Characterisation of Junaidah
The story uses THIRD-PERSON LIMITED NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE. That means the narrator only gives us entry into one person’s mind. Here, this one person is Junaidah. This is why we know Junaidah’s thoughts and feelings well but we can only guess about the character of Junaidah’s husband and son through their behaviour and their dialogue.
As we will see, Junaidah is not a simple character but one who has contradictory aspects to her personality. She is, like most of us, good in some ways and flawed in others. But most importantly, the incident in the story leads her to become a better person.
At first, Junaidah seems to be a SNOBBISH person with many PREJUDICES. For example, she assumes that people who like to wear bright colours are from the lower economic class. She thinks people who take public transport for Hari Raya visiting wear “garish” colours deliberately so that they can be easily noticed while crossing the road. She and her family, on the other hand, since they drive around in their own car, can afford to use lighter, pastel-coloured clothes. She also thinks that families who dress up their children in identical clothes come from poor families since it’s cheaper to use one bale of cloth to make all the outfits (pp. 166-167). It doesn’t occur to her that they do so to foster a sense of family togetherness.
Despite the snobbery, Junaidah often appears to be KIND and SENSITIVE to others, reminding us that few people are entirely good or bad. For example, thinking of the many children at the orphanage who would have loved to enjoy a day out, she wonders if she should have “asked for another child, and another, just enough to fit into the car.” She also cries the first time she sees a TV feature on the orphanage and feels bad for children who are deprived of the festive food and fun of Hari Raya (p. 171).
She is AN UNHAPPY WIFE AND MOTHER. She is not contented with her family situation. She wants a second child but her husband won’t agree to this. She thinks her husband does not participate equally in raising Haikel, their son. She also views her husband and son as conspiring against her and is disturbed that her son is not close with her (p.168). She feels an emptiness in her life, a lack of self-fulfilment. Towards the end of the story, she uses a simile to describe how she would like to see Mydeen suddenly in the future, stepping out of a lift, looking “as if he were the answer to some unanswerable longing” (p. 183), suggesting her own unsatisfied desire for something. She also refers to couples without children as having “a void in their lives” (p169). Like these couples, she too has unfulfilled desires.
She strikes us as being somewhat DOMINEERING, what some call a ‘control freak’. This is seen in her deciding that she wants to host an eight-year-old boy for Hari Raya—she does not leave it to the Darul Ihsan orphanage to make the choice. Junaidah also decides what both her son and Mydeen will wear. She is seen to impose her colour preferences on her son. When her husband questions her colour choice, she asks Haikel if he likes the baju kurung but in a “solicitous voice that guaranteed a fearful, though positive response.” When Haikel agrees with her under force, she walks “triumphantly” off to the shopkeeper, showing that she likes exerting power over her husband (p. 166-167).
Strangely, we can also detect beneath the domineering nature, a woman with a SENSE OF HER OWN INADEQUACY. Domineering people often tend to think they are the cat’s whiskers. But not so, Junaidah. This comes across late in the story and could be a result of her encounter with Mydeen. When Mydeen chooses to run away from her family and connects with another family who hosted him for Hari Raya last year, Junaidah feels that her family is not up to par in its goodness and generosity towards others. She feels that they do not deserve God’s blessing, unlike the other hosting Malay family. However in the closing scene, it is clear that the day leads to her moral and spiritual development—she feels guilty for her family’s neglect of Mydeen and seeks his forgiveness (p. 183).
Who is Mydeen?
Mydeen is the character referred to in the story’s title “The Borrowed Boy”. He is the child who is fostered out by an orphanage to Malay people for a single day in Hari Raya. But he is NOT THE PROTAGONIST of the story, the main character of a story who makes the crucial decisions and propels the direction of the plot. This role belongs to Junaidah. Nevertheless, Mydeen is the one we wonder about most, perhaps because we know so little about him and because he is the one that the story’s title has promised to tell us about.
Mydeen is a mystery, a kind of hole in the story. In fact, he is associated with the MOTIF OF THE VOID in the story (p 179).
