In The Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, the story of the mysterious, prodigious and diabolical Mustafa Sa'eed is told through the eyes of an unnamed narrator. Although Mustafa is not directly present for the majority of the book, his actions and the narrator's reflection on his life work to drive the plot while the narrator acts more as a conduit for the audience to explore the main character's life. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which partially inspired Salih, uses the same technique, using the experiences of the narrator, Marlow, to create a contrast between him and Kurtz, who is supposed to be Mustafa's equivalent. The juxtaposition between the unassuming narrator and the extraordinary character on whom he focuses his attention serves to distinguish between two types of explorers: the observer and the conqueror. Through this device we can see the effect of both approaches and that the second, which seeks destruction, is ultimately destined to destroy itself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay What sets both narrators apart from their more enigmatic counterparts is the reason they explore their own centers of darkness in the first place. The equivalent of the “heart of darkness” in Seasons of Migration to the North is London, where both the narrator and the Mustafas travel to cultivate their knowledge. Their intentions once there, however, diverge wildly. The narrator seems to have no ulterior motive for going, other than to bolster his own self-esteem (he confesses, “I had calculated that the ten million inhabitants of the country had all heard of my successes” (Salih 9)). Yet Mustafa saw his attempt to seduce and emotionally destroy Northern women as a great quest, a response to Northern condescension, ignorance and subtle contempt. He tells the white men in Europe, “I have come to you as a conqueror” (50). While the former sought to gain, the latter only wanted to take and destroy. Likewise, Marlow went to the Congo in search of exploration, while Kurtz went to try to satisfy an insatiable greed for ivory. Marlow explains his motivations by recounting his love of maps as a child and the need he felt to fill in the "blanks" and "lose [himself] in the glories of exploration" (Conrad 9-10). Kurtz initially came for the ivory, acting as “…first-class agent…in charge of a trading post” (28). Eventually, however, he would come to desire far more than the ivory could provide, which would lead him down the path of self-destruction. As he delved into the culture shock that is Western life for Mustafa and the unnamed narrator, and it is the Congo for Marlow and Kurtz, Salih raises the question of personal change. In both novels, Marlow and the unnamed narrator act as sort of keepers of knowledge, particularly where Kurtz and Mustafa (respectively) are involved. Mustafa and Kurtz represent the mobility of change, while the narrators demonstrate constraint by keeping knowledge of this change secret and, in some cases, resisting the change within themselves. First, the mobility appears as an imposition of Mustafa's will on European culture. When referring to Ann Hammond's background, he juxtaposes statements about her family status and good name with others about her dominance: “Her father was an officer in the Royal Engineers, her mother came from a wealthy Liverpool family. He turned out to be easy prey” and “His aunt was the wife of a deputy. In my bed I turned her intoa prostitute” (Salih 27). In this way, he is developing the melodrama he sees as his life, demonstrating that the powerful are susceptible to his influence despite their supposed strength. At the same time, European culture also leaves him wounded. He says, “I am the South longing for the North and ice” (27). The latter manifests as a marriage between him and the “ice” he connects to Jean Morris (134). He is proclaimed "...the first Sudanese to marry an English woman", proving this event to be particularly strange (46). The narrator, as the keeper of knowledge (possessing a literal key to unlock Mustafa's past), faces the concrete evidence of Mustafa's Transgressions and immediately has the urge to destroy everything. He declares that he will set fire to Mustafa's private room, but fails to do so: "At dawn, tongues of fire will devour these lies" (128). After his failure, he decides to throw the key into the river, but neglects to do so himself. In the end, he tries to drown himself like Mustafa, but still fails. We can infer that the river is symbolic of darkness from his statement: “Though I floated on the water, I was no part of it” (139). He faces the same death as Mustafa, but does not succumb, signifying that although he was struck by the same evil, it was not enough to condemn him because he did not put in the same effort as Mustafa. Alternatively, it could mean that he is no longer separated from anything because he also feels disconnected from his people: “There is no place for me here. Why don't I pack my bags and leave” (107). His stagnation as a character, combined with these instincts to obscure the truth and the fact that he still doesn't tell anyone who Mustafa Sa'eed really is, defines him as the constraint of the story that opposes his mobility. It is the passive inaction of an observer, suppressing the destructive desires of the conqueror. In Conrad's