IMAGINATION AND REALITY IN A SHORT STORY

WHEN I WRITE A SHORT STORY

excerpt:  “Recently Asrul read a short story by a writer he admired, about a good goatherd  who died leaving hundreds of goats unattended. The goats had eaten up the grass in the area and there was no one to take them to a new grazing ground.The cloud darkened as it was  going to rain. They were frantically looking  for a shelter.They walked about and came to two sheds that look good for keeping them dry. But soon the goats quarrel  among themselves and arguing  which shed they should go to.. Asrul could understand  that the writer was not talking about goats and goatherds. He was  talking about his people and their leaders. There is a terrible rift among his people”.   

- Cerita Berangkai Hulu Negeri, Dewan Sastera 2010. 

When I write a short story my aim is not to tell a story. The ultimate goal is to discuss issues pertaining to our society . I need a story to serve as vehicle to transport the issues to the readers.

When I write a short story I create fictitious characters but they all  symbolised other  characters  in real live. An imagined situation that happened to a character manifest a real situation that I thought important enough to bring up to the readers. I tell  a story with the purpose of discussing important issues or voicing my opinions on matters of importance in my society .

Let us look at one entitled CERITA BERANGKAI HULU NEGERI, (RELATED STORIES OF HULU NEGERI . The issue of rift among my people (The Malays) had been bothering me.and have been in the minds of many more writers

The split is between supporters of the ruling party and those who shouted for a change. They quarrelled among themselves and the quarrel  could be so serious that it could break up marriages, and create hostility among brothers. It had been embedded in my mind for a long time and the event that spark up or triggered the writing  was the Hulu Selangor by election in 2010. I have also  seen how the government instantly solved many development problems when an election is coming.

As mentioned above, a short story is a careful blending of reality and imagination.  Imagination was in the characters and events that had been created while the reality is seen in the social issues portrayed.  

An imagined character Asrul who help his father in chicken farming is to unfold the real problem of graduates getting a suitable job and the issue of repaying their study loan, the PTPTN,  which increases in interest and service charges . Asrul’s father and his uncle Salleh were not on talking term due to their political differences. Salleh is a character who make a living by selling CDs of election campaign and  speeches by opposition leaders.  Through Salleh I could reveal  the phenomena or the new form of entertainment in my society, that is listening to political speeches through CDs. The eloquent and witty  speakers of the opposition parties would attract thousands of listeners to their election campaigns and put  their recorded speeches on good sales. People laughed and enjoyed the speeches but the government could not be toppled yet.  Other fictitious characters are  Ah Meng a shopkeeper who benefitted by the crowd who thronged  Hulu Selangor since the minute the election was announced and Ah Seng who own a hardware shop because there were many houses built or repaired  instantly by the government in power and more buildings are lined up in the election campaign promise.

All the characters are fictional and imaginary but they manifest characters and events that are real.

These are  the reality of our country..