We see him taking Junaidah’s hand, playing with the buttons of the lift, being respectful to everybody. We are told he is a JAWI PERANAKAN boy, which means that he is of mixed Indian and Malay heritage. His forefathers came from India centuries ago and settled in Malaya, marrying into Malay communities, just like the Chinese Peranakans did. But we don’t know any other important information about him:
+Is he an orphan or an abandoned or abused child? How did he end up in an orphanage? What is the story of his birth, his childhood and his family?
+ Does he leave the Teban Gardens flat to run away from Junaidah and her family or just to entertain himself by riding the elevator?
+Why does he hold the hand of a stranger, Junaidah, as soon as he meets her?
+How does Mydeen feel when Haikel and his cousins cut him out of their games?
+Does he like or dislike being hosted for a day during Hari Raya? What does he think of the way people celebrate and the way they treat him?
The story’s silence about Mydeen is meaningful. It makes readers wonder about the lives, feelings and desires of children like him. It raises our awareness of our own neglect of such unfortunate children in our society. Like Haikel, we cruelly ignore this group of children, turning away from them. Since the story is silent on the information, we try to imagine ourselves in the shoes of children like him.
Some Themes
Hosting an orphan for a day
The title of the story expresses disapproval of the practice of hosting an orphan for a day to enjoy a festive event. Nobody can “borrow” someone, as if a person is a thing, like a chair or a pencil.
On the surface, hosting an orphan for Hari Raya may appear to be a charitable act—people want to cheer up children who are down on their luck and help them to feel wanted, especially on festive days.
But Junaidah doesn’t see Mydeen as an individual with his his own preferences, and thus chooses his clothes for him. In fact, she requests for an eight-year-old boy because she has decided in advance what clothes he will wear! She also thinks it would be “too much trouble” to explain what an orphan is to Haikel (p 167) and warns herself that “it would not do to become too attached” to Mydeen (p 169). She does not even bother to find out the boy’s name before arriving to pick him up. All this reveals that she thinks of MYDEEN AS AN OBJECT who is there to fulfil her desire to practise charity for the day.
In addition, the story suggests she has some SELFISH MOTIVES for wanting to host an orphan. Junaidah feels the need for a second child, and Mydeen could fulfil that need for a day. She also wants to ‘own’ someone, and as she thinks to herself, “…the boy [Mydeen] is mine” (p169). Additionally, Junaidah feels the need for God’s blessing and considers that hosting an orphan may get her God’s grace.
The story also makes us question whether the hosting scheme is beneficial for the orphanage’s children. Would it not be EMOTIONALLY DESTABILISING for them to be embraced by a family for a day but never get to see them again? Would it not upset them to be introduced to family love that is outside their reach?
What do you think? Does the story lead you to approve of such hosting arrangements by orphanages? Why does Junaidah decide not to host children from the orphanage next year? Why does she seek forgiveness from Mydeen at the end of the story? These questions may help to shape your thinking on the issue.
Singapore Malay Culture and Identity
The story introduces readers to several aspects of local Malay culture and identity. The great attention to detail about Malay customs and lifestyle suggests that Malay culture and identity is an important theme in the story. The story lists many things, customs and people central to Singapore Malay identity.
MALAY FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT—Pineapple tarts, layered cake, cashew cookies, almond biscuits, shrimp rolls, and sambal goreng are some popular Malay festive fare mentioned (p. 176-177). Actor, director, producer, writer and music composer P. Ramlee, who passed away nearly 50 years ago, remains an icon of Malay culture today (p. 177). Another entertainer cherished by Singapore Malays is Rahimah Rahim, not named here, but recognisable as the local singer who substituted a turban for a tudung, and who looked like “an exotic fortune-teller”.
HARI RAYA CUSTOMS—In addition to the food and the watching of the Hari Raya Variety Show, the story weaves in information about customs observed for Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, the festival that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, where fasting is observed. These customs include visits to the mosque, the Aidil Fitri prayers, the seeking of absolution from God, family members and relatives, and many days of visiting the homes of relatives.
DIVERSITY AMONG MALAYS—In case we thought that all Malays are alike, the story shows that this is not so. Certainly, there are some dissimilarities in lifestyle and attitude caused by differences in social class. Through contrast in characterisation, we see that Junaidah, from the upper class with her car and “engineer” husband, is snobbish and judgemental whereas the Malay family that hosted Mydeen the year before are more generous-minded and caring. Then there’s Mydeen, who has a mixed Indian-Malay Jawi Peranakan ancestry, and thus is not pure Malay like the others in the story.
