Compare and Contrast 'Overcoat' By Ghulam Abbas and 'The Blue Donkey' By Suniti Namjoshi - Which Are about Societies Attitude to People Based Upon Their Appearances

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Compare and Contrast ‘Overcoat’ By Ghulam Abbas and ‘The Blue Donkey’ By Suniti Namjoshi. Which Are about Societies Attitude to People Based Upon Their Appearances.

The ‘Overcoat’ and ‘The Blue Donkey’ are about how people tend to stereotype people by their outward appearance; societies see the outer shell of people and immediately make a judgement without looking deeper. People are rejected because of their appearance; both stories are about how appearances can be misleading.  The story ‘Overcoat’ is about a young man who dresses smartly, neatly and is well groomed in order to conform with the society. In contrast, ‘The Blue Donkey’ is about a blue donkey that lives in the neighbourhood of the Red Bridge Society, where  she is rejected because of her bright blue skin.

 We can recognize  ‘Overcoat’ is a fable since the characters in ‘Overcoat’ do not have names, only the names of the street are mentioned. For instance, ‘Charing Cross, Lawrence Garden, Mc Leod Road’ etc, are used to make it sound more like a true story. The young man is walking through some Asian city, we can recognize this by the people n the story such as, Tonga-wallas, Pan wallas etc and the money used in India and Pakistan is ‘Anna’. I think the fable is supposed to be set in Lahore because the writer comes from Lahore. In comparison, we can identify ‘The Blue Donkey’ as certainly a fable as it begins with ‘Once Upon A Time’. They usually illustrate a proverb or a well known saying.  ‘The Blue Donkey’ is more obviously a fable since the central character is an animal that talks. The red bridge society in ‘The Blue Donkey’ could be anywhere in the world there are no details of background at all or the names of the characters. These two stories are fables. They are stories with a moral behind it, which teaches us about human nature. The settings and backgrounds of both stories are very vague because the moral message is more important than the characters or background.

In both stories the characters are extremely isolated, they stand out from the society around them. In ‘Overcoat’, the young man’s smartness and elegance stand out from the society around him.

‘His hair was sleek and shining and he wore side burns. His thin moustache seemed to been drawn with a moustache. He had on a brown overcoat with a cream coloured half opened rose in his buttonhole and a green felt hat which he wore at a rakish angle. A white scarf was knotted at his neck. One of his hands was slipped into a pocket of his overcoat while in the other he held a short polished cane which every now and then he twirled jauntily’

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In comparison, in ‘The Blue Donkey’ the donkey’s blueness stands out and troubles the red bridge society although the blue donkey herself thinks she is a fine donkey. The citizens say to her:

‘Your blueness troubles us’

‘Overcoat’ starts positively although it ends negatively. Which is in direct contrast to the‘The Blue Donkey’. The young man in ‘Overcoat’ is first treated respectfully, courteously and with consideration. Traders are eager to sell their wares and render their service to the young man. Tonga wallas on catching sight of him raced towards him as they thought they would get ...

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