substantial part of their characters are portrayed in their rooms through various symbolic objects, which would eventually help other characters unveil Mustafa and Melquiades' hidden mysteries.

Mustafa Sa'eed and Melquiades are distinctive characters, yet they both share spirituality, stir curiosity among particular characters and finally "expire" after they have laid enormous impact onto their communities. From the very beginning, Mustafa's unusual and mysterious disposition intrigues the narrator, whose interest is immediately exposed: "I do not know what exactly aroused my curiosity but I remembered that the day of my arrival [Mustafa] was silent." (Salih, 1991, p.3) In that respect, it is Mustafa's reticence that stirs the narrator's curiosity, and urges him to learn more about Mustafa's background. Even after Mustafa dies, he becomes a "phantom" lodged in the narrator's mind. This aspect of Mustafa places important, symbolic emphasis on his private room in his house.

Melquiades, like Mustafa Sa'eed, stirs curiosity amongst the village people. However, the way he stimulates curiosity is different. Melquiades is demonstrative and expressive, as one of the things he is considered is a gypsy who introduces the village to impressive new inventions. Melquiades' spiritual facet emerges because he always seems to rejuvenate after he has aged. He ages quickly at the beginning of the novel, "By then Melquiades had aged with surprising rapidity." (M‡rquez, 2000, p.5) However, he rejuvenates soon, "So that everyone went to the tent and by paying one cent they saw a youthful Melquiades, recovered, unwrinkled, with a new set of flashing teeth." (M‡rquez, 2000, p.8) This spirituality of Melquiades, similarly to Mustafa Sa'eed's, emphasizes the importance of his own personal room, which is located in the focal house of the story: the BuendÌa house.

While several background-related differences between Mustafa Sa'eed and Melquiades exist, the most significant difference between the two is related to the time-frame that they are obsessed with. Mustafa Sa'eed constantly delves into his past, while Melquiades is engrossed with the future. Throughout a substantial portion of Season of Migration to the North, Mustafa Sa'eed is merely revealing his past experiences to the narrator. Mustafa begins explaining his past by mentioning: "It's a long story, but I won't tell you everything." (Salih, 1991, p.19) Mustafa's mentioning that he would not expose everything to the narrator compounds a tinge of mysteriousness to his character. Melquiades, unlike Mustafa Sa'eed, is more concerned with the future rather than the past. Throughout the story, Melquiades is primarily concerned with inventing. However, he is not only concerned with making the inventions himself, but also with encouraging and aiding other characters, such as a man named JosÈ Arcadio BuendÌa, to invent. Melquiades offers JosÈ Arcadio BuendÌa certain utilities, such as maps, an astrolabe and a sextant. This therefore serves as a reflection of Melquiades' avidity to make inventions and discoveries that would contribute to facilitating the future. This maxim about Melquiades is probably the only thing both readers and characters actually perceive about him: "...with a stone on which they wrote the only thing they knew about him: Melquiades." (M‡rquez, 2000, p.75) Because little is known of him, his character is compounded with a sense of mysteriousness, similar to Mustafa Sa'eed's.

Mustafa's "obsession" with the past is directly reflected upon in his private room. Up until the narrator first opens the door to this mysterious room, Mustafa has been explaining his own past to him. The private room, in addition, serves to expound and further uncover the past of the peculiar Mustafa Sa'eed. The narrator is preoccupied with Mustafa's background, and he most likely achieves personal satisfaction after Mustafa leaves him with the key to the private room: "I leave you the key of my private room where you will perhaps find what you are looking for." (Salih, 1991, p.65) The fact that Mustafa mentions that the narrator might find what he is looking for puts emphasis on room's purpose: "containing" Mustafa's past. "Mustafa Sa'eed had not left a moment pass without recording it for posterity." (Salih, 1991, p.139) His room is not one where he works to make inventions, but is a room where he can remember and relive his past. The room's privacy is another one of its important aspects: "If you are unable to resist curiosity in yourself, then you will find, in that room that has never before been entered by anyone but myself, some scraps of paper." (Salih, 1991, p.65-66) Finally the narrator unlocks the door of the room and finds that it contains numerous books, articles, scraps of paper and pictures of the women that Mustafa had "conquered" in England hung on the walls of the room. The room is very personal, and Mustafa had spent much of his time in the room. The most significant event that takes place in the room is the narrator's mixing up between the image of Mustafa and that of himself: "This is not a picture of Mustafa Sa'eed - it's a picture of me frowning at my face from a mirror." (Salih, 1991, p.139) This point finally proves Mustafa's spiritual impact on his private room, and in the narrator's mind.

Unlike Mustafa Sa'eed's room, Melquades' is not a private one, and not one where he stores objects of his past. However, the room is given to Melquiades by the BuendÌa's, and is used as a laboratory. The fate of Melquiades' room in a sense parallels that of Melquiades himself. Similar to the way the passage of time had not eliminated Melquiades' "presence" in the story, the passage of time did not seem to have any effect on his room: "But when Aureliano Segundo opened the windows a familiar light entered that seemed accustomed to lighting the room everyday and there was not the slightest trace of dust or cobwebs..." (M‡rquez, 2000, p.188) However, readers learn that Melquiades is not immortal. He does in fact die, and is buried by the people of Macondo. Just like the villagers believed that Melquiades was in a way "immortal", they thought his room too would be everlasting, as it was thought to be the spiritual life of the BuendÌa house. During Melquiades' life, his state was questioned. To some in the village, he was well alive, while to others he was dead. Similarly, the state of Melquiades' own room was not certain: "...amazed by the fact that Melquiades' room was immune to dust and destruction, he saw it turn into a dunghill." (M‡rquez, 2000, p.188)

Mustafa Sa'eed and Melquiades both provide enormous spiritual impacts on their rooms. Mustafa is a man that is greatly concerned with the past, while Melquiades is a man greatly concerned with the future. The similarity between these two characters is the way they lay their "spirits" and personalities on their rooms. Mustafa's room is replete with items, such as photographs, journals and old books, which are important symbols of the past. Melquiades' room is filled with laboratory equipment, symbolizing the striving for discovery, invention, and unearthing. Mustafa's room is of greatest interest to the narrator of Season of Migration to the North. It does not only serve his own purposes, but also plays an important role in delineating particular themes in the story. The most significant theme in the story is identity crisis. His room serves to magnify this theme, where the narrator experiences an internal conflict when he looks into the mirror and is unsure of who he really is. Similar to Mustafa's room, Melquiades' room does not only serve his purposes, but also those of the story. This room, a laboratory, is used as a shelter for safety, and also as a room where the story's greatest mystery would be demystified. JosÈ Arcadio Segundo uses Melquiades' room as a shelter to hide from authorities. Aureliano Segundo, a character who is introduced later in the story, uses the room to solve the story's puzzle related to Melquiades' manuscripts.

The rooms therefore play several significant roles in the two stories. They serve to store important symbolic items, motivate other characters to unfold particular truths and clarify the central themes in each story. Mustafa's room contains journals that represented his past, and motivates the narrator to learn more about Mustafa and himself. The theme regarding identity crisis was most prominent in this room. On the other hand, Melquiades' room contains lab equipment that represent discovery, motivates other characters to invent and unfold the story's mystery, and exposes the theme of time. Finally, these personal rooms incorporate the personalities of their owners, which is why they are rooms with persona.

Word Count: 1,500