The Title ‘Shame’

The Title ‘Shame’

 Thematic and Suggestive Title:-

          ‘Sharum’ (Shame) is the keynote of the theme of this novel. This word applies to the characters, the actions and the conflicts throughout the novel. But he questions that arise are, Whose Shame? How does it affect the action of the novel> and Who are affected by this vice? As the story moves on we find that the hero, Omar Khayyam Shakil is haunted by Shame and Shamelessness.

Omar Khayyam Shakil; haunted by Shame and Shamelessness.

          Omar is born of three mothers- Chhunni, Munee and Bunny but he does not know who is his real mother to the end of his life. He does not even know ho is this father though he comes to know during his school day that he is an illegitimate child born of a British Office by one of his mothers. Even his mothers do not show any felling of dihonour when Omar is conceived. He enters life without befit of divine approval which is must for a Muslim Child. When he was twenty years old, His younger brother was also claimed by three females. Thus the first chapter of the novel makes it clear that foul is fair and fair is foul. Shame is honour and honour is Shame in Pakistan.

Sufiya; The personification of Shame

          Here Omar and his wife, Sufiya live in the shameful world of illusions and fanaticism. They can not enjoy the pleasures of Islamic scriptures. Omar is not a true Muslim. Sufiya also feels ashamed of her childish way of thinking though she is a young woman. The novelist calls her a wrong miracle. She never grows up in intellect. She is the personification of Shame. She blushes at the slightest shameful things. The best of shame grows stronger gradually in her. She kills Pinky’s turkey birds and also tries to kill Talvar Ulhaq. Later she becomes a dangerous woman in veil wandering at night and killing bad boys after satisfying her sexual lust. When Omar reports this matter to her father, Raza Hyder, he wants to put an end of her life. Here also it is a matter of Shame that a father wants to kill his daughter. Her Husband also chains her so that she may not be a danger to other.

The roots of violence:-

          Further, the novelist gives two examples to show that Shamelessness and shame are the roots of violence. First he describes the killing of a daughter by a Pakistan father for making love to a white boy in London. The father said, “She had brought such dishonour upon her family that only her blood could wash away the sing. He gives another example and says,’ “And not only men, I have since head of a case in which a woman committed the identical crime for indention reason”, Rushdie sum up, “Between shame and shamelessness lies the axis upon which we turn… shamelessness, shame, the violence. He put comments that shame is not the exclusive property of the East’.

Shame on three levels:-

          Thus this novel revolves on the two wheels of shame and shamelessness. This theme of shame runs on three levels – political –cultural and social. It is a documentary film on the political situation of contemporary Pakistan. On the cultural level it deals with poets and artists who are humiliated in Pakistan. On the social level it is about superstitious Islamic society that lives on shame through unlimited repression and violence.