work, Kurtz imposes his will on the natives by letting them believe he is a god and commanding their every move. The Russian merchant who nurses Kurtz back to health and otherwise accompanies him says that he does not fear the natives because "...they would not move until Mr. Kurtz gave the word", also stating that, "... the leaders would come every day to see him...” (Conrad 97) He used them for his activities and let them make sacrifices to him, but again the environment influences him just as heavily he would disappear with them for weeks in search of ivory and that "...he would be forgotten among these people" (94). He rejects civilization, and with it the help of modern medicine, to remain with the natives, on the other part, is able to remain uncorrupted by the darkness but shut out its horrors. He responds nonchalantly to Fresleven's death, reacted to the helmsman's death by throwing his dirty shoes into the sea, and ran away when Kurtz was nearing the end of his life. Like the unnamed narrator, he also stands in the way of the truth, refusing to hand over Kurtz's documents (“I had refused to hand over the smallest fragment of that package” (120)) and telling his betrothed that “The the last word he uttered was [his] name” (129). Both Mustafa and Kurtz open themselves to the darkness when they choose to impose their influence on it and allow its influence to influence them in turn, while their counterparts are left to prevent their destruction from continuing beyond their deaths. The legacies of Mustafa and Kurtz exist as stories within themselves, symbolic, as they are, of colonialism as a whole. The destruction they cause is due to the main factors that are generally responsible for the phenomena of colonialism. Themes of hunger and power echo in the descriptions of their lives. Images related tohunger accompany the first descriptions of Kurtz: "I saw him open his mouth wide --- it gave him a strangely voracious look, as if he wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth and the men in front of him." (Corrado 100). Beyond simple greed, this demonstrated gluttony, an infinite step towards excess. This led him to put his hunger above all else; his health, his sanity and his self-preservation. Marlow says, “…the appetite for more ivory had prevailed over…less material aspirations” (95). However, this went beyond the need for ivory, as Marlow explained that Kurtz's rejection from the Company was due to the fact that he "...wanted control in the gratification of his various lusts..." (96). His was a hunger whose purpose was not to satisfy, but to fill a void, a bottomless pit. Mustafa shared that hunger, but instead it was for the possession of women. He was obsessed with conquest, going so far as to fill his room with mirrors so that, "when [he] slept with one woman, it was as if [he] slept with an entire harem at once" (Salih 27). When it comes to Jean Morris, the desire to possess her grips him so much that, when she offers him sex in exchange for his most prized possessions, he thinks: "If she had asked... my life as a price, I would have paid it." ( 130). The entire exchange, in fact, is dotted with images relating to thirst and hunger: "My throat dried up with a thirst that almost killed me", "... filling his mouth with pieces of paper that he chewed and spit,” “…his lips like a forbidden fruit that must be eaten,” and so on (130). It was because Sa'eed could not separate himself from his need to always be victorious that he became a slave to his desires. For both authors, the use of the term hunger means that the search for satisfaction has become, in their minds, essential for survival. Ironically, this would instead lead to their own demise, of course the pursuit of power. The ways in which they achieve this differ slightly, but they essentially share the same mechanisms. By lying to their goals, both Mustafa and Kurtz have gained power through false projections they were a promise for the future, going beyond one-night stands, "...living with five girls at once" and "...giving each one the impression that [he would] marry her" (30-31) . In addition to lying, he exercises his power by taking advantage of their trust and then betraying it. Kurtz betrays no one, but lies to become a god to those who would kill or be killed for him (like his lover who stood on the shore holding out her hand to him even as the pilgrims shot her). He lets them believe that his weapons were “…thunder and lightning” (93). His power also came from the very wood of his voice. Marlow also felt the effects: “Kurtz spoke. A voice! A voice! It resonated profoundly to the very end” (114). There was power in Mustafa's voice too, as he seduced women with his storytelling. However, the difference lies in the presentation: Mustafa gained his power by taking advantage of ignorance, while Marlow only had to present himself in such a way as to simply command him. For both hunger and power, the connection with colonialism, then, is that the satisfaction of greed comes before everything, even life; the power and superiority that the colonizers convey is a farce; and that a bitter end follows those who choose to admire and praise that which is intrinsically destructive. Although their actions were horrific, these characters were, in a sense, the tragic heroes of their respective stories. Their tragic flaw was.