Conflicts in "A Quid of Sirih and A Bowl of Water" by Khadijah Hashim

CONFLICT OF A STORY “A QUID OF SIRIH, A BOWL OF WATER” BY KHADIJAH HASHIM
In my point of view, the story “A Quid of Sirih a Bowl of Water” has a several conflicts that combining three elements which conflict with oneself, with family members and also with the society.
The first conflicts are the conflict between oneself. Farid have a conflict between himself being a son of pawang. He feels ashamed to be a pawang’s son while he is going to be a doctor after finishing his studies in medicine. Farid thought that he will be in his world of science and technology but his father still believe with the traditional ways of curing people such as magic, spells and mumbo jumbo. Farid being so angry to his father because of this conflict and he couldn’t accept the truth being a son’s of pawang although he could further his studies just because of his father’s money by healing patient.
The conflict also occurs because of this attitude of being such a self-centered person. He feels ashamed and scared if his friends will make fun of him if they know his father is a pawang as stated in paragraph 69 line 1 “I’m ashamed. A pawang’s son-who wants to be a doctor! If my friends found out they’d make fun of me…”and in paragraph 43 line 1 “Think a little father, father. What will people say. I want to be doctor. And here you are- a pawang! Doesn’t the conflict between your world and mine bother you at all?”. The other example is in paragraph 44 line 1 “So you are ashamed to have a pawang as a father…?”, “ …..yes, I am..”, stated in paragraph 45 line 2.
The second conflicts of this story are the conflict with the family members. Farid has a conflict between him and his family members such as his mother, his father and also his younger brothers and sister. Farid has a conflict with his mother when his mother told him not to say something bad to his teacher, Cikgu Ali. This is happened when Cikgu Ali came to his house asking for incantation water for his child. This is stated in paragraph 20 line 1 “Watch what you’re saying. The cikgu might hear you...”. The other conflict between Farid and his mother is when his mother compared roasted chicken with daging rebung. Farid was angry when he failed to find any chicken to make a roasted chicken, yet his vacation in kampung was almost over. This is can be proven in paragraph 9 line 1 “What sort of kampung is this? No chicken!” and in paragraph 12 line 1 “How can you compare daging rebung to roast chicken? Where’s your logic…?”.
Other than having a conflict with his mother, Farid also have a conflict with his which is the climax of the story. He is being rude to his father just because he feels ashamed having a father who work as a pawang. As a son, he shouldn’t be rude to his father no matter how angry he was but Farid was followed his emotions by using rude words to express his disagreement towards his father’s job. This statement is stated in paragraph 52 line 1 to 5, “You call this helping? Do you realized, father, your kind of attitude, your old fashioned ways are preventing our kampung people from accepting changes…”
The conflicts also occurred due to Farid’s ignorance of his father’s job as ‘pawang’. Several misunderstandings of the son regarding his father’s job as ‘pawang’ can be seen from the way he define the ‘pawang’ job. He thinks that what his father is saying are bunch of nonsense that could not function in anyway to help these kampung men. As quoted in page 94, paragraph 16, line 2,
‘Pak Seman had finished his incantations. Whatever it was been muttering Farid did not bother to find out. Most likely some silly verses, he thought.”
To him his father also promotes superstitions among the villagers, as in page 97, paragraph 2, line 1,
‘“But why encourage their superstition?”’
His father cares for his family and people around him such as the teacher and the kampung people. Farid on the other hand fails to see that his father’s job serves more than to himself but to the family and also extends to the whole village. This shows that he failed to recognize the good intention that his father had offered to the villagers all this while. He also failed to see that his father becoming a pawang is also one way to support the family, also a source of income, also the money used to send him to the university.
Besides his father and his mother, Farid also have a conflict with his siblings especially his younger brother, Zainal. Farid was arguing with his brother, Zainal about what he feels towards his father’s job. Otherwise, Zainal was on his father’s side and he
trying to give an advice to Farid not to be ashamed with his father’s job. Zainal also remind his brother, Farid , that he couldn’t entered the university if it’s not because of his father’s job as a pawang. This is stated in paragraph 70 line 1, “Allah! What’s to be ashamed of? Pawang can still be useful, bang…”, paragraph 78 line1,“What’s there to be ashamed of? Father doesn’t cheat people…” and in paragraph 76 line 1, “If you’re educated, it’s thanks to father’s stupid job…”
The last conflicts that have in this story are the conflict between Farid and the society. As we examined it closely the conflict might have sparked from the humiliation he received from the teacher when he was in school long time ago. He is humiliated in the class by his teacher and therefore holds the resentment towards the teacher and probably put the blame on his fathers job up until he faced the issue with him. We can see he is still in conflict with himself because of Cikgu Ali because he always makes fun of his father’s job being as a pawang but at last he still looking for his father asking for incantation water for his sick child. That’s why he didn’t like Cikgu Ali very much. This statement is proven in paragraph 16 line 2, “Last time it was you who made fun of me…well what happening now?”. Besides that, Farid also have a negative thinking to his Pak Long. He gets angry when he couldn’t get any chicken from his Pak Long to make a roasted chicken. He feels that his Pak Long being so stingy and don’t want to give him any even though he have a lot of roosters. This is stated in paragraph 7 line 1-2 “No. Roosters he has plenty but he wants them for breeding….Ah-he’s so mean!”.