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Salman Rushdie's In The South

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“In the South” written by Salman Rushdie, is a short story about two normal and similar elderly men living two normal and similar lives. Senior and Junior had drastically different backgrounds growing up, yet they somehow ended up in the same place together during their mature age. Their lives together were simply ordinary, but one day everything changes when the younger of the two men, Junior, falls and dies. The story illustrates the possibility of chance through irony as well as multiple foreshadowing and flashback events leading to the climax of Junior’s death. Chance has the ability to create unity through similarities, and to destroy unity through differences. It is ironic that with the two vastly different outlooks on life between …show more content…
They lived in “adjacent verandas” of the same building, so accustomed to their routine that they even “emerg[ed] at almost the same moment” through their verandas (Rushdie). They even greeted one another with “ritual speeches”, often quite negative towards each other (Rushdie). Since they happened to be living as next door neighbors in their lonely ancient age, it caused the necessity of companionship with one another. With time, even this companionship seems more like routine than actual friendship since they were always “going at each other” with scornful conversations (Rushdie). Not only did they live in the same way, they also surprisingly looked the same. They both had high voices, both had a wiry build and medium height, both were nearsighted, and they both had dentures (Rushdie). It seems to be common sense to occupy oneself with someone who is similar as themselves, which is just what Senior and Junior had done. However, the reason they believe they were “destined” to become bound together was the fact that “they shared a name” (Rushdie). Not only did they share this “Name That Could Not Be Spoken,” but they also shared a common nickname duo, for Senior was the older one and Junior was the younger one (Rushdie). They had also aged in the same fashion, which was perfectly gracious. Neither one of them were blind, deaf, or ate mush (Rushdie). They luckily both remained in substantial health together, even healthy enough to walk from their fourth-floor apartment down to ground-level in order to cash in their pension slips, which they both found great pride in doing (Rushdie 5). For Senior and Junior, walking to cash their pension slips was a way for them to remove themselves out of the house, prove to the world that chance had given them the ability to do so, and to bond with one another. They even considered

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