Distinction between North and South in ‘Season of Migration to the North’
The ways in which the author, Tayeb Salih, illustrates the difference between North and South is slightly unclear in the sense in which he portrays the characters feelings towards the North. To look at the differences in a better light I will show what Tayeb Salih writes in his novel about the North and compare this view with one that he illustrates in the South.
A very significant part of the book is page three in which the protagonist has just returned. He is being questioned by all of those he left behind. They ask about his journey and the life he spent in Europe.
‘…there are some farmers among them. They’ve got everything – workers and doctors and farmers and teachers, just like us. I preferred not to say the rest that had come to mind: that just like us they are born and die…that some have been given more than they deserve by life, while others have been deprived by it, but that the differences are narrowing and most of the weak are no longer weak. I did not say this to Majhoub, though I wish I had done so…’