Assignment of Pakistani Literature

Name:
Usama Rasheed
Roll No:
2315
Course Code:
Eng -319
Course Title:
Introduction to Pakistani Literature
Submitted To:
Professor Adnan Ashraf
Submitted By:
Usama Rasheed
Institution Name:

Govt. Postgraduate Gordon College

Rawalpindi
 “Shahrazad’s Golden Leopard By
Muneeza Shamsie”
Short story Analysis:

Introduction about the Author:

Muneeza Shamsie’s Stories deals or given much thought to issues of
Colonialism, Culture, Language and gender which she has
addressed through her writing.

Shahrazad’s Golden Leopard is extreme in its lack of understanding

and trust between parents and child. Written by Muneeza shamsie, a
Pakistani writer, the story is about a complete absence of trust,
Mutual understanding and genuine care between a mother and her
daughter.

First thing first I would discuss or the story convey us the message we
need balance in our life. The poise and balance that we are
required to maintain in life is perhaps our great test! As human beings
we are prone to extremes because emotions and biases tend to get
the better of us. However, it is here that we must adopt a rational
and sane attitude and not let the horse of our emotions run amok.
Giving a lot of attention to one thing in life may deprive another
thing from our attention. However the key word always is balance.
This Poise and balance is Primarily related to our various attitudes in
life. Everyone we face changing situations that elicit our action or
reactions. Happiness, sorrow, anger, timidity, courage, Love, hate
and regret are some of the emotions that shake us from one extreme
to the others. One of the things that make us lose balance is that we
come across unexpected results. Our emotions is self tuned to see
the favourable results.

The present times are witnessing a huge gap between parents and
their children. The communication gap is ever-increasing. Parents
are responsible for this because they do not give enough attention
to the children in their childhood and take care of their moral
development. Parents must realize that the most Successful parents
are those whose children come to them before going to anyone
else to confess any wrong they may have done. Mature children
should be treated as young adults and their privacy should be fully
respected. Mental maturity in which a grown up child is able to
discern between right and wrong. We need to realize that if things
are not going our way, something bad may happing. The purpose
should be to developed such good friendship with these children
that they feel free in one of the Parents. As they say “Love Conquers
everything”. Kindness and sympathy are ingrained in human nature.
At times, they need to be stimulated and stirred.

Shahrazad’s mother scolds her ruthlessly in public for every mistake or

error that shahrazad makes you’re such a stupid, stupid girl’ her
mother screech at her without a thought of the impact it would
make on the little girl’s mind. A series of small incidents buildup
together to create a large crack between the mother daughter
relationship.

We all have our weaknesses, that relates to our fellow brethren and
at times are a result of loose talk. These weaknesses are exposed in
our conversations with one anothers. Without giving much times to
reflect we often end uo uttering unethical remarkd, sweeping
statements and harsh words that hurts others. Making fun of one
another as an others way to targeted the person. Let us make a
commitment to ourselves to persistently try to root out these wrongs
from our lives.

The mother praises her son more than her daughter

and openly declares her partiality. The continuous
imbalance and inequality in life shahrazad’s leads to
inferiority complex and her confidence drops drastically.
She feels isolated from her family and believes that there is
no one who understands her or gives her importance.

One of the keys to success in this life is self-control. It

is all about channelizing our emotions when they get
worked up inside us. These emotions need to be go
through in the right place because they can make a
difference. If they are go wrongly or at the wrong place,
they can cause disaster. We Find an intense urge building
in us. These emotions tends to forget his moral and Social
responsibilities and becomes heedless to the call of his
conscience, sometimes turn human being into ruthless
animals.

Shahrazad is a symbol of shame and disgust for the

mother and this is revealed throughout the story. The
leopard in the story is a symbol of passion for Shahrazad. It
is a symbol of something she can look up to and feel
hopeful for. The shock that shahrazad feels on the loss of
one good things from her life drives her to extremities. The
anger that was building up inside of her because of her
mother’s attitude and injustice crashing out on Malcolm.
The complete lack of reconciliation and re- establishing of
trust and understanding between the mother and
daughter lead to a dangerous and extreme end.
 Conclusion:
Shahrazad’s Golden leopard is a story based on utter loss and
abandonment of all feelings and emotions between mother and
daughter’s. The mother is responsible for instigating negative
thoughts feelings, emotions in her daughter’s mind and for the
outcomes in the end. Shahrazad’s extreme obsession with the
leopard and detachment with the human figures in her life should
have been checked by her mother. The story depict the two
difference sides of treatment of the parent child relationship.

Muneeza Shamsie is a Pakistani writer, critic, literary journalist,

bibliographer and editor. She is author of a literary history Hybrid
Tapestries: The Development of Pakistani English Literature and is the
Bibliographic Representative of The Journal of Commonwealth
Literature.

All this while, in England Shamsie had become very aware of the
acutely limited and stereotyped images of the sub-continent in
English literature, culture and film. On her return to Pakistan, she
realized how little she knew or understood about her country and
she started to look for answers in the genre she loved best: fiction.
V.S. Naipaul, Khuswant Singh, Ahmed Ali, Mumtaz Shahnawaz,
Zulfikar Ghose - and of course Attia Hosain - were among the early
post-independence writers she read. Soon she came to know, and
attended readings by, a new young generation of English language
poets in Pakistan who were forging a new contemporary Pakistani
English literature. In the introduction to her literary history Hybrid
Tapestries she describes how her interest in writing and books,
developed from the personal to the professional when she started to
write freelance for the Dawn Magazine Supplement in 1982.This
enabled her to keep track of new developments in creative and
critical writings which were given further context when she was sent
by the British Council to attend the 1999 Cambridge Seminar on the
Contemporary British Writer. All these influences emerge in the three
anthologies that she has compiled and edited and ultimately her
literary history, Hybrid Tapestries: The Development of Pakistani
Literature in English which marks her out as the leading authority on
Pakistani English literature today. As a freelance journalist however,
she has also written on a wide range of subjects including
archaeology, art, architecture, development, environment and
women's issues. She is a founding member of a Karachi hospital, The
Kidney Centre and Life Member of The Association of Children With
Emotional and Learning Problems (ACELP) and did voluntary work
teaching music and mime at ACELP's school in the 1970s. In 1968,
Muneeza Shamsie married Syed Saleem Shamsie, a company
executive, and they have two daughters, the novelist kamila
shamsie and the children's writer, Saman Shamsie.

The end…