OPEN-HEARTEDNESS and HOSPITALITY—The story shows how family values and hospitality are important in the Malay community. It is surprising how easily relatives welcome a stranger, Mydeen, into the bosom of the family. The fact that he has a different ethnic heritage from them, appearing to be much darker-skinned, does not stop them from treating him the same as them. This indicates an attitude of multicultural openness. On first meeting Mydeen, Junaidah observes he is dark-skinned, but is able to look past that to recognise that he would grow up to be “quite a handsome young man” (172).
Islamic Values
FORGIVENESS—Forgiveness is a motif in the story. There is a passage on p. 176 about the important role forgiveness plays in the observation of Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. Please read it as it introduces us to an important aspect of Islamic culture—that of an annual forgiveness of hurt done to one another. This practice allows failed relationships a chance to be renewed, and makes it possible for families to maintain harmony and unity. The story ends with Junaidah wanting forgiveness from Mydeen, and highlights the Islamic practice of reflecting on your own character flaws and the harm you may have done to others. There is also the passing mention of a singer, Sudirman, singing a song, “From Afar I Ask for Forgiveness” on the car radio (171).
COMPASSION—The practice of hosting underprivileged children during the festival is in itself a compassionate act. But we also see compassion in the way the adults and children treat Mydeen better once they realise that he must have run away because he felt lonely in their midst.
Significance of the prologue
The prologue is the section in italics that opens this story. Read it carefully if you haven’t done so before.
Do you notice that the prologue talks about the family who had hosted Mydeen for Hari Raya the year before Junaidah’s family did? This family had dressed Mydeen in a dark pink baju kurung whereas we realise later that Mydeen was dressed in a pastel blue baju kurung when visiting with Junaidah.
Many of you may have mistakenly thought that the prologue was centred on Junaidah’s hosting of Mydeen. After all, the two families went through the same process of requesting for and picking up a boy from the orphanage. They shared similar concerns about how to dress the boy for Hari Raya visiting. The similarities between the prologue event and the story’s first scene of Junaidah picking up Mydeen from the orphanage may have confused many into thinking they are about the same event.
But there are important differences. The similarities and differences are important in conveying the story’s themes.
Generally, a prologue introduces the reader to the story’s action and anticipates certain themes or issues. But it often prepares us for the story by featuring an incident that happened before the action in the main story. This event however will later become meaningful to the reader.
This story uses the device of the prologue to make you aware that different types of people choose to host indigent children for special events. They may be upper or lower middle-class. They may also have dissimilar motives for signing up for this charitable act. The prologue tells us the earlier family had wanted to dress Mydeen in pink so that he would look like their two children in order to make Mydeen “feel like he was one of the family” (p 165). In contrast, Junaidah dresses Mydeen and Haikel differently, which suggests she is more concerned about individual identity than about family bonds. Later in the story when Mydeen meets up with this earlier family, both the reader and Junaidah start to realise that this family represents the core ideal values held by the story—they stand for family values, compassion and Islamic grace. They have a profound effect on Junaidah, making her re-examine her beliefs and values.
Use of Setting
The story makes good use of setting to convey important ideas and meanings.
The depiction of Malay families in HDB ESTATES such as Teban Gardens and Yishun shows that despite having their own unique culture, they are also essentially a Singaporean community, who live among those of other ethnic communities.
The setting of the Darul Ihsan ORPHANAGE is significant in showing us what its child-residents lack. Though they may have a roof over their heads, they lack a home since the ophanage feels more like an institution with its two flags at the quadrangle and three storeys of dormitories that look like classrooms. It also has a reception area, decorated with children’s drawings, but the children are kept upstairs, having minimum contact with the public. The impersonal nature of the orphanage reminds us of the absence of family relationships in their lives.
Junaidah’s RED HONDA CAR---this expresses an irony: although Junaidah looks down on lower-class Malays who wear garish colours, supposedly to draw attention to themselves, she has a red car that is itself like a “warning flare” on the roads! It signals Junaidah’s desire for others to notice her. The car also stands for Junaidah’s materialism and desire to succeed in Singapore.
Something to think about...
How is the children’s game of 'monster-monster' a symbol in the story?