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Moth Smoke Essay

Decent Essays

In the novel Moth Smoke, written by Mohsin Hamid, Daru evolves. He had been a person who was the recipient of terrible events, but now he faces troubles of his own doing. By seeing how Daru evolves as a character, one can understand why the reader’s sympathy for him changes. Daru changes throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Daru had a job, a servant, and some money, although it was not quite enough to pay for all of his expenses. He is a good, loyal friend to Ozi even though Ozi sometimes treats him like dirt. When Daru lost his job, he started looking for a new job, but no one would hire him. He did not have many high up friends who could get him jobs, and there were not really any jobs open anyway (Hamid 54, 55). Daru …show more content…

The reader sympathizes with Daru because he has had many terrible events happen to him. His parents died, he lost his job, and he does not have the opportunity to get a new job. He is stuck; however, through his actions, the reader no longer thinks of him as stuck because of unfortunate events, but stuck by his own doing. One of the first of these is when he has the affair with Mumtaz (Hamid 158, 159). Many people believe that having an affair is wrong, especially when it is with the person’s best friend’s wife. Another time, much later, is when Murad Badshah takes out his gun the second time to show Daru. The first time he took it out, Daru did not want to touch it because it reminded him of how his mother died; however, the second time Murad takes it out, Daru wants to hold it. Daru says, “It (the gun) feels cool against my cheek, soothing. Like a wet compress on a feverish forehead. I sight along the barrel, pleased that I hold it rock steady, without the slightest trembling” (Hamid 233). The reader can tell that Daru is becoming a little insane because the gun that made him fearful before is now offering him support and comfort. The reader is no longer sympathetic toward

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