With this task, there were two extremely different short stories presented, one of the comically grim situation of a couple attempting to cross the borders, and one that questioned the existential and moral fiber of human life in a home intrusion. György Dragomán’s short story, “Haul”, is set in the borders of Brussels, in Belgium, which has a population of over 1.2million people with the main languages spoken consisting of French, Dutch and German. “Enemy”, by Khalida Hussain, was set in Pakistan, with the story being originally written in Urdu and with Pakistan being the fifth most populous country in the world.
“Haul”, describes the eccentric and unconventional methods that a smuggler uses on a French and Armenian or Gagauz couple, the latter of which is unknown, and depicts the harsh and brutal circumstances the couple must endure to cross the border. The short story takes a focus on the smuggler himself, Zeus, who provides insight on the circumstances of his smuggling career and the ever increasing difficulties which have surmounted to the current methods he employs in the story. Dragomán’s story develops the strain the situation creates on the couple’s relationship and paints the picture of the technologically developing circumstances within Brussel’s borders. The story ends with a cliffhanger which is left up to the audience’s interpretation as to whether the couple succeeds or not, although the story itself sets up the likeliness that the couple is unsuccessful.
Hussain’s “Enemy” takes us to a woman’s house in which her and her family discover that there is someone hiding in their house. The woman explores the act of killing the intruder, oscillating between whether or not her death was justifiable. It explores her attempts at escaping this confrontation, only to be questioned again and again until the victim is killed and the story ends with her seeing “herself dangling from the end of the pointed rod”.
Both short stories come from extremely situations with both authors using language quite differently in each one. Dragomán’s short story develops the scene and helps the reader visualize what is occurring much more heavily than in Hussain’s short story. Dragomán manages to explore the present and past of the Dutch borders and implies the future all in his story, whilst Hussain only presents a single event to the audience. A common theme between both stories, however, was the use of imagery in order to let the audience view the story as it was intended. Although in Hussain’s novel, there was only one central image that was portrayed, which was the closet, whereas Dragomán’s keeps a constant stream of images flowing throughout the story.
In spite of all this however, there is more of a pull towards Hussain’s short story. Hussain’s short story explores a situation that wouldn’t be present in a heavily westernized society and feels somewhat unique to its place of origin. The shorter and more brief glimpses of the wardrobe help to amplify the protagonist’s guilt more through juxtaposing the near blank emotion throughout the rest of the story. Through her constant questioning and the final image in the story, the moral value of human life is reinforced much heavier than the messages that were conveyed in Dragomán’s short story.
In short, although both were extremely well written, I believe that Hussain’s short story won 3–2, through its moral substance and use of imagery in order to captivate the audience and crystallise an important